| The $41.88 billion budget deal that was filed Wednesday morning and quickly approved by the Legislature includes no new fees, according to the lead House negotiator, and relies on an unusual eleventh-hour revenue projection upgrade to boost spending to levels higher than either the House or Senate approved this spring.
The budget, which is on track to reach Gov. Charlie Baker’s desk by the end of the day, was filed 17 days after the start of the new fiscal year, and 13 days before the end of formal legislative sessions, during which recorded votes can be taken.
House Ways and Means Chairman Jeffrey Sanchez told reporters Wednesday that he did not think there was “any one thing” that kept negotiators from producing an on-time budget, saying he and his counterpart, Senate Ways and Means Chairwoman Karen Spilka “kept on going back and forth.”
The fiscal 2019 budget, which was introduced in the House just after 2 p.m. and quickly won a 143-6 approval vote; the Senate approved it 36-1.
The $41.88 billion bottom line is nearly $400 million more than what either branch approved. The budget also anticipates an additional $271 million deposit to the state’s rainy day fund, Sanchez said, a deposit that will address some concerns about inadequate reserves.
Sanchez said lawmakers tried to balance an increase in spending with a building up of the stabilization fund. In a joint statement, Sanchez and Spilka said the total amount in the stabilization fund would surpass $2 billion by the end of fiscal 2019.
The additional spending includes roughly $190 million for what Sanchez characterized as priorities of both branches, and about $150 million to address structural deficiencies in accounts like snow and ice removal and the Committee for Public Counsel Services.
According to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, the budget deal assumes $667.3 million in tax revenue above and beyond the estimate agreed to earlier this year by Democratic legislative leaders and the Baker administration. With the added revenue, which follows a year in which collections exceeded budget benchmarks by $1.1 billion, total fiscal 2019 spending rises 3.5 percent over fiscal 2018, according to the foundation.
The budget includes House language that would subject the scandal-plagued State Police to new oversight in the form of an internal audit unit and a special legislative commission. It also does away with a welfare cap under which families do not receive additional benefits for a child born after they are already receiving assistance.
It does not include a Senate proposal to restrict local authorities’ cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, despite a vocal push from advocates opposed to a Trump administration crackdown on illegal immigration.
The budget includes just under $1.01 million in unrestricted general government aid and $4.9 million in Chapter 70 aid to local schools, along with $5.02 million for state parks and recreational areas, $7.99 million for the Cannabis Control Commission, $12.79 million for youth-at-risk summer jobs and $161.75 million for emergency assistance family shelters.
Unlike the past two years, in which slow revenue growth forced them to mark down available revenues during their negotiations, budget conferees this year were able upgrade their revenue projections.
Doug Howgate, director of policy and research at the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said he was not aware of an instance in the last 20 years or so in which a conference committee produced “just kind of an ad hoc increased number based on higher tax revenues.”
Once it reaches his desk, Baker will have 10 days to review the budget and issue any vetoes or amendments. If lawmakers get a spending plan to the governor this week, they will preserve a window at the end of the month for them to override line-item spending vetoes and respond to any amendments.
