House budget committee releases FY26 state budget proposal

The House’s budget-writing committee today released a $61.4 billion state spending plan for fiscal 2026 that includes several important investments in schools and municipalities despite state revenue expectations that are more modest than in recent years.

The House Ways and Means proposal (H. 4000) would make progress on a top MMA priority by raising the per-pupil minimum new aid amount from $30 per student to $150. This would be welcome news for many districts across the Commonwealth that were statutorily set to receive a significantly smaller Chapter 70 increase.

The House bill would level-fund Unrestricted General Government Aid, which is less than the 2.2% increase proposed by Gov. Maura Healey in the state budget plan she filed in January. During the budget debate over the next couple of months, the MMA will be urging legislators to build on the House’s UGGA proposal, as well as funding for other key municipal accounts.

The Division of Local Services has updated Preliminary Cherry Sheets to reflect the House Ways and Means proposal.

The following are key components of the House bill for cities and towns:

UGGA
The House bill would level-fund the main discretionary local aid account at $1.31 billion, the same amount as the current fiscal year and $28.8 million less than the governor proposed for fiscal 2026.

Chapter 70
The House bill would continue implementation of the funding schedules in the 2019 Student Opportunity Act to stay on track for year five of a six-year plan.

The bill would leverage surtax revenues in order to increase minimum new aid from $30 per student to $150 per student, which would benefit 77% of school districts (245 out of 318) that were set to receive an increase of less than $150 per student for fiscal 2026.

Charter schools
The House bill would fund the charter school tuition reimbursement account at $199 million, intended to meet the commitment to fund the state’s statutory obligation to mitigate Chapter 70 losses to charter schools.

Rural School Aid
The House bill would fund Rural School Aid at $7.5 million for eligible towns and regional school districts, a decrease from the $16 million for the current fiscal year. The grant program helps districts facing the challenge of declining enrollment to identify ways to form regional school districts or regionalize certain school services to create efficiencies.

Special Education Circuit Breaker
The House’s budget proposal would fund the Special Education Circuit Breaker program at $485 million. When combined with $190 million for this account in a fiscal 2025 supplemental budget recently passed by the House, this would meet the state’s obligation for fiscal 2026.

Regional school transportation
The House bill would fund regional school transportation reimbursements at $122 million for fiscal 2026. According to updated cost projections from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the proposal would reimburse 98% of anticipated claims.

McKinney-Vento
The House bill would level-fund reimbursements for the transportation of homeless students at $28.6 million for fiscal 2026. The impact of this funding level on a community will depend on the number of homeless families that remain sheltered in local hotels and motels. According to updated cost projections from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the House proposal represents 58% of anticipated claims for fiscal 2026.

Vocational transportation
The House bill does not have a line item for out-of-district vocational transportation, which was funded at $1 million in fiscal 2025.

PILOT
The House bill would fund payments-in-lieu-of-taxes at $54.5 million, an increase of $1.52 million. This amount is expected to hold communities harmless from recent valuations.

Surtax investments
Fiscal 2026 is the third year for allocating revenue from the Fair Share surtax on annual incomes over $1 million. The House bill would use $1.95 billion to invest in education and transportation needs, including the following:
• Transportation Fund investment: $500 million for the Commonwealth Transportation Fund, which is a key component of the governor’s $8 billion transportation plan. This infusion of funding would provide significant capacity to increase the Commonwealth’s bond cap, leading to future investments in transportation priorities, including in local roads, bridges and culverts.
• Chapter 70 Student Opportunity Act expansion: $240 million to raise minimum aid to $150 per pupil in fiscal 2026, on top of the $104 per pupil increase for fiscal 2025.
• Green School Works: $10 million for a grant program launched in fiscal 2024 to provide financial support to public school districts to install or maintain clean energy infrastructure.
• Universal School Meals: $190 million to continue the Universal School Meals program, which allows all Massachusetts students to eat for free at school, regardless of household income.

Outside sections
The House bill includes outside sections addressing the following:

Disaster Relief and Resiliency Fund
The bill would direct the state’s comptroller to transfer $14 million from any consolidated net budget surplus for fiscal 2026 to the Disaster Relief and Resiliency Fund, which was established by the fiscal 2025 budget to provide relief to municipalities impacted by extreme weather events.

Local-option alcoholic beverages, existing licensees
The bill would allow, by local option, any onsite consumption licensee currently selling wine and malt beverages to trade the license in for a license to sell all alcoholic beverages.

Vocational admissions task force
Section 65 would establish a task force to study and make recommendations concerning the vocational-technical admissions policies, and Section 68 would prohibit the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education from making changes to the policies before the report from the task force is completed.

Next steps
House members have until 5 p.m. on Friday to file budget amendments, and the House budget debate is set to begin on April 28.

The Senate will take up its state budget in May, with the goal of having a final bill on the governor’s desk in time for the start of the fiscal year in July.

The MMA will continue to reach out to local officials in the weeks and months ahead to engage in advocacy efforts on behalf of many critical municipal and school aid programs.