The Massachusetts House of Representatives debated the House Ways and Means Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) budget proposal throughout the week of April 27.
In total, there were over 1,700 amendments filed. The Arc of Massachusetts had seven amendment priorities and tracked nearly 40 other amendments of note to our community.
As we shared before, this is a tough budget year. Between the looming federal cuts and a slowdown in revenue collections, Beacon Hill’s approach to budgeting has been cautious. We saw that caution reflected in the number of amendments that were adopted. Across the board, very few amendments were accepted by the House, and the vast majority of the ones that were successful were local earmarks.
Of The Arc’s priority amendments, one was accepted: $150,000 for Operation House Call. This is a critical investment that will allow OHC to continue to grow its impact, and this funding has been historically appropriated by the legislature for the last several years.
Unfortunately, our other priority amendments were unsuccessful. This is certainly disappointing, but we will continue to work on these when the Senate debates the budget in May.
We appreciate the hard work of our amendment sponsors, Government Affairs team, and the 850+ people who completed our action alert and wrote to their Representatives. Our amendments had a significant number of cosponsors and momentum, thanks to our work together. We want to give a special shoutout to a team of advocates who joined our team in the State House this week: Daniel O’Donnell, Jayden Christian, Racheal Nikuze, and Ilyse Levine-Kanji.
Stay tuned for our analysis of the Senate Ways and Means proposal and our Senate priorities – and get ready to advocate!
