It seems the state will apparently see another supplemental budget, as the Legislature continues to drag its feet putting together a spending plan for Fiscal 2024 despite being almost a full month late.
On Wednesday the State Senate passed its version of a half-a-billion dollar spending plan to cover costs which were not included in the original 2023 budget, while the wider more than $55 billion spending plan ostensibly due on July 1 remains mired in conference committee between the House and Senate.
“This budget invests in the services that people around the Commonwealth use every day – the hospitals where people receive critical care, the special education programs in our schools, and programs that improve quality of life for individuals and families who are low-income, among other state priorities,” Senate President Karen Spilka said in a statement.
Coming in a full $180 million under the House’s proposal, the $513 million supplemental budget will now head to conference committee aimed at ironing out the difference in the two chambers’ plans.
Almost all 30 amendments offered to the Senate’s budget were rejected, with only a correction to the wording of the bill offered by Ways and Means Chair Sen. Michael Rodrigues approved.
According to Rodrigues, the bill contains “time-sensitive, important priorities.”
“Included in this spending is an $180 million appropriation to relief in our fiscally strained hospitals, utilizing three unique criteria to support an array of hospitals critical to the state’s health care system. $100 million for our pension liability fund to fully fund those payments tied to the 2015 early retirement incentive program, to pay it off several years ahead of schedule and save money. $75 million for special education to support districts impacted by OSD’s tuition rate increase for FY24. $60.3 million for DTA caseworkers to assist with increased volume of SNAP and EADC clients. $26.2 million for FY2023 community college collective bargaining agreements. And finally, $20 million of flexible relief funds for the farms affected by natural disasters that occurred in 2023,” he told his colleagues on the Senate floor.
Funding for the bill will come from surplus 2023 balances and a transitional escrow account established by the Bay State in 2022, the chairman said.
“We do have the available resources, we’re very comfortable that we have the resources for this spending,” he said.
As the Ways and Means chairs from both chambers are already at conference over the budget and pair of tax cut proposals, it is unclear if working out the differences in the supplemental budget will slow progress on the other pieces of legislation.