- Maura T. Healey, Governor
- Kimberley Driscoll, Lieutenant Governor
To the people of Massachusetts,
It has been an honor over the past year to serve as your Governor and Lieutenant Governor. We are tremendously proud of the progress we have made in that time fighting to make Massachusetts a more affordable, equitable and competitive state to live, work and raise a family.
As a state, we are only as strong as the people who live here, and time and time again we have been impressed by your resiliency, creativity and commitment to helping us ensure that Massachusetts can live up to its full potential.
Today, we submit our administration’s second annual budget to preserve the gains we have made so far and build on that progress to ensure that every person has the opportunity to grow and thrive in the communities we choose to call home.
There is so much that we have accomplished together in just a short time - including the enactment of historic tax cuts that will deliver savings to parents, caregivers, renters, seniors and businesses this year. With the help of the Legislature, we made school meals free for all students, increased financial aid at our colleges and universities and created MassReconnect so that people can return to community college and get the education and training they need to pursue impactful careers without worrying about how they will pay for the tuition.
But we have also encountered challenges together. Extreme weather events tested our farmers when floods washed away crops and late frost damaged produce. The high cost of housing continues to cause too many, from young families to aging residents, to question whether they will be able to make Massachusetts their home. That is why we filed the transformative $4 billion Affordable Homes Act and legislation that will enable Massachusetts to compete for unprecedented federal dollars available to help us rebuild our infrastructure. We created a Secretariat of Housing and Livable Communities to elevate and inform this crucial conversation as we work to make our communities livable and housing friendly to all our residents.
While our economy is strong and employment high, our tax revenue growth to support the programs and services that people depend on has slowed, forcing hard decisions on spending for both this fiscal year and next. We are committed to maintaining our investments while establishing a sustainable and sound budget plan.
Our $56.1 billion budget proposal for fiscal year 2025 shows a path forward to continue making the necessary investments in housing, education, climate, transit and workforce development that will strengthen our communities and our employers, protect our most vulnerable and bring even greater equity to the work we do every day. This represents 2.9 percent growth over the Fiscal Year 2024 GAA and a fiscally responsible approach that will ensure the budget is both impactful and sustainable now and into the future.
We are proud that this budget fully funds the fourth-year phase-in of the Student Opportunity Act. The $6.86 billion in this budget for Chapter 70 education represents a 4 percent increase over fiscal year 2024 budget spending. We are also growing Unrestricted General Government by 3 percent, and overall Local Aid to our cities and towns totals $8.7 billion, a 3 percent increase.
Alongside our budget, we have already filed a package of reforms that will help make municipal government more efficient and nimbler to meet the needs of its residents. In addition, we propose to use $100 million from the $1.3 billion in Fair Share surtax dollars in this budget to boost Chapter 90 to a total of $300 million in fiscal year 2025 to help cities and towns repair crumbling roads and bridges. An additional $24 million in Fair Share spending would be carved out for rural road aid.
Our Massachusetts education system, from kindergarten through college, is our calling card. But we can and must do more. We will further expand MassReconnect and maintain the growth of MassGrant Plus. Our budget provides $914 million in child care subsidies to support nearly 60,000 children, expands child care financial assistance and maintains $475 million for Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) grants to providers.
And we must act now to ensure that no student, regardless of where they live, their race or their ethnicity, falls behind. That’s why we’re investing $30 million in our administration’s Literacy Launch program to improve early literacy rates in young learners, and we are committing to achieving universal Pre-K access in all 26 Gateway Cities by 2026.
We must act now to address our changing climate and the impact it is having on communities. That is why in this budget we propose to set up a permanent Disaster Relief and Resiliency Fund to ready a pool of resources to immediately help our cities and towns when disaster - like last year’s floods – strikes. These funds will help reinvest in the improvements needed to adapt to climate change so that we come back from disaster stronger and more resilient than ever.
This budget for the second straight year invests 1 percent of total spending in the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, where money will go toward building a clean energy workforce, clean transportation and decarbonization efforts, food security and an all-of-government commitment to environmental justice.
Finally, we have made progress in the past year improving the performance and reliability of the T, but we must keep going. This budget will double support for MBTA operations and increase access to capital. We will also provide funding for the MBTA to establish a system-wide reduced fare for low-income riders, to make mobility more affordable, equitable, and accessible to MBTA users, whether they ride the bus, subway, commuter rail, ferry, or use paratransit. It’s the right thing to do.
If our state is only as strong as its people, this budget shows how we as an administration intend to do our part to give residents the tools and support they need to succeed and be proud to call Massachusetts home. We certainly are, and that’s why we ask all of you to work with our administration and our friends and partners in the Legislature to enact a budget that reflects these goals and ambitions.
