Senate budget invests in education, taxes opioids and vapes – By Mary Markos (Boston Herald) / May 7 2019
The Senate Committee on Ways and Means unveiled a $42.7 billion budget today, making “record” investments in education and including a new tax on opioids and e-cigarettes.
“Each line item, each number is more, much more than just a number,” Senate President Karen Spilka said in a budget briefing this morning. “It is a statement of the Senate’s priorities and our values and what we hold dear. It’s a reflection of that.”
Though budget proposals from the Governor and the House boost elementary and secondary education funding, the Senate put down the most money with a proposed $5.176 billion in Chapter 70, $268.4 million more than the previous fiscal year.
“When I say record I mean record, unprecedented investments,” Spilka said.
The contribution “represents a substantial down payment,” according to Ways and Means Chair Sen. Michael Rodrigues, on the four recommendations made by the Foundation Budget Review Commission, which found that Massachusetts schools were underfunded by between $1 billion and $2 billion in 2015. The Joint Committee on Education is currently considering major pieces of legislation meant to update the state’s education funding formula.
The Senate also proposes to increase charter school reimbursements by $10 million.
Like Governor Charlie Baker’s budget, the Senate includes a 15% tax on opioid manufacturers to “support” substance disorder prevention and treatment and an expansion of the cigarette excise tax to include e-cigarettes, which would go toward public health services, Rodrigues said. The Senate also mirrored the governor’s proposal to allow MassHealth to directly negotiate with prescription drug manufacturers.
The budget accounts for $250.5 million in revenue from casinos and $132.5 million from recreational marijuana sales and excise, which are similar to that of the governor’s budget. They did not include, however, a $35 million revenue source in Bake’s version for sports wagering.
The Senate proposes a $3.5 million investment to open five new substance abuse disorder recovery centers around the state and $10 million to go in a new account named the Behavioral Health Outreach, Access and Support Trust Fund. That fund would allow loan forgiveness for behavioral health workers and pay for a public awareness campaign to fight stigma surrounding mental and behavioral health.
An additional $200,000 was set aside to create a nursing home sustainability task force to “identify ways that we can better protect our most vulnerable seniors,” Rodrigues said. The task force, similar to one proposed by the House, would be led by the chairs on the Joint Committee on Elder Affairs and charged with submitting a report by Nov. 30, 2019.
Senators can file amendments to the Ways and Means budget until Friday. The Senate will then debate the budget in formal session starting Tuesday, May 20.
https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/05/07/senate-budget-invests-in-education-taxes-opioids-and-vapes/
