The tax and spending bill that recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives would make big changes to many joint state-federal programs in Massachusetts. It would cut current funding for Medicaid healthcare programs, food assistance and disability services, while also cutting many taxes for corporations and individuals.
These topline summaries are well known, but this House plan also makes smaller, but significant changes that would disrupt Massachusetts’ plans related to transportation, carbon emission reduction and infrastructure.
The House version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act goes far beyond just reducing federal aid health care and safety net programs, it would rescind funding already awarded for a major transportation project and eliminate tax incentives for electric vehicles and clean energy investments. The future of this legislation is uncertain as it heads to the Senate, but changes are necessary to protect Massachusetts.
It also should be a sign that the commonwealth will need to take a larger role in meeting our own infrastructure, transit and climate goals.
Big Investments Still Worthwhile
Among the most troubling elements of the House bill is a provision to rescind an entire program that awarded infrastructure funding last year to almost 40 different states.
This one transportation program gave $335 million to Massachusetts for the I-90 Allston Multimodal Project. This would help straighten the Massachusetts Turnpike, restore streets and bike connections between neighborhoods and unlock more than 40 acres of developable land.
This grant program also awarded money to projects in Lynn, Cambridge and Chelsea, but now the federal government wants to take promised funding away.
The fact that the House bill attempts to take away funding awarded last year does not change the value and potential benefits of the opportunity in Allston.
The I-90 Allston Multimodal project continues to be one the best public infrastructure projects in the country because it would lead to new jobs and improve the regional transportation system for both drivers and users of transit. The project creates new housing, open space and a new transit station.
This future vision of transit-orientated development will not change despite one proposal to claw back a federal grant. The 2024 federal grant is an important part of this project finance plan, but it only represents less than 20 percent of the project’s cost. This project has earned strong support from Gov. Maura Healey, as well as from Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and a coalition of business, community and environmental leaders who are currently working to move the project forward.
Major Changes to Electric Vehicles
The House legislation also takes direct aim at the nation’s clean energy transition by disrupting the electric vehicle industry, as well as many tax credits for solar and energy efficiency programs.
The bill would end the federal $7,500 tax credit for new electric vehicles, remove tax incentives for installing EV chargers and create a new annual fee for electric vehicles. These proposals would destabilize the EV market, raise consumer costs and make it significantly harder for Massachusetts to reduce carbon emissions.
Massachusetts has committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 as part our state climate plans. Electrification of the vehicle fleet is a critical piece of this strategy.
The state’s 2030 target calls for EVs to make up 16 percent of all registered vehicles. At the end of 2024, we reached just over 2 percent, but with additional automakers entering the market and EV adoption becoming more common, it seemed like this effort would continue to grow in Massachusetts.
Unfortunately, the House bill would dramatically undermine these efforts.
State-Funded Plan Ready to Go
It should not be a surprise that the priorities and vision of the Trump administration are different from the Biden administration, just we knew there would be different goals of the current president than Gov. Healey and Massachusetts. But no matter what happens with the Big Beautiful Bill in the Senate or beyond, Massachusetts has a blueprint for how to keep going on our key state goals.
Earlier this year, the governor proposed a bold, $8 billion, state-funded transportation investment plan that leverages Fair Share surtax revenue to stabilize the MBTA, upgrade roads and bridges and support municipal transportation needs.
Crucially, this plan does not rely on new taxes. It relies on the new funding from the millionaire’s amendment and this money is currently available to serve statewide goals.
This state plan is even more important now that the federal government is signaling their intent to pull back. The governor’s proposal to expand borrowing plans against this surtax comes from a recommendation made by her Transportation Funding Task Force and is currently being evaluated by the state legislature.
Whatever happens in the Senate and in the next few years of the Trump administration, Massachusetts is ready to move forward on our transportation priorities that make a real difference in this area.
We should not wait for Washington, nor be distracted by congressional proposals with fancy titles. The commonwealth has an opportunity to act and we should accelerate our state-funded plan to address our goals.
Rick Dimino is president emeritus of A Better City and a member of the MassDOT board of directors.
