Massachusetts Senate puts $532 million spending bill on Thursday’s agenda

By Alison Kuznitz

The Senate Ways and Means Committee unveiled a $532 million budget bill Thursday that delivers more than $200 million for hospitals and community health centers and more aid for elder home care services and rental assistance.

The package contains $174 million for payments to “fiscally strained acute care hospitals” and $35 million for payments to “fiscally strained community health centers.” Another big line item in the bill is $134.5 million for the Medical Assistance Trust Fund.

The bill steers funds to dozens of accounts that were underfunded in the fiscal 2025 annual budget.

Elder care providers, who have sought more money to keep up with demand for basic and intensive home care services, would receive $60 million under the bill, which could move through the Senate on Thursday.

Other outlays in the bill are $42.9 million for the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition program; $15.5 million to replace electronic benefits cards; and $10 million for grants to municipalities to cover “extraordinary emergency medical service costs.”

Gov. Maura Healey in May signed two supplemental budgets stemming from the Legislature’s incremental approach to weighing a $756 million spending package that she filed on April 2. Those bills delivered

$190 million

to ensure child care providers serving low-income families would continue to get paid in June, and

$240 million bill

to rescue the budget of state commission that administers public employee health insurance.

The latest supplemental budget also expands the authority of the secretary of the Executive Office of Aging and Independence to transfer funds between accounts, creates a task force to review and make recommendations about the Health Safety Net Trust Fund, establishes the Office of the Inspector General Recovery Fund, and launches a Senate Artistic Upgrade and Representation Fund, according to a summary.

Another policy section allows pharmacies operated by the Department of Public Health to “distribute a controlled substance related to reproductive health care services or used to ensure access to a controlled substance in the event of a public health emergency,” according to SWM.