We’re almost there, friend.
Several weeks late and overdue for the 14th year in a row, Massachusetts is poised to be the final state to pass a FY2025 budget… well, almost. To recap, here’s where we’re at in the budget process:
- February: Governor Healey filed her budget proposal
- April: House leaders considered the Governor’s budget and filed their own proposal
- April: The House voted on their budget proposal, wading through the 1,000+ amendments that lawmakers filed to it and near-unanimously vote YES on a number of “consolidated amendments” drafted by leadership
- May: Senate leadership considered the Governor’s and House’s budgets and crafted their own proposal
- May: Just like the House, the Senate amended and voted on its budget
- June: Leadership from each chamber assigned their closest allies to a closed-door conference committee tasked with hammering out the differences between the House and Senate budgets into a final conference report, unable to be further amended
- July 1st: deadline to pass FY2025 budget
- Yesterday: The budget passes 154-3 in the House and 40-0 in the Senate
- 👉Next 10 days: Governor Healey can sign the budget as is, veto it in its entirety, or issue line-item vetoes or amendments. The House and Senate may then consider the vetoes and override with a ⅔ majority vote 👈
There’s another looming deadline that the legislature seems prime to barrel through without much to show for it: July 31st, which marks the end of formal sessions. This means they essentially have 11 days left to pass legislation until they call it quits and wait ‘til next January to start all over.
Legislators are often keen to spend this time of year doing a celebratory lap of self-congratulations and touting the important policies they passed this year. But I’d rather discuss why our supermajority Democratic legislature and Democratic governor haven’t passed numerous policies that are encoded in the Massachusetts State Democratic party platform, like same day voter registration, Medicare for All, publicizing committee votes… the list goes on. Alas, we still have 11 days to move on that last one, so now is the time to:
CONTACT YOUR SENATOR ABOUT THE SUNLIGHT ACT >>
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State House Scoop
Our analysis of the FY2025 budget
We’re so close to having a budget with some major new policies. Just a reminder, this budget, which was not able to be amended anymore, was hashed out behind doors completely closed to the press, the public, and the 97% of legislators who are not a part of the conference committee. With that in mind, let’s get into the details:
The bottom line: $58 billion. The compromise budget would increase spending about $1.97 billion or about 3.5% over last year’s budget.
The good:
- Closing MCI-Concord: unequivocally one of the biggest wins from the FY2025 budget, the state has officially greenlighted the closing of the state’s oldest men’s prison among declining incarceration rates. Great — now pass the Prison Moratorium.
- Expanding tuition-free community college: another massive win this year is expanding eligibility for MassReconnect to all MA residents, not just those who are over 25 without an existing advanced degree. This expansion is being funded in large part by revenue brought in by the Fair Share amendment and is a brilliant example of how we can uplift whole communities when our wealthiest neighbors pay their fair share. Tuition-free community college for all would go into effect this fall.
- $475 million for permanent C3 grants: originating during the pandemic to help child care providers make ends meet, the Commonwealth Cares for Children grant program will now be permanent. Funding is pulled from a mix of sources including iLottery (more on that below) and surtax revenue.
- Changing sex on official documents: including state IDs, licenses, and birth certificates.
- *Reviving the state seal and motto commission: technically a good thing, since our state seal and motto are racist and need the boot, but less good when you consider there already was a commission to study the potential of changing that and they disbanded last year with no recommendations.
The not-so-good:
- $447 million for the MBTA: while legislative leaders are touting this as record funding for the decrepit public transit system, this number is still hundreds of millions of dollars shy of what the MBTA would need to balance its budget without digging into savings accounts. You can read more about just how bad the MBTA’s funding system is in Sydney’s blog post.
- $500 million for the emergency shelter system: similarly to the MBTA, this is much-needed funding, but it still falls hundreds of millions of dollars short of what the Healey administration is anticipating they will need to last through the next year.
The downright bad:
- Creating an iLottery: in a big win for House leadership, this budget would officially legalize an online lottery in Massachusetts. For the least productive state legislature in the country, MA has been steadily legislating in one area: expanding gambling access. We already spend the most money per adult on gambling in the country, and officials are warning of an impending public health crisis of gambling. But sure, let’s continue to raise revenue from working class people and vulnerable adolescents who are at risk of gambling addiction instead of taxing wealthy people and corporations.
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Missed a Scoop or two? You can find a full archive of all past Saturday Scoops on our blog.
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Syd's Sprinkles: Examining the Climate Bill
The House’s and Senate’s versions of this session’s big climate bill have included a lot of the same policies, but there are still some differences that need to be ironed out before the bill can be signed into law by the governor. A few key goals of this bill are to achieve net-zero emissions in Massachusetts by 2050, improve infrastructure that would allow for the use of more clean energy, and to protect Bay Staters while pursuing the former two goals.
Some key differences lie in clean energy procurement and contracts with clean energy developers. These two policies can determine the amount of influence the government has on clean energy projects and efforts, including the time it takes to begin and undertake new projects.
There are a few major components that climate activists and progressive groups are looking out for in the final version of the bill that will (hopefully) be brought to Healey for signing. These components, which can be found in more detail on our friend Progressive Mass’ website, include but are not limited to: 1) a cumulative impact analysis method for approving permits and sitings, 2) clean air for all, 3) an end to gas pipeline expansions, 4) guiding gas companies toward clean emissions, and 5) outlining procurement and documentation standards for clean energy.
This bill didn’t follow a traditional progression through the State House. Usually, bills are drafted, filed, looked over during hearings, and then presented to the whole legislature. Instead, the climate bill was first written by the Healey administration earlier this year. It was not available to the public until mid-June when it was reported out of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means.
While this process may seem like a great way to get new climate and energy legislation on the floor quickly, it actually leaves out an important part of the usual way bills become laws. There was no opportunity for constituents to go before the committee to voice their support or opposition for the bill, nor was there a way for constituents to read the original language of the bill before it was sent to committee. This is especially egregious considering a 2021 study by Brown University found that one of the main reasons Massachusetts is falling behind in passing good, green legislation is the lack of transparency and the concentration of power in the committee process, where membership is decided by leadership and votes are not public.
Regardless of what the final version of the climate bill looks like, the methods by which it went through the State House come as yet another blow to transparency in the Bay State.
CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS ABOUT THE CLIMATE BILL >>
In case you missed it: New blog post!
Between April 2023 and April 2024, nearly 400,000 people lost their MassHealth insurance coverage in a post-pandemic enrollment purge. Of these people, two-thirds lost their coverage due to providing “insufficient information”. But what prompted this stark decrease in enrollment in the state’s Medicaid program, also known as MassHealth?
Take Action
Contact the State House about the housing bond bill
The Affordable Homes Act is a bill that is almost ready to be voted on, but not before we need to add integral protections for vulnerable renters and homeowners. Call your electeds about important tenant and homeowner provisions in the Affordable Homes Act now:
[TAKE ACTION FOR HOUSING POLICY >>]
You can use this script from our friends at City Life / Vida Urbana when leaving a message:
As the Affordable Homes Act (Housing Bond Bill) is finalized, I ask that you please let the members of the Conference Committee know the importance of keeping key programs to stabilize communities and prevent displacement of working class renters and homeowners in the final bill, including the Foreclosure Prevention Program, the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), the Small Properties Acquisition Fund, and the Community Land Trust Acquisition and Development Program.
Pass the Prison Moratorium
The Prison Moratorium bill has reached another key point in the lawmaking process: Ways and Means. The committee is considering thousands of bills so we need to make sure the chairs know how important the Prison Moratorium is to us.