Senate Budget Breakdown - A Decade of Change:

Last Friday at 1:00 PM, the Massachusetts State Senate released 1,178 amendments to their proposed fiscal year 2023 budget, SB4. The budget, which appropriates $49.7B total, funds many initiatives also included in the recent House budget (HB4700), including early education, mental health services, and more. However, SB4 differs in some ways to that of the House’s proposal, as well as in comparison to Senate budgets from previous years. Our detailed look into the past decade of Senate budget proposals reveals some interesting trends in the legislature, and how future budgets may be impacted.

The FY23 Senate budget is arguably the most robust one of the past decade, containing both the most amendments and earmarks filed. As evidenced by the graphic above, the FY23 peak reflected the similar increase in number of amendments filed that occurred prior to the pandemic. This shift likewise occurred in the House budget over the past ten years, which indicates that the legislature has finally returned to normalcy post-COVID. With this said, in spite of more amendments being filed, the current draft of SB4 does not include many provisions than those allocated in the FY23 House budget. 

While both the Senate and House budget are practically equal with their allotted funding, the distribution areas within the bills differ greatly. The Senate version goes further in funding specific programs and agencies than the House, but in doing so does not provide for certain other costs. This includes establishing free inmate prison calls and continuing the free school lunch program, both of which were funded by HB4700, but not in the Senate. Additionally, there are no tax cuts within the budget, which Senate President Karen Spilka (D), Senate Minority Party Leader Bruce Tarr (R), and Governor Charlie Baker (R) previously voiced support for. Although this can be partially explained by a lack of as many available federal dollars for FY23, the current allocation is tied for the second largest year-over-year increase in a Senate budget since FY14.

Considering the $2.1 B increase from FY22, many advocates across the political aisle were hoping for SB4 to be more expansive for all citizens. While the budget in its current form does still make progress for a variety of areas in Massachusetts, the upcoming debate next Thursday will be very important. Unlike in the House, most Senators individually filed an equal number of amendments, with over 75% filing 20 or more (only 5% of House reps filed over 20 amendments). Taking this into consideration and the fact that 77.7% of amendments were line item (funding) changes, there will likely be many competing interests in putting together a final appropriation for the bill. However, as indicated by our Senate leaderboard most residents can be assured that their Senators are advocating hard for local interests. Evidenced by our graphic below, the number of amendments per budget is also likely to increase as more first term senators like Sen. Adam Gomez (D) and Sen. Lydia Edwards (D) file more amendments than their predecessors. 

The past decade of Senate budgets have shown a general trend of growth, but that does not always lead to a perfect budget. New senators have likely ensured a more inclusive debate will be needed to finalize the budget, but only time will tell what amendments will be adopted in SB4. With 1,178 amendments to consider, keeping track of what happens could be difficult, but not with the help of InstaTrac! We have full summaries available for all amendments from this or any year’s budget, and allow our clients to track, search, and export any amendments of interest. For more information or to see a demo of our services, please reach out to info@instatrac.com.

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