Bill provides relief to fiscally stressed hospitals, reduces pension liability, assists special education obligations, and dedicates funding for farms and rural communities affected by natural disasters
(BOSTON – 07/26/2023) Senator Cindy F. Friedman (D-Arlington), joined her colleagues in the Massachusetts State Senate on Thursday to pass a $513 million supplemental budget for Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23). The legislation funds relief for hospitals, pension liabilities, special education costs, and flexible assistance for farms throughout the Commonwealth impacted by recent severe weather events. The bill also extends simulcast and harness horse racing, and extends reporting dates for several governmental agencies. In addition, the legislation ratifies several outstanding collective bargaining agreements.
“This supplemental budget addresses some of the key pain points that we are seeing throughout the Commonwealth, specifically hospital fiscal solvency and the extraordinary special education costs our local districts are being faced with,” said Senator Friedman, Vice Chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means. “We also invest in important needs that have arisen in recent months as we work to close out the Fiscal Year 2023 funds. Our Commonwealth’s use of supplemental budgets allows us to modify spending to meet the needs of the moment, and this FY23 supplemental budget is extremely targeted to provide relief quickly.”
Appropriates $513M of fiscal year 2023 direct appropriations, including:
- $180M for relief to fiscally strained hospitals
- $100M for a supplemental transfer to the Pension Liability Fund
- $75M to support school districts with extraordinary special education costs
- $60.3M for staffing needs at the Department of Transitional Assistance
- $40M for a reserve to support costs related to Tatum vs. Commonwealth of Massachusetts
- $26.2M for collective bargaining agreement costs
- $20M for natural disaster relief for farms and affected areas
- $10.7M for public health hospitals
- $506k for interstate flood compact costs
- $200k for EEC contingency contract costs
The supplemental budget also includes several policy sections. The bill:
- Clarifies an internal citation for large building energy reporting.
- Extends simulcast wagering and live horse racing in the Commonwealth until July 31, 2024.
- Extends the reserve to meet the costs of oversight functions in the Office of the State Auditor, the Office of the Attorney General, the Office of the Inspector General and the Office of the Comptroller related to the expenditure of federal 2019 pandemic-related funding to July 30, 2027.
- Increases the maximum allowable amount for the Department of Early Education and Care contingency contracts from $320,000 to $520,000.
- Extends for 12 months the reporting date for the intergovernmental coordinating council’s initial analysis of electric vehicle charging infrastructure deployment.
- Extends the reporting date for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation analysis of the operation of electric charging stations to October 1, 2024.
- Ratifies several collective bargaining agreements.
- Authorizes the Department of Public Utilities to allow electric distribution companies to recover expenditures and payments associated with the construction delay of certain clean energy generation power purchase agreements.
- Authorizes the Commissioner of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance to convey certain parcels of land to the city of Framingham.
- Allows a city or town to amortize, over fiscal years 2025 to 2027, the amount of its 2024 major disaster related deficit.
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