Despite months of underwhelming revenue, House Speaker Ron Mariano used an appearance before the Boston region’s business leaders to lay out some ambitious spending plans, hinting at big money for the MBTA and an even larger housing proposal than Governor Maura Healey’s $4 billion offering.
Speaking before the members of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce for their 2024 Government Affairs Forum on Thursday, Mariano acknowledged that his address this year would be somewhat less ambitious than the one he delivered last year.
“The simple reality, however, is that things are different than they were the last time I was here,” he said.
Last year, the speaker said he was happy to announce the House’s plan to take up tax reform, free college for adults over 25, free school meals, and new firearms legislation — all of which they passed.
This year, he said, the state is grappling with nine straight months of revenue shortfalls. Simultaneously it’s dealing with a routinely full state shelter system, at capacity for several months now and projected to cost $1 billion annually.
“That means that while there is always a need for legislative action on the issues that we face, we must balance that need with what is fiscally possible,” he said.
Chief among the concerns facing residents of Massachusetts, Mariano said, is the issue of housing. The cost of buying a home is as high or higher in the Bay State as it is anywhere in the U.S., he said. Rent is higher here than pretty much anywhere, he said, and vacancies fewer. A low volume of available homes for young families leaves them renting longer, “and for many residents, it has also meant delaying starting a family.”
The result?
“People are leaving Massachusetts at a much higher rate than that of most other states. According to a report released last week by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Foundation, 25% of young people in the Greater Boston area are planning to move in the next five years, a trend that is due in-part to the cost of housing,” he said.
The House will soon take up the governor’s $4 billion housing bond bill, and the Speaker said he envisions passing an even more ambitious proposal, though he wouldn’t say how much larger.
“I’m going bigger,” he told reporters after his speech. “You’ll see how high.”
Part of growing the bond bill is a plan to expand Massachusetts Water Resources Authority services south toward what used to be the South Weymouth Naval Air Station, which was ordered closed by the U.S. Military in 1995.
Mariano said that unused chunk of land sandwiched between Weymouth, Rockland, and Abington could hold up to 6,000 houses, according to developers he’s spoken with who have visited the site, but only if they can figure out how to get water there.
“I’ve been working on this project for almost 30 years, and for the first time, I have a vehicle that’s tied directly to what we’re trying to do,” he said.
The MBTA, he said, will also see an increase in funding through this year’s budget negotiations. This is at least fourth year in a row the MBTA has seen such an increase, he told the Chamber, though when pressed by the media about how much of an increase the House would offer he was again unforthcoming with an amount, except to say that it would be more than the governor’s FY25 offering of 314 million in direct operating support and $45 million for the implementation of a low income fare program.
“Just a general increase in appropriations,” he said.
The House will take up their version of the FY25 budget in mid-April, Mariano said.