The House and Senate are set to enact a Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget, totaling $58.1 billion in line-item spending.  It includes $27.5 million more in spending than the House and $16.5 million more than the Senate budget; and total spending exceeds the FY 2024 General Appropriations Act (GAA) by $2 billion, or 3.6 percent.

Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 begins on July 1st, and House and Senate budget negotiators are actively engaging in conversations to craft a compromise budget proposal. The Conference Committee process involves reconciling countless spending, policy, and technical differences between the two bills; and this year, the process will be further impacted by an uncertain fiscal picture for FY 2024 and a more constrained revenue outlook in FY 2025.

The Senate finalized its $58 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget this week after adding $89.6 million in spending over the course of three days of debate. 

The Senate took action on 1,100 amendments through a combination of standalone votes and amendment ‘bundles,’ which categorically approve or reject many amendments at once. In total, 475 amendments were adopted, 400 were rejected, and 225 were withdrawn from consideration. This brief summarizes Senate debate action and assesses the newly adopted spending and policy proposals. 
 

5 Things to Know About the FY 2025 Senate Amendments

1. Senate members filed 1,100 amendments, 51 more than in FY 2024 and 78 fewer than in FY 2023.

2. The fiscal impact of all amendments is $2.9 billion.

3. An estimated 58% (636) of the amendments are earmarks. 

4. Approximately 42% (464) of the amendments are outside policy sections, support programmatic funding increases, or introduce new line-item language. 

5. Between FY 2022 – FY 2024, an average of $80 million in additional spending was added during Senate Debate.

Today, the Senate Committee on Ways and Means (SWM) released its budget proposal for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. The $57.99 billion spending plan includes notable investments in higher education, early education, and mental and behavioral health; increasing spending over the FY 2024 General Appropriations Act (GAA) by $1.9 billion (3.4 percent).

The House finalized its $58.07 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget last week after adding $95.8 million in spending over the course of three days of debate.

Two weeks ago, the House Ways and Means Committee released its budget proposal for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. While the budget development process for the upcoming fiscal year will consume much of the attention in the coming weeks, the FY 2024 fiscal picture remains unclear and will require careful monitoring.

This November, voters in Massachusetts may be asked to approve or reject a number of proposals that either create new or amend existing state laws. These proposals, known as initiative petitions, are currently under consideration by the State Legislature. If the Legislature does not take action on a petition, it is placed before voters for their consideration.

5 Things to Know:

1. House members filed 1,495 amendments, 71 fewer than in FY 2024 and 27 fewer than in FY 2023.
2. The fiscal impact of all amendments is $2.02billion.*
3. Over 70% (1,095) of the amendments are earmarks.
4. Approximately 25%(400) of the amendments are outside policy sections, support programmatic funding increases, or introduce new line-item language.
5. Between FY 2022 – FY 2024, an average of $108 million in additional spending was added during House Debate.

Earlier today, the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget development process officially moved to the Legislature with the release of the House Committee on Ways and Means (HWM) budget proposal. About two months after Governor Healey filed her administration’s spending plan, the $57.98 billion HWM budget makes notable investments in transportation, K-12 education, and housing.