In Boston last week, as budget season continued at the state house, Mass. Senators added to the bottom line of their budget proposal — approving amendments laced with spending.
State House News Service reporter Chris Lisinksi NEPM's Carrie Healey why these measures had to go through the amendment process and didn't just appear in the original proposal.
Chris Lisinksi, SHNS: Most of them, at least most of the spending that was added, is [for] local earmarks. So, [it's] money set aside for a very specific project program or organization in districts across the state.
Each Senator knows their district better than anyone. The same goes for Representatives in the House. So, the logic is that that gets added via amendment because the Senator from Northampton knows how money should be spent in Northampton better than the Senate Ways and Means Committee who write the actual original budget.
Carrie Healy, NEPM: So, following the release of a report showing health insurance premiums [among the highest in the nation] and drug cost sharing outpacing Massachusetts wages and salary growth — a measure to address that ended up in the Senate's budget. The aim is to curb the rising prices of certain prescription drugs. So, what other measures appealed to senators?
Yeah, that prescription drug one was one of the biggest riders. Some other pretty interesting policy additions we saw would overhaul the way that liquor licenses are awarded, effectively giving more authority to cities and towns to decide how many they hand out.
And a measure calling on DESE, the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, to set out on a study as quickly as possible on the foundation budget formula. This is seen as the next step for reforms after the Student Opportunity Act funding increases are fully implemented, I believe, over the next two years.
Process wise, Chris, as the budget continues to be refined before it gets signed, what comes next?
This will go into private negotiations between the House and the Senate: The infamous conference committee process. I don't expect that to be particularly quick. It's been 15 years, give or take, since the last time a conference committee produced a budget that was signed into law before the July 1st start of the fiscal year. So, those talks are probably going to stretch out a month or two, if not longer.
And there's no actual penalty for not delivering on time.
That's correct. You know, state government does need a budget to keep services flowing. But for the past fifteen years, Beacon Hill really has not blinked at approving an interim budget to keep things running for the month of July, sometimes [also] for the month of August while those negotiations continue.
And the federal government is also in a budget process. Last week, President Trump's so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” passed in the House of Representatives. Contained in that bill are provisions that essentially provide tax breaks for the rich. What are you hearing from officials and state lawmakers on how President Trump's economic agenda could affect the state's economy?
We have been hearing for months tons of concerns that the tax cuts at the federal level, fueled by spending cuts at the federal level, especially to Medicaid and other programs, could really wreak downstream havoc on state budgeting here in Massachusetts.
That being said, the Massachusetts Senate budget that we saw laid out mostly follows along the same process as prior years before President Trump's second term began. It’s really going to be a big question mark over the next six weeks if those spending cuts at the federal level materialize and how Beacon Hill retroactively reacts.
