These slides were used during a 101 briefing on early education and care programs and funding in Massachusetts on September 15th. The briefing covered frequently asked questions about Child Care Financial Assistance, childcare capacity in the state,...

The state’s UI system is still feeling the impact of significant unemployment during the pandemic, which resulted in thousands of additional individuals receiving UI benefits for an extended period. By April 2020, the state’s unemployment had...

The pandemic hugely disrupted the state’s economy and workforce, as unemployment rates jumped from 3.1 percent in February 2020, one of the lowest in state history, to 17.8 percent in April 2020, the highest in over four decades. During the pandemic,...

The same day that Governor Healey signed the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget, while trimming $130.2 million in spending, she filed a supplemental budget proposing several fiscal management tools to help the state address revenue volatility or unmet...

On July 4th, Governor Healey signed the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget; sending back $130.2 million in spending vetoes. Inclusive of the Governor’s budget actions, line-item spending in the FY 2026 budget would total $60.9 billion, a $3.1 billion (5.4...

The House and Senate are preparing to enact a Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget, totaling $61.03 billion in line-item spending. The compromise budget includes $443.4 million less in spending than the final House budget and $395.1 million less in spending...

Last week, MTF published its first Conference Committee preview for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget, Reconciling Revenue and Spending Differences Between the House and Senate Final Budgets. That brief summarized the spending and policy proposals put...

The Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget development process has now entered one of its final stages, Conference negotiations. The Conference Committee, led by the Chairs of the House and Senate Committees on Ways and Means, must reconcile all spending,...

On January 22nd, alongside their budget proposal for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026, the Healey-Driscoll administration filed the first ever Innovation and Capital Fund supplemental budget. The supplemental spending bill appropriated $1.32 billion in surplus...

On May 22nd, the Senate finalized its $61.51 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget. Over the course of four days of debate, $81.1 million in new spending was added and 66 outside policy sections were added to their spending plan. The Senate took...