Healey files $756 million supplemental budget to address ‘time-sensitive deficiencies'
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'This budget bill proposes targeted investments that improve quality of life in Massachusetts, such as ensuring access to health care, supporting families with child care costs, and making sure veterans get their benefits,' Healey said in a statement alongside the bill. 'We've also heard clearly from local officials and medical professionals across the state, especially in communities impacted by Steward Health Care's closures, that they need more support. That's why we're proposing significant funding for EMS providers that have faced extraordinary costs. Our administration remains committed to maintaining a responsible state budget that tangibly benefits the people of Massachusetts.'
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Other sections of the 25-page bill would ratify collective bargaining agreements with public employees, raise procurement thresholds under public construction laws, and allow Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency vehicles to use red and blue lights when responding to emergencies.
The Legislature's Joint Committee on Ways and Means is partway through a series of hearings about Healey's $62 billion fiscal 2026 state budget, and the panel
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Congress pulls the plug on $327 million for Allston megaproject. So what's next?
This funding cut wasn't much of a surprise. The Trump administration is on the warpath to clear out any 'equity' related programs left over from President Biden. And Republicans in Congress were eager for savings to help make a bevy of tax cuts permanent in their 'Big Beautiful Bill.' So a target had been on this funding source, known as the Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant Program, for months. Advertisement It still hurt to see what's left of this infrastructure program — nearly $2.5 billion awarded but still unspent, per national nonprofit Smart Growth America's accounting — now zeroed out entirely. Advertisement The MassDOT brass already had to make do with two-thirds of the federal grant funds they had initially hoped for — a shortfall that Governor Maura Healey highlighted in January. Now, there will be more scrambling at Ten Park Plaza. So now, it's time for a backup plan. MassDOT will take two important steps to readjust. 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Healey said then that she hoped for a 2027 groundbreaking; her transportation secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt hoped environmental permitting could be done within a year. The former goal just became much tougher to achieve. The latter, now impossible. Healey hired transportation veteran Luisa Paiewonsky last year, to shepherd the Allston project (along with the hoped-for new bridges over the Cape Cod Canal). Toward that end, Paiewonsky has held monthly task force meetings to update the community and solicit feedback. Advertisement Lately, the big debate has been over layover. The plans call for four tracks to park trains at West Station, to accommodate future cross-state service, despite a promise there wouldn't be any. Allston neighbors prefer trains to be parked elsewhere, as does Mayor Michelle Wu. Harvard doesn't want layover, either, and has drawn up preliminary designs for housing to show how its land could be put to better use. 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