On Sunday evening, a $52.7 billion compromise spending plan emerged from a committee of Massachusetts House and Senate negotiators.
The state has been running over the last few weeks on a temporary spending plan.
Matt Murphy of the State House News Service joins us to talk about some of the highlights of the spending plan.
Matt Murphy, State House News Service: Well, one of the big things that happened during these negotiations is that state revenues continued to climb to exceed expectations. We know that the state is expecting to finish the previous fiscal year when they wrap up the books with a sizable surplus. And that allowed lawmakers to increase their revenue projections for FY23 in this new budget by nearly $2.7 billion. So, any programs that had big spending questions, the chances are pretty good in this budget that the House and Senate negotiators picked the higher number.
We saw them increase local aid to cities and towns, for instance, to the higher number passed by the Senate. It has the additional money for a childhood education grant to keep some of these programs going. That was critical during the pandemic and to extend those longer. There's money in here for free lunches for schools to continue. That was a pandemic era policy, to use federal dollars, that the state is now going to continue. So, this was really beefed up with new spending throughout the program. And another new piece here that we're seeing, $266 million set aside in reserve to help the MBTA deal with some of the safety issues flagged by the Federal Transit Administration in that scathing audit last month.
Adam Frenier, NEPM: Matt, what about the quick turnaround for legislators on this? Did they actually get a chance to digest the details before having to vote on it the day after it was filed?
Yeah, that's always an issue. Now, under House and Senate rules, these conference reports have to be filed by 8 p.m. the night before they are going to be considered and roll calls can't start until 1:00. But this, as you noted, this is a massive, massive bill with a lot to digest. And that's a quick turnaround time when this got filed on Sunday night. By the rules, they're allowed to take it up. I'm sure we might hear some people complaining today that they haven't really had a chance to digest it. But the other thing to note here is that these conference reports are not amendable. They have to be accepted up or down. We know that Democrats are caucusing today, where lawmakers will get a chance to ask questions of leadership about what's in, what's out. But it's a quick scan and they're going to be leaning on their staffs to try and turn around and identify the priorities that they were looking for in this bill.
So, with the heavy lifting apparently over for the budget, what are some of the other areas the House and Senate will turn their attention to before the legislative session concludes at the end of the month? I know there's several conference committees trying to reconcile bills between the House and Senate right now.
Yeah, I mean, there is a hefty lift. We're expecting today to hear the Senate's proposal for a multibillion-dollar economic development bill that will include the $500 million in tax relief and the $500 million tax rebate program that the House passed last week. And negotiators are also working on a host of things from a health care bill to sports betting. They're trying to finalize some climate legislation which the House and Senate both want to use to expand offshore wind power, but perhaps do more with incentives for electric vehicles. There's mental health legislation that they would like to get to. And there's a big question mark hanging over an early childhood education bill that the Senate passed late in this session just a few weeks ago. And it's unclear whether or not the House believes it has enough time to take it up and get something done there. So we'll be watching this week to see if there's any movement.
And in 30 seconds or so, Matt, what happens if something doesn't get done by July 31 in any of the items you mentioned?
I mean, some of these big-ticket items probably die until the next session and they'll go back to the drawing board and try and reevaluate where things went wrong and how they can get a bill done. There is opportunity for more minor pieces of legislation to move during the informal lawmaking period from July through the end of the year. It just means that if anybody objects, then the bill can't pass.