Gov. Deval Patrick has proposed increases in state aid to cities and towns in his budget plan, but not enough to meet local needs, area legislators said Thursday.

Attleboro and Norton, for instance, would get little more than 1 percent increases in school aid.

"I'm disappointed," state Sen. Scott Brown said of the governor's plan. "I thought he could have used more creativity and paid more attention to his campaign promises."

Patrick often spoke during the campaign of the need to provide more state aid to cities and towns, especially their school departments.

The governor did propose a $200 million increase in school aid, but the increase is $55 million short of what the Legislature has set as its goal. "That can't stand," said state Rep. John Lepper, R-Attleboro. "That is where we have to put our efforts."

Lepper said the Legislature will have to find other areas to cut to free up more money for schools.

"If you are going to help cities and towns, that has to be your priority. The largest single factor in helping cities and towns is Chapter 70 school aid," he said.

The aid is distributed through a complicated formula that rewards some districts over others.

Mansfield schools, for instance, are to get a $1.86 million increase in Chapter 70 funds - a 13.4 percent hike - plus an extra $725,000 in what is called additional assistance.

Neighboring Norton, on the other hand, would get only a $180,000 increase under the Patrick plan, slightly more than 1 percent.

Attleboro, the largest school system in the area, would get only a $300,000 increase.

Legislators said the formula takes into account community income levels, enrollment and growth in enrollment, among other factors.

Mansfield's enrollment has been growing, while Norton's and Attleboro's have not.

Lepper said Attleboro has lost 10 percent of its school enrollment since 2003, and that is part of the reason the city is only getting a 1 percent increase in school funding. Attleboro schools could get a double-whammy of bad fiscal news.

In addition to the smaller than expected increase in state aid proposed by Patrick, the city will not be required to increase its financial contribution to the schools as much as it has in the past, Lepper said.

State Rep. Jay Barrows, R-Mansfield, said Norton officials feel like they are getting it from all sides.

Norton schools are losing funding due to charter schools, the slump in the real estate market means little growth in property taxes and now school aid is tabbed to only increase by 1 percent, he said.

Even if the Legislature increases Chapter 70 funding to $255 million, it would not mean a huge windfall for communities like Norton with declining enrollment because of the formula, he said.

While local aid was getting most of the attention on Beacon Hill Thursday, other areas of Patrick's $26.7 billion budget proposal were also drawing fire from both Republicans and Democrats.

Brown said human services are underfunded in the Patrick plan.

He also said towns in the northern end of his district dislike a proposal to cut subsidies for customers of the Metropolitan Water Resource Authority.

Lepper said Patrick has dipped into reserve funds to balance the budget and initiated new programs that there was little public demand for.

He said the governor was limited by the 3 percent growth in state revenue, but also did not always make good decisions on where to put the money he did have.

Patrick has also taken on some powerful interest groups with his budget.

He has called for closing corporate tax loopholes, cutting overtime for state police and reducing pay raises for human services workers.

"I'm just trying to understand the thing," Lepper said of the budget proposal.

State Rep. Richard Ross, R-Wrentham, said he is urging constituents not to panic over the governor's budget because the Legislature is going to change it significantly.

"I tell them not to take the governor's numbers too seriously," he said.

Ross said the problem is that there are not a lot of areas that can be cut to free up more money for local aid.

He suggests the governor take another look at legalizing slot machines at race tracks to raise revenue.