House passes closeout supplemental budget

On Oct. 21, the House approved its version of a fiscal 2026 supplemental budget that would allow the Commonwealth to close the books on fiscal 2026.

The $2.35 billion bill is a revised version of the governor’s recent proposal.

The House bill includes a provision intended to ensure consistency with the legislative intent of data requirements from the Frances Perkins Workplace Equity Act, especially given logistical reporting challenges at the U.S. Department of Labor and proposed federal regulatory changes. A recently proposed federal rulemaking would eliminate the federal EEO-1 through EEO-6 workforce demographic reporting that is the foundation for the Massachusetts wage equity reporting.

The bill proposes to transfer responsibility for collecting workforce demographic data to the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development and establish a backstop provision outlining a state reporting requirement should federal reports be eliminated. This could align it with the same data that is currently collected and submitted within current EEO reports.

The supplemental budget bill would also change the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s annual spending limits, allowing the authority to approve additional grants exceeding the cap by up to 10% and allowing for grants to cover over 80% of project costs if incentive percentage points have been awarded.

The bill includes a proposal to allow municipalities with remaining deficits related to the COVID-19 pandemic to amortize them over the course of up to three years.

Funding provisions include allocations for programming for new parents, MassHealth, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, the Cannabis Control Commission, and other accounts. Committee members told State House News Service that its version of the bill would have a net cost to the state of about $1.5 billion.

The bill’s proposed appropriations include:
• $4.3 million for regional transit
• $1 million for a community schools program run by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
• $731,409 for “smart growth” education payments (Chapter 40S payments)
• $725,000 for marijuana social equity municipal payments

The bill would also provide support to the Department of Transitional Assistance to adapt to federal policy changes that are pressuring states to reduce error rates for SNAP benefits.

Policy proposals include:
• Limiting the use of artificial intelligence in political advertising
• Extending the deadline for businesses to come into compliance with updated tax policy changes
• Addressing veterans’ access to medical marijuana licenses
• Allowing municipalities to grant temporary liquor licenses to certain nonprofit charitable corporations

The House did not include Gov. Maura Healey’s proposal to temporarily suspend the gas tax.

The bill now moves on to the Senate.