Prior to the end of formal sessions in calendar year 2021, the Legislature has two major public finance tasks before it:

• Determine how to use the fiscal year (FY) 2021 budget surplus; and

• Appropriate Fiscal Recovery Funds (FRF), provided through the American Rescue Plan, to sustain and galvanize the Commonwealth’s pandemic recovery.

The availability of this level of flexible federal funds and a significant budget surplus is unprecedented in the Commonwealth’s recent history. Legislators must now choose how to deploy these resources in a sustainable and impactful way; those choices will shape the state’s fiscal future for years to come. This MTF Bulletin outlines the path forward for both of these tasks and previews some of the major considerations before the Legislature.