I hope this finds you all well! Below are some highlights from the Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) Budget, passed on July 9 by the Legislature. The budget makes significant investments in programs and services across the Commonwealth for the coming fiscal year. Please let us know if you have any questions.

On July 9, the House passed the Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) budget. Funded at nearly $48.1 billion, the budget makes major investments in education, housing, substance use disorder services, health care, and other areas as the state pursues an equitable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Though initial plans were made to withdraw money from the Stabilization Fund, strong revenues enabled the Legislature to transfers $1.1 billion into the fund, bringing the total balance to more than $5.8 billion to safeguard our financial stability.

The Legislature continued its strong support for local aid in the FY22 budget including the following amounts for Chapter 70 education funding and Unrestricted General Government Aid (UGGA):

I was also able to secure increased funding for other long-standing priorities, notably libraries technology and regional networks and our natural environment. Library technology and the Division of Ecological Restoration, line items for which I led advocacy efforts, were funded well above requested levels.

Robust funding was secured for the agencies that advocate for environmental issues. These include: 

The Metropolitan Beaches Commission funding was renewed again this year. I have served on the Commission since its inception in 2007. The budget invests $900,000 in the maintenance and seasonal staffing of metropolitan beaches, which includes the Nantasket Beach Reservation in Hull. The budget allocates $190,000 for matching grants to support free public events and programming on metropolitan beaches as part of Save the Harbor, Save the Bay’s Better Beaches Grants Program.

As a cornerstone of the Commonwealth’s equitable recovery, the FY22 budget protects access to educational opportunity. The budget maintains the Legislature’s commitment to implementing the Student Opportunity Act by FY 2027, fully funding the first year of the SOA consistent with the $5.503 billion local aid agreement reached in March. The budget also invests in higher education, allocating $571 million for the University of Massachusetts system, $315 million for community colleges, and $291 million for state universities.

The budget includes large investments in labor and economic development, such as the creation of a trust fund dedicated to job training for the offshore wind industry to be administered by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. This budget makes an initial deposit into this fund of $13 million to establish and grow technical training programs in our public higher education system and vocational-technical institutions.

Other education investments include:

Housing

The FY22 budget provides resources to help with housing stability, including $150 million for the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program to expand access to affordable housing, $85 million for grants to local housing authorities, $22M for the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition Program and $8 million for Housing Consumer Education Centers to help administer nearly $1 billion in federal housing relief.

The budget addresses the increasing costs of caregiving for low-income families by converting the existing tax deductions for young children, elderly or disabled dependents and business-related dependent care expenses into refundable tax credits. The conversion to a refundable tax credit would provide an additional $16 million to over 85,000 families each year. The FY22 budget also builds on the success of last year’s efforts to tackle ‘deep poverty’ with a 20 per cent increase to Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC) and Emergency Aid to the Elderly, Disabled and Children (EAEDC) benefits over December 2020 levels, ensuring families receive the economic supports they need to live, work and provide stability for their children.

To help families get back to work, the FY22 conference report includes $820 million for the early education sector, including $20 million to increase rates for early education providers, $15 million for Massachusetts Head Start programs, $10 million for the Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative to expand public preschool, and $9 million to cover the cost of fees for parents receiving subsidized early education in calendar year 2021.

Other children and family investments include:

The Legislature’s FY22 budget confronts the frontline health care impacts of the pandemic to navigate the challenges posed by COVID-19. It also sustains support for the state’s safety net by funding MassHealth at a total of $18.98 billion and invests $15 million to support local and regional boards of health as they continue to work on the front lines against the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Understanding that the pandemic has been a stressor on mental and behavioral health, the FY22 budget invests $175.6 million for substance use disorder and intervention services. It also invests $12.5 million to support a student tele-behavioral health pilot, public awareness campaigns, loan forgiveness for mental health clinicians, and initiatives to mitigate emergency department boarding for individuals in need of behavioral health support, as well as $10 million for Programs of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) grants to provide intensive, community-based behavioral health services for adolescents.

Other health care and public health investments include:

To support economic development, the FY22 budget increases access to high quality and reliable broadband, crucial for businesses, students and families. The budget also includes a $17 million transfer to the Workforce Competitiveness Trust fund, $15.4 million for Career Technical Institutes, and $9.5 million for one-stop career centers to support economic recovery.

Other investments in economic and workforce development include:

To protect residents of the Commonwealth, the FY22 budget codifies and expands the existing Governor’s task force on hate crimes to advise on issues relating to hate crimes, ways to prevent hate crimes and how best to support victims of hate crimes. The conference report also contains a provision that supports immigrants who are victims of criminal activity or human trafficking.

The budget also authorizes funds from the Massachusetts Cybersecurity Innovation Fund to be used for monitoring and detection of threat activity in order to investigate or mitigate cybersecurity incidents. In order to proactively combat threats and attacks, the budget provides funding for a public-private partnership with the goal of engaging educational institutions to jointly expand the training, employment and business development in cyber fields in the state.

Finally, the budget makes the state’s film tax credit permanent and requires an increase in the percentage of production expenses or principal photography days in the Commonwealth from 50 per cent to 75 per cent. The film tax credit was set to expire in January 2023. The budget also includes a disability employment tax credit for employers that hire employees with a disability.

Having been passed by the House and Senate, the budget now goes to Governor Baker for his signature. Governor Baker has ten days to sign the budget or to veto any or all items in the budget before him. Any vetoes are returned to the Legislature. The Legislature can override any of the vetoes at anytime with a two-thirds vote.