Since FY2025 the surtax has paid a growing share of programs the General Fund had paid for: in FY2027, $375 million of child-care grants and $585 million of Chapter 70.

The state budget

The numbers

The document

What lives in the budget

The annual budget law is a list of about 750 line items. Each is an account number, a name, a dollar amount and a paragraph of language; local earmarks are written into that language. After the line items come outside sections, which change law rather than spend money. The figures here are the Comptroller’s recorded appropriations (CTHRU), which can differ from the total announced when the budget is signed.

The budget law is the starting line. During the year the Legislature adds money in supplemental budgets, and the governor can make mid-year cuts.

The enacted budget grew from $38.7B in FY2017 to $62.6B in FY2027; supplemental budgets added up to $9.0B in a year.

The last two budgets

Where the increase went

The budget grew $3.2B (5.6%) in FY2026 and $2.4B (4.0%) in FY2027; health and human services and education took most of both.

Change in enacted appropriations by area, areas that moved $20 million or more in either year. The surtax lines sit under Administration and Finance in the Comptroller’s records; here they are counted with the program they pay for, and the transfers to the transportation funds, the MBTA and the regional transit authorities are counted as transportation, so a program’s change is not split across two areas.

New money and moved money

The surtax pays a growing share of programs the General Fund had paid for

From FY2025, programs that the General Fund had paid for were paid partly from the Fair Share surtax, while their General Fund lines were cut or held flat. Child-care grants to providers (C3) stayed at $475M a year from FY2024 to FY2027; the General Fund share fell from $475M to $100M, and the surtax paid $175M, $360M and $375M. Chapter 70’s General Fund line was $6.9B in both FY2025 and FY2026, and the FY2026 increase, $497M, was a surtax line; in FY2027, $585M of the $7.7B Chapter 70 line is surtax money. Child care financial assistance rose $206M in FY2027, to $1.2B; $244M of it is surtax money, and the General Fund share rose $11M. Universal school meals moved to the surtax in FY2025 and regional school transportation in part in FY2026; both stay there. The special education circuit breaker took $190M and $152M of surtax money in FY2025 and FY2026 while its General Fund line fell; in FY2027 the line is General Fund only.

FY2027 changed how the budget shows this. Instead of separate surtax line items, the surtax money is inside each program’s own line, and a table in Section 2F of the budget lists each line’s surtax share: $2.7B in all. The Comptroller’s records show those lines under the General Fund, so the FY2027 surtax figures here are from Section 2F. The same table funds the new Human Services Transportation line ($450M), which consolidates transportation that several agencies paid before, mainly MassHealth, with $100M of surtax money through the transportation fund.

The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation has reported the same shift: surtax revenue “has been increasingly used to invest in existing programs that were previously supported by the General Fund and other resources” (MTF, FY2027 surtax brief, March 2026). Both sides have a case on the record. Critics called the FY2026 Chapter 70 shift a backfill of existing costs; the House Ways and Means chair said it limits the General Fund’s exposure to an economic downturn, the Senate cited higher-than-estimated surtax collections, and supporters of the surtax noted that the constitution leaves the choice of programs to the Legislature (press: WBUR, July 3, 2025). The records show which fund paid; whether the surtax added to what would otherwise have been spent is a counterfactual they cannot show.

Enacted plus supplemental appropriations by fiscal year; FY2027 surtax shares from Section 2F. Point to a column for its figures. Circuit breaker surtax money was appropriated in one year and largely spent the next.

What is new and what ended

New accounts and ended accounts

A new account is not always new money: an account can be split, renamed or moved. The note says so where the record shows it.

The cycle

Which budget to watch, and when

• July to December: the enacted budget, supplemental budgets and any mid-year cuts. In December the administration and the Ways and Means chairs hold the consensus revenue hearing.
• January: the consensus revenue estimate, then the governor’s proposal, filed by the fourth Wednesday of January (five weeks later for a newly elected governor). From here the proposed budget for the next year is the one to follow.
• April: House Ways and Means, then House debate, where members file amendments, many of them local earmarks.
• May: Senate Ways and Means, then Senate debate and amendments.
• June and July: the conference committee reconciles the two, the governor has ten days to sign and veto line items, and the Legislature votes on overrides.

Sources

Sources

• CTHRU, budget to actual (Office of the Comptroller), FY2017–FY2027, by account and fund
• Commonwealth of Massachusetts budget process (mass.gov)
• FY2027 budget, Section 2F (Massachusetts Legislature): the surtax share of each line
• Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, FY2027 income surtax brief (March 2026) and FY2027 conference report summary (July 2026)
• WBUR, July 3, 2025, on the FY2026 surtax spending (press)

Download: substitutions.csv · new and ended accounts · trend · FY2027 Section 2F.