Jeremy Siegel is co-host of Morning Edition at GBH News. Feedback? Questions? Story ideas? Reach out to Jeremy at jeremy_siegel@wgbh.org.
May 28, 2024
Jeremy Siegel: This is GBH’s Morning Edition. Every year in every state in the country, lawmakers have to file a budget. But there’s one state that is often the last to do it: Massachusetts. Lawmakers here still have not finished the job yet. And GBH’s statehouse reporter Katie Lannan is putting on her procrastination reporter hat to tell us more about it. Good morning. Katie.
Katie Lannan: Hey Jeremy. Good morning.
Siegel: So why is Massachusetts always so slow on this?
Lannan: There’s a number of reasons, including just the pace that legislating takes generally in Massachusetts, which is tends to be drawn out. And the fact that in a lot of other states, if they don’t get a budget in place by the start of their fiscal year, they’re at risk of a government shut down. All programs and services stop. That’s not a concern in Massachusetts. We have the habit here of passing one-month temporary budgets. So without a big, scary deadline — like we see in some states, like we see at the congressional level — there’s a bit more wiggle room to get it done.
Siegel: And that leads to procrastination. But lawmakers did take a major step in finishing up this year’s job. Last week, the Senate unanimously passed a $58 billion spending plan for the budget year that starts on July 1. This means the House and Senate have each now passed their own versions of the budget that Governor Healey filed back in January. Lawmakers say that the budget funds programs that’ll keep the state’s economy running, make it easier for Massachusetts residents to tackle high costs of living. What exactly has changed in this bill over the past five months while it’s been debated.
Lannan: So as we can see, it’s a long process. The governor files the bill, and then each branch of the legislature takes their own turn rewriting it. And they introduce along the way their own priorities. So, for instance, in the House budget, that’s really a bigger investment in the MBTA. In the Senate budget, they want to go big on education with things like free community college for all students. But they stuck pretty closely to the general contours of Healey’s budget. It doesn’t raise or cut taxes in any version. That $58 billion bottom line has stayed roughly the same rather than a push to spend a whole lot more that you often see from lawmakers. That’s because state revenues are growing really slowly or almost flat right now. And one notable difference is that while the governor proposed cutting spending on Masshealth’s personal care attendant program, the legislature is not interested in doing that after hearing pushback from people who say those services are really important.
Siegel: Some of the money in this budget comes from the millionaires tax that voters passed back in 2022. How do lawmakers want to spend that new pool of money?
Lannan: It differs between the House and Senate. The money does have to go to education and transportation, and both budgets would spend on continuing the universal free school meal program. There’s grants for childcare providers, early literacy and financial aid for higher education. On the transportation side, they both want to put money towards local road and bridge repairs, support for the T to roll out its low income fare program. And then the House again with their big T investments, they want to put some of that money towards helping the T adapt to climate change and training more workers. The Senate wants to put that money behind their free community college plan and make rides free across regional transit authorities. So lawmakers will have to settle how they’re going to spend that finite pool of money.
Siegel: In addition to spending, there’s also policy proposals included in the budget. What laws would change if this budget’s passed?
Lannan: So both the House and the Senate, along with Governor Healey, call for the closure of the state prison in Concord. The House sees that as an opportunity to really redevelop that area, fix the Route 2 rotary that gives drivers headaches out that way. The house also wants to bring the state lottery online and use that to fund child care investments. The Senate adopted some interesting policy proposals during their debate this week, including a proposal that would task state officials with developing a curriculum to teach kids, age-appropriately, about antisemitism in schools. So it’s not many major, major policy shifts, but there’s a lot of moving parts there.
Siegel: That is GBH statehouse reporter Katie Lannan on the next fiscal year budget, which starts July 1. Katie, thanks so much for your time.
Lannan: Thank you.
Siegel: This is GBH News.
In every state in the country, lawmakers have to file a budget.
But there’s one state that is often the last to do it: Massachusetts. Lawmakers here still have not finished that job. GBH’s State House reporter Katie Lannan joined Morning Edition co-host Jeremy Siegel to talk about what’s at stake and where negotiations stand.
Here’s what to know:
Massachusetts is often among the last states in the nation to pass a budget
Massachusetts lawmakers have missed their July 1 deadline to pass a budget for the last 13 years.
“There’s a number of reasons, including just the pace that legislating takes generally in Massachusetts, [which] tends to be drawn out,” Lannan said.
Unlike other states, Massachusetts has fewer consequences for tardy legislating.
“In a lot of other states, if they don’t get a budget in place by the start of their fiscal year, they’re at risk of a government shutdown: All programs and services stop,” Lannan said. “That’s not a concern in Massachusetts. We have the habit here of passing one-month temporary budgets. So without a big, scary deadline — like we see in some states, like we see at the congressional level — there’s a bit more wiggle room to get it done.”
How the budget process works:
First, Gov. Maura Healey releases her budget proposal. This year, it had proposals for some spending cuts to reflect a flattening of state revenues — but overall proposed spending was up 3.7%.
Then the state House and Senate release their own proposals, which this year hew closely to Healey’s with some notable departures.
“They [House and Senate] introduce along the way their own priorities,” Lannan said. “So, for instance, in the House budget, that’s really a bigger investment in the MBTA. In the Senate budget, they want to go big on education with things like free community college for all students. But they stuck pretty closely to the general contours of Healey’s budget.”
Neither budget raises or cuts taxes, Lannan said. Both are close to Healey’s $58 billion bottom line.
“One notable difference is that while the governor proposed cutting spending on MassHealth’s personal care attendant program, the Legislature is not interested in doing that after hearing pushback from people who say those services are really important,” Lannan said.
Revenue from the millionaires’ tax must go to education, transportation
While overall tax revenues are about the same as they were last year, new revenue from a tax vote passed in 2022 targeting income over $1 million is about double what lawmakers expected.
“The money does have to go to education and transportation, and both budgets would spend on continuing the universal free school meal program,” Lannan said. “There’s grants for childcare providers, early literacy and financial aid for higher education.”
By law, the money has to go to projects related to transportation and education.
Both legislative houses want to put money toward local road and bridge repairs, and to support for the T to roll out reduced fares for low-income riders, Lannan said.
In addition, House members want to put funding toward helping the T adapt to climate change and train more workers. Senate members want to fund community college and make rides free across regional transit authorities.
“Lawmakers will have to settle how they’re going to spend that finite pool of money,” Lannan said.
More budget notes: The state is looking to close the MCI-Concord prison
One thing the Healey, House and Senate budgets have in common: Closing the medium security men’s prison at MCI-Concord, which first opened in 1878, and redeveloping the area.
“The House sees that as an opportunity to really redevelop that area, fix the Route 2 rotary that gives drivers headaches out that way,” Lannan said.
The House also wants to bring the state lottery online and use that to fund child care investments, Lannan said. The Senate adopted proposals that would task state officials with developing a curriculum to teach kids, age-appropriately, about antisemitism.
“It’s not many major, major policy shifts, but there’s a lot of moving parts there,” Lannan said.
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