State Representative Dave Nangle was on radio station WCAP this morning (980 AM). He expects that tax revenue this fiscal year will be $1.2 to $1.5 billion less than need to level fund this year's budget, so another round of tough cuts in state aid should be expected this spring. With the bulk of Lowell's education funding coming from the state, this is bad news. With all the normal increases in the school department budget (employee step-raises, increased costs of health insurance, heat, etc, the newly raised parking fees), the school budget must increase each year just to sustain the level of services that existed in the previous year. A "level funded budget" still means that big cuts will have to be made.