The Massachusetts House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday approved a $33.8 billion state budget that boosts spending on higher education and local aid.
The proposed budget is $ 1 billion less than what Governor Deval Patrick recommended. Committee vice-chair Democrat Stephen Kulik of Worthington says the only new taxes are the ones approved by the full house earlier this week for transportation.
The spending plan provides a subsidy to the University of Massachusetts sufficient to freeze tuition and student fees. It offers the first significant increase, in several years, in unrestricted aid to cities and towns. It requires photo IDs on EBT cards to crackdown on fraud.
