The Senate Ways and Means Committee released their version of the Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) budget on May 6, 2025. We are grateful to Chair Rodrigues for putting forth a budget that “proposes to safeguard the state’s fiscal health, achieve long-term sustainability, and protect core services for our most vulnerable residents.” Particularly this year, we recognize the fiscal pressures on the state and appreciate the commitment to protecting services for the most vulnerable.
The Senate Ways and Means budget is the third major step in the annual budget process, following the release of the Governor’s version and last week’s House debate. You can learn more about the steps in this process here. Following debate by the Senate during the week of May 19, the final Senate budget and final House budget will be negotiated in Conference Committee. The Arc will be active throughout this process.
The FY26 Senate Ways and Means budget generally mirrors the Governor’s budget proposal and the House’s version with a few exceptions. One critical highlight is that the Senate Ways and Means budget fully funds the DESE-DDS Residential Placement Prevention program, which The Arc worked to restore in the House debate.
These proposals have all had some areas of investment and some areas of concern. Over the next few days, we will work with our partners in the Senate to file amendments to increase funding in needed areas. Please make sure that you are signed up for our action alerts to participate in advocacy to support the amendments.
Here are some notable funding levels in the Senate Ways and Means proposal:
- Full funding for Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children for FY26
- Maintains $2.019 billion for Community Residential services
- Increases in funding for line items including State Operated Homes, Technology for Individuals, and Autism Omnibus, when compared to FY25
- 5% increase in funding to support the Personal Care Attendant program
- When compared to the House budget, the Senate Ways and Means version has the following funding levels.
- $14.8 million increase in funding for State-Operated Homes and $1 million increase in funding for State Schools
- $7.4 million decrease in funding for MassHealth Day Habilitation programs
- $425,000 decrease in the Admin Services Coordination line item
- $25,000 decrease in Respite and Family Support
- $20,000 decrease in Transportation services
Some of our concerns remain, such as Community Day Programs continuing to be level-funded despite staggering wait list numbers that represent individuals who are unable to access services. The Turning 22 line item decreased, and though there were related increases in other areas, we know that these services as they exist today are not sufficient to meet existing needs. Additionally, the Chapter 257 Reserve that funds human service worker salaries was funded at $207 million, representing the 53rd percentile of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). We don’t believe that this is a sufficient funding level to make progress on the enduring workforce crisis.
We will be filing amendments in these and other areas in the coming days.
We will share our amendment priorities soon, so please stay tuned—we will need your advocacy to get them over the finish line. Our State Budget webpage will be updated throughout this process.
