From playgrounds to addiction treatment, New Bedford legislators are advocating for money for their communities in the state’s fiscal 2027 budget. Each lawmaker is pursuing earmarks for his district as negotiations over the spending plan unfold this spring.
The Massachusetts House is working on its own version of the next state budget, which should go into effect July 1. Gov. Maura Healey launched the process with her proposed version on Jan. 28, setting her priorities in a year where federal cuts and policy changes are creating uncertainty.
New Bedford lawmakers’ earmarks for their districts
Rep. Christopher Hendricks, D-New Bedford, said a four-term lawmaker like himself usually gets three local earmarks in the annual budget.
The first budget amendment that Hendricks plans to file to a House Ways and Means Committee budget, due out in April, is for the Leduc Center for Civic Engagement at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth to provide transportation for the America Reads/Counts program.
University students in the program tutor and mentor struggling and at-risk students in community centers, elementary schools and preschools. Last year’s budget provided $75,000 for the program.
His second earmark is for Girls Design Academy in New Bedford, an after-school program for third through fifth grade students that focuses on life skills and STEAM education (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics). The fiscal 2026 budget allotted $50,000 to the program.
Hendricks also plans to request funding for Positive Action Against Chemical Addiction, a New Bedford organization that offers youth programs, housing initiatives, employment support and community outreach. Hendricks secured $25,000 for PAACA in fiscal 2026.
Rep. Steven Ouellette, D-Westport, said he’s looking for a new floating dock at the state boat ramp in Westport and a “revamp” of the playground at Desmarais Park in Fall River.
Ouellette is also weighing options to address the failing HVAC system at Acushnet Elementary School. Last April, the town of Acushnet voted down a temporary tax increase (a debt exclusion) for up to $4.2 million in air quality improvements due to a mold infestation. He said he hopes to secure around $10,000 for replacement air filters.
Last year, Rep. Mark Sylvia, D-Fairhaven, earmarked $40,000 for Coastal Foodshed to support food security issues in Greater New Bedford, $25,000 for the Whitfield-Manjiro Friendship Society, and $25,000 for a Fairhaven Council on Aging kitchen upgrade.
In fiscal year 2027, Sylvia said he plans to file amendments for Coastal Foodshed and the Whitfield-Manjiro Friendship Society again. He noted that he is still speaking with his constituents to identify additional requests.
“I look forward to co-sponsoring a number of different New Bedford-specific earmark requests, and will be working with the other members of the delegation on that,” Sylvia said.
Rep. Christopher Markey, D-Dartmouth, said he plans to earmark money for the South Coast LGBTQ+ Network to fund programming for high school students and older adults. He wants to fund UMass Dartmouth law school’s Justice Bridge program, in which recent law school graduates provide reduced-cost services.
And he wants to fund a digital sign for UMass Dartmouth to be placed between I-195 and Route 6. The sign would announce events and other activities, and Markey said he hopes it will strengthen the connection between the school and the town. He is requesting $75,000 for each amendment and plans to sign on to other lawmakers’ earmarks.
Rep. Antonio F.D. Cabral, D-New Bedford, is looking to earmark funding for youth programming at the Dennison Memorial Community Center and opioid treatment services at the New Bedford Community Health Center.
He is also focused on arts and cultural organizations such as AHA! and the New Bedford Festival Theatre, noting that they are not only important institutions but also economic drivers for the city.
“[The budget] is one of the most important pieces of legislation that we do every year, so it’s important to me,” Cabral said. “It’s always important to stay focused, stay engaged, and talk to all the stakeholders.”
Sen. Mark Montigny, D-New Bedford, told The Light that he “probably [has] as many earmarks as most delegations combined” because of his seniority and past experience as the Senate Ways and Means chair.
He said it’s too early in the Senate’s budget process to list his exact earmarks, but noted that he tends to focus on services for children and older adults.
Over his 33 years on Beacon Hill, Montigny said, he has earmarked millions of dollars for children’s programming in the New Bedford area, including for the Boys and Girls Club, Youth Opportunities Unlimited and NorthStar Learning Centers, where he funded an “extensive” music program.
“[Children] shouldn’t rely on the lucky ZIP Code they’re born into, or the school district they’re born into or the means of their family,” Montigny said.
South Coast lawmakers share statewide priorities
Some South Coast lawmakers also told The Light about statewide changes they’ll advocate to include in the budget.
Markey suggests adding two policy changes to the budget bill.
He wants to implement a carbon credit system, enabling businesses to earn credits for adopting environmentally friendly electrification practices and sell unused credits for profit. Similar programs exist in California, Oregon, Washington and New Mexico.
He says carbon credits would help create a smoother transition to clean energy. “People are unrealistic that you just turn on and turn off a switch and it’s just going to be fine — like, go shut the pipelines down and everything’s fine,” Markey said. “This is a way to make sure that we continue on that transition without having huge economic devastation to companies. And it would incentivize clean companies to come to Massachusetts, where they know that they can not only produce their products, but they can also create a source of revenue through the credits.”
Markey’s second policy targets “street takeovers,” where groups — often children and teenagers — swarm the street in cars and ATVs, blocking intersections and harassing other drivers. The proposal would penalize participants by seizing their vehicles.
Ouellette said his priorities include keeping school lunches free. Massachusetts made school lunch and breakfast free for all students starting in the 2022-2023 school year. “And [I want to] make sure our public safety and our schools stay up there,” Ouellette said.
Ouellette noted that each of his towns’ departments of public works is seeking additional funding “so there’s no shortage of need.”
Cabral said he will push for increased local aid for cities and towns. He added that he has been working to improve the formula for allocating unrestricted local aid, including filing legislation to create a commission to evaluate the formula and provide recommendations.
Sylvia says he hopes to increase funding for school districts under the state’s Student Opportunity Act.
Montigny said that because of an experience with his father’s nursing home, he files a legislative proposal each budget season requiring nursing homes to hold patients’ beds for 20 days if they are hospitalized. According to Audra Riding, general counsel for Montigny, the bed-hold policy succeeds every budget. Because the annual budget is only valid for a fiscal year, Riding said Montigny has a bill to “permanently enshrine” the policy into law.
He also said he plans to continue funding a stroke-prevention program, including billboards that raise awareness of stroke symptoms. He added that he has an idea to address human trafficking that he plans to advance in the budget, but declined to share the details.
Montigny said he also hopes to include a “major subsidy” to address the high cost of energy.
He also said he hopes for increased local aid.
“I’m hearing across the board, people are frustrated with the formula, and they don’t feel that they’re getting enough back from the state,” he said. “I have never seen as much consensus from the people I represent that the cost of living is exceedingly difficult, and they’re angry as hell about it.”
Montigny added that every budget has room for cuts and tighter spending. As Ways and Means chair, he once cut every earmark in an effort to push lawmakers to advocate for what they truly wanted.
Healey’s proposed budget
The House budget will amend Healey’s fiscal year 2027 budget plan, which totals $63 billion, a 3.8% increase over the 2026 fiscal year. This includes $2.7 billion in Fair Share tax spending — the additional tax on income over $1 million.
Healey’s budget depends on an estimate that Massachusetts will collect $45 billion in tax revenue in fiscal year 2027, a 2.9% increase over the current fiscal year’s expected amount.
At the Legislature’s Ways and Means Committee hearing on Feb. 11, Administration and Finance Secretary Matthew Gorzkowicz said the administration attempted to limit the growth of accounts and cut costs rather than eliminate programs. He said he expects health care costs to be the greatest challenge in managing the budget in fiscal year 2027.
Healey proposed $10.4 billion across local aid accounts, a 4.4% increase over fiscal year 2026. Cities and towns rely heavily on the state’s local aid, as it is the second largest source of municipal revenue, behind property taxes. Much of it is tied to specific mandates and services.
Healey’s plan includes a 2.5% increase in unrestricted general government aid. This falls short of the Massachusetts Municipal Association’s request for an increase of 26.5% above fiscal 2026.
The association wrote that such a boost “would restore a measure of balance to a state-local fiscal partnership that has drifted out of alignment for more than a decade.”
Healey’s budget fully funds the final year of the Student Opportunity Act, offering $7.6 billion in Chapter 70 aid. That would guarantee a minimum per-pupil aid of $75 for all school districts, in addition to what the current Chapter 70 formula provides. This is a 50% cut from the current fiscal year’s minimum of $150.
Federal actions impact the budget
The budget comes at a “challenging time,” Healey said at the February hearing. In the past year, the Trump administration stripped $3.7 billion in federal funding from Massachusetts, including $1 billion in health care cuts, according to Healey. The federal government also made cuts to food programs, public safety and emergency response, public health and disease prevention, broadband access and energy supply, she said.
“In the past year, Donald Trump has essentially taken a hatchet to state budgets across the country,” Healey said.
Evan Horowitz, executive director of the Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University, said that while the federal government’s actions will affect the budget, he would “not put [his] faith” in the $3.7 billion figure.
“These cuts are coming in so many strange ways, through so many different channels, and with so much uncertainty,” Horowitz told The Light. “On the one hand, it’s sort of undeniable, I think, that we’re getting less money from the feds. Some of that is grants for programs that we run, but they’re also changing the rules for the programs.”
He noted that Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” changed the qualification requirements for SNAP and for Medicaid, known as MassHealth in Massachusetts. The federal government will owe the state less money because fewer people will qualify.
“In some sense, it’s a lot harder for budget writers than if we just could say, ‘oh, there’s going to be a shortfall in this account,’” Horowitz said. “We know there’s gonna be a shortfall, but we can’t judge how big it is, and it may show up in weird places. That’s really the challenge.”
The Healey administration is also attempting to address the federal government’s shortfalls through legislation, including a proposal for a refundable tax credit of up to $5,000 for farms that donate their products to food banks and pantries.
Lawmakers will spend the next several months debating the budget, with the House budget typically passed in April and the Senate’s in May. Fiscal year 2027 begins July 1, but Massachusetts often misses the deadline and is one of the last states to file its final budget.
