Against a financial landscape that has fluctuated since the pandemic with unexpected and unprecedented expenses, Massachusetts legislators maintained their commitment to delivering a state budget focused on affordability for residents and economic competitiveness for the Commonwealth.  

Representative Kate Hogan (D-Stow) and her colleagues in the Massachusetts Legislature worked steadily to balance the current needs of the Commonwealth with investments in future growth; they presented Governor Healey with a $58 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) that maintains fiscal responsibility while delivering historic levels of investment in every level of education, transportation regional equity, workforce development and health care. 

“This budget builds upon efforts from previous years to prioritize residents and our goals for achieving an equitable and competitive commonwealth. It invests in programs that support families across Massachusetts, provides strong support for our cities and towns, and includes meaningful funding for education, transportation, health care, housing, and workforce development,” said Representative Kate Hogan. “I’m grateful to House Ways & Means Committee Chair Michlewitz and Speaker Mariano for their leadership in navigating the Legislature through these important deliberations and for the support my district receives in earmarks for important programs and projects.”  

Notable policy provisions in the budget include universal free community college; universal free school meals in K-12 schools; fare-free regional transit service and funding to incentivize connections between regional transit routes; and legal online Lottery sales to fund a permanent Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) grant program. Also included is a policy allowing individuals to be identified with a non-binary ‘X’ sex designation on their birth certificate and enshrine into law the current practice of allowing an individual to select a non-binary ‘X’ gender designation on their driver’s license. Another policy provision ends the practice of ‘home equity theft,’ a practice where cities, towns, and even private companies can foreclose on a home for taxes owed, sell it, and pocket the profits.  

“All of these investments are focused on making life better, making life easier for people in Massachusetts, making it more affordable to live here, to work here, to raise children here. This also makes us more competitive — more competitive for our employers, for economic growth, particularly as we compare ourselves to other states,” said Governor Healey.  

The FY25 budget also includes Rep. Hogan’s earmarks for the Third Middlesex District, including:  

$150,000 to enhance public safety with new fire-fighting cisterns in Stow 

$75,000 to repair and replace culverts in Bolton for road safety 

$50,000 to support seniors at the Maynard Council on Aging 

$20,000 to Warm Hearts of Stow to assist Stow residents facing financial difficulties 

$50,000 to Hudson’s Business Improvement District (BID) to support our local economic development projects and small business in Hudson 

$75,000 to Fresh Start Furniture Bank to provide free furniture and home goods to those in need, including women and children escaping domestic abuse and victims of fires, floods, and natural disasters, as well as refugees  

$50,000 to the MetroWest Food System Collaborative for maintaining and expanding programs that bring fresh foods to those most in need 

$30,000 to the watershed Organization for the Assabet Sudbury and Concord Rivers (OARS) to assist stewards of the Assabet River with funds for water quality monitoring 

Additional and full details on the House FY25 budget are available here:  https://www.mass.gov/news/governor-healey-and-lieutenant-governor-driscoll-sign-5778-billion-fiscal-year-2025-budget