"Lawmakers strike deal for $52 billion budget, including more cash for embattled MBTA "
"More than two weeks after their fiscal year started, Massachusetts legislative leaders on Sunday unveiled an agreement on a $52 billion state budget bill they said would dedicate hundreds of millions of additional dollars to the MBTA, sock away more cash in the state’s savings account, and includes $1.8 billion more in spending than either the House or Senate initially approved.The $51.9 billion spending plan, which lawmakers expect to pass and send to Governor Charlie Baker on Monday, reflects the state’s heady fiscal times, with tax revenues flowing far above estimates and lawmakers simultaneously racing to pass a separate $1 billion tax relief proposal by month’s end."
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The details of the Conference Committee report can be found on the MA Legislature page -> https://www.franklinmatters.org/2022/07/the-conference-committee-report-on-ma.html
"‘African Americans have enriched Massachusetts for centuries’: Mass. lawmakers approve Negro Election Day holiday"
"Decades before the country’s founding, some Black Americans in Massachusetts could participate in a limited form of self-governance. And on Thursday, Massachusetts lawmakers backed a new state holiday to honor that long tradition of civic power.The bill, which still needs Governor Charlie Baker’s approval, would set aside the third Saturday in July as Negro Election Day, recognizing the adoption of the first Black voting system in Massachusetts in 1741 — when Black people could still be held in bondage by white slaveholders. "
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| Legislative leaders beefed up spending across the budget, including setting aside $150 million more for a trust fund to help cover the cost of a $1.5 billion school funding law passed in 2019.JESSICA RINALDI/GLOBE STAFF |
