On Monday, July 29, Governor Healey signed a $57.8 billion Fiscal Year 2025 budget into law.
Exciting news: the Access to Counsel pilot program was signed into law! You can read about it in this Mass Law Reform Institute press release here (with the Network weighing in).
More exciting news: thanks to the Fair Share Amendment revenues, free community college will be made available to all, along with free and expanded regional transit bus service. We recognize the vital role these opportunities play in creating greater housing stability, and we are thrilled to celebrate them, along with our western MA legislators who were the greatest champions.
In housing and homelessness news, many of our priority budget items were level-funded (duly noting that “level” does not meet the current need). See MHSA’s summary here. On the plus side, the final budget increases funding for the Mass Rental Voucher Program by 22% relative to FY24 to $219 million. On the minus side, youth homelessness funding was cut by roughly $450,000. The Governor’s vetoes are outlined here. While they do not impact the Network’s priority budget items, there are related programs for which these cuts will have a meaningful impact. The Legislature has a very short time (today!) to vote on veto overrides.
We are grateful to our legislators for their hard work, and we know much work lies ahead. We look forward to continuing it together.
