As is tradition, the state started the fiscal year without a spending plan.
For at least the second year running lawmakers on Beacon Hill will celebrate Independence Day with the state operating under a temporary balance sheet which will keep the lights on through July while the fiscal 2024 budget remains overdue and in limbo.
The budget was due by the first of the month, however both chambers of the Legislature met informally Monday before sending members home for a midweek holiday break, but only after scheduling further informal sessions for Thursday. All the while, negotiators from both the House and Senate continue to iron out the differences between their proposals for the state’s budget.
“I feel confident that we’ll be getting a deal done soon,” Sen. Nick Collins told the State House News Service. “We’re dealing with a lot of meaty issues. We’re dealing with a budget, we’re dealing with a reform of the tax code. So it’s not insignificant.”
The House, which has not met formally since April 26, had previously informed members they may need to be around for Thursday in case budget talks concluded. On Monday conversations of a formal Thursday session were scrapped when no budget emerged from the six-member conference committee.
The state will operate under a temporary budget for the next 30 days, which Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, acting in her capacity as governor in the absence of Gov. Maura Healey, signed into law last week.
Last year, the conference committee working out the Legislature’s spending differences, led then as now by House Ways and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz and Senate Ways and Means Chairman Michael Rodrigues, took a little over two weeks out of the new fiscal year before they sent their colleagues a budget.
The offices of both Ways and Means Chairman did not return requests for comment on the state of this year’s negotiations.
The House spending plan includes proposals like online lottery sales and permanent free school meals that the Senate budget did not. Both plans approach $56 billion. Once a budget is finally approved by both chambers of the Legislature, Gov. Maura Healey will have 10 days to respond with her signature or veto.
