After flurry of activity to break a long run of tardy spending plans, state lawmakers have agreed to a budget to send to first-term Democratic Governor Maura Healey’s desk.
“It's actually about a billion dollars less than what the governor proposed in January," Democratic State Senator Paul Mark of the Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin and Hampshire District told WAMC. "It's coming in just over $61 billion, which is, I think, around $3 billion more than last year.”
He says the state budget agreement reached over the weekend reflects some growth and "a lot of worry." It comes as Republicans in the U.S. Senate debate President Trump's bill of tax cuts and policy changes.
“What's being debated right now in Washington is going to have an impact, whether it's later in this fiscal year or next year, and even things we're seeing like Unistress giving a temporary layoff to 200 workers because some of their contracts are on hold because of the tariffs and the trade nonsense that's going on in Washington- These things are having an impact on our state, and they're not having a positive impact,” said Mark.
Unistress Corporation owners Petricca Industries announced this month that over 230 employees at its concrete plant in Pittsfield have received short-term pink slips amid Trump’s tariffs on steel.
Mark says given the uncertainty, the legislature did the best it could.
“There's going to be general increases in funding for education, there's increases for the RTAs, for healthcare services, which we're watching very closely, because healthcare is one of those programs that's really potentially on the chopping block down in Washington, and we receive a lot of federal money in healthcare, and there's money to support the free school lunch meals,” he explained.
In the lower chamber, fellow Berkshire Democrat John Barrett, the state representative of the 1st Berkshire district, said he was happy with the final product.
“There's no tax increases of any type, and so that's a good sign," Barrett told WAMC. "And we preserved programs, a lot of them that are in jeopardy because of loss of federal funding. School lunches for all the kids, of no cost- And those are important to us.”
He said his focus was on making sure constituents would still have access to essentials no matter what cuts are made to federal programs.
“We the money for the food pantries and we got some money for the food project here in North Adams and things like that," said the state rep. "It was very important to make sure we got there. We tried to improve the education funding, those types of things. But I was lucky in that everything that I asked for in earmarks are coming back to the district, and each one of them will help people that are in need.”
As far as frustrations, Mark says he’s disappointed in his legislative colleagues who successfully pushed to cut rural school aid.
Last year, rural school aid rose to $16 million in the budget. Mark wanted to see that number rise to $25 million for FY26, but instead saw it cut down by $4 million- a move he described as devastating.
“I've already gotten an email from Mohawk Trail School District that this is potentially going to mean they're going to lose $140,000," said Mark. "And I mean, that's potentially a staffer that's in a district that is already facing a lot of problems, and I imagine as other people hear this, it's going to be a problem.”
The House and Senate differed sharply on how much to spend on the program, with the resulting compromise amounting to the overall drop in funding.
In a state where Democrats control both chambers of the legislature and the Governor’s office, Republicans offer a muted opposition despite historic gains in the 2024 election.
“We have a long history of having Republican governors with Democratic legislatures, and that balance has generally worked very well for our budgets," MassGOP chair Amy Carnevale told WAMC. "But now on Beacon Hill, we have one party government, one party rule, and super majorities in the legislature, and we have seen that that formula really has impacted economic growth in the state of Massachusetts.”
Carnevale says Healey’s administration hasn’t done enough to combat inflation, and that the commonwealth is spending too much on immigrants.
“The stewardship of our economy in Massachusetts is a real concern for Republicans, and increasingly, we're seeing independents and businesses and even conservative Democrats concerned that the formula that we have right now is just not working for the economy in Massachusetts,” she said.
Healey has 10 days to review the budget, and the legislature is sending her a one-month budget to sign today to fund the commonwealth until the lion’s share of the spending is signed off on by the governor. A Massachusetts governor hasn’t signed a budget into law before the start of the fiscal year since Democrat Deval Patrick in 2010.
