On June 24, 2025, Governor Healey signed a supplemental budget to invest $1.32 billion in surplus Fair Share revenue from Fiscal Year 2024 into education and transportation. Overall, the bill uses $758.8 million in one-time funding to support transportation infrastructure needs across the state. Another $561.4 million will be dedicated to the state’s early education, K-12, and higher education systems. The funding comes from the $2.46 billion in surtax revenue collected in Fiscal Year 2024, of which $1 billion was appropriated in the FY24 budget. Governor’s Office Press Release
Conference Committee Bill: H. 4227 – An Act making appropriations for the fiscal year 2025 to provide for supplementing certain existing appropriations and for certain other activities and projects
Update on afternoon of June 18: Only four state representatives were opposed on June 18 as the Massachusetts House advanced a plan to allocate more than $1.3B in surplus revenue generated in fiscal year 2024 by the state’s surtax on household income in excess of about $1M. The conference committee compromise includes $716M for transportation and $593.5M for education. When combined with expenditures included in the fiscal 2024 budget, House budget chief Aaron Michlewitz said Wednesday, transportation initiatives will have gotten $1.19B and education will have seen $1.05B in investments. The Massachusetts Senate also adopted H 4227 on June 18. The negotiated bill now heads to Gov. Maura Healey’s desk for her review and formal signing in the next few days.
Background before votes on June 18:
Transportation gets upper hand in $1.3 billion spending accord _ Budget _ statehousenews.com
Legislative negotiators allocated $593 mil for education, $716 mil for transportation in an FY2025 Supplement Budget bill scheduled for votes in both the MA House and MA Senate on June 18. The conference committee released its report on the FY25 Supplemental Budget that leverages surplus revenue from the income surtax on high earners. Negotiators agreed to allocate $716 million toward transportation, which is a compromise between the Senate’s proposed $670 million and the House’s proposed $828 million for transportation.
House and Senate negotiators struck an agreement on June 16 on how to allocate more than $1.3B in surplus revenue generated by the state’s surtax on household income in excess of about $1 million. The compromise budget that the chambers took up on June 18 would divide the surplus surtax revenues more evenly than the House had approved but not as close to a 50/50 split as the Senate had backed. The accord includes $716M for transportation and $593.5M for education. All six conference committee members signed off on the agreement when they met Monday afternoon to finalize it. The negotiated bill could reach Gov. Maura Healey’s desk as soon as June 18, when the House and Senate each plan to meet in formal sessions.
Of the $716 million for transportation, $535 million, a little less than 75% would go towards improvements and transportation infrastructure upgrades across the MBTA system that mostly serves Greater Boston. That includes $300 million to replenish the T’s budget reserve account, $175 million in workforce and safety funding to pay for implementation of Federal Transit Administration recommendations, $40 million for physical infrastructure upgrades, and $20 million for the T’s low-income fare relief program.
Last week, the MBTA Board approved a $3.24 billion FY2026 budget that increases total expenses by $222 million or 7%. Officials said the agency’s budget deficit is projected at $168 million in the fiscal 2026 budget, compared to $307 million in the fiscal 2025 budget. T officials said in a presentation to the board that the budget assumes a $361 million or 13% increase in revenue “due to proposed investments made in Governors H1 budget and FY25 Supplemental Budget, and increased Fare Revenue.” It also assumes a $40 million or 3% decline in state sales tax revenue to the T due to “[d]ecreasing consumer sentiment and motor vehicle sales.”