The story
What the records show
Chapter 90 pays cities and towns back after they spend on approved road work. On 30 June 2019, $329 million of apportioned money from FY2012 on was not yet reimbursed. On 30 June 2026 it was $674 million. Over the same years the program grew from $240 million a year to $460 million with one-time supplements, so measured against a year’s apportionment the balance moved from 1.37 to 1.46 years. The June 2026 figure includes about $136 million of the two FY2026 supplements, which towns had little time to draw. Annual payments stayed between $166 million and $285 million a year.
Counting the annual program alone, FY2012 through FY2026, the median town holds about 1.2 years of its yearly money not yet reimbursed; 26 towns hold more than three years and nine more than five. The one-time supplements are left out of this measure, because the yearly figure it is divided by does not include them. Half of each year’s money is paid within 14 to 23 months of 1 July of its year, and 90% within 37 to 61 months (FY2012–FY2021 apportionments).
When a balance is normal and when it is cold
Every town carries some Chapter 90 money, because the program pays after the work is done. What separates a normal lag from a cold balance is how old the money is. Counting each payment against a town’s oldest money first, the oldest money still open on 16 October 2026 was:
| Oldest money still open | Age | Towns | Read it as |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025–FY2026 | 1–2 years | 235 | normal lag |
| FY2024 | about 3 years | 53 | slow, but common |
| FY2023 | about 4 years | 37 | slow tail |
| FY2022 | about 5 years | 14 | cold |
| FY2017–FY2021 | 6–10 years | 12 | very cold |
The yardstick is the ten years before. For the FY2012–FY2021 apportionments, on average 60% of each year’s annual-program money, as MassDOT booked it, was paid within two years and 93% within five years, never less than 89%. Money from FY2022 or earlier is past the point at which nearly every earlier year had been paid off. Twenty-six towns hold such money, $21.4 million in all counting oldest first; ten of the 26 are on Cape Cod and the Islands. The two one-time grants paid to towns up front, WRAP in 2022 and Fair Share in FY2024, are left out of this count on both sides. Sort the table below by the “Oldest money still open” column to find them.
A cold balance is not necessarily idle. A town may be saving for one large project, may have finished work it has not yet billed, or may have had its balance charged for a state-administered project, which these records would not show as a payment to the town. MassDOT does not book payments oldest first: its accounts show FY2026 money 55% paid after 15 months and FY2025 money 29% paid after 27 months. Read year by year from MassDOT’s books, a town can show old money open after drawing more than that amount from newer years, which is why this page counts the oldest money first.
What the state still owes on these apportionments
Every apportioned dollar not yet reimbursed is a payment the state has promised and makes when a town bills for finished work, except the share of the FY2025 Fair Share supplement held back from towns out of compliance with the MBTA Communities Act, which the law bars. On 16 October 2026 that came to $955 million of FY2017–FY2027 apportionments, $300 million of it the FY2027 apportionment signed in June 2026, plus $2 million of FY2012–FY2016 money; balances from before FY2012 cannot be measured. The annual program and the Rural Roadway grants, $790 million of the total, are paid from borrowing authorized in the Chapter 90 bond acts; the other one-time supplements, $165 million, were appropriated in operating and supplemental budgets. At the average yearly payment of FY2017–FY2026 ($227 million) the balance equals about 4.2 years of payments; without the FY2027 apportionment signed four months earlier, $655 million, about 2.9 years. MassDOT’s Chapter 90 Advisory Group found 63% of the unspent balance committed to approved projects not yet billed (January 2025). The figure may overstate what towns will bill, because a balance MassDOT charged for a state-administered project appears here as not reimbursed. The state’s cash goes out when towns bill, not when money is apportioned. Most of the balance is recent: counting oldest first, $850 million is FY2025–FY2027 money, and the cold part, FY2022 or earlier, is $21.4 million (2.2% of the total).
The months include each town’s planning, bidding and construction; the payment records carry no request dates, so they cannot show how long MassDOT takes to pay a complete request.