THE FINAL STATE BUDGET Gov. Maura Healey will file before she’s up for reelection landed last week amid a maelstrom of federal feuding and economic strain.
State tax collections are middling, health care costs are skyrocketing, and money flowing from Washington to help with key programs is set to decrease after, as Healey put it, President Trump “has taken a hatchet to federal funding.”
That’s the context for Healey’s $63 billion spending plan, and this week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon senior reporter Chris Lisinski spoke with two budget watchers who have sharply differing perspectives on the challenges it presents. Viviana Abreu-Hernandez, president of the left-leaning Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, decried the looming federal cuts, while Jim Stergios, executive director of the free-market-oriented Pioneer Institute, argued that Healey left too many cost-control options on the table.
