The House and Senate on Monday adopted a
$43.1 billion annual budget that lawmakers said offers the
largest annual increase ever in K-12 education spending, a
$269 million boost.
House budget chief Rep. Aaron Michlewitz
said the budget raises spending by $1.6 billion, or 4
percent over fiscal 2019, with the education investments
coming as lawmakers continue work on an education funding
bill.
By a 158-0 vote in the House and 39-1 in the
Senate, lawmakers accepted the bill (H 4000), which includes
drug pricing controls and does not include Senate proposals
to freeze UMass tuition and fees or implement new taxes on
opioid manufacturers and vaping products.
Budget negotiators missed their July 1
budget deadline and ultimately made their reconciliation
effort easier by increasing their tax revenue collection
estimate by nearly $600 million and driving more than half
of those expected collections into spending....
The votes of approval came less than 24
hours after a six-member conference committee filed its
compromise spending plan on Sunday afternoon.
House members applauded the news that the
bill would raise the state rainy day fund balance to $3.3
billion. When the bill reached the Senate, budget chief Sen.
Michael Rodrigues said $4.5 billion, about 10 percent of
spending, was the "ideal" level for that fund's balance....
Sen. Marc Pacheco, a Taunton Democrat, was
the only lawmaker to vote against the compromise budget. He
voiced concern with language regarding offshore wind
procurements, which he said could ultimately result in
higher rates for customers....
The business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayer
Foundation said the budget accord is based on revenue
assumptions that are "overly optimistic" by about $166
million and does not cover about $168 million in expected
costs.
State House News Service
Monday, July 22, 2019
Lawmakers send $43.1 Billion budget to Gov. Baker
State accountants have not yet verified how
much money is left over from above-expectation tax
collections in fiscal year 2019, but lawmakers have already
decided how to spend the first $30 million of it.
The budget accord (H 4000) filed Sunday and
passing through both branches on Monday afternoon directs
the state's comptroller to transfer $10 million from any
fiscal 2019 surplus to the Massachusetts Life Sciences
Investment Fund and another $20 million to the Massachusetts
Community Preservation Trust Fund.
The funding for the CPA Trust Fund, which is
distributed to cities and towns that use the Community
Preservation Act to preserve open space, build affordable
housing, and renovate historic buildings and parks,
represents a win for the scores of municipal chief
executives who wrote to legislative leaders asking for an
infusion of up to $20 million from the surplus.
The initial idea of the CPA was for the
state to match 100 percent of what each participating
municipality raised through its own property tax surcharge
to preserve open space, renovate historic buildings and
parks and to build new playgrounds and athletic fields. But
as more communities adopted the CPA, each town's share of
the pie has become smaller as the state has not held up its
part of the bargain.
"Without this money, the statewide match
will be an estimated 11 percent," the 101 municipal
officials wrote in a June letter coordinated by the
Community Preservation Coalition and the Metropolitan Area
Planning Council. "This short-term solution for 2019,
coupled with the long-term fix for 2020 and beyond, will
ensure a viable, vibrant, and enduring CPA."
Through 11 months of fiscal 2019, state tax
collections totaled $26.511 billion, $952 million more than
the budget benchmark, and $1.873 billion or 7.6 percent more
than the same fiscal year-to-date period in 2018, the
Department of Revenue reported. DOR is expected in coming
days to detail tax collections for the full fiscal year and
verify the size of the surplus.
Some of the surplus money -- including any
capital gains revenues exceeding $1.2 billion -- is already
bound for the state's stabilization fund, but lawmakers
could have an opportunity to spread the unrestricted surplus
funds around between numerous priorities. A $636 million
automatic deposit of capital gains revenues for fiscal 2019
through May into reserves reduced the potential fiscal 2019
revenue surplus to $805 million, pending June tax
collections, the News Service reported last month.
State House News Service
Monday, July 22, 2019
Surplus, fee revenues to feed community preservation
The House is expected on Wednesday to debate
and vote on legislation Speaker Robert DeLeo has championed
to provide $1 billion over 10 years to help cities and towns
prepare for and adjust to climate change.
The so-called "GreenWorks" bill is on the
docket for consideration before the full House during
Wednesday's formal session, according to a scheduling email
from the speaker's office. DeLeo had said he wanted a vote
on his bill before lawmakers take a summer recess, typically
at the end of July.
The bill (H 3941) would create the
GreenWorks infrastructure program and allocate $1 billion
over 10 years via grants through the Executive Office of
Energy and Environmental Affairs. DeLeo's plan would see the
state borrow the money -- a total of $1.295 billion -- and
make the 20 years of debt payments exempt from the state's
statutory debt ceiling....
Gov. Charlie Baker filed a similar bill (S
10) that would raise the state's real estate transfer tax to
generate the funding necessary to provide the same $1
billion over 10 years to protect properties and help cities
and towns cope with climate change impacts.
State House News Service
Monday, July 22, 2019
Speaker's climate change bill to get House vote Wednesday
With the annual fiscal 2020 budget behind
them, House lawmakers on Tuesday were gearing up for
consideration of House Speaker Robert DeLeo's plan to invest
$1 billion in borrowed funds over the next 10 years into
projects that will help cities and towns prepare for and
respond to the effects of climate change.
The speaker's "Greenworks" bill (H 3987),
which was filed by Rep. Thomas Golden, is on tap for
Wednesday, but the House gave it initial approval Tuesday
and set a deadline of 5 p.m. for amendments to be filed to
the Ways and Means redraft.... The House will return for a
full formal session on Wednesday to take up the climate
change bill after Democrats and Republicans meet together in
private for a mandatory ethics training on the state's
conflict of interest law.
State House News Service
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
House Session - Tuesday, July 23, 2019
