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Weed, sports betting, abortions and mental health on Massachusetts lawmakers’ minds with budget overdue

Boston Herald - 7/10/2022

It will be a busy week at the State House as Monday marks the first of 15 remaining business days until the end of the legislative session, with lawmakers still waiting to pass this year’s budget and decide the fate of billions in surplus revenue.

“We’re certainly waiting on the final numbers from June, but I wouldn’t say that is what’s the definitive answer on us finishing up the FY23 budget,” House Ways and Means Chair Rep. Aaron Michlewitz said last week. “We’re certainly knowing we’re going to be in some type of increasing-revenue standpoint, but we just don’t know yet exactly what that number is.”

The fiscal 2023 budget, a week overdue, will cost about $50 billion under either chamber’s plan, though neither body was previously prescient enough to account for what may be $3 billion in excess revenues, a task that now falls almost entirely to the joint conference committee finalizing the spending plan.

About $500 million of that was earmarked for spending Thursday, when the leaders of the Legislature and both Ways and Means Committees announced they would seek to send $250 rebate checks to individuals and $500 to couples within certain income limits and in lieu of a suspension of the state’s gas tax.

“These rebates represent the Legislature’s commitment to delivering immediate financial relief directly to residents of the Commonwealth, rather than to large oil companies that continue to profit off economic uncertainty and international conflict,” the lawmakers said Thursday.

Part of the rest of that excess money may be destined toward some of Gov. Charlie Baker’s January proposal to cut taxes in the state by about $700 million annually.

Baker’s plan to cut taxes for renters, seniors and low income families and to change the estate and capital gains taxes was dead in the water until April’s tax revenue came in $3 billion over the last year and a full $2 billion more than expected.

Both House Speaker Ronald Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka have repeatedly acknowledged they are aware of the squeeze of inflation on family budgets, but would not specify their plans — saying only they would work toward some form of relief, but not necessarily what the governor had sought. Mariano told the Herald in May he would prefer direct relief that helps people now, not next tax season.

However on July 1, Baker’s plan mostly cleared the House’s Revenue Committee with unanimous support, missing only the change to capital gains taxes. If approved as it stands, unlikely though that is, the cuts would be about $600 million.

Both chambers also plan on passing some form of additional reproductive care protections before they adjourn on July 31. Which version prevails — the House’s stand alone measure or the Senate’s budget rider — will remain to be seen, but Spilka said she intends to take action.

“There are many pathways towards enshrining the Commonwealth’s reproductive health care access in to law, and so we look forward to passing a final bill which confirms our resolve to protect reproductive rights,” she told the Herald.

Sports betting waits quietly in the wings, stuck in conference committee since May, when the House rejected an amended Senate version that excluded college betting and which senators insisted remain. A spokesperson for Mariano told the Herald it was among his priorities to pass.

The Legislature is also working on reforms of the cannabis industry, mental health access, and bolstering offshore wind, with bills concerning those issues also being worked over in joint committee. The Senate is expected this Thursday to consider a $10 billion transportation and climate related infrastructure bill.

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

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