By Bob Katzen

The Senate 40-0, approved a $55.9 billion fiscal 2025 state budget after adding an estimated $89.6 million in spending during three days of debate. The House has already approved a different version and a House-Senate conference committee will eventually craft a plan that will be presented to the House and Senate for consideration and sent to the governor.

“[The budget includes] universally free community college and record public higher education investments,” said Sen. Jo Comerford (D-Northampton), Senate chair of the Committee on Higher Education. “Significant funding for rural roads and bridges, local public health, K-12 schools, Unrestricted Government Aid, Regional Transit Authorities, food security and more.”

“Today our chamber took a vote of confidence in every Massachusetts resident going to school, raising a family and working to make ends meet,” said Senate President Karen Spilka (D-Ashland). “Today we took a vote for an affordable, competitive and equitable commonwealth, This budget is an investment in our people, and it is an investment in our collective future.”

“The fiscal year 2025 budget overwhelmingly passed by the Senate makes transformative investments in education, regional equity and builds upon the commonwealth’s workforce economy,” said Sen. Mike Rodrigues (D-Westport), chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means. “These historic measures enable residents to remain in the state, solidifying our economic future for generations to come. The budget is also a balanced and responsible plan, centered on sustainability and regional equity by maximizing revenues and building upon the progress we’ve already made in key sectors of the state economy. With a transparent and inclusive amendment process, we were able to improve our original budget and make even further strides in our education, economic development, environmental and health and human services priorities.”

Although no one voted against the budget, it wasn’t without its critics.

“The State Senate seems to have only one thing on their mind: spend more, reform less,” said Paul Craney, spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. The Senate President kicked off that theme when she proposed new ‘free’ community college, which would add an unstoppable ballooning mandate for future generations of taxpayers. The Senate’s questionable priorities were also reflected in the late hours of last night, as they adopted an amendment to spend $250,000 on a new state seal and motto, when previous attempts proved unfruitful. What a colossal waste of taxpayer money. There’s no other way to view this.”

Craney continued, “Senate leadership had a great opportunity to do something beneficial for the state’s economic competitiveness, but they failed to act. The income surtax was advertised to the public as a tax just for high income earners making over $1 million dollars. Then last year, the Legislature added a ‘marriage penalty’ to impose the $1 million dollar income surtax for all ‘combined’ incomes for married couples. This change in the tax policy penalizes married couples just for being married and significantly lowers the threshold from what tax proponents campaigned on. At a time when Massachusetts is desperate to keep high income earners and productive taxpayers from moving out of state, the State Senate missed probably their most important opportunity to be helpful. They had a great opportunity to strike out the marriage penalty, but instead, they chose to keep taxes high by penalizing families.”

(A “Yes” vote is for the budget.)

Sen. Patricia Jehlen Yes