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BOSTON (State House News Service) — Gov. Maura Healey is signing almost all of the Legislature's overdue fiscal year 2025 budget, trimming $317 million from the spending plan with her veto pen and approving of all but three outside policy sections.
The governor's office said the budget Healey signs Monday afternoon will total $57.78 billion.
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The $58 billion plan that lawmakers sent her 10 days ago increased state spending by about $1.97 billion, or 3.5 percent, over last year's budget and used just more than $1 billion in one-time revenues to support the outlays during a time of volatile state tax collections. A projected increase in revenues from the state's new tax on household income above $1 million is helping the state to boost spending.
Healey signed off on budget policy measures authorizing free community college, free rides on regional transit agencies, and legal online Lottery sales to fund a permanent Commonwealth Cares for Children grant program that launched during the pandemic with federal dollars. The governor's office said she signed 258 of the 261 outside policy sections of the budget.
The biggest veto was in the MassHealth managed care account where Healey cuts $192.3 million, saying the remaining $5.9 billion in the account was the "amount projected to be necessary due to anticipated utilization, timing of rate updates, and new revenues."
Among 46 states whose fiscal year began July 1, Massachusetts was the last one to put an annual spending plan in place, according to data tracked by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Lawmakers and Healey previously agreed to an interim budget covering state expenses for about a month.
Written by Colin A. Young/SHNS
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