If you have any questions about this week’s report, e-mail us at bob@beaconhillrollcall.com or call us at (617) 720-1562.
Beacon Hill Roll Call
Volume 49 – Report No. 6
February 5-9, 2024
Copyright © 2024 Beacon Hill Roll Call. All Rights Reserved.
By Bob Katzen
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THE HOUSE AND SENATE: There were no roll calls in the House or Senate last week.
This week Beacon Hill Roll Call reports on some of the bills that were approved by the 2023-2024 Legislature through February 9, 2024 and signed into law by Gov. Maura Healey.
Of the more than 6,400 bills that have been filed for consideration, only 108 have been approved by the Legislature and signed into law by the governor. Of those 108, 16 were bills that affect the entire state while the other 92 were either sick leave banks or other local-related measures applying to just one city or town. Sick leave banks allow public employees to voluntarily donate sick, personal or vacation days to a sick leave bank for use by a fellow worker so he or she can get paid while on medical leave.
Here are six of the important statewide-related bills signed into law including comments from legislators at the time the bill was approved.
$56.2 BILLION FISCAL 2024 STATE BUDGET (H 4040)
House 156-2, Senate 39-0, approved a $56.2 billion fiscal 2024 state budget for the fiscal year that began July 1, 2023. The price tag represents a $3.8 billion increase over last year’s fiscal 2023 budget.
Provisions include $171.5 million to require public schools to provide universal free school meals to all students; $50 million to support free community colleges; $50 million to create Green School Works, a program to fund projects to install and maintain clean energy infrastructure at public schools; $6.59 billion in Chapter 70 education funding for cities and towns, an increase of $604 million over last year; $504.5 million for the special education circuit breaker; $181 million for MBTA capital projects; $19.81 billion for MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program that provides health care for low-income and disabled persons; and a new law that prisons must provide free unlimited incoming and outgoing phone calls for prisoners.
Another provision would allow undocumented/illegal immigrants to qualify for the lower in-state college tuition rate if they attended high school here for at least three years and graduated or completed a GED.
“Massachusetts continues to move in a positive direction by making significant investments in this budget,” said Rep. Todd Smola (R-Warren), the ranking House member of the Committee on Ways and Means. “We prioritize local funding by increasing general government aid to municipalities and double the minimum aid contribution per pupil for education.”
“While there were many good provisions in the budget, the final version contained policies, unrelated to the budget itself, that we could not support,” said Reps. Nick Boldyga (R-Southwick) and Marc Lombardo (R-Billerica) in a joint statement.
The statement continued, “Seniors, renters, small businesses and hard-working families can barely afford to make ends meet. As a result, Massachusetts continues to see one of the highest out-migrations in the country. At the…
This article was originally published by a franklinobserver.town.news . Read the Original article here. .