Representative Steven S. Howitt supports passage of $61.01 billion Fiscal Year 2026 state budget

Boston – State Representative Steven S. Howitt (R-Seekonk) recently supported a $61.01 billion state budget for Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) that fully funds the fifth year of the Student Opportunity Act through a $479 million increase in Chapter 70 education aid for cities and towns while also supporting many core state programs for Massachusetts residents without raising taxes.

House Bill 4240 reflects a compromise spending plan negotiated by a six-member conference committee that worked to reconcile the differences between the House budget that was passed in April and the Senate version that was passed in May. The final conference committee report was enacted by both branches on June 30 and is now under review by Governor Maura Healey.

Amid continuing concerns over potential federal funding cuts, the conference committee produced a budget that is $1 billion lower than Governor Healey’s proposal that was filed in January, and about $500 million below both the House and Senate’s previous versions. The bottom line is approximately $3 billion higher than the Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) budget, with $2 billion of that going to an increase in MassHealth, which accounts for more than one-third of total budget expenditures.

Representative Howitt said the new budget funds Chapter 70 education aid at $7.36 billion while setting minimum per pupil aid at $150 per student, an increase from the current rate of $104 per student. It also funds Unrestricted General Government Aid (UGGA) – which helps cities and towns pay for a variety of municipal services, including police and firefighters – at $1.323 billion.

Representative Howitt noted that House Bill 4240 will provide Norton with $13,707,982 in direct education aid and $2,587,348 in unrestricted state aid, Seekonk with $8,276,778 in direct education aid and $1,531,888 in unrestricted state aid, Swansea with $11,323,738 in direct education aid and $2,338,132 in unrestricted state aid, the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School District with $14,005,428 in direct education aid, and the Town of Rehoboth with $1,297,669 in unrestricted state aid for Fiscal Year 2026.

The new budget also includes several local initiatives for which he successfully advocated on behalf of the towns of Norton, Rehoboth, Seekonk, and Swansea throughout the budget process. Representative Howitt cautioned that this funding is still preliminary and needs to be approved by Governor Healey before any money can be disbursed.

Additional education-related funding assistance for cities and towns contained in the FY26 budget includes $198.9 million for charter school reimbursements, $53.7 million for regional school transportation, and $28.7 million for homeless student transportation. The budget also calls for $484.9 million in Special Education Circuit Breaker reimbursements, as well as $12 million in Rural School Aid.

According to Representative Howitt, the FY26 budget provides $180 million so school districts can continue to offer universal free school meals to students for breakfast and lunch, regardless of family income. It also contains a provision requiring the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to conduct a review of the current funding formula for K-12 education as it relates to local contribution requirements, which has been a concern among many cities and towns. DESE is due to report back with its findings and recommendations by June 30, 2026.

Representative Howitt noted that the new budget contains protections for renters by addressing the issue of rental broker fees. Under House Bill 4240, these broker fees will no longer be automatically passed on to tenants by their landlords but instead will now be paid by the party that reaches out to the broker.

Other notable policy initiatives contained in the FY26 state budget include provisions to:

•allow Gold Star Family spouses to remarry without losing their annuity benefit

•establish a working group to make recommendations to assist homeowners whose property foundations have been compromised by the presence of pyrite or pyrrhotite

•study the possibility of providing a sales tax exemption for multifamily housing projects that have been impacted by the increased costs of building materials imposed by federal tariffs

•explore the feasibility and impact of providing cities and towns with a local option to exempt new affordable housing developments from certain tax levy provisions

•create the Secure Choice Program, a state-managed employee retirement savings program for private sector workers at companies with 25 or more employees who currently don’t have access to such a plan through their employer

•modify the Massachusetts Defined Contribution CORE Plan by increasing the employee threshold for non-profit organizations eligible to offer the CORE Plan from 20 to 100 employees

•extend the ConnectorCare Pilot Program, which provides health care coverage to individuals with incomes up to 500% of the federal poverty level, through the end of 2026

Representative Howitt also highlighted some of the additional funding initiatives contained in the FY26 budget, including:

•$20.1 million for the Healthy Incentives Program

•$15.5 million for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Nutrition Program

•$50.5 million for the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program

•$12.7 million for the elder nutrition program, including Meals on Wheels

•$30.8 million for local Councils on Aging, with formula grants calculated at $16 per elder

•$110.7 million for the elder home care case management program

•$49.6 million for elder protective services

•$11.4 million for veterans’ outreach centers and $728,882 for a women veterans’ outreach program

•$4.6 million for homeless veterans’ shelters

•$3.8 million for the New England Center and Home for Veterans in Boston

•$81.8 million in reimbursements to cities and towns for money expended for veterans’ benefits

•$20 million in Head Start grants

•$15 million for early literacy initiatives

•$475 million for the Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) Grant Program

•$3 million to offer genocide education to middle and high school students

•$1.05 million in grants through DESE for hate crime prevention in the Commonwealth’s public schools

•$120 million to provide free community college to Massachusetts high school graduates

•$31 million to support the continued operation of the Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children in Canton, which Governor Healey had previously tried to close; the budget also calls for the creation of a special legislative commission to review Pappas’ finances, programs, pediatric services and infrastructure, with a report due by December 31, 2026

•$250,000 in municipal grant funding for firefighter cancer screenings

•$2 million for the On-Site Academy, which offers critical incident stress management and mental health supporter for firefighters, police officers, EMTs and corrections officers

•$1.25 million for a pilot program to support young mothers who are survivors of abuse and neglect

•$19 million for the Department of Mental Health to

•$475 million for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA)

•$209 million to support Regional Transit Authorities (RTAs), including $115 million in Fair Share funding to maintain regional bus service, provide fare free transit service and support commuter operations

•$115.6 million in housing authority subsidies

•$54.5 million for the Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program to compensate municipalities for non-taxable state-owned land

•$20 million to support municipal libraries

•$19 million for regional libraries

•$26.9 million for Massachusetts Cultural Council programming

•$253.3 million for the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP)

•$207.4 million for Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT)

•$187.1 million for the Bureau of Substance Addiction Services

•$132.4 million for children’s mental health services

•$14.7 million for maternal, child and family health services

•$694.4 million for adult support services offered through the Department of Mental Health

Governor Healey has until July 10 to approve the budget and to issue any vetoes or proposed amendments. Until she does so, state government will continue to operate under an interim temporary spending bill of $7.46 billion (House Bill 4237) that was adopted by the Legislature on the same day the conference committee report was enacted.