Senate Passes $513 Million Supplemental Budget

(BOSTON 7/27/2023) — The Massachusetts State Senate on Thursday passed a $513 million supplemental budget for Fiscal Year 2023. The legislation funds relief for hospitals, pension liabilities, special education costs, and flexible assistance for farms throughout the Commonwealth impacted by recent severe weather events. The bill also extends simulcast and harness horse racing as well as extends reporting dates for several governmental agencies. In addition, the legislation ratifies several outstanding collective bargaining agreements.

“Making investments to support Bay Staters is critical to moving toward our goal of building a Massachusetts that works for everyone. I’m pleased to have voted to pass a supplemental budget that does just that,” said Senator Michael Moore (D-Millbury). “This legislation funds health care, unemployment assistance, and special education, as well as extends vital relief to farmers affected by recent severe weather in Central and Western Massachusetts. I’d like to thank my colleagues and the Senate President for advancing this key legislation.”

 

Appropriates $513M of fiscal year 2023 direct appropriations, including:

  • $180M for relief to fiscally strained hospitals

  • $100M for a supplemental transfer to the Pension Liability Fund

  • $75M to support school districts with extraordinary special education costs

  • $60.3M for staffing needs at the Department of Transitional Assistance

  • $40M for a reserve to support costs related to Tatum vs. Commonwealth of Massachusetts

  • $26.2M for collective bargaining agreement costs

  • $20M for natural disaster relief for farms and affected areas

  • $10.7M for public health hospitals

  • $506k for interstate flood compact costs

  • $200k for EEC contingency contract costs

 

Policy impacts:

  • Clarifies an internal citation for large building energy reporting.

  • Extends simulcast wagering and live horse racing in the Commonwealth until July 31, 2024.

  • Extends the reserve to meet the costs of oversight functions in the Office of the State Auditor, the Office of the Attorney General, the Office of the Inspector General and the Office of the Comptroller related to the expenditure of federal 2019 pandemic-related funding to July 30, 2027.

  • Increases the maximum allowable amount for the Department of Early Education and Care contingency contracts from $320,000 to $520,000.

  • Extends for 12 months the reporting date for the intergovernmental coordinating council’s initial analysis of electric vehicle charging infrastructure deployment.

  • Extends the reporting date for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation analysis of the operation of electric charging stations to October 1, 2024.

  • Ratifies several collective bargaining agreements.

  • Authorizes the Department of Public Utilities to allow electric distribution companies to recover expenditures and payments associated with the construction delay of certain clean energy generation power purchase agreements.

  • Authorizes the Commissioner of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance to convey certain parcels of land to the city of Framingham.

  • Allows a city or town to amortize, over fiscal years 2025 to 2027, the amount of its 2024 major disaster related deficit.

 

Because the House previously passed its own version of a supplemental budget, a conference committee will be formed to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill before being sent to the Governor’s desk.

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