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Healey proposes new $58 billion budget: What you need to know
Gov. Maura Healey proposed a new $58 billion annual budget Wednesday, a roughly 3% increase over the current year's spending that includes new investments in transportation, higher education and pre-K.
The proposal comes amid falling state tax collections and projections of essentially flat revenue growth over the next fiscal year.
"We are tightening our belts. I want to be clear about that," Healey said in a press conference Tuesday. "None of these choices are easy, but we think the investments are smart."
On its face, Healey's budget proposal is more modest than in prior years. Last year's budget had represented about a 6% increase in spending.
Healey is not proposing any new tax increases or tapping into the state's "rainy day" fund.
The proposal does include about $450 million in cuts from from various line items, including a $2.5 million reduction from the state's Head Start early education program. Head Start Association Executive Director Michelle Haimowitz called the decision "head-scratchingly harsh."
There are several new investments and commitments to state programs and policy areas, including:
- $38.6 million to expand access to universal pre-K programs in 26 Gateway Cities, with the goal of eventually making preschool free across the state.
- $24 million for MassReconnect, the program that makes community college free for people 25 and older. That's a $4 million increase over last year.
- $170 million to continue to fully fund free school breakfasts and lunches.
- $359 million in direct assistance to the MBTA. That includes $314 million to support the beleaguered transit system’s operations, and $45 million to help push forward the T’s plan to provide reduced fares to low-income riders.
- $250 million of revenue from the so-called "millionaire's tax" to the Commonwealth Transportation Fund to free up new transportation-related borrowing capacity. According to the administration, that could mean an additional $300 million for the MBTA to fix its tracks and reduce slow zones.
- Massachusetts is one of a few states that doesn't have a permanent disaster relief fund. To prepare for more climate-related flooding and extreme weather, Healey has proposed creating such a fund, supported by 10% of excess capital gains tax revenues.
- $16 million in savings from closing MCI-Concord, the state's oldest men's prison.
- $35 million to support no-cost calls in state correctional facilities. A recent report found call volume from prisons and jails increased by about 5,000 calls a day since Massachusetts implemented no-cost calls last year.
Healey's budget proposal would fund the state's emergency family shelter program at $325 million — even though the administration projects it will cost about $1 billion to keep running next year. The shelter system has been stretched beyond capacity by an increase in unhoused families and new migrants to Massachusetts.
Healey is instead filing a separate supplemental budget with the legislature, proposing using a $700 million surplus fund to finance the overburdened system. The move was immediately met with criticism.
"Funding for the migrant shelter crisis continues to drain much-needed revenues that would otherwise have been spent on other programs and services, with no end in sight," House minority leader Brad Jones said in a statement.
Doug Howgate, president at the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said that "buying ourselves some time with those resources can make sense as long as we're using that time to figure out what comes next."
But he said whether the administration can find outside funding or implement reforms is "very much an open question."
Healey's budget proposal now goes to the House for consideration. The new fiscal year begins July 1.
WBUR's Zeninjor Enwemeka and Kathleen Masterson contributed to this report.
