All of the parts of the state’s FY 2014 budget are now in place, including funding allocations for Education, Health Care, Transportation and other essential programs that we support together through our government.
In early July, after the budget passed the House and Senate, the Governor exercised his authority to strike individual line items and to limit the amount of funding in other line items (see list of vetoes). Since that time, however, the legislature has overridden all of the Governor’s funding-related vetoes. As a result, the final budget is very similar to the budget passed by the Legislature.
Among the new investments included in the FY 2014 budget, the most substantial is an effort to fix and repair our state’s transportation system, including roads, bridges, buses, and subways. In addition, the budget includes:
- Roughly $100 million in additional funding for higher education (including UMass, state universities, and community colleges). Even with this additional support, funding for higher education remains 25% below the level in 2001 (adjusted for inflation)
- A 2.4 percent increase in general local aid—the first increase in 6 years. Funding for local aid will still be 46% below 2001 (adjusted for inflation)
Another area that would receive some targeted new funding is early education and care. In particular, the budget devotes $15 million to help clear a long wait list and ensure that young children have access to child care.
When the Governor released his budget proposal in January, he allotted nearly four times as much money to this effort, as part of a broader effort to invest in early education and care, to support students in our K-12 schools, and to begin to unwind many of the long-term cuts to public programs that have followed the income tax cuts of 1998-2002. It is difficult to make these kinds of broad investments in education that help families and ensure the long-term strength of our economy without raising the substantial new revenue that the Governor had proposed.
Our full Budget Monitor describes the FY 2014 budget in greater detail, showing how it will affect a range of programs across the budget. Where appropriate, it also includes information about a supplemental budget bill—with additional funding—that the Governor has proposed but which has not yet passed the Legislature.
