This Budget Monitor examines the House Ways and Means Committee’s state budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2017. The HWM proposal is similar overall to the Governor’s and the pattern of recent years. It is largely an austerity budget that reduces spending in some accounts, keeps most essentially at current levels, and contains only very modest new initiatives.
In this brief we describe three proposed changes to the treatment of low-income students in the Chapter 70 formula for FY 2017, analyze their combined effect for every district, and present a couple of alternative options.
The Governor’s budget proposal for FY 2017 is best described as an austerity budget. It contains small cuts and spending reductions across government and includes few new initiatives. This Budget Monitor analyzes the budget compared to current spending levels and in the context of longer-term trends.
The Governor’s budget proposal will reportedly include the expansion of a corporate tax break called Single Sales Factor apportionment. This factsheet describes how this tax break works, the evidence on whether it is effective, and its cost.
This preview provides an overview of both the specific challenges facing the Commonwealth this year and troubling longer-term trends that state budget writers face in crafting a budget for FY 2017. We see that tax cuts of over $3 billion a year have undermined our capacity to make the investments in our people and communities that could make our economy more productive and our Commonwealth an even better place in which to live, work, and raise a family.
With the House and Senate having overridden a number of the Governor’s vetoes the Fiscal Year 2016 (FY 2016) budget is now largely complete. This year’s budget makes few major changes in overall funding provided to educate our children, keep our communities safe, protect our most vulnerable, strengthen our economy and improve the quality of life in our communities. It does include an increase to the state’s earned income tax credit for lower wage workers and their families.
The Legislature’s FY 2016 budget, approved by the House and Senate, makes few major changes in overall support for the programs to educate our children, keep our communities safe, protect our most vulnerable, keep our air and water clean, strengthen our economy and improve the quality of life in our communities. It does include an increase to the state’s earned income tax credit for lower wage workers and their families.
Implementation of the Affordable Care Act affects the state’s fiscal condition in a number of ways. Most significantly, the law provides substantial new federal revenue to the state. It actually provides more in federal revenue than the state costs of implementing provisions of that law.
This Monitor describes major differences between the House and Senate final budgets that will need to be reconciled by the conference committee now meeting. The Legislature’s final budget will then be sent to the Governor, who has line item veto authority to eliminate or reduce funding or specific policy provisions. Those vetoes could be overridden by a two-thirds vote of both branches of the Legislature.
The Senate Ways and Means proposal for FY 2016 modestly increases education programs above levels in the Governor’s and House budgets and it follows the Governor and the House in increasing funding to fight substance abuse and in modestly increasing local aid. Like proposals by the Governor and the House, the SWM budget relies heavily on temporary strategies.