This week, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey unveiled a $63 billion spending plan, filed amid an election year. The budget proposal packs increases to local aid while seemingly avoiding any massive cuts.
Most lawmakers in the Pioneer Valley say there are no objections to more aid, but as some told WAMC, making sure funding keeps up with growing costs and other factors remains a priority as the legislative session goes on.
More of a blueprint than an edict, the governor’s annual proposed budget often has the bones of what lawmakers settle on later in the session.
But for the time being, some western Mass. lawmakers, like 1st Hampshire Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, say this year’s pitch had some surprises, given the level of funding it packs.
“It's an ambitious budget, [given] where the state revenues are this year - I think that that is interesting. I recognize it's an election year, and so, I think the governor is really trying to put funding toward her priorities as best she can, given the economic situation in the Commonwealth and … the economic situation that the federal government has put the states into,” the Hampshire County Democrat tells WAMC. “I was a little surprised that there was actually so much spending: I was expecting her budget to come in a little bit more where we had agreed upon with the consensus revenue.”
Healey emphasized the state’s federal funding picture during her budget unveiling Wednesday. Between FY 25 and FY28, her office estimates at least $3.7 billion in federal funding is gone or will disappear – almost half of that affecting Health & Human Services spending ($1.6 billion).
The latest spending plan from Healey is around four percent higher than last year’s finalized budget, with half going toward MassHealth and other Health & Human Services priorities. That’s not completely out of the ordinary: Hampden, Hampshire and Worcester State Senator Jake Oliveira says health care spending made up roughly 55% of last year’s budget.
He adds that making a budget is no easy task amid federal headwinds like the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and its changes to Medicaid funding alone.
“I think the governor tried building a budget that's kind of built on quicksand because we don't know what the future will hold as far as federal funding flowing down to the states and, in turn, flowing to our local governments,” he told WAMC in a phone interview Thursday.
More local aid welcome, but enough to stave off higher local property taxes preferred
Oliveira adds the governor’s proposal to raise local aid by 4.4 percent is welcome – a proposal totaling “more than $10.3 billion, including increases in Chapter 70 payments, veterans’ benefits, and unrestricted aid,” her office says.
He also tells WAMC communities across the state, including his district, are again facing looming budget issues and shortfalls. More local aid is good, he says, but as budgets get hashed out, securing more will be vital on Beacon Hill.
That increased local aid being more than a one-time boost would also go a long way, he adds, especially when most towns are relying heavily on property tax revenues.
“Our 351 cities and towns are already starting the budget-cutting conversation, or are looking to raise revenues locally, and the only way that a lot of our communities can raise revenue is on the backs of property tax payers, which hits everybody,” Oliveira emphasized.
“It's not equitable, like an income tax or other sources of revenue - like the Fair Share Amendment. Property taxes hit everybody: they hit people who are renters, because their rent is reflected in those property tax increases. It hits seniors who are trying to live on a fixed-income. It hits veterans," he continued. "It hits everybody ... and so I'd rather have much more consistent state support, so we don't have to rely on property taxes at the local level as much ... it hurts everybody disproportionately.”
Still, the Ludlow Democrat says it’s promising to see education funding mostly staying on course in the proposed budget.
As the State House News Service reports, the proposed budget “fully funds the final year of the Student Opportunity Act with $7.6 billion” in Chapter 70 school aid – an increase of $242 million.
Per the governor’s office, universal free school meals funding saw a boost of $18 million in the proposal, hitting $198 million. The plan also proposes an increase to the “Special Education Circuit Breaker” – funding that assists school districts with offsetting the costs of often-expensive special education services. Under Healey's plan, the fully-funded Circuit Breaker would see $127.7 million more in funding compared to FY26, now up to a $802.7 million.
Rural school spending also got a proposed boost – totaling $20 million in the governor’s proposal, up from $12 million in last year’s final budget.
All roads lead back to road (and school) funding
But as Republican State Representative Kelly Pease of Westfield tells WAMC, more needs to be done to keep pace with cuts western Mass schools have been facing.
“These rural schools are dying, programs are getting cut constantly,” the 4th Hampden lawmaker says. “We’ve got so many communities across the Commonwealth, now, that are trying to do overrides because they can't afford to take care of their communities...”
Southampton, a town of 6,200 in Pease’s district, proved to be a microcosm of the issue last year.
During town meetings, residents rallied to raise property taxes to close a $900,000 gap for the town’s only elementary school only to come up short of passing an override. That left the community of 6,200 having to stomach steep cuts at the William E. Norris School.
Pease says while programs like free community college are well and good, the money that’s funding it –dollars from the state’s Fair Share Amendment or “Millionaire’s Tax,” should be steered toward plugging local school funding holes, not to mention roads.
“The Millionaire's Tax is taking in upwards of billions of dollars, and I don't know why we're not putting an extra $500 million into Chapter 90, why we're not putting an extra $500 million into our schools,” he continued.
For context, Fair Share Amendment dollars are for only education and transportation infrastructure purposes.
Speaking of roads, Pease notes the state has been taking a “good step forward” in terms of road funding – something the budget touches on, though a separate, annual Chapter 90 bill is usually taken up and passed.
That includes last year’s $1 billion bill that brought in an “all-time high of $300 million” for the program, plus hundreds of millions more for bridges and culvert projects statewide.
It included funding changes that meant rural communities with miles of road saw state funding rise by as much as 75-90 percent in some cases. The Healey administration is currently seeking to continue that boost with a separate, $1.2 billion bill filed this month.
That bill is welcome news, says Sabadosa, Pease’s colleague to the north.
Also like her colleague, the representative adds she wouldn’t mind seeing more funding for education, especially when schools in her rural district need as much assistance as they can get.
“That has been a tremendous issue in my district,” Sabadosa says. “We understand that enrollments are declining, however, costs are going up, and I think we've heard - really loud and clear - from our municipalities that they are under tremendous strain to keep the doors of schools open and providing the best service they can with dwindling resources.”
More information on the governor’s budget proposal can be found here.
