Proposed budget from state lawmakers won’t raise taxes and includes review of school funding

Massachusetts Democratic leaders on Tuesday unveiled details of a $63 billion budget deal they said would not raise taxes but would realize a host of new proposals, including launching a new review of how the state funds its local school districts.

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The spending plan, released a day before the new fiscal year begins, would hike spending by 4 percent over the budget lawmakers passed a year ago, and is “very tight,” said state Senator Michael Rodrigues, the chamber’s budget chief.

Lawmakers plan to send the proposal to Governor Maura Healey on Wednesday, charting the state’s spending as she, the entire Legislature, and other elected officials prepare to go back before voters this November.

The roughly $63 billion plan touches everything from local aid the state divvies up to cities and towns to the health care funding that regularly accounts for the biggest slice of the state’s spending each year.

The announcement that lawmakers hatched a deal ends weeks of closed-door talks over a proposal they said includes no tax or fee increases on the state’s residents or businesses.

The budget plan would revive a commission to reexamine the formula the state uses to fund public school districts, which lawmakers last overhauled seven years ago with a sweeping bill that promised $1.5 billion of extra money to local districts over several years.

The commission would have to publish a report with findings and recommendations by October 2028.

Lawmakers’ budget agreement would also funnel roughly $300 million more in so-called Chapter 70 funding to local schools over last year’s budget plan, pushing funding to $7.6 billion for the next fiscal year.

But towns and cities have said the formula has not been enough to blunt the impact of rising inflation, and schools have struggled with the end of federal pandemic relief funds and keeping up costs of special education and student transportation.

The budget also funnels about $465 million in direct aid to the MBTA, which has continued to struggle financially. That comes on top of another $595 million the Legislature funneled the agency in a separate spending bill this spring. The T has forecasted surges in spending, driven in part by a massive expansion in hiring; the agency has said it plans to hire 1,000 new workers by the end of fiscal year 2028.

The overall spending commitment mirrors what Healey had requested for the T.

Lawmakers said the budget proposal also would give towns and cities a $40 million boost in direct local aid, a compromise between the chamber’s differing proposals. The plan would embrace a new formula for dividing up local aid by basing it on the size of a city or town’s population.

The plan also would include proposed changes to cost-of-living adjustments for retired public employees, language that would make it illegal for a mandated reporter, such as a teacher, coach, or police officer, to have sex with a 16- or 17-year-old, and a policy — originally proposed by state Senator Becca Rausch — that would scrub candidates’ addresses from the ballot and instead only list what town or city they live in.

The proposal emerged after a gunman shot two Minnesota lawmakers at their homes last year, prompting lawmakers to reconsider how readily available some of their personal information should be.

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“Colleagues with young families are very, very concerned,” Rodrigues said of the proposal Tuesday. “We worked with [the] secretary of state’s office in order to ensure that it’s doable, and we’re happy that we were able to include it.”

Lawmakers said the budget also includes an amendment to address deadly wrong-way driving incidents, extends an affordable health care pilot program through 2027, and provides for insurance coverage for HIV prevention medication.

In response to a deadly fire at a Fall River assisted living facility last year, the budget agreement would also dedicate $500,000 to safety upgrades and emergency preparedness at assisted living homes across the state.

Unlike last year, when lawmakers quietly included an $800 million cushion against ongoing financial uncertainty at the federal level, budget writers this year said they did no such thing.

“We have given up trying to predict what is going to happen in Washington,” House budget chief Aaron Michlewitz said in an interview. “We and many others feel the same way about how unpredictable Washington has become.”

The spending plan would increase funding in some areas that have sustained federal cuts, such as $36 million for food assistanceacross different programs. The budget also builds in $4 million innew funding for English-language learners, given the drop in enrollment at schools with large immigrant communities amid the ICE enforcement crackdown last year.

Lawmakers are expected to vote on the budget proposal Wednesday and then send it to Healey, who would then have 10 days to review the bill. Healey can veto specific items or sections, or return certain provisions to the Legislature with proposed amendments.

Rodrigues said he hopes Healey is “very lean” with her veto pen.

A vote Wednesday means the state is guaranteed to continue a pattern of late budgeting that’s now spanned three governors. Massachusetts has not begun its fiscal year on July 1 with an annual spending plan in place since 2010, when Deval Patrick was governor.

State government, however, won’t have to shut down. On Monday, lawmakers passed a stopgap spending bill that will fund essential programs through July while the governor reviews the year-long budget.

Lawmakers last year passed the spending plan on June 30, which Healey signed days later, marking the first time in nearly a decade that they passed a deal before the start of the fiscal year it was designed to cover.

Michlewitz said passing a late budget “doesn’t really change much” when it comes to the state’s ability to operate.

“To negotiate such a large, extensive bill in 30 days . . . I am pretty proud of that,” the North Democrat said. “That is no small, easy task.”

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