The House is scheduled Thursday to wake up from a 78-day slumber for a likely vote on a nearly $700 million spending bill that top House Democrats say helps vulnerable hospitals in the wake of the pandemic and facilitates an international hydro-electric project.
In the first seven months of the legislative session, the Legislature has mostly attended to routine and required business like advancing the fiscal 2024 budget and pushing along bills primarily affecting specific municipalities. Major hallmarks have been scarce and a final full state budget is still missing days into the new fiscal year.
But on Thursday, lawmakers will trudge back to Beacon Hill to take an expected vote on a spending bill that shuttles $180 million in “urgently needed” support to vulnerable hospitals, according to House Speaker Ronald Mariano’s office.
The bill also gives the Department of Public Utilities the flexibility to approve updated contracts for a 1,000 megawatt hydro-electric project that is slated to bring clean energy from Quebec, Canada to Massachusetts after opponents in Maine cleared the way in May for work to resume on a transmission line.
The original five-year contracts for the project need to be amended in order for the project to stay alive and help Massachusetts reach its 2030 climate goals, according to Mariano’s office.
The $693 million plan is hundreds of millions more than a $26 million version Gov. Maura Healey filed in May that sought to facilitate a union contract with the Massachusetts Community College Council. House leaders included that money as part of $226 million for collective bargaining contract costs.
A full fiscal year 2024 budget is still locked up in negotiations more than a week into the new fiscal year. The House passed its $56.2 billion spending plan at the end of April and the Senate approved its own $55.9 billion version a month later.
The six state lawmakers tasked with resolving differences between the two documents have not yet produced a consensus version, though it could surface at any point this month. A separate group of legislators are still hashing out a final tax relief bill.
The two fiscal year 2024 budget proposals have notable policy differences, including the House-backed authorization of online lottery sales and the Senate-backed push to offer in-state tuition and financial aid to undocumented students.
The spending plan released Wednesday also proposes an extension of the state’s horse race simulcasting authorization until July 31, 2028. It was scheduled to expire at the end of this month.
Top House Democrats said the legislation earmarks $91.4 million for a Medicaid supplemental payment program for eligible hospitals that the Healey administration started earlier this year. It also features nearly $56 million to help hospitals serving a high percentage of Medicaid patients.
Other spending items in the bill include more than $60 million for Department of Transitional Assistance caseworkers and “other necessary staff” who serve applicants and clients of the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; aid to families with dependent children; and emergency aid to elderly, disabled, and children programs.
House lawmakers also tucked in $40 million for settlement costs associated with a class-action discrimination lawsuit filed by a retired Worcester police officer against the city. A judge ruled that an exam process was discriminatory, a finding that was expected to benefit more than 600 officers, the Telegram & Gazette reported in April.