MassBudget Statement: House Ways and Means FY 2027 Budget Proposal

Today, the Massachusetts House Ways and Means (HWM) committee released their proposed budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2027. This follows Governor Maura Healey’s FY 2027 budget proposal released in January. The HWM proposal outlines a plan to spend over $62.8 billion for the upcoming fiscal year beginning July 1, of which $2.7 billion is revenue from the Fair Share surtax.

Statement from Viviana Abreu-Hernández, Ph.D., MassBudget President

“The HWM FY 2027 budget proposal once again shows the value and importance of the Fair Share surtax, which allows the Commonwealth to continue and increase critical investments in  education and transportation.

We are excited to see the HWM committee’s support for child care operational grants, funding to reduce the child care waitlist (via a supplemental budget for FY 2026), and funding for free school meals for all children in public schools in Massachusetts, regardless of their household income. 

We are also encouraged to see new investment in a fund for school districts negatively affected by the declining enrollment of multilingual learners. We acknowledge that this new fund is fundamental to address the substantial loss of revenue due to lower student enrollment. Although, the funding allocated is still not sufficient to ensure impacted school districts continue to operate without major disruptions. We are also grateful for the restoration of funds to Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites. The funding proposed will ensure that workers with low incomes can continue to file their taxes at no cost and access necessary tax credits.  The HWM proposal also increases funding for the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP), which supports families with low incomes to afford rent. This is particularly important in the face of a housing affordability crisis in Massachusetts. The budget priorities that MassBudget has been focused on and advocating for are well supported in the HWM FY 2027 budget proposal and the House FY 2026 supplemental budget proposal.

The HWM committee’s proposed budget cuts funding for Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) caseworkers, which provides direct assistance to households with low incomes to apply and access benefits, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). DTA workers determine eligibility and reduce application errors, therefore, ensuring access to programs and protecting the state from losing federal funding.  Instead of cutting these services, the state should be increasing this funding and adding more DTA workers. Eligibility criteria in federally funded human services programs have drastically changed in the last year which makes support for DTA caseworkers even more vital. Additionally, the funding proposed for programs like Rental Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT) and HomeBASE is insufficient to adequately address the current and growing need to prevent families from experiencing housing instability and homelessness.

The federal government has given $1 trillion in tax cuts to the wealthiest individuals and corporations while reducing eligibility and cutting funding for programs that serve our most vulnerable populations. We have seen transformative investments in education and transportation in Massachusetts through the Fair Share surtax.  Multinational corporations doing business in Massachusetts need to pay their fair share, too. By closing a tax loophole that allows these corporations to avoid state taxes by hiding profits offshore, we can use the hundreds of millions generated to provide much needed support to individuals and families struggling most in our state.”

MassBudget will issue a preliminary analysis of the HWM’s FY 2027 budget proposal in the days to follow.