Senate Passes $39 Billion Budget By Deadline

With nearly four hours to spare, the Senate passed a revised, $39.1 state budget just in time for the current fiscal year to end.

In the final days of budget wrangling, a House and Senate committee was forced to reconcile a projected $750 million revenue shortfall. And the final version isn't out yet. Gov. Charlie Baker and his veto pen have yet to meet the Fiscal 2017 document.

Legislators applauded the passage of the budget bill Thursday.

"Happy Fiscal New Year's Eve! I'm proud that the MA legislature has officially passed an on-time, balanced budget," Senate Ways and Means Committe Chair Karen Spilka wrote. "This budget reflects our belief that we must be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars, while keeping the Commonwealth moving forward on the path to resilience, especially during a time of fiscal uncertainty."

Three Republicans voted against the budget in the House, and a lone Democrat opposed it in the Senate.

Elsewhere, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation acknowledged the difficulties budget-writers faced, but ultimately offered a bleak review, saying the budget's solutions "still leave the state in a precarious financial position."

At the heart of the non-partisan group's critique is the means by which the budget addresses that $750 million shortfall. The estimate materialized within the past two months, thanks to revised revenue projections influenced in part by the likely impact of the "Brexit."

The difference was made up through a combination of offsetting tax revenue, shifting or delaying certain payments, putting less into the state's rainy day fund and making cuts. In addition to lowering the proposed funding for state parks, most of the cuts target the state's Masshealth Medicaid insurance program, assuming a lower caseload going forward.

But, "if caseload exceeds present expectations, these savings will not materialize," the Foundation warned.

And should a budget gap materialize in the next Fiscal Year, the Foundation believes shortchanging the rainy day fund now could deprive the governor's administration of one of the "key tools" to fix it later.

>> Photo by Alison Bauter, Patch staff