This fact sheet examines the core elements of the “Pacheco Law”- the requirement that privatization efforts lead to savings based on improved efficiency and that they do not drive down the wages of working people – and describes the processes and steps the law requires.
In a quiet three days of debate, the House made few changes to the budget drafted by the House Ways and Means Committee. Many of the funding increases approved just restored funding that the HWM Committee had proposed cutting. This Monitor describes the amendments adopted in each area of the budget and discusses how proposed funding levels compare to the Governor’s proposals and to historic levels.
The HWM budget for FY 2016 recommends targeted investments in some important areas including early education and care, affordable housing, and opiate abuse prevention and treatment. The proposal also includes new cuts to some important programs including workforce training for low income parents and youth jobs and violence prevention efforts. Read this Budget Monitor for more detail.
In releasing his budget proposal on Wednesday, March 4, 2015 the Governor identified important priorities: “creating better communities, better schools, and better jobs for all of Massachusetts.” This budget does not, however, propose the types of significant investments in these areas that could make a meaningful difference in the lives of working people across the state. The Governor did file a tax reform proposal along with the budget that would significantly help lower-wage working people across the state: a doubling of the state earned income tax credit.
Maintenance budgets are estimates of what it would take for the state to maintain services at the same level as prior years. These budgets are also often called current services baselines, as they allow comparison of budget proposals to the baseline of what is currently provided. Maintenance budgets are the first step in our state’s budget process, but they are rarely made public in a standard way.
As the FY 2016 budget season begins, the Commonwealth continues to suffer from the effects of the three billion dollars of income tax cuts enacted over a decade ago. As a result of those tax cuts, the state has been forced to make deep cuts to important public services. Even with those budget cuts, the state continues to face budget gaps at the start of each year’s budget process. This preview describes the state’s fiscal condition as the budget season begins.
Beginning in 1998, a number of significant changes were made to the Massachusetts tax code–including a series of phased cuts to the state personal income tax. These cuts have reduced our capacity to fund essential services.
This brief describes the “net” cost of MassHealth, providing a much clearer picture of the impact of MassHealth on the state budget rather than looking at gross state budget totals alone.
This budget brief summarizes the Fiscal Year 2015 budget for MassHealth and Health Reform Programs. The FY 2015 MassHealth budget covers the first full year of implementation of the federal Affordable Care Act. More than half of this funding will be reimbursed by the federal government.
While the Governor, House, and Senate had some different priorities for the FY 2015 budget, there was significantly more agreement throughout this year’s process than last year. This Budget Monitor describes funding levels and initiatives throughout the state budget and compares them to years past.