Thanks to CHAPA for this update:
On October 24, 2019, the State Senate concluded debate on its FY2019 Supplemental Budget, S.2386, which closes out the FY2019 budget, which ended with a large revenue surplus. The House passed its supplemental budget on October 17. For information on the House budget, click here.
The Senate budget includes $10 million for the production of housing for extremely low-income (ELI) households (line item 1595-0508). These funds were also included in the House budget. CHAPA thanks Senate President Spilka and Ways & Means Chair Rodrigues for their investments in affordable housing.
The Senate did not include $10 million for a down payment assistance program for low- and moderate-income first time home buyers, which was included in the House supplemental budget. Although not adopted, CHAPA thanks Sen. Brendan Crighton for sponsoring an amendment to add this down payment assistance program to the budget.
CHAPA also supported an amendment to add $5 million in the Senate budget to recapitalize the Get the Lead Out program to do lead-paint remediation in low- and moderate-income housing. Although not adopted, CHAPA thanks Sen. Julian Cyr for sponsoring the amendment.
The Senate budget also did not include additional funds and authorizing language within Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT) to support a rent and mortgage arrearage program that the House included in its budget.
The House and Senate must now reconcile the differences between their respective budgets before sending it to the Governor for his signature. A conference committee is expected to be appointed to lead this reconciliation process. However, because of the way the Senate processed the House’s version of the bill, one of the two branches will need to re-vote it in order to begin a formal conference committee negotiation. This is expected to delay final budget negotiations between the House and Senate.
