On June 30th the Legislature enacted the state budget for the fiscal year starting July 1st 2014. While the Governor, House, and Senate had some different priorities and each introduced new initiatives, there was significantly more agreement throughout this year's process than last year. With the limited revenue available, there was a consensus on the need to keep commitments made last year:

-    to make needed investments in our transportation systems;
-    to  continue restoring some of the deep funding cuts made to the state's higher education system during the 20000's; and
-    to fund reforms of the system for paying human service providers.

The final budget also reflects a shared commitment to begin to strengthen the capacity of the state Department of Children and Families and to make new investments in substance abuse treatment and prevention.

The Governor now has ten days from the enactment of the budget to sign it and veto any outside sections, line items, or portions of line items. The budget then returns to the Legislature which can either let vetoes stand or override them with a two thirds vote of the House and Senate.

From 2001 to 2015, the MA state budget has increased from $32.2B to $39.6B. However, within that the budget for Health Care has increased from $9.9B to $17.3B, which accounts for almost of the the increase in the overall budget, Besides that, most major categories of expenditures have been relatively flat.

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