Gov. Maura Healey signed into law a roughly $3.1 billion budget bill Monday that requires her administration to spend $50 million on an overflow site for migrant and local homeless families placed on a waitlist for emergency shelter.
In lightning-quick fashion for Beacon Hill standards, Healey inked her signature on a proposal that only hours earlier required House Democrats to muster enough members to overcome Republican opposition and pushed senators to take the rare step of suspending a rule preventing formal law making after mid-November.
“I’m proud to sign this supplemental budget that dedicates critical funding for hard-earned raises for workers, supports municipalities with covering the costs of special education and flood relief, sustains our emergency assistance program, and more. I’m grateful to our colleagues in the Legislature for their partnership,” Healey said in a statement sent out just before 6 p.m.
A spokesperson for Healey said the governor did not veto any sections of the legislation.
The budget bill, which had been the subject of major controversy in the House for three straight days last week, allocates $250 million to respond to an influx of migrants in Massachusetts and a struggling emergency shelter system.
Lawmakers barred Healey from using the entire $250 million until her administration finds and opens the overflow site by Dec. 31. The overflow site must stay open through the end of fiscal year 2024 or as long as her administration keeps a shelter declaration in effect, whichever comes first.
Some public sector workers are also in line to receive critical pay raises just ahead of the holiday season as the budget includes nearly $400 million for 95 collective bargaining agreements.
If lawmakers completed their work on the budget Monday and Healey signed it into law, public employees could see raises in the paycheck that comes out on Dec. 22, Senate budget writer Michael Rodrigues said earlier in the day.
“Unfortunately, because of the delay down the hall, they will not be able to receive the retroactive pay that they will be entitled to. That will come in early January,” he said on the floor of the Senate.
The Senate pushed through the budget bill on a 20-3 vote, with three Republicans voting against the measure. Senate Republicans claimed victory for pushing the branch to agree to a formal session which never occurred because the House did not move on the motion.
Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr said “valuable time” was lost between the time Healey filed her version of the fiscal year 2023 closeout budget and when Democrats announced a deal had been reached between competing House-Senate proposals.
“We had a defining choice. A choice about remaining in our silos, a choice about not talking to each other. A choice about letting lack of communication perpetuate paralysis,” he said. “The significance of what just happened in this chamber is that we made the choice to find a way forward, to find a way to preserve the opportunity for the procedural things that we think are important.”
Only hours earlier, a much different back and forth played out in the House, where Republicans attempted to stall the budget bill for the fourth time over concerns they had with the $250 million for Healey to respond to an influx of migrants.
But Democrats managed to pass it on a standing vote of 105-14, overcoming a procedural tactic that forces the chamber to adjourn for the day if not enough members are in attendance.
House Minority Leader Brad Jones said the process in the House “highlighted the shortcomings of a one-party monopoly” on Beacon Hill.
“We think we made a good attempt the last few days to highlight, in a responsible way, some of the shortcomings without being obstructive. I know my Democratic colleagues will disagree. Our very existence to them is obstructive,” Jones told reporters outside the House Chamber. “I disagree. I think it’s necessary for a healthy democracy that we have two parties.”
House Republicans argued the compromise Democrats released last week was too large and different from versions approved last month to take up during an informal session, where debate and roll call votes are not permitted. Senate Republicans echoed similar concerns.
Republicans gained the leverage to hold up the bill after Democrats failed to come to a compromise before formal law making ended for the year on Nov. 15.
Negotiations were then kicked into informal sessions, where any one lawmaker can object to the bill, a procedural move that can easily be overcome by having enough members in the chamber.
House Speaker Ron Mariano said his office did not send out a formal notice to members to come to Monday’s session, who he said were instead compelled to attend on their own accord because of “frustration” that had built over the past week.
House Republicans, Mariano said, have to “bear that responsibility” for holding up the budget bill.
“They are the ones that decided to hold it up in an informal session. They had three shots. I don’t know what they hoped to accomplish,” he told reporters. “Obviously, nothing much has changed except the checks will go out three days later.”
