Latest news with #RonaldJ.Mariano
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mass. has an on-time(ish) state budget: 3 big things to know about the $61B plan
Massachusetts lawmakers approved their earliest budget in more than a decade on Monday, sending a $61 billion, policy-packed spending blueprint to Gov. Maura Healey for her final say. The Democratic governor gets 10 days to sign the document or kick it back for changes, thus deciding whether the Bay State gets Christmas in July with the budget for the new fiscal year that started at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday. The spending plan, which does not raise any broad-based taxes, boosts state support for health care, education, and transportation, among other key sectors of state government. It includes 'investments that better support Massachusetts students and families, that increase access to affordable health care, and that provide for a safer and more reliable public transportation system – all without raising taxes," House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano, D-3rd Norfolk, said in a statement. With that in mind, here are three, key things to know about the budget now on Healey's desk: The budget is premised on billions of dollars in federal funding that could well be upended by President Donald Trump's domestic policy mega-bill, which makes deep cuts to Medicaid, food assistance and other parts of the social safety net. On Monday, as they raced through votes, legislative leaders said they wanted to beat Washington's express train by passing the state's budget before the 'Big Beautiful Bill' goes to Trump for his signature. "With deep uncertainty on the horizon, both from an economic standpoint and from any actions Washington might take in the near future, we felt it was in the commonwealth's best interest to finish this budget in a quicker manner than has been the case in the past few years,' House Ways and Means Committee Chairperson Aaron Michlewitz, D-3rd Suffolk, said, according to State House News Service. On the other side of the State House, Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairperson Michael Rodriques, D-1st Bristol/Plymouth, said the state already is feeling the pinch from Washington. The Republican White House's trade war already has resulted in 'less-than-anticipated state tax revenue,' Rodrigues said, according to the wire service, while cuts to scientific research funding and 'the elimination of these thousands of jobs have caused a decrease in state income tax collections.' Read more: Mass. 'Millionaire's Tax' is a year old. Where it's helped, hurt | Analysis All in, the compromise spending plan uses $2.4 billion in 'Millionaire's Tax' revenue to underwrite spending on education and transportation programs — as mandated by state law. The education-related programs getting a boost from that extra 4% tax on Bay State residents who earn more than $1 million a year include: $360 million for the state's early education grant program, Commonwealth Cares for Children. Augmented by an extra $115 million from the state's Early Education and Care Operational Grant Fund, the program will see a total investment of $475 million. $460 million for the state's Student Opportunity Act, which is intended to level the state's educational playing field. $180 million for universal free school meals. $120 million for the state's free community college program. The transportation-related programs getting a boost include: $470 million in direct support for the MBTA, which includes low-income fare relief, water ferry service and the MBTA Academy. The agency will see a total of $1 billion in state support this year, with the inclusion of $535 million in a recently approved supplemental budget for the Millionaire's Tax. $120 million for Regional Transit Authorities (RTAs) across the state. Together with resources from the General Fund, the bill provides a total of $214 million for the regional transit agencies. $55 million in operating support for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. The spending plan also includes language that ends unpopular, renter-paid brokers' fees, usually the equivalent of one month's rent. In Boston, where rental prices hover comfortably around $3,000, that can mean prospective tenants have to cough up as much as $9,000 or $10,000 to rent an apartment. But to be clear, the fees aren't going away entirely: They're changing form. The language that lawmakers approved this week requires whoever first worked with the broker — whether the landlord or the renter — to cover the cost, The Boston Globe reported. Tenant advocates have long railed against the fees. And when New York's City Council passed a law last year banning them, the Bay State's reform effort picked up a new head of steam. Healey, who is running for reelection in 2026, has spoken publicly of her opposition to the fees and included a proposal to end them in the $62 billion budget outline she sent to lawmakers earlier this year. Mass. senators blast Trump settlement with Paramount: 'Bribery in plain sight' Trump's antisemitism probe mostly relies on Harvard's own report, Harvard claims Trump threatens arrest of NYC mayoral candidate during visit to 'Alligator Alcatraz' Here's how Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene described support for Trump's 'big beautiful bill' Group behind MCAS ballot question broke campaign finance law, state says Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Transparency breakthrough? Mass. House, Senate boast of deal on new operating rules
For the first time in six years, lawmakers in Massachusetts' majority-Democrat state House and Senate say they've reached on new operating rules that will speed the path of legislation and make the famously opaque Legislature more transparent to the taxpayers. " We heard loud and clear that the people want us in the Legislature to move bills more efficiently, more transparently and give more access to the public," Senate President Karen E. Spilka, D-Middlesex/Norfolk, said during a news conference at the State House on Monday. 'And that's exactly what these rules deliver. They are a great set of rules,' the Ashland Democrat said. The product of months of painstaking negotiations between senior House and Senate leaders, the operating rules still need a floor vote in each chamber. That could come as soon as this week. Here's a quick look at what's in the proposal: Public hearings of joint legislative committees must be announced 10 days in advance, up from the current three days, and those committees will be required to produce a complete schedule of hearings within three weeks of committee appointments. All committee votes are to be publicly posted online. Once bills are in committee and get a hearing, Senate and House committee members will vote only on bills filed in their respective chambers. That has been the practice so far this session, and the change has given senators (who are outnumbered on joint committees) a greater ability to advance legislation without necessarily getting buy-in from representatives. Bills filed by someone other than a member of the Legislature (the governor, for example), so-called money bills that get filed in the Senate, and amendments to the Constitution filed in the House will continue to be voted on by both House and Senate committee members. Joint committees will be required under the proposed rules accord to act on legislation no later than the first Wednesday of December of the first year of the two-year session, moving the bill-reporting deadline about two months earlier than its current place on the calendar on the first Wednesday in February of the second year of the session. Under House rules, committees must act on bills filed in the House no later than 60 days after the bill's hearing, with an additional 30-day extension available at the discretion of the chair. The proposed joint rules agreement would also allow the Legislature to meet in formal sessions after its traditional end date of July 31 in the second year of the session, but only to take up reports from conference committees formed on or before July 31, appropriations bills filed after July 31, and gubernatorial vetoes or amendments. House and Senate leaders faced stiff criticism last year after they left a slew of bills on the table after that self-imposed July 31 deadline. " Neither one of us liked the way it ended [on] July 31 of last year,' state House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano, D-3rd Norfolk, said. '... We just knew it was time to make this thing work. And we did." While lawmakers boasted of their cooperation on the new rules and their optimism that it would improve the flow of legislation, one big-ticket item is still hanging out there. House and Senate negotiators are still trying to reach an agreement on a roughly $61.5 billion state budget for the new fiscal year that starts July 1. It's been more than a decade since the Legislature has passed an on-time spending plan. On Monday, Mariano said he was optimistic that this year might be the year lawmakers break that streak. " We're hopeful that there's a chance we may have a budget to the governor by the end of this month," Mariano said. Spilka offered a similar sentiment. " The parties are very close and they're working really hard," she said. 'Legal battles of our lives': AG Campbell testifies in DC on all-hands effort to counter Trump Harvard's Jewish faculty have their own wish list for a deal with Trump Gov. Healey: 'No threats' to Mass. as U.S. tensions with Iran simmer Donald Trump may have lost one of his most loyal supporters over Iran Here's how federal cuts could undermine free community college in Mass. Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mass. Republicans assail $25M for parking garage pet project in House speaker's district
Massachusetts Republicans teed off on the top Democrat in the state House on Wednesday for slipping $25 million for a parking garage in his district that critics have denounced as the ultimate 'power play.' State House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano, D-3rd Norfolk, successfully inserted the language into a bill last month that doled out $1.3 billion in surplus cash from the state's so-called 'Millionaire's Tax.' It gave a leg up to the city of Quincy, which is building a 500-spot parking garage for a new Beth Israel Deaconess-run medical facility, according to The Boston Globe, which was the first to report the news. Under state law, money from the Millionaire's Tax, formally known as the 'Fair Share Amendment,' is intended to support education- and transportation-related programs. The chamber allocated $353.5 million for education and $828 million, most of it for the MBTA, for transportation. Critics told the Globe that the language Mariano inserted into the bill stretched the intent of the law., Mariano's actions "siphon money from roads and bridges," and 'back toward the political donors who have padded his campaign account, John Milligan, the executive director of the state Republican Party, said in a statement. "The migrant shelter crisis continues to bleed money from our budget while Massachusetts is ranked the second-most expensive state for families, but State House leadership is still managing to use taxpayer dollars to take care of the friends who have long taken care of them,' Milligan said in an email. In a statement to the Globe, Mariano defended the move, saying the money would pay for an 'essential component' of the new health care facility. 'Providing support for key transportation infrastructure projects, especially projects that are related to the health and well-being of our residents, is one of the most fundamental ways that state government can better the lives of the people that it serves,' Mariano said, according to the newspaper. Quincy has gone all-in on the project, investing $157 million to build a pair of parking garages in Quincy Center, according to the local Patriot-Ledger newspaper. More political news Read the original article on MassLive.
