Howdy, 

As we careen towards summer, I'm getting more and more excited about launching Transparency on Tour! One of my favorite things about my job is getting to meet people from different corners of the Commonwealth and hear about the issues that impact their communities– their own stake in our state democracy. I'm excited to get to do that all summer long, and looking forward to having some of you join us. 

On that note, I have some exciting announcements. 

First, we will be hosting an official Transparency on Tour launch on Monday May 26th at 7 PM on Zoom. In order to hit all 40 districts this summer, we will need your help! So, we're hosting a collaborative launch. We'll start by talking about our goals for the summer and do a refresher on the Good Government Agenda. Then, we'll group up by region and get to planning: where to go, when, and who's going. I hope you'll join us to learn more and have your role in shaping this project!

RSVP FOR TRANSPARENCY ON TOUR LAUNCH>>

Second, although it will come in slightly before the launch, we have our first "stop" on the tour scheduled. Monday May 19th from 6-8 pm we'll be joining progressive allies to table at the "DC Attacks, MA Fights Back" organizing fair in Salem. For those keeping track at home, that's the Second Essex district– Senator Joan Lovely's district. If that's your home district, please come out to get plugged in! 

SECOND ESSEX: JOIN US IN SALEM>>

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State House Scoop

This week saw a lot of budget-y words getting thrown around on Beacon Hill, and it can get confusing. Earmarks on the 2026 budget, earmarks on a “supplemental” budget, something something Fair Share Amendment funds, and somehow all these things are related to banning broker’s fees? It’s enough to make a girl shut off State House News Service and cry!

What happened is that two separate budget bills have now been passed by the House and moved on to the Senate. The first is a supplemental budget for this year’s spending– Fiscal Year (FY) 2025– which allocates $1.3 billion in surplus funds that came in through the Fair Share tax on high-income earners. The second is The Budget™ aka next year’s gargantuan $62 billion state budget (Fiscal Year 2026), which passed the House last week and featured heavily in last week’s Scoop. For help differentiating them, be sure to check the price tag and year associated. 

As is the case with all budget bills, these bills had their tour in the House and have now moved on to the Senate. This week we’re going to focus on the supplemental budget, which is first in line: it was passed by the Senate this week. 

Supplemental budget: Mariano funnels money to Quincy parking garage, Senate cuts MBTA funding 

Supplemental budgets are used to allocate funds outside of the typical annual budget process. This is often to cover a budget shortfall for a particular service, such as the supplemental budget passed in February to provide emergency funding for shelters. However, supplemental budgets can also be used in cases of budget surplus, where the state collects more than expected and, thus, needs to invent new ways to spend it. This was the case of the supplemental budget in question, which allocated extra Fair Share funds.

As with all budget bills, this “supp” started with a proposal by Governor Healey, filed January 23rd and sent to House Ways & Means. On April 7th, House W&M released the House’s version. Less than 48 hours later, this was voted on by the whole House and finalized as H.4010. If it rings any bells: it was during this vote that the first anti-trans amendment was filed by Rep. Gaskey and House Dems had their cowardly response. Since then, the bill has sat in Senate Ways & Means, where Senate leadership put together their take on it. 

On May 1st, Senate W&M released their version, S.2512. In contrast to the House’s quick 2-day turnaround, senators had a week before their vote to file amendments and prepare arguments. They then voted on it this Thursday, May 8th. Their final version and amendments differ from the version approved by the House, meaning that it will now go to a conference committee. 

This supplemental budget bill got press this week for a couple reasons. Let’s break it down. 

1) Speaker Mariano’s secret $25,000,000 parking garage earmark: This week, about a month after the House vote, advocates noticed a previously-unreported amendment that allocates $25 million in Fair Share funds for a single parking garage in the Speaker’s district. 

If you’ll recall, we talked last week about the legislature’s practice of amending budget bills via mega “consolidated amendments,” which are compiled by leadership and combine many rep-filed amendments (mostly earmarks) into a single mega-amendment that then gets approved by the chamber. 

This supplemental budget ended up with two consolidated amendments: one for education spending (A) and one for transportation spending (B). A reminder: per the conditions of the law passed by voters, Fair Share funds can only be used for transportation and education spending. 

The process that led to the parking garage payout was atypical. The Speaker did not publicly file any amendments to the bill. Instead, it appears that this $25,000,000 line-item was written into the transportation consolidated amendment (B) mere moments before it was brought to the floor. Amendment B ultimately allocated $28.8 million total, which means that the parking garage earmark constituted a whopping 87% of the amendment– and managed to avoid public scrutiny until a full month after it was passed.   

The move has brought criticism from across the political spectrum, with critics incredulous that a parking garage at a private hospital could be considered “transportation” spending. Although we disagree on most things, I have to appreciate one GOP official’s statement on this, who said that this move "siphons money from roads and bridges," and “back toward the political donors who have padded his campaign account.” Yep! 

For frame of reference, the much-touted FY2026 line item for immigrant legal defense allocated only $5 million– a fifth of the state funds being proposed for a single parking garage in Quincy. While federal cuts, mounting tariffs, and uncertain economic headwinds threaten livelihoods across the Commonwealth, our leaders are being unfortunately clear where priorities lie. 

2) House and Senate differ widely on funding for transportation, MBTA: The Senate’s proposal for the supplemental budget allocates much less in funding for transportation than the House’s version, including for the cash-strapped MBTA, raising alarm from some transit advocates. 

We’ve covered the multi-decade saga of MBTA funding in previous Scoops and blog posts, including this great deep-dive from Sydney from last year. TLDR: in the early 2000s, the legislature offloaded their responsibility for funding the MBTA to an insufficient sales tax earmark, and added additional burden by saddling the MBTA with billions of dollars in Big Dig debt. Since then, the agency has continued to face budget problems, including a looming financial crisis that could lead to service cuts next year.  

Governor Healey kicked off the year with some big promises about getting the MBTA off the proverbial ropes and into a steadier financial future. She kicked off a “Transportation Funding Roadshow” promising to address “decades of underinvestment” in our transportation systems. The keystone of this initiative was a plan to use close to $1 billion of Fair Share funds in a one-time payment to stabilize the MBTA’s budget immediately– a plan not without its criticisms, but a step forward nevertheless. 

The House’s supplemental budget proposal followed through, making headlines in April for its emphasis on transportation funding. Of the $1.3 billion allocated, it split about 2-1 for transportation funding. House leaders explained at the time that this was to “balance the scales” after initial Fair Share allocations skewed towards education. The bulk of the transport funding went to the MBTA, including $400 million to continue workforce and safety investments, $300 million to replenish its empty savings account, and $63 million in funding to various ongoing programs, including low-income fares. 

The House proposal was met by some criticism from legislators and residents who lived beyond the MBTA’s reach. However, transit advocates viewed it as an important step to get the state’s largest transit agency back in good financial standing in order to plan for the future of transportation in Massachusetts. 

With the Senate’s proposal, released on May 1st and passed this week, this momentum towards financial stability is in question. The Senate’s version proposes to split the Fair Share funds more 50-50 between transportation and education. In total, the Senate would send only $370 million to the MBTA, compared to the House’s proposed $793 million. Their remaining transportation funding includes grants for regional transit authorities as well as $5 million to prepare infrastructure for the 2026 World Cup. 

Let’s be clear: more funding for education and these additional initiatives is good. These funds will benefit communities across Massachusetts. However, transit advocates warn that funding at these levels would leave the MBTA with a $200 million shortfall, leading to service cuts. Having a robust and sustainable public transit network in the densest part of the state is essential to the state’s climate goals, which impacts allBay Staters. 

Since the House and Senate disagree on the priorities tucked into this package, the bill will now go to a conference committee, where a 6 members hand-picked by leadership will hammer out the differences behind closed doors. 

One final note on this supplemental budget: transparency edition. Joint rules still have yet to be set– though the conference committee deciding them recently scheduled their first meeting since March. In the meantime, some committees have started adopting certain transparency reforms. The Senate has started adding plain-language bill summaries for each bill filed by a Senate member, following through on a key demand from transparency advocates. Long story short: I was helped out on this Scoop by the Senate’s bill summary. Our work pays off, and every step towards transparency helps!

Additional reading

Some reporting that caught our eye this week! 

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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: The consequences of an inactive legislature

Since there has been an overall decline in the value of commercial buildings across Boston, the tax burden has been shifted to residential homeowners to make up for losses. In total, Boston homeowners are now facing a $1 billion tax burden over the next 5 years according to research done by the Boston Policy Institute [paywall]. 

While Boston is not going to address its budget deficits by cutting funding from schools and public services like other cities across the U.S. have done, there is still a need to address this issue before even more Bostonians are driven from their homes due to high costs. 

One solution came in the form of Mayor Wu’s tax relief home rule petition from last session, which unsurprisingly died in the Senate after being passed by both the House and Boston’s City Council. Wu’s plan would have rebalanced Boston’s tax plans to temporarily shift the burden from homeowners, renters, and small business owners to commercial properties.

But why did the Senate ultimately pass on this opportunity to protect Bostonians? Senate President Spilka argued that “there was not enough support for the bill” for it to come to a floor vote. So, after years of Mayor Wu urging the Legislature to allow her administration the ability to shift the tax burden, the Senate and its inaction became a deciding factor in not protecting homeowners, renters, and small businesses. 

It is also important to note that the tax plan’s strongest critic in the Senate, democratic Senator Nick Collins, had a campaign committee which collected over $17,000 in donations from – you guessed it – real estate developers, executives, and more in November 2024 alone. Interesting, right?

While the Legislature let the original plan die last session, Mayor Wu is still working to ensure that Boston residents have assistance in a time of increasing housing and living costs. This year, this assistance came in the form of a refiling of a residential tax relief package. This new plan was approved by the Boston City Council, but has yet to be considered by the State Legislature, despite Mayor Wu’s push for urgent action so that relief would have been able to be given in April 2025 tax bills [paywall]. 


With the Legislature’s clear inaction this session, which has only seen the passage of 2 pieces of legislation (which you can read more about in last week’s scoop), Bostonians and Bay Staters are facing uncertain and costly times without important safeguards that have had ample time for consideration and implementation.

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Take Action

Organizing Fair in Salem, May 19 6-8 PM

Looking for ways to get involved and organize against what's happening at the federal level? Some of our allies are hosting an organizing fair in Salem on Monday May 19th. Act on Mass will be there, and we're counting it as our first stop on the transparency tour. Join us find out how you can get involved!

JOIN US IN SALEM>>

Take Action for Rent Control with City Life/Vida Urbana

With the housing crisis squeezing wallets across the Commonwealth, we need the legislature to approve rent control home rule petitions. Our allies at City Life/Vida Urbana are hosting art builds this month to boost this movement - join them to take action! 

TAKE ACTION FOR RENT CONTROL>>

Reminder: we're coming to your district this summer and we need your help!

As we announced a few weeks ago, we have set a goal of tabling in every Senate district in the state this summer. We are looking for events in your district to come speak to your neighbors about why state democracy matters more than ever. Do you have an event to recommend us? Please help us by filling out the survey here:

HELP US VISIT YOUR DISTRICT THIS SUMMER>>

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And that's all for this week! Have a blessed weekend and enjoy this almost-summer sunshine. 

In solidarity,

Scotia

Scotia Hille (she/her)

Executive Director, Act on Mass