By Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

It’s going to be a busy summer.  Right now, we’re in the middle of budget season, and our Aldermen are working their way through the proposed FY2013 budget.  I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to do with this year’s $171.7 million budget, which represents a net increase of only 1.2 percent over last year while at the same time funding substantial new investments in our schools and recreation programs.

Somerville still spends fewer local tax dollars per capita than any community in Massachusetts with a population of 3,000 or more.  Yet prudent management through program-based budgeting, performance-based analysis (SomerStat) and centralized work-order tracking (through 311) help us achieve a high state of efficiency.  At the same time, structural shifts such as the move of our health insurance costs to the state’s Group Insurance Commission have helped us manage the growth of our fixed costs.  All of these factors have combined this year to make it possible for us increase our investment in the core services that help make Somerville a place that both Boston Magazine and the Boston Phoenix have selected this year as one the most desirable communities in Massachusetts.

Once the budget process ends – the city must pass a budget by the start of the new fiscal year on July 1st – I’ll be ready to move on to the next immediate challenge, which is collaborate with other leaders across the state in advocating for the long-term funding of an integrated, modern, statewide transportation system that can power the Massachusetts economy to a healthy and sustained recovery while improving the quality of life in every city and town in the Commonwealth.

In fact, I got a head start on meeting that challenge by participating this past Monday in a statewide Transportation Summit at Boston’s South Station.

No community has more at more at stake than we do when it comes to fixing our state’s broken transportation funding system.  Even though development is already under way for the new Orange Line station at Assembly Square, and even though that state has committed to building the Green Line Extension all the way through Somerville and Medford to Route 16, we can’t be fully confident of getting the kind of transit service we need and deserve unless we can put our state transportation system on a solid financial footing.

Decades of inadequate funding have left our roads, bridges, rail and transit systems with a huge backlog of deferred maintenance.  Even though the Patrick Administration has implemented several major management reforms to make both the MBTA and Mass Highway much more efficient, there hasn’t been nearly enough money to take care of that crushing maintenance backlog while also building and operating the new facilities needed to support our economic recovery, provide multimodal mobility and support better quality of life in communities across the state.

To make matters worse, periodic efforts to fix the problem have been stymied by a very effective divide-and-conquer strategy.  Drivers are told that they should only have to pay for roads; rail and transit users won’t support bridge and highway investments; suburban communities often won’t back transit or rail – and eastern and western sections of the state feel they have differing interests and priorities that are sometimes difficult to reconcile.

In the end, however, it should be clear that every community in the Commonwealth will benefit from a comprehensive solution to the problem of underinvestment in our transportation system – and that every aspect of our state’s economy will be weakened if we fail.  Drive, ride, bike or walk – we are all in this together. This is about much more than the MBTA and its service area: every regional transit authority and every rural highway or bridge is important to our system – and every resident of Massachusetts has good reason to push for a solution.

That’s why the summit on Monday was only the first in a continuing series that will travel to every part of the state to build support for our underfunded yet indispensible transportation network. Since the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and the Metro Mayors Coalition are spearheading this initiative – and since I am Metro Mayors chairman this year – it’s also why I am going to be just as active and engaged after July 1st as I was in the run-up to the vote on our new budget.

I’ll be helping to carry this message to the four corners of the Commonwealth, secure in the knowledge that any contribution I can make to a long-term, statewide solution for transportation funding will be of direct benefit to Somerville and its people by speeding the day that we finally receive all the transit and roadway improvements we’ve been promised.

And at the same time – and for the same reason – I’m going to continue to do what I can to help President Obama and Elizabeth Warren win their November election battles. Here in Somerville, we know how important it is to invest in and look out for one another.  At the national level, GOP candidates – including both Mitt Romney and Scott Brown – seem all too willing to play the same divide-and-conquer game that’s held us back from solving our state’s transportation problems here in Massachusetts.  As I travel around the state talking about transportation, I’ll also be talking national politics and their impact at the local level.  For our city and its people, the stakes are as high in this election year as they have ever been.

So, as I said, it’s going to be a busy summer.