5 Things to Know:

1. Senate members filed 1,058 amendments, 42 fewer than in FY 2025 and 9 more than in FY 2024.
2. The fiscal impact of all amendments is at least $2.09 billion.*
3. About 59% (624) of the amendments are earmarks.
4. Approximately 41% (434) of the amendments are outside policy sections, support programmatic funding increases, or introduce new line-item language.
5. Between FY 2023 – FY 2025, an average of $88 million in additional spending was added during Senate Debate.

On May 6th, the Senate Ways and Means (SWM) committee released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget proposal, six days after the House finalized its version of the spending bill following three days of debate. Spending in the SWM budget totals $61.42 billion, $3.6 billion (6.3 percent) more than the FY 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA), $649 million less than the Governor’s FY 2026 budget, and $151 million less than the House’s proposal. 

On April 31st, the House finalized its $61.58 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget, after adding $81.9 million in spending and 35 outside policy sections over the course of three days of debate. 

The House took action on 1,650 amendments through a combination of seven consolidated amendments and 23 separate votes. Some version of at least 756 amendments were adopted; 715 added new spending and 41 added or amended policy sections or budget language. The majority of adopted amendments (708) added earmarks for specific communities, programs, and projects across the state. 

5 Things to Know:

The House Ways and Means (HWM) committee released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget proposal earlier today; a spending plan that totals $61.5 billion, $3.7 billion (6.4 percent) more than the FY 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) and $580 million (0.9 percent) less than Governor’s Healey’s budget. 

On April 9th, the House of Representatives passed House Bill 55, An Act making appropriations for the fiscal year 2025 to provide for supplementing certain existing appropriations and for certain other activities and projects. The $1.32 billion spending bill is the House version of the Innovation and Capital Fund supplemental budget, and includes $1.26 bil

On January 22nd, the Healey-Driscoll administration filed its budget proposal for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026. The $62.07 billion plan increases spending over the FY 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) by $4.3 billion (7.4 percent) and over the administration’s estimated spending level for FY 2025 of $60.26 billion by $1.8 billion (2.1 percent). 

Today, the Healey-Driscoll administration released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget proposal. The $62 billion spending plan increases spending over the FY 2025 GAA by $4.3 billion (7.4 percent) and over the administration’s estimated spending level of $60.256 billion by $1.8 billion (2.1 percent). Spending increases are reflected in the healthcare, education, and transportation sectors driven by non-discretionary cost increases and investments supported by the income surtax.

As the work of the 194^th General Court gets underway, MTF is publishing its 2025 – 2026 Legislative Session Preview. The preview includes 101 primers on the Operating Budget and Capital Investment Plan development processes, as well as seven topic-specific policy briefs that cover a range of public finance and policy issues.

On September 11th, Governor Healey filed her administration’s closeout supplemental budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024; roughly two months after the official last day of the fiscal year. A closeout supplemental budget is filed and passed each year; its purpose being to resolve all outstanding deficiencies and ensure that the fiscal year ends in balance. The enactment of this final spending bill will allow the comptroller to “close the books” on FY 2024 and finalize mandated financial reports.