Senate Ways and Means Releases FY 2021 Budget

BOSTON (11/12/2020) – Today, the Senate Committee on Ways and Means announced a $45.98 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2021 (FY21). The Committee’s budget is a responsible and balanced plan that ensures fiscal stability and recommends targeted investments to protect access to core essential services, address urgent needs, and support efforts to build an equitable recovery for the Commonwealth in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I am proud of this budget – it is a significant step toward addressing the real and immediate needs of the Commonwealth as our state continues to combat the effects of the coronavirus pandemic,” said Senator Cindy Friedman (D-Arlington), Vice Chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means. “The spending priorities reflect our strong commitment to protecting the fundamental needs of our residents, such as childcare, housing, food security and healthcare.” 

The Committee’s budget recommends a total of $45.98 billion in spending, a 5.5% increase over the Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) General Appropriations Act. This spending recommendation is based on a revised tax revenue estimate of $27.59 billion, which provides for $3.55 billion less in available revenue than the original consensus revenue estimate of $31.15 billion, as originally agreed upon in January. To close this anticipated revenue shortfall, the FY21 budget includes $1.5 billion from the Stabilization Fund, ensuring a majority of the Stabilization Fund balance remains for future years, $1.38 billion in available federal supports, and more than $400 million in new revenue initiatives. It also avoids drastic budget cuts while leaving the Commonwealth in a sound fiscal position moving forward.

The Committee’s budget protects Massachusetts students and educational institutions by preserving the Senate’s stated priority investments, despite an unprecedented fiscal climate. Continuing the Senate’s long-standing support of targeted investments in education, this budget funds Chapter 70 in a manner consistent with the agreement reached between the Senate, House, and Administration in July by providing $5.283 billion, an increase of $107.6 million over FY20. 

This additional level of investment will allow all school districts to maintain foundation spending levels, while accounting for enrollment and inflation changes. The budget also includes $345 million for the Special Education (SPED) Circuit Breaker, reimbursing school districts for the cost of educating students with disabilities at the statutorily required 75% reimbursement rate. In addition to ensuring stability for the state’s K-12 population, the Committee’s budget takes steps to invest in childcare providers and higher education institutions—both of which are of critical importance to the state’s economy and recovery in midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Education investments include:

“This budget also reflects the Senate’s ongoing commitment to providing access to quality behavioral healthcare, so that our most vulnerable residents receive the care and services they need during this difficult time,” said Senator Friedman.

This budget solidifies Massachusetts’ leadership in affordable health care and preserves access to essential services for residents. The budget funds MassHealth at a total of $18.57 billion to maintain critical access to affordable health care coverage for over 1.9 million people, ensuring that comprehensive care for children, seniors and low-income residents is protected during the pandemic. The Committee’s budget also includes targeted investments to maintain and expand access to mental health services while highlighting the importance of strengthening public health infrastructure at the local, state and regional level to combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Health investments include:

• $500.3 million for Adult Support Services, including assisted outpatient programming and comprehensive care coordination among health care providers
• $163.6 million for a range of substance abuse treatment and intervention services
• $94.5 million for children’s mental health services
• $45.2 million for domestic violence prevention services
• $35.4 million for early intervention services, to ensure supports are accessible and available to infants and young toddlers with developmental delays and disabilities
• $17.5 million for Family Resource Centers to meet increased demand for services
• $1.7 million for the State Action for Public Health Excellence (SAPHE) program to support a more effective local and regional public health delivery system

In addition to these health care investments, the Committee’s budget takes meaningful steps to expand access to care by including provisions concerning same day billing that prohibit insurers from denying coverage for mental health services and primary care services solely because they were delivered on the same day in the same facility. This important measure will remove a significant financial barrier to the integration of primary care and mental health.

The Senate is committed to building an equitable recovery from the unprecedented COVID-19 public health crisis and its economic fallout. To that end, the Committee’s budget invests in programs to educate, train, and prepare Massachusetts workers while addressing further economic impacts of the pandemic.

Opportunity investments include:

Access to affordable housing, which has taken on new urgency for many during the COVID-19 pandemic in Massachusetts, is a key Senate building block to an equitable recovery. The Committee’s budget recognizes the crucial importance of housing to the Commonwealth’s recovery efforts and invests over $540 million in housing stability programs to support many families, tenants, and property owners in this time of crisis.

Housing investments include:

• $179.9 million for Emergency Assistance Family Shelters
• $135 million for the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP)
• $50 million for Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT), as well as emergency changes to the RAFT program to increase the maximum amount of rental assistance that a household can receive from $4,000 to $10,000 and allow eligible households facing a housing crisis to access both RAFT and HomeBASE.
• $53.4 million for assistance for homeless individuals
• $27.2 million for the HomeBASE diversion and rapid re-housing programs
• $12.5 million for the Alternative Housing Voucher Program (AHVP), which provides rental assistance to people with disabilities, and $2.5 million for grants to improve or create accessible affordable housing units
• $10.5 million for housing vouchers for Department of Mental Health (DMH) clients to transition into housing and community-based services
• $4.75 million for the Housing Consumer Education Centers (HCECs)
• $3.9 million for the Home and Healthy for Good re-housing and supportive services program, including $250,000 for homeless LGBTQ+ youth
• $2.5 million for the Office of Public Collaboration to support housing dispute mediation efforts across the Commonwealth
• $1.3 million for the Tenancy Preservation Program 

In addition to these critical investments, this budget puts forth eviction protection measures to ensure the state’s residents most at-risk of eviction in the middle of a pandemic are kept safe and secure in their homes. This proposal provides additional protections and resources to tenants suffering a COVID-19-related financial hardship, as well as stability as they await short-term emergency rental assistance.

Food insecurity has become one of the most rampant side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, impacting children, adults, and seniors alike. The Committee’s budget therefore prioritizes access to food resources across the Commonwealth.

Food insecurity investments include:

• $30 million for the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program
• $13 million in Healthy Incentives Programs to ensure vulnerable households have continued access to food options during the pandemic
• $1.2 million for Project Bread to support the Child Nutrition Outreach Program (CNOP) and the FoodSource Hotline

The Committee’s budget supports our cities and towns while allowing them flexibility to confront the unique challenges facing them by directing significant resources to local and regional aid. This includes increased funding for Regional Transit Authorities (RTAs) to $94 million to ensure that commuters, students, seniors, and people with disabilities have access to reliable public transportation during this time of critical need. Along with traditional local aid, the Committee’s budget level funds payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) for state-owned land to $30 million. PILOT funding has been a beneficial source of local aid that provides cities and towns with additional resources to support core public services.

Local investments include:

• $1.12 billion for unrestricted general government aid to support community investments in education, health care, public safety, and roads and bridges
• $32.6 million for the Board of Library Commissioners, $11.5 million for regional library local aid, $12 million for municipal libraries and $4.4 million for technology and automated resources
• $18.2 million for the Massachusetts Cultural Council to support local arts, culture, and creative economy initiatives
• $17 million for local Councils on Aging to strengthen programs and services in senior centers in communities across the state.

Senators can file amendments to the Senate Ways and Means recommendations until Friday, November 13, at 10 p.m. The full Senate will then debate the FY21 budget in formal session beginning Tuesday, November 17. The FY21 Senate Ways and Means Budget Recommendations are available on the Massachusetts legislature’s website: https://malegislature.gov/Budget/SenateWaysMeansBudget.

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