McGonagle secures $300K for Everett as House passes FY2025 Budget

Highlights include a record investment in the MBTA, continued funding for universal school meals, and meaningful investments in child care and K-12 education

Last week Rep. Joe McGonagle and his colleagues in the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed their Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) budget. Funded at $58 billion, $62 million below Governor Maura Healey’s budget proposal, the House’s FY25 budget responds to the needs of residents, provides strong support for the Commonwealth’s cities and towns and, among many critical investments, includes significant funding for education, transportation, health care, housing and workforce development. McGonagle secured money for renovations to Everett Square and Everett Veterans Memorial Stadium as well as inclusive and adaptive recreational programming.

“Knowing how tight the budget is this year, I am especially grateful to come away with money directly for projects that benefit the people of Everett,” said McGonagle. “In collaboration with the City, we’ve decided these earmarks will make moves to improve and enhance the well-being of our community. This year’s budget process was especially arduous but I am so grateful to my incredible colleagues for the hard work they put into it. I want to thank Speaker Mariano and Chairman Michlewitz for their leadership always and believing in the work we’re doing in Everett.”

House Speaker Ronald Mariano and the House Committee on Ways & Means introduced their FY25 budget proposal on April 10, 2024, following a review of the Governor’s proposal and a series of public hearings. The budget passed the House of Representatives 153-4, and it now goes to the Senate for consideration.

Due to responsible fiscal management, the House’s FY25 budget is balanced and makes significant investments across a number of issue areas, without needing to draw from the Stabilization Fund, which is set to reach a record high of $9.053 billion. The budget passed includes $1.3 billion in investments for transportation and education initiatives made possible because funding generated by the Fair Share ballot initiative that voters approved in November 2022 established a surtax of four percent on annual income above $1 million.

Local aid and education: The FY25 House budget funds Unrestricted General Government Aid (UGGA) at $1.283 billion, and Chapter 70 education funding at $6.863 billion, representing a $309 million increase over the funding provided for Chapter 70 in the FY24 budget. The budget also funds the fourth year of a six-year implementation plan for the Student Opportunity Act (SOA), which was enacted in 2019 to ensure that public schools have the necessary resources to provide high-quality education to students, regardless of zip code or income level. The budget provides an additional $74 per pupil in minimum aid supplements, increasing the minimum aid total to $104 per pupil.

The House’s FY25 budget continues to fully fund universal free school meals programming for every public-school student in the Commonwealth. Massachusetts is one of only eight states in the country with permanent free school meals for all students, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Due to this program, which the House has extended each year since the COVID-19 pandemic began, since 2019, more than 100,000 additional kids ate school lunch daily through October 2023, according to the Feed Kids Campaign. This budget also invests $30 million for improved early literacy programming to ensure high-quality reading instruction is available to students in pre-kindergarten through 3rd grade.

Public transportation: The House budget includes a record investment of $555 million for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), as well as $184 million for the Regional Transit Authorities that serve commuters across Massachusetts.

Early education and care: Continuing the House’s longstanding commitment towards investing in the early education and care (EEC) workforce, the House budget includes $45 million to sustain FY24 rate increases and provides an additional $20 million in FY25 rate increases for child care providers across the Commonwealth. To create a new funding source for EEC initiatives, the budget the House passed would allow the Massachusetts Lottery to sell its products online. A portion of the new revenue collected from online lottery sales, estimated to be $100 million annually, would fund Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) grants, which provide long-term stability for high-quality and affordable care for families.

In order to ensure grants are providing optimal results for families and communities with the greatest needs, the House budget provides an equitable funding formula for C3 grants that supports the state’s most vulnerable children, setting aside $240 million (50.5 percent) for providers serving at least 25 percent of children who are eligible for Child Care Financial Assistance (CCFA), $135 million (28.4 percent) for providers serving less than 25 percent of children eligible for CCFA, and $100 million (21.1 percent) for providers who do not serve any families eligible for assistance. It also caps the grant amount for-profit, multi-state or franchised organizations receive at 0.33 percent of funding annually. As federal funding for the C3 program is no longer available, the Department of Early Education and Care must recommend a new C3 funding formula after 5 years.

Higher education: The House budget allocates $784 million for the University of Massachusetts system, $404 million for community colleges and $395 million for state universities.

Affordable and accessible housing: The FY25 budget maintains the House’s commitment to protect renters and homeowners across the Commonwealth from eviction and homelessness by investing in the following programs: the Emergency Assistance program, which provides shelter to families with children and pregnant women; the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program; the Rental Assistance for Families in Transition program; HomeBase; shelter workforce assistance; the Home and Healthy for Good program, including the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance.

Workforce development: The House budget funds the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development at $115 million. Additionally, it invests in the following initiatives: Adult Basic Education Services, Labor and Workforce Development Shared Services, DTA Employment and Training Services, Summer Jobs for At Risk Youth, Career Technical Institutes, Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund, Targeted Scholarship Program for high-demand industries, One Stop Career Centers, School-to-Career Connecting Activities, Higher Education Innovation Fund Grants, Registered Apprenticeship Expansion, Career and Technical Education Grants.

Energy and environmental affairs: The House’s budget invests $579.9 million in Energy and Environmental Affairs, including the Department of Conservation & Recreation, the Department of Environmental Protection, the  Department of Agricultural Resources, and Clean Water Trust. It also includes $35 million for an MBTA Resilient Rides program, a $30 million transfer to the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and $10 million in continued support for the Green SchoolWorks program to decarbonize and increase efficiency in our schools through green energy projects.

The budget creates a new Disaster Relief and Resiliency Fund, initially consisting of $14 million, for permanent emergency disaster relief from natural disasters or other catastrophic events, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, landslides, extreme winds and extreme temperatures. It also creates a new Environmental Justice Fund to be funded by settlements from the Attorney General’s Division of Environmental Protection for remediation projects in disadvantaged communities, such as restoration of natural resources, projects for community health or well-being, and mitigation of environmental pollution or harm.

Health and human services: The House budget includes $20.8 billion for MassHealth, representing the largest investment in the budget. It includes a provision that would provide prenatal vitamins and over-the-counter oral contraceptives at no cost for MassHealth and Health Safety Net members, as well as another provision to eliminate copays and premiums for certain children’s insurance plans.

The House’s FY25 budget invests in the human services workforce, which provides services to our most vulnerable residents, by including $390 million for Chapter 257 rates for health and human service workers, and $50 million for rate increases for nursing facilities. It also protects the Personal Care Attendant program by requiring that eligibility criteria and services be maintained at FY24 levels. It also funds the following initiatives: Safe and Successful Youth Initiative; more intensive programs for adolescents with complex behavioral needs; workforce development funding for nurses through recruitment bonuses, educator funding and testing; Besty Lehman Center for Patient Safety; Councils on Aging.

Public health and mental health: The House budget funds the Department of Public Health at 1 billion and the Department of Mental Health at 1.18 billion for FY25. Investments include: Bureau of Substance Abuse Services; statewide and community-based suicide prevention; prostate cancer awareness, education and research; adult support services; child and adolescent services

Criminal justice: The House budget continues to invest in programs and policies to uphold our commitment to criminal justice reform by reducing recidivism rates and increasing access to justice and inmate services. It also effectuates the closure of MCI-Concord, a medium security jail that is currently operating at half capacity, and authorizes the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance to convey the property. It also includes some funding for the following: Office of Community Corrections; Community Based Reentry Services; Emerging Adults Pre-and-Post Release Reentry Grants; Housing Assistance for Reentry Transition; Reentry Workforce Development and Supportive Services; School of Reentry; Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corp. to provide legal services to the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable populations; a transfer to the No-Cost Calls Trust Fund to provide free phone calls for inmates and their families; covering the costs of afterhours bail fees; Prisoners’ Legal Services; implementing an access to counsel pilot program to provide legal representation for low-income families in eviction proceedings.