Children in Massachusetts are better off as a whole than children nationally. And thanks to more than a decade’s worth of health reform in Massachusetts, children here are far more likely to have health insurance than children almost anywhere else in the U.S. Even so, close to one in seven children in Massachusetts lives in poverty, and is at risk for a wide variety of lifelong challenges.
Massachusetts is the national leader in providing health insurance coverage to its residents, thanks to health reform measures adopted a decade ago. The state’s health insurance coverage rate in 2015 was 97 percent, up about half a point from 2014. The gap between Massachusetts’ “nearly-universal” health care coverage and fully “universal” health care coverage gets smaller every year.
In conjunction with our online resource, the Jobs & Workforce Budget, this brief analyzes state support for workforce development over the past decade, finding that these programs have been cut by about 30 percent since FY 2001 (adjusted for inflation).
Through recent work, state officials and leaders from the workforce training community have recognized the SNAP Employment & Training program as an important opportunity to help offset a portion of long-term funding cuts to workforce training in Massachusetts. This paper describes the SNAP E&T Program, which funds workforce training and related supports like transportation and childcare for people receiving training.
This Budget Monitor describes the funding decisions in each major section of the state budget for Fiscal Year 2017. It compares proposed funding levels with current and, in some cases, historic funding. It identifies a few bright spots and examines policy changes incorporated in various budget provisions. While vetoes and overrides are noted, the focus is on important budget items and the bigger picture in another difficult year. Earlier versions of the Budget Monitor previewed the budget and tracked its progress at each stage.
Eleven other states extend taxes on short-term rentals such as Airbnb. The factsheet explains the current Massachusetts exemption for short-term residential rentals and how taxing these bookings would work. It explains recent research on how rentals such as Airbnb can compete with traditional accommodations, and how these operations sometimes resemble a full-time business. It examines how much revenue the room occupancy tax currently generates and how much additional revenue would be raised if rentals such as Airbnb were included.
The state’s Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) aims to improve the economic security of lower income working families by increasing their after-tax earnings. A growing body of research has found that raising the incomes of lower-income families provides benefits through the life-cycle: improving the health of children and mothers; boosting school performance; and increasing long-term earnings. MassBudget’s updated fact sheet examines a proposal from the Senate Ways and Means Committee to reform and increase the state EITC.
It’s possible for an economy to grow in ways that expand opportunity and promote broadly shared prosperity. We know that’s possible because it’s exactly what happened in the United States in the three decades after World War II. But in the mid-1970s the pattern changed – across America, in Massachusetts, and particularly in our Gateway cities. Typical household incomes grew very little, if at all, for most Gateway Cities over the past few decades. Looking at data in each of the state’s 26 “Gateway Cities,” how would life could be different today if median wages in those cities had grown at the same rate as the overall economy.
How did the Legislature balance the budget in the face of a sudden $750 million shortfall? The revenue decline did not all translate into budget cuts. This Budget Monitor outlines the budget-balancing measures and offers an analysis of each major section of the state budget with comparisons to Fiscal Year 2016 and historic funding levels. It describes both where lawmakers were able to preserve or build upon programs, and where programs were cut or eliminated.
The budget enacted by the Legislature today represents both compromises between the House and Senate proposals, and new solutions to address the challenges caused by updated revenue estimates that project $750 million less in tax revenue than was previously anticipated. As a result, this budget funds most items at the lower of the House and Senate recommendations and a number of items below either the House or Senate recommendations. The budget also relies more on temporary budget-balancing solutions than the versions previously approved by the House and Senate: payments for some MassHealth costs will be shifted from FY 2017 to FY 2018; several accounts are funded significantly below the levels of known costs; and the budget counts on $100 million less in spending than the amount appropriated and that money being used to balance the budget rather than to build reserves. The budget will not make any deposit into the state’s Rainy Day Fund.
While the budget doesn’t make significant progress towards addressing the big challenges our Commonwealth faces, such as rebuilding our transportation infrastructure, making college affordable, or expanding access to high-quality education for all of our children, it does include some small new investments and initiatives. Listed below are descriptions of selected important items in the Legislature’s budget.