This post is in two parts: A fact sheet prepared by shared by our Ways and Means Committee and some additional notes from me. We will update and expand this post as we continue our review of the final budget. Happy to answer questions about particular line items. Also, additional details appear in this lengthy press release.
Ways and Means Fact Sheet and Highlights
Top Line Spending
Total Budget. The budget agreement totals $61.01 billion in spending, an increase of $3.3 billion over Fiscal Year 2025.
The final bottom line represents a reduction of nearly $1 billion from House 1, and nearly $500 million below either branches original bottom line. This reduction in overall spending better prepares the Commonwealth to address underlying budget challenges and navigate potential economic turmoil in the months ahead.
Total Fair Share Funding. Reflective of strong surtax revenue collections to date, the budget agreement totals $2.4 billion in Fair Share spending to support quality public education initiatives and upgrades to the state’s transportation infrastructure. Together with the $1.39 billion Fair Share supplemental budget signed into law earlier this month, the Legislature has directed nearly $3.8 billion in Fair Share funding support this year to invest in education and transportation. Additionally, the budget agreement increases the annual dedication of fair share revenues into the Commonwealth Transportation Fund from $250M to $550M, which will unlock billions of dollars of transportation investments in the years to come.
Taxes and Stabilization Fund
Taxes. The Legislature’s budget does not raise taxes or fees on Massachusetts residents or businesses.
“Rainy Day” Savings. The Legislature’s budget invests an additional $33 million in the Stabilization Fund. With the addition, the Fund’s balance would reach a historic high of $8.26 billion by the end of FY26. Since 2017, when the Fund’s balance was $1.3 billion, the Legislature has grown the account by 523% as of FY24.
New Initiatives and Investments
Residential Broker Fees. Requires any broker fee to be paid by the party that reaches out to the broker, ensuring that fee agreements worked out between a landlord and a broker are not passed on to a tenant.
Permanent Fare-Free Regional Transit. Codifies fare-free regional transit into the state’s budget and funds fare-free regional transit service, so anyone can use the regional transit network for no cost. Regional transit use surged since the fare free initiative began, with 26.5 million rides in FY24.
Campaign Funds for Adult-Care Services. Allows the use of campaign funds for care services provided to a candidate’s parent or other adult dependent. Last year, the Legislature similarly approved the use of campaign funds for child care.
Housing Sales Tax Exemption Study and Local Property Tax Exemption Study. Kickstarts two studies on lowering housing costs for Massachusetts residents and increasing housing production. One study for a sales tax exemption for multifamily housing projects stalled by federal tariffs. Another that would incentivize new affordable housing developments when considering local tax levy requirements.
Annuity Eligibility for Remarried Gold Star Spouses. Allows Gold Star Family spouses to remarry without the penalty of losing their annuity benefit. The Legislature increased annuity payments to $2,500 by passing the HERO Act last session.
Local Education Funding Study. Directs the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to study components of the state’s K-12 school funding formula related to local contribution requirements and report back to the Legislature by June 30, 2026.
Employee Retirement Savings Creates a statewide retirement savings program that would enroll private sector workers, at no cost to the employer, who lack access to a savings plan at work, helping to preserve a secure retirement for thousands of Massachusetts workers.
Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital Special Legislative Commission. Establishes a special legislative commission to conduct a comprehensive study into the future of the Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children, including a review of the hospital’s finances, programs, pediatric services and infrastructure. The budget provides $31 million in funding to maintain operations for the fiscal year while the commission conducts its work, and the report is due back to the Legislature by December 31, 2026.
Crumbling Concrete Commission. Tasks a working group to recommend new legislation and regulatory changes needed to address the remediation of concrete foundations that have crumbled because of the presence of pyrrhotite.
ROCA Young Mothers Experiencing Acute Trauma Pilot Program. $1.25 million to support the Young Mothers Experiencing Acute Trauma Pilot Program, a behavioral intervention program that works to stabilize and support young women, most of whom are mothers, who are traumatized survivors of abuse and neglect.
Gender-affirming Care Access Program. $1 million to bolster health centers that recently experienced cuts to their Title X federal funding.
Firefighter Health and Wellness. $250,000 for a municipal grant program for firefighter cancer screenings, including advance blood testing and imaging. Additionally, the Fiscal Year 2026 budget increases funding for the On-Site Academy to $2 million, providing critical incident stress management and mental health support for firefighters, police officers, EMTs, and corrections officers.
Continued Initiatives
Student Opportunity Act. Fully funds and implements the fifth year of the Student Opportunity Act, investing a record-breaking $7.36 billion in Chapter 70 state aid to public schools, an increase of $497 million over FY25. Further, the budget also increases minimum Chapter 70 aid to $150 per pupil.
Unrestricted General Government Aid. Provides $1.323 billion in funding for Unrestricted General Government Aid (UGGA), increasing the primary source of direct state aid to Massachusetts towns and cities by $14 million over FY25.
Universal Free Community College. $120 million to fully fund the MassEducate program, ensuring any Massachusetts high school graduate can attend community college at no cost. Free community college was codified into law in the FY25 budget and community college enrollment surged by 14% in fall of 2024, the first increase since 2013. The FY26 budget adds non-credit courses for EMT and Paramedic training to the list of programs that can be offered at no cost.
Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) Grant Program. For the third year in row, the budget invests$475 million for the C3 operational grant program, supporting critical operational and workforce initiatives across the early education sector. The FY25 budget made the grants permanent, and in 2023 the C3 program contributed to a 7 percent increase in child care programs, adding more than 10,600 child care slots across the state.
Free School Meals. The budget agreement includes $180 million for universal free school meals, ensuring all students in Massachusetts can receive free breakfast and lunch at school, regardless of their family’s income. The first year of the program served 97.5 million lunches total, and about 557,000 students every day, and many were served with locally sourced food.
MBTA. $470 million in direct investment to support the MBTA system, which combined with the $535 million in funding from the recently passed Fair Share supplemental budget, provides $1 billion in new investment in Fiscal Year 2026 for operational improvements and transportation infrastructure upgrades across the MBTA system. Recently, the MBTA’s Track Improvement Program removed more than 220 speed restrictions and replaced more than 250,000 feet of rail, saving riders 2.4 million minutes every weekday and generating $1 million per day in economic benefits.
Regional Transit Authorities. $209 million for Regional Transit Authorities to support regional public transportation systems, including $115 million from Fair Share funds to maintain regional bus service, sustain systemwide fare free transit service, and support commuter operations.
Attorney General. $83 million for the Attorney General’s Office, a nearly $9 million, or 12%, increase over FY25 as she helps defend Massachusetts residents from the impact of federal actions.
Food Insecurity Investments. $86 million to support food security child nutrition initiatives, and local farmers, including $50.5 million for Emergency Food Assistance to assist residents in navigating the historical levels of food insecurity, $20 million for the Healthy Incentives Program (HIP) to ensure access to healthy food options, and $15.5 million for the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Nutrition Program.
MassHealth Investments. Amid continued uncertainty in Washington, the budget agreement maintains access to comprehensive health care insurance coverage for over 2 million Massachusetts residents, providing a significant $22.1 billion investment in MassHealth, an increase of over $2 billion from FY25. MassHealth serves nearly 2 million residents.
Jail Diversion. $19 million for adult services programs at the Department of Mental Health, helping people with mental illnesses find alternatives to incarceration when they are involved in the criminal justice system.
DPH Hospital Operations, Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital. $237.7 million for Department of Public Health (DPH) hospital operations, including $31 million to fully fund and maintain operations of the Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children through the duration of FY26.
DMH Community-Based Services. $381 million for Department of Mental Health (DMH) hospital and community-based services, including $4.8 million to fully fund the operation of the Pocasset Mental Health Center.
Additional Notes from WB
Immigrant Legal Defense. $5 Million to the Office for Refugees and Immigrants for “the implementation of an immigration legal services program. This was initiative of Rep. David Rogers that I was pleased to support.
Removal of social security numbers from death certificates. Massachusetts’ practice of putting social security numbers on death certificates creates an opening for identity fraud and a constituent of mine—a past Commissioner of Social Security—endorsed their removal. (Section 29)
Creation of a dashboard for Affordable Housing Production. The costs and volume of our affordable housing production have been difficult to ascertain, although I was able to get some reasonable data together last fall. The data team at the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities is working to improve transparency and data quality, but this budget creates a permanent statutory mandate to maintain a publicly accessible online dashboard on the use of all funding resources for housing production or preservation. (Section 12)
Does the budget provide funding to backfill federal funds lost for Mass Health subsidies? Or will those costs explode for low income adults?
It leaves some fiscal room for surprises, but does not specifically back fill funds for federal Medicaid assistance cuts. We don’t know that number that.
How do the “increases the annual dedication of fair share revenues into the Commonwealth Transportation Fund from $250M to $550M, which will unlock billions of dollars of transportation investments” unlock the transportation investments, thru what legislation or fund? Or is there some other source of investments?
The Globe reports language regarding local determination of liquor licenses was removed, why? It baffles me that Beacon Hill gets to decide a license in Boston but not other locales.
I think we did the most important thing last fall when we created neighborhood alcohol licensing in Boston — licenses reserved by neighborhood. There was a market dynamic that was pushing all the Boston licenses downtown, creating scarcity of restaurants in many neighborhoods. Most restaurants need alcohol licenses to be financially viable.
I think it is reasonable to have some state level regulation of alcoholic beverage licensing, just as we have for cannabis licensing. The state framework does apply in all communities. The Massachusetts General Laws provide a mechanism for any city or town to decide to permit alcohol establishments by referendum without legislative intervention. If a town so votes, the number of licenses is set as a function of population.. In many cases, however, special legislation is offered to reduce the ceiling as opposed to raise it. Some communities choose to put state statutory boundaries on how many licenses their governing board can grant.
All of that said, I’m not opposed to revisiting the framework, but it opens a discussion that applies to all communities.
Thanks for this insight.
I was hoping to see something in the budget to increase compensation to bar advocates who represent indigent clients in the courts. The rate is seriously inadequate, way below all neighboring states and attorneys are now refusing to take any more cases. This situation is getting dire.
Hoping to do more in a follow up vehicle. This is a priority for me as a former bar advocate.
Grassroots organizations that are led by directly affected formerly incarcerated individuals were left out of the FY26 budget funding. Justice 4 housing has housed over 500 FIP/Domestic Violence Victims in 4 years; that is 125pp per yr! We have a 2% receivisism rate, compared to the states 30% receivisim rate. Instead of spending 140,000per yr on incarceration, we saved the Commonwealth over 22mil in revenue.
The State of MA would have spent. 22,400,000 for incarcerating 40 people over 4yrs
40 people would be incarcerated right now if not for SHARP program and 60% of their children would remain in foster care due to homelessness and parental incarceration! FACTS!
It’s best that funding go through the state agencies rather than directly to grassroots organizations. The legislature has no ability to oversee grassroots budgets. That’s why we try to work through agencies who contract with grassroots organizations and provide appropriate oversight and accountability for spending.
What enforcement mechanisms will be in place for the prohibition against tenant-paid broker fees? Will tenants have a private cause of action?
Senator Brownsberger As a landlord I find it acceptable for the landlords to pay the full fee. I will just adjust my rents accordingly and more than make up the differnce
It is expected that landlords may adjust rent. But that is better than burdening tenants with upfront fees that they do not control and did not bargain for.
I appreciate your bringing this shortened version of the budget to us. It is restoring my faith in government.
Will,
I agree that leaving the liquor licenses as is was the right thing to do.
Mark Sideris
It is unwise but predictable that the Mass. budget increases.
How can you justify a major increase in a year of maximum uncertainty?
How can you justify avoiding the public mandated audit?
We are constantly monitoring the federal uncertainty and are prepared to adjust as necessary.
The final total does reflect downward adjustments to reflect emerging revenue projections.
Our Ways and Means team is very much on top of the adjustments.
Our books are part of the Commonwealth’s books which are already fully audited. We additionally have annual legislative audits.
My recollection is that $25M was needed for full funding for HIP. Is that right?
You write that it’s $20M, so previous benefits ($40/60/80 per month) won’t be restored. Do you know what they’d be at this level?
We are checking in this. HIP has been a priority of mine throughout the process.
I do NOT want a $25 million dollar garage in Quincy!!!!!
Can you please share the exact language of the new law pertaining to broker fees?
Or tell me where to find it.
Thanks.
SECTION 43. Section 87DDD1/2 of chapter 112 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2022 Official Edition, is hereby amended by adding the following 2 sentences:-
And for purpose of Mass. State law, is the nature of a contract already defined in Mass. Law? i.e., does a contract in the state of Massachusetts require a written and signed agreement to be binding? Could you please provide me with that law, if it already exists?
If that law doesn’t already exist, are you going to add language to this ammendment that will define a contract in this specific instance as a written and signed agreement?
1. How much funding will be spent on feeding and housing illegal aliens under the “Right to Shelter” law?
2. Can that money be moved to the MBTA instead? The approx. $1B is a good step but is far below what is needed.
3. Where’s our audit of the Legislature that we voted on?
The fare-free transit scheme is corrosive to the morals of our citizens.
The state is supposed to support the moral welfare of our citizenry, not corrupt it. Shame.
People can afford the T.
The taxpayer isn’t subsidizing people who can’t afford the T the taxpayer is subsidizing the purchase substitution choices. The taxpayer is subsidizing local businesses including illicit ones.
One of the reasons for the crisis in affordable housing is private companies owning rental properties. How about government changing corporate ownership of single and two family homes.
It’s definitely a concern, but I’m not sure what an intervention on this would look like.
I’m watching this issue — see more discussion of this issue here.
This post of mine from ‘Reproductive and Transgender Care Protections’ under the LGBTQ Rights, Privacy, Women’s Rights category is equally l, if not more relevant in this Massachusetts budget discussion, because the Massachusetts taxpayers are directly funding programs and funding the administration of new legislation that furthers a false narrative one that is harmful, divisive, politically-motivated and pseudoscience. These tax dollars are paying for a political program.
The “Democrats” are doubling-down on a losing gambit.
“And, I just read how it seems the Massachusetts Legislature is legislating based on “zombie facts” and avowed misinformation and pseudoscience. Rowlings is Galileo in this scenario, which makes her opponents the Inquisition. And yet it moves.
Nobody is telling anybody who to love and how to love yourself. (Except with regards to the latter the anti-science activists.
The Atlantic. June 29, 2025
‘The Liberal Misinformation Bubble About Youth Gender Medicine
How the left ended up disbelieving the science’
By Helen Lewis
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/06/transgender-youth-skrmetti/683350/
By “post” I mean reply.