Gov. Healey announces $2.45B spending bill

Photo I Chris Lisinski/SHNS Gov. Maura Healey stands at the podium at a June 24 event where she signed into law a bill spending available surtax revenue.

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By Ella Adams I State House News Service

Gov. Maura Healey on Thursday announced a $2.45 billion spending bill to close the state's books for fiscal year 2025, packing it with a number of outside sections related to federal policy and spending concerns.

The proposal Healey outlined would deposit $125 million into the state's stabilization fund and use $150 million in surtax revenue to fund K-12 school aid increases required under the multi-year funding reform law known as the Student Opportunity Act.

The bill would also create a new "Economic Resiliency and Federal Response Fund," built on excess capital gains revenues collected in the fiscal year that ended June 30 "to ensure that the state remains fiscally resilient against the negative impacts of federal budgetary and policy decisions," according to a press release from Healey's office.

"With this legislation, we are controlling spending and ensuring that our state budget remains responsible, while also strengthening our ability to weather economic unpredictability coming from Washington," Healey said in a statement.

Healey's proposal would delay the state's deadline to achieve a certain amount of offshore wind power from 2027 to 2029 "due to uncertainty surrounding federal permitting and tax credits." The bill would also remove a requirement that a solicitation for more wind energy be conducted every 24 months.

Another outside section would decouple state vaccine authority from federal recommendations, proposing that the Department of Public Health be able to set independent standards for Massachusetts should the federal government fail "to maintain a robust schedule of vaccine recommendations." Healey tucked a similar policy into a spending bill in July, which lawmakers have not touched in the five weeks since she submitted it.

The new proposal also would set Sept. 1, 2026 as the statewide primary election day; would provide more than $2 billion in funding to MassHealth; and would set millions aside for other needs including a reserve for costs accrued by sheriffs, reproductive health providers at risk of losing federal funding, and costs associated with hosting the 2026 FIFA Men's World Cup.

Governors typically file a so-called closeout budget every year to enable the state comptroller to complete an annual financial report that's due by Oct. 31. Lawmakers routinely continue their deliberations on the spending bill into the fall, preventing the comptroller from meeting that deadline.