Yesterday, the MA House passed its FY 2027 budget with a broadly bipartisan vote of 149 to 9. The 9 NO votes came from the more conservative wing of the House Republican Caucus.
In the lead-up to the floor debate, 1737 amendments were filed to the budget.
Most of them (1,659, or 95.5%) were dispensed with through the consolidated amendment process. House Leadership groups amendments into categories, tosses aside the actual amendments, and then negotiates a set of earmarks and policy changes that will remain in the final package.
This process produced seven consolidated amendments, five of which passed unanimously.
- Consolidated Amendment “A” (Education & Local Aid/Social Services/Veterans)
- Consolidated Amendment “B” (Health and Human Services & Aging and Independence)
- Consolidated Amendment “C” (Public Safety and Judiciary)
- Consolidated Amendment “D” (Public Health & Mental Health and Disability Services)
- Consolidated Amendment “E” (Constitutional Officers & State Administration/Transportation)
- Consolidated Amendment “F” (Energy and Environmental Affairs & Housing)
- Consolidated Amendment “G” (Labor and Economic Development)
So what about the remaining 78? 48 of them were withdrawn, 29 were rejected, and one was laid aside.
26 of the 29 rejected amendments received recorded votes. All were filed and roll-called by Republicans. Let’s focus on a few in particular.
The House voted party line against various GOP amendments to drain money from the state budget, such as reducing the sales tax, reducing the state income tax, adopting Trump’s “no tax on tips” gimmick (which harms workers more than it helps), and more (Roll Calls #158 to #164).
The House voted down an amendment from Rep. Steve Xiarhos to eliminate cashless bail; the vote was 26 to 129, with Rep. Alan Silvia joining Republicans in voting for it.
Republicans brought up their favorite things to force recorded votes on: suppressing the vote with a photo ID law (27 to 131, with Rep. Colleen Garry of Dracut and Rep. Dave Robertson of Tewksbury joining Republicans), defunding No Cost Calls (26 to 132, with Rep. Garry joining Republicans), imposing citizenship requirements for housing assistance (26 to 132, with Garry joining Republicans), preventing the state from using MBTA Communities Act compliance as a condition for grant eligibility (27 to 130, with Garry and Rep. Jeff Turco of Winthrop joining Republicans), making the emergency shelter system more restrictive and more bureaucratic (26 to 131, with Garry joining Republicans), defunding Mass Save (25 to 133, party line), fear-mongering about “welfare fraud” (25 to 133 , party line), and finding new ways to collaborate with Trump’s DHS (25 to 133, party line).
