Governor Maura Healey today signed off on a $55.98 billion budget, nearly the entire $56.2 billion enacted by the Massachusetts Legislature for Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24). The Fiscal Year 2024 budget provides for historic levels of investment in education, housing, regional transportation, health care, workforce development, and other areas, as part of a broad strategy to grow our state’s economy and make Massachusetts more affordable, inclusive, and competitive.
“There are thirty school districts throughout the Commonwealth that have school building projects underway. Each of the construction projects has been negatively impacted by a spike in the cost of building materials that occurred during the Covid 19 pandemic” remarked State Senator Ed Kennedy (D-Lowell). “Three of the affected school projects, Lowell High School, Tyngsborough Middle School and the Florence Roche School are in my district.”
Earlier in the legislative session Senator Kennedy filed a bill that would provide $150 million in relief for the school districts that were adversely affected by increases in building material costs. Co-sponsors of the bill included State Representatives Rodney Elliott, Vanna Howard, Rady Mom, Margaret Scarsdale, Danillo Sena, John Rogers and Norman Orrall, as well as Senators Jason Lewis and John Cronin. The essence of that bill was included in the Senate version of the Fiscal Year 2024 State Budget and eventually adopted by the FY2024 Budget Conference Committee.
The final FY2024 budget includes $100 million in capital supports for cities, towns and school districts experiencing extraordinary school project costs impacted by post-COVID inflationary pressures. This funding comes from the Education and Transportation Fund established by the Fair Share Amendment.
In addition to the $100 million in funds, the FY2024 budget increases the statutory limit on the estimated amount of grants approved by the MSBA to $1.2 billion. Increasing the statutory spending cap, coupled with an infusion of state funding, will allow schools that signed MSBA project contracts before COVID—as well as those that are working towards signing a contract—to catch up to construction costs impacted by inflation.
“For approximately two decades, the Massachusetts School Building Authority has provided grants to public school districts for school construction and renovation projects in order to partner with Massachusetts communities to support the design and construction of educationally- appropriate, flexible, sustainable, and cost-effective school facilities. The system has generally worked, but what the model did not account for was the unforeseen effects of COVID-19 and the ensuing global supply chain issues that drastically raised the cost of construction materials,” said Kennedy.
These FY24 budget provisions accomplish the goals set forth in Senate Bill 298, An Act relative to increased material costs in school construction projects filed in January by Senator Kennedy and co-sponsored by the Lowell State House delegation.
“I cannot thank Senator Kennedy and the delegation enough for leading the charge to secure a solution to the MSBA budget overrun in the FY24 state budget,” Lowell City Manager Tom Golden said. “The inclusion of his solution in the final budget will not only have a huge impact on the City of Lowell and the Lowell High School project, but on MSBA projects around the state that have encountered COVID-related inflation costs.”
