FY24 Budget Priorities Letter to Senate Ways and Means

Senator Brownsberger submitted the following letter to the Chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means outlining his budget priorities for Fiscal Year 24.

March 20, 2023

Michael J. Rodrigues
Chair, Senate Committee on Ways and Means
State House – Room 212
Boston, MA 02133

Dear Chairman Rodrigues,

I greatly appreciate the opportunity to share my priorities for the FY24 budget.

My highest priorities for this budget session are below:

  • Support the MBTA’s recovery in every way possible.
  • Address special education cost increases by increasing funding to the tuition portion of the FY24 reimbursements for the FY23 expenses by 14% (without reducing reimbursement amounts in future years).
  • Fully fund the Student Opportunity Act with appropriate adjustments for high inflation rates.
  • Provide direct relief to people in acute economic distress, especially assistance for affordable and accessible housing.
  • Provide adequate pay scales for people working in human services and early education programs.
  • Send a strong message of support to DCR by offering strong funding this year and also increase the position cap to assure that DCR has the flexibility to hire.
  • Provide targeted funding for building energy improvements, including a neighborhood level electrification pilot and a study of refrigerant leakage.
  • Achieve equitable pay for sheriffs across the Commonwealth through the budget.

Additionally, if it is procedurally feasible, I would like the budget to include funding and/or organizational language for a Correctional Inspector General.

The line-items below are additional items which are of importance to me and my constituents:

0320-0003 Supreme Judicial Court – Address Court Pay Raises

0320-0010 Supreme Judicial Court Clerk’s Office – Address Court Pay Raises

0321-2000 Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee

0322-0100 Appeals Court – Address Court Pay Raises

0330-0101 Superior Court Justice Salaries – Address Court Pay Raises

0330-0300 Central Administration of the Trial Court – Address Court Pay Raises

0331-0100 Superior Court – Address Court Pay Raises

0333-0002 Probate and Family Court – Address Court Pay Raises

0334-0001 Land Court – Address Court Pay Raises

0336-0002 Housing Court – Address Court Pay Raises

0337-0002 Juvenile Court – Address Court Pay Raises

0321-2100 Prisoners’ Legal Services

0640-0300 Massachusetts Cultural Council

1410-0250 Assistance to Homeless Veterans

1595-0115 Civics Project Trust Fund

1599-0105 Medication Assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder – Expand to all counties

1599-6901 Human Service Salary Reserve and Related Program

1599-6903 Chapter 257 Reserve

2200-0100 Department of Environmental Protection Administration

2210-0105 Toxics Use Retained Revenue and Related Programs

2300-0100 Department of Fish and Game Administration

2511-0100 Department of Agricultural Resources Administration

2810-0100 State Parks and Recreation

2810-2042 Department of Conservation and Recreation Retained Revenue

3000-2050 Children’s Trust Fund and Related Programs

3000-4040 Birth through Pre-School and Related Programs

3000-4050 TANF-Related Child Care and Related Programs

3000-4060 Supportive and TANF Childcare

3000-5000 Grants to Head Start Programs and Related Programs

3000-7000 Healthy Families Home Visiting Program and Related Programs

3000-7050 Services for Infants and Parents

3000-7070 Reach Out and Read Program

4000-0005 Safe and Successful Youth Initiative and Related Programs

4000-0007 EOHHS Youth Homeless Program

4000-0051 Family Access Centers

4000-0300 Exec. Office Health and Human Services

4000-0500 MassHealth Managed Care

4000-0600 MassHealth Senior Care

4000-0700 MassHealth Fee for Service Payments

4003-0122 Low-Income Citizenship Program

4110-1000 Community Services for the Blind

4110-3010 Vocational Rehabilitation for the Blind

4120-0200 Independent Living Centers

4120-2000 Vocational Rehabilitation for the Disabled

4120-3000 Employment Assistance

4120-4000 Independent Living Assistance for the Multi Disabled and Related Programs

4120-4001 Accessible Housing Registry for Disabled Persons

4120-6000 Head Injury Treatment Services and Related Programs

4125-0100 Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

4400-1001 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Administration – HIP

Program

4401-1000 Employment Services Program and Related Program

4403-2119 Teen Structured Settings Program

4408-10000 EAEDC Elderly, Disabled, Children

4510-0100 Public Health Critical Operations and Essential Services

4510-0600 Environmental Health Assessment and Compliance

4510-0710 Health Care Quality and Improvement

4510-0810 Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner & Pediatric SANE and Related Programs

4512-0103 HIV/AIDS Prevention Treatment and Services and Related Programs

4512-0201 Substance Abuse Step-Down Recovery Services

4513-1020 Early Intervention and Related Programs

4513-1130 Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention

4516-1000 State Laboratory and Communicable Disease Control Services

4530-9000 Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Program

4590-0250 Smoking Prevention and Cessation Program Expansion and Related

Programs

4590-0925 Prostate Cancer Research Program

4590-1506 Youth Violence Prevention Grants and Related Programs

4590-1507 Youth at Risk Matching Grants

4800-0016 Transitional Employment Program (Roca)

4800-0038 Services for Children and Families (Foster Care/Adoption) and Related

Programs

4800-0040 Family Support and Stabilization and Related Programs

4800-1400 Support Services for People at Risk of Domestic Violence and Related

Programs

5011-0100 Department of Mental Health Administration and Operations

5042-5000 Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and Related Programs

5046-0000 Adult Mental Health and Support Services

5047-0001 Emergency Services and Mental Health Care and Related Programs

5095-0015 Inpatient Facilities and Community-Based Mental Health

5911-1003 Dept. of Developmental Disabilities Administration and Related Programs

5911-2000 Transportation Services

5920-2000 Community Residential Supports and Related Programs

5920-2010 State-Operated Residential Supports and Related Programs

5920-2025 Community Day and Work Programs

5920-3000 Respite Family Supports for the Developmentally Disabled

5920-3010 Autism Division

5920-5000 Turning 22 – Dept. of Developmental Services

5930-1000 State Facilities for the Developmentally Disabled

7000-9101 Board of Library Commissioners

7000-9401 State Aid to Regional Libraries

7000-9406 Talking Book & Machine Learning

7000-9406 Talking Book Program Watertown

7000-9501 State Aid to Public Libraries

7000-9506 Library Technology & Resource Sharing

7000-9508 Mass. Center for the Book

7002-0012 YouthWorks and Related Programs

7003-1206 Massachusetts Service Alliance and Related Programs

7004-0100 Caseworkers for Homeless Families and Individuals

7004-0101 Emergency Assistance – Family Shelters & Services and Related Programs

7004-0102 Homeless Individuals Assistance and Related Programs

7004-0104 Home and Healthy for Good Program and Related Programs

7004-0108 HomeBASE

7004-1000 Supplemental Funding for Low Income Residents’ Utilities

7004-2033 Fuel assistance

7004-3036 Housing Services and Counseling

7004-3045 Tenancy Preservation Program

7004-4314 Service Coordinators Program

7004-9005 Subsidies to Public Housing Authorities

7004-9024 Mass. Rental Voucher Program – MRVP

7004-9030 Alternative Housing Voucher Program

7004-9316 Residential Assistance for Families in Transition

7004-9322 Secure Jobs Pilot

7006-0011 Loan Originator Administration and Consumer Counseling Program

7009-9600 Inclusive Concurrent Enrollment and Related Programs

7009-6600 Early Education

7010-0012 METCO

7027-0019 School-to-Career Connecting Activities and Related Programs

7030-1002 Kindergarten Development Grants

7030-1005 Reading Recovery and Related Programs

7035-0002 Adult Basic Education

7061-0009 Chapter 70 Aid

7061-0012 Special Education Circuit Breaker and related programs

7061-9010 Charter School Reimbursement and related programs

7061-9412 Extended Learning Time Grants

7061-9611 After-School and Out-of-School Grants

7061-9626 Youth-Build Grants

7061-9634 Mentoring Matching Grants

7066-0009 New England Board of Higher Education

7066-0015 Workforce Development Grants to Community Colleges and Related Programs

7066-0019 Concurrent & Dual Enrollment Programming (CDEP)

7066-0021 Foster Care and Adopted Fee Waiver

7066-1300 Completion Incentive Grants

7066-9600 Higher Education for Youth with Disabilities

7070-0065 Massachusetts State Scholarship Program

7100-0700 Office of Dispute Resolution

8100-0111 Shannon Grants

8200-0222 Municipal Recruit Training Program Fee Revenue

9110-1604 Supportive Senior Housing Program

9110-1630 Elder Home Care Purchased Services

9110-1633 Elder Home Care Case Management and Administration

9110-1636 Elder Protective Services

9110-1700 Elder Homeless Placement

9110-1900 Elder Nutrition Program

9110-9002 Grants to Councils on Aging

Sincerely,

William N. Brownsberger
STATE SENATOR