House Passes FY24 Budget; More Funding, Less Policy

The Massachusetts House of Representatives passed its fiscal year 2024 (FY24) budget proposal towards the end of April. The FY24 budget is the first year that revenue from the Fair Share amendment, approved by voters in November 2022, is being allocated. According to a report by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, the House Budget proposal includes $54.9 billion in total line-item spending, $3.1 billion more than the fiscal year 2023 budget and $169.8 million more than Governor Maura Healey’s proposal.

In passing its FY24 budget, the Massachusetts House considered over 1,500 in a series of consolidated amendments. Some form of at least 773 amendments were adopted; 745 added new spending, 25 added or amended policy sections or budget language, and three included a combination of both. Through the amendment process, the greatest amount of spending was added through a consolidated amendment focused on Health and Human Services, and Elder Affairs; including a $30 million increase for MassHealth Fee-for-Service to support increased reimbursement rates for ambulance ground transportation. (As noted in previous issues of Construction Outlook magazine, the Commonwealth’s MassHealth program and associated obligations amount to approximately 36% of the state budget or 22% when federal reimbursements are finally received and accounted for.)

For UCANE’s purposes, the House FY24 Budget included level funding for the Clean Water Trust’s contract assistance line-item at $63.3 million. As well, the Commonwealth’s sewer rate relief fund was funded at $1.5 million while the underground storage program was funded at $10 million. Finally, the House Budget proposal increased funding for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) to slightly over $47.5 million.

Among other areas of note, the House FY24 Budget proposal will:

• Require and fund public schools to provide universal school meals to all students free of charge.

• Expand the current High Demand Scholarship program to provide financial assistance to students pursuing graduate, undergraduate, or certificate programs for in-demand professions at public institutions of higher education. After graduation, students who accept this financial assistance are required to work in an in-demand industry in Massachusetts for five years.

• Create “Green School Works,” a competitive grant program for projects related to installation and maintenance of clean energy infrastructure at public schools. The program will be administered by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and preference will be given to schools serving low-income and environmental justice populations.

An interesting additional point about the House FY24 Budget proposal is that it contains less policy initiatives, often contained in outside sections of the budget, than almost any other budget proposal since 2017. While certain policy initiatives were included (i.e., brownfields tax credit extension; a data center sales and use tax exemption; slight increases in salary for Governor’s Councilors, etc.), there were not many considered to be “big ticket” policy changes seen in other budget proposals of the past. This may reflect the fact it is still the first year of a two-year session or, as discussed below, that the body just passed an extensive tax relief/tax reform initiative.

The Massachusetts Senate will consider its budget proposal in May. Subsequently, the House and Senate will appoint a Conference Committee to reach an agreement on the budget sent to the Governor before July 1, which is the start of the fiscal year 2024 budget year. For more information on the House FY24 budget proposal, please visit: https://malegislature.gov/Budget/HouseBudget.

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