Senator Tarr’s Statement on Governor Healey’s FY25 Budget Proposal

Boston – Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester) released the following statement today regarding Governor Healey’s $58.15 billion budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2025:
“The Fiscal Year 2025 budget proposal (H.2) filed today by Governor Healey begins to recognize the gathering fiscal storm clouds swirling above our state. It appears to do so without an increase in broad based taxes or a direct withdrawal from the stabilization fund, while funding some important priorities like unrestricted general government aid for cities and towns, and Chapter 70 aid for local school districts. However, in the pages of this document there is cause for deep concern as Massachusetts faces an uncertain and turbulent economic future that demands spending restraint, protecting reserve accounts, and vigorously pursuing reforms to ensure the fiscal stability of our state.
The spending proposed in this budget comes in the context of declining state revenues that recently triggered a $1 billion reduction in available funds for this year’s budget, resulting in significant cuts. Yet the budget filed today would increase spending for the coming fiscal year by 2.9%, an amount that swells to 3.7%, totaling approximately $2.07 billion, when expenditures from the income surtax are taken into account, and without considering the $900 million to $1 billion being sought to meet the cost of the ongoing migrant crisis.
That spending is supported by revenues that are being collected at a declining rate and a heavy reliance on reserve accounts created as a safety net for the most difficult of economic circumstances. Moreover, the bill diverts $375 million from the stabilization fund that we may well need in the future. Taken together, these pieces could spell jeopardy for state finances in the days ahead.
As we navigate through the budgetary process, it is crucial to strike a balance between immediate needs and the long-term sustainability of critical programs. The cost of living and financial burden of people in our Commonwealth is growing with each passing day. Now is the time to tighten our belt and prevent avoidable, unsustainable spending.
Clearly there is a long way to go in the budgeting process for Fiscal Year 2025, and Senate Republicans are committed to working in a bipartisan effort throughout that process in the days ahead with our legislative colleagues and the Healey-Driscoll Administration to put our Commonwealth on a path to fiscal sustainability and spending that responds to priorities, protects the things people depend on, and lives within our means.”