Gov. Maura Healey signed a supplemental budget for fiscal year 2023 Tuesday, just a few weeks after announcing her FY-2024 budget. As Doug Howgate of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation explains, this is normal and is essentially a way for the state to pay their bills.

“The supplemental budget that Governor Healey just signed was essentially an exercise for programs that had demand that was greater than expected and they ran out of money and adjustments needed to be made," said Howgate.

Howgate told Spectrum News 1 there’s a fine line when it comes to supplementing federal funding with state dollars, because the federal government may use it as an excuse not to fund a program in the future.

"I think one of the dangers we also face is that if Massachusetts says, 'hey federal government, we are just going to fund this now,' that sends a really dangerous message to a divided Congress who might say, 'we don’t have to fund this program because the states who want it will just do it themselves,'" Howgate said.