Weeks after the start of fiscal year 2025 on July 1st, lawmakers on Beacon Hill signed off on a once again delayed spending plan last week.
“The earmarks that I was able to get for the 2nd Berkshire district and Pittsfield are in place and intact, there is a renewed and increased investment in early education, which I care deeply about, and I am pleased that we're moving forward with the budget," said State Representative Tricia Farley-Bouvier. "We are now waiting for the governor to return the budget to us with her markup.”
“It seems like it was a cautious approach to preserving level funding and increasing in some areas, programs that are important to people around the state. If people are really paying attention, you'll find that a lot of the investments in transportation and education, which directly correlates to the win of the Fair Share Amendment, which was a constitutional amendment requiring that a sur tax on income over $1 million would be dedicated to education and transportation- And we took full advantage of that," said State Senator Paul Mark, a fellow Democrat, who represents the Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin and Hampshire District. “It was really good that we were able to keep all our local priorities, that was important. And the rural school aid- The House came in at $7.5 million, the Senate came in at $17.5 million, and the compromise was $16 million, which was still a million more than last year. So that's good.”
He detailed local aid earmarked in the budget.
“We had funding for the Southern Berkshire Ambulance Squad," Mark told WAMC. "I know they're in need of money, and they're going to put it towards equipment and things that they need to do their job as effectively and safely every day as possible. We got money for some of the local organizations, like this Flying Cloud Institute that I visited. They go into the schools in the Berkshires, and they get kids interested in science and art. And I was at one of the schools in Pittsfield watching these kids, and they made a laser out of a coffee can, it was wild. I mean, I never did anything like that when I was in school. So, if that gets kids motivated and excited, I think that's a good thing. And we got some money for [Berkshire Regional Planning Commission] to do this Berkshire Funding Focus, which helps local organizations and even startups and businesses. We got some money for the Berkshire Innovation Center to do some of the good work that they're doing.”
The attention now swings to first-term Governor Maura Healey.
“The governor has 10 days to have line-item vetoes and so, we could receive those vetoes as late as the 31st, and then we will make decisions as to which vetoes we override," explained Farley-Bouvier. "And so, we tend to get a lot less line-item vetoes than we did in the previous administration, but the legislature is the one who gets to decide where we spend the money. That's our job, and so we have a proud tradition of overriding vetoes.”
She says she expects her fellow Democrat to exercise her veto power on the budget.
“What I do know is that the legislature and the governor have a great working relationship, and so I don't expect too many of them,” added Farley-Bouvier.
Mark offered his forecast for possible Healey vetoes.
“The only caution I heard just yesterday from our Senate Chair of Ways and Means in his discussions with the Secretary of Administration and Finance, it seems like the revenue figures for July are coming in weaker than expected, which they said the good news in that is that July is kind of a low expectations month anyway, it's not one of the critical months for revenue, but nonetheless, it's coming in- I think the number floated was around $100 million short, and we're in the new fiscal year," he told WAMC. "So, I could see the governor maybe being a little cautious as she considers some of the local priorities, but we'll see.”
Farley-Bouvier says education spending is the highlight of the plan.
“The biggest thing, of course, is the money for Chapter 70, the work that we did together to greatly increase, an over $2 million increase in Chapter 70 compared to what happened in the governor's budget,” she said.
The budget also includes free community college for all Massachusetts residents.
With the end of the formal session coming quickly on the 31st, there’s still plenty of work for Massachusetts legislators to finish.
“The two big ones would be the housing bond bill, that's the focus of this entire session, but then the economic development bond bill, which is in in conference committee also," said Farley-Bouvier. "So, we're looking at those two things. We have some other things on the table. Yesterday, we did this really great bill about pharmacy costs and how we can really contain costs and monitor and pull into control something called the pharmacy benefit managers, which are those middlemen, so to speak, of who, really, their world is very opaque, and we're very concerned that they're just driving up pharmacy costs. So, yesterday's bill in the House is outstanding, and hoping to get that across the finish line with the cooperation of the Senate before next Wednesday.”
