Sen. Lewis applauds Senate’s unanimous passage of FY25 state budget

Following a robust debate over several days, the Massachusetts Senate unanimously approved a $58 billion state budget for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25), which starts on July 1, 2024. This budget is fiscally responsible while making significant investments in public education, local aid for cities and towns, mental healthcare, early education and childcare, housing programs and more.

“I’m proud that this budget, passed with unanimous, bipartisan support, will deliver critical resources for our public schools and communities, and will make our state more affordable for working families with significant investments in childcare, housing, and healthcare,” said Senator Lewis. “I want to thank all the advocates and constituents who shared their priorities and helpful feedback with me throughout the budget process.”

A few highlights of the Senate’s FY25 budget:

• $6.6 billion in Chapter 70 funding for K-12 public education, an increase of $319 million over FY24, as well as increasing minimum Chapter 70 aid from $30 to $110 per pupil
• $1.3 billion for Unrestricted General Government Aid to our cities and towns
• $1.6 billion for early education and childcare programs, including $475 million for Commonwealth Cares for Children grants, to improve quality, access and affordability for working families
• $20.3 billion to fund MassHealth, providing more than two million people with continued access to affordable, accessible and comprehensive healthcare services
• $1.3 billion to support a wide range of mental health services and prevention programs that are critical to the well-being of adults and children in need
• $1.1 billion for housing programs, dedicating resources for housing stability, emergency shelter services, and homelessness assistance and prevention programs.

This budget also appropriates a projected $1.3 billion in revenues to be collected from the Fair Share Amendment, which was approved by voters in 2022. These funds will be used to provide universal free school meals for all K-12 students; increase funding for local transportation infrastructure through the Chapter 90 program by more than 50%; increase financial aid for students to attend Massachusetts public colleges and universities; increase investment in the MBTA; and more.

Senator Lewis was successful in securing $500,000 to fund a variety of local projects in our communities. He also led the effort to adopt several budget amendments, including:

• Creating a Chapter 70 Task Force to study and make recommendations to update municipalities’ required local contributions for funding their public schools
• Increasing funding to support genocide and human rights education in public schools
• Establishing an advisory commission to select a new state seal, flag and motto.

The FY25 Senate budget will be available on the Massachusetts legislature’s website: https://malegislature.gov/Budget/FY2025/SenateBudget. A conference committee will now be appointed to reconcile differences between the versions of the budget passed by the Senate and House of Representatives, before being sent to Governor Healey for her signature or other actions.