Massachusetts House adopts $61 billion FY2026 budget conference report

The Massachusetts House of Representatives passed the conference committee report on the fiscal year 2026 budget, approving a roughly $61 billion spending plan that directs increased "fair share" revenue to education and transportation and includes new and expanded funding for housing, food assistance and immigration legal help.

The measure won final passage on a recorded vote after a call of the yeas and nays. The clerk displayed a final tally of 139 votes in the affirmative and 6 in the negative; the clerk then announced, “The conference report is accepted.”

The budget document presented to the chamber shifts $2.4 billion of fair share revenue toward education and transportation and reduces the overall spending level from earlier House and Senate proposals, according to remarks from Representative Michael Wits of Boston, who addressed the chamber on the conference report. "This budget proposal aims to invest 2,400,000,000.0 towards both education and transportation needs," Wits said. He described the package as a $61,000,000,000 plan that "represents a reduction of nearly 1,000,000,000 from House 1, and nearly 500,000,000 below either branch's original bottom line."

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