Today, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced her $63 billion budget proposal for the coming fiscal year that starts in July. It’s the first-term Democrat’s fourth budget proposal since taking office in 2023, and is about 4% larger than last year’s fiscal plan. To break down some of the spending plan’s key provisions, WAMC Berkshire Bureau Chief Josh Landes joins us now.
Josh, welcome to Northeast Report Late Edition.
Lucas, always a pleasure.
Let’s dig into this budget! How did Healey frame her vision for how Massachusetts will invest its money in the next fiscal year?
One of the key contexts the governor presented her budget in was cuts from the Trump administration and Republican controlled Congress. Healey’s administration estimates that Massachusetts will lose around $3.7 billion in federal funding between 2025 and 2028 as a direct result of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act that he signed into law last summer. Healey said in her announcement today that she “didn't know an administration or governor who's had a more challenging budget scenario that we face in many, many years.” Citing rising cost of living and affordability concerns, the governor underscored that her plan would not raise taxes or introduce new fees. Healey highlighted the impact of federal cuts on the state’s health care program, and said her administration had worked to directly respond to those cuts in next year’s spending:
“When you take a trillion dollars out of healthcare nationally, and remember, Medicaid are funding MassHealth, half of that comes from the Fed. So that's a huge, huge, huge hit for all of us. But what they did is work directly with stakeholders to try to find where can we lessen the pain, where can we make sure that we're providing services and we're meeting the needs of people, and where are some places we can shave a little because we have to, because we don't have a choice. So, faced with an array of bad decisions, we tried to make the very best decisions and that took care of the people that we thought needed most to be taken care of. That’s how we approached it.”
Healey’s vision for FY27 includes over $22.7 billion for MassHealth, a proposed increase of around $2.4 billion from her budget proposal for fiscal year 2025. She says her administration wants to pursue some cost-saving measures like eliminating state support for weight-loss drugs and limiting dental benefits for the program serves almost 2 million residents of Massachusetts:
“It includes the strongest program in the country to keep healthcare costs low for middle class families and for small business owners. Despite the wrongheaded and irresponsible cuts by Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress, we're finding a way to provide coverage for people here in Massachusetts and mitigate against that terrible harm.”
As far as an immediate impact of federal cuts, Healey’s FY27 budget includes around $15.8 billion in federal funding, down from $16.1 billion in FY26.
Healey’s budget also includes using revenues raised by the Fair Share Amendment- also known as the Millionaire’s Tax. What can you tell us about that?
Voters approved the surtax in 2022. It requires commonwealth residents who make over a million dollars a year to pay an additional 4% income tax that goes to a dedicated fund for public education and transportation. Healey’s budget – both the main fiscal document and a supplemental addition – proposes the use of almost $4 billion raised from the surtax, around half of which is going to education. Almost a billion dollars from the funds would go into the Massachusetts K-12 system in Healey’s plan.
“I don't think there's a state that's had a better ROI on our education investments. That's why we're number one in the country across all categories when it comes to education. And it's also a reason why employers recognize and businesses recognize, including ones that moved here recently and others who've expanded a footprint, they want to be in Massachusetts, because we have the most educated workforce in the country. And those things don't just happen. And we start at the early end. Remember, we're the only state to continue to fund childcare at a COVID level of any state in the country. Nobody else is doing that.”
Over a billion dollars in Fair Share funding will go to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in Healey’s plan, the long-suffering public transit system for the metropolitan Boston area.
Around $300 million dollars would go to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation from the Fair Share funds, with another $245 million to Massachusetts’ Regional Transit Authorities.
What comes next for the Massachusetts budget?
Now it goes into the hands of the state legislature. The Massachusetts House and Senate will now spend months tearing it apart and stitching it back together. Eventually, Healey will sign the resultant compromise bill before fiscal year 2027 starts on July 1st.
WAMC Berkshire Bureau Chief Josh Landes. Thanks, Josh!
Sure thing Lucas.
