Suffolk County
Boston
Data through FY2026; built October 19, 2026.
State House
- 5th Suffolk · Christopher J. Worrell
- 8th Suffolk · Jay D. Livingstone
- 14th Suffolk · Rob Consalvo
- 15th Suffolk · Samantha Montaño
- 7th Suffolk · Chynah Tyler
- 6th Suffolk · Russell E. Holmes
- 4th Suffolk · David Biele
- 3rd Suffolk · Aaron Michlewitz
- 1st Suffolk · Adrian C. Madaro
- 13th Suffolk · Daniel J. Hunt
- 9th Suffolk · John Francis Moran
- 17th Suffolk · Kevin G. Honan
- 10th Suffolk · William F. MacGregor
- 18th Suffolk · Michael J. Moran
- 12th Suffolk · Brandy Fluker-Reid
- 2nd Suffolk · Daniel J. Ryan
Boston is split among 16 House districts. Shares are of 2020 residents.
State Senate
- First Suffolk · Nick Collins
- Second Suffolk · Liz Miranda
- Suffolk and Middlesex · William N. Brownsberger
- Third Suffolk · Lydia Edwards
- Norfolk and Suffolk · Michael F. Rush
- Middlesex and Suffolk · Sal N. DiDomenico
School districts
- Boston Public Schools, the city’s own district
Regional planning agency
Metropolitan Area Planning Council
Fairness Index
Boston scores 43 on the Fairness Index for all state aid and 36 for discretionary money. Fifty is a fair share.
All state aid
43 / 100187th of 351 (1 = most above its share)
Rank under other weightings: 158th to 231st.
Stable low: below 45 under every weighting
Boston received less than its share of state aid on three of four measures; its blended score of 43 stays between 40 and 45 under every weighting tested.
Discretionary money only
36 / 100240th of 351 (1 = most above its share)
Rank under other weightings: 228th to 247th.
Stable low: below 45 under every weighting
Boston received less than its share of discretionary money on all four measures; its blended score of 36 stays between 35 and 37 under every weighting tested.
Each bar is one way of defining a fair share: Equal, the same per resident; Need, weighted toward poverty, low income and a thin tax base; Burden, by what each program pays for (road miles, bridges, pupils and so on); Effort, by what residents already pay in property tax relative to their income. The line marks 50. The score is the average of the four. Discretionary money is competitive grants and earmarks that name the town. How the index is built.
State money, FY2017–FY2026
Boston’s town government and school districts received $6.66 billion in formula aid and $104 million in competitive grants over ten years.
Formula aid
$6.66B
$9,995 per resident (177th of 351) · gross
Competitive grants
$104M
$157 per resident (283rd of 351)
Earmark-account payments
$11.7M
$17.49 per resident (217th of 351)
Each class has its own scale. Bars show dollars paid in each fiscal year.
Formula aid is gross: Chapter 70 as DESE attributes it to the town, and cherry-sheet aid before the state deducts charges such as charter tuition and transit assessments, plus other formula programs as paid. Competitive grants and earmark-account payments are Comptroller payments to the town government and its school districts (stage: paid), the same payees as the Fairness Index. Enacted earmarks and earmark payments are different things: enacted earmarks are budget clauses, counted three ways above; earmark-account payments are Comptroller payments to the town government and its school districts from accounts classified as earmarks, which can include prior-year and statewide-program money. Either can be larger. Shared revenue, pass-through contracts, transfers to state entities and unclassified payments, $2.34B in all, are not shown. Rank 1 is the highest amount per resident among 351.
Formula aid is gross; competitive grants and earmark-account payments are as paid. Other classes, $2.34 billion, are not shown.
Earmarks
Boston received $105 million in local earmarks naming the town, $256 million placed in the town and $278 million counting everything placed, in ten enacted budgets.
Names the town
$105M
$158 per resident (12th of 351)
Placed in the town
$256M
$384 per resident (3rd of 351)
Everything placed
$278M
$416 per resident (5th of 351)
Losers Club
Not a member
35 municipalities had none
Local earmarks are counted three ways: clauses that name Boston; clauses placed in Boston, adding organizations located here; and everything placed, adding state facilities located here. Three ways to count a local earmark.
Placed in the town: 1,300 clauses in ten of ten budgets; the most recent in FY2026. $95.8 million came in clauses that name Boston; the other $160 million went to organizations based in Boston, some of which serve a wider area.
Names the town includes $9.6 million in clauses that name Boston but fund a state facility or a MassHealth rate add-on; those count under everything placed, not placed in the town.
Everything placed, the third measure, adds $21.6 million in 39 clauses for state facilities located in Boston (such as state universities, courts, state parks or the metropolitan beaches) or MassHealth rate add-ons for providers here.
| Year | Amount | Budget text (excerpt) | Stage |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | $3.3M | “the Juvenile Court Mental Health Advocacy Project administered by Health Law Advocates, Inc. to increase access to mental health treatment for…” | Enacted recipient based here |
| FY2025 | $3.3M | “the Juvenile Court Mental Health Advocacy Project administered by Health Law Advocates, Inc. to increase access to mental health treatment for…” | Enacted recipient based here |
| FY2026 | $3.1M | “the Boston, Cambridge and Everett fire department hazardous material response teams” | Enacted names the town |
| FY2024 | $3M | “the Juvenile Court Mental Health Advocacy Project administered by Health Law Advocates, Inc. to increase access to mental health treatment for…” | Enacted recipient based here |
| FY2026 | $2.5M | “clinical care, education and training in veterans’ mental and behavioral health issues, including post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury…” | Enacted recipient based here |
Enacted earmarks and earmark payments are different things: enacted earmarks are budget clauses, counted three ways above; earmark-account payments are Comptroller payments to the town government and its school districts from accounts classified as earmarks, which can include prior-year and statewide-program money. Either can be larger.
What the town carries
Measured against what it maintains, Boston received 53% of its proportional share of competitive grant awards.
Local road miles
792.1
1st of 351 · 1.2 per 1,000 residents (347th of 351)
Town-owned bridges, replacement cost
$816M
scored exposure $380M · 4.5 in poor condition
Road-stream crossings
80
166th of 351 · culverts and small crossings
Town-owned hazard dams
0
high or significant hazard
Land area
48.3 sq mi
8% state-owned
Seasonal homes
1%
share of housing units
Peak service population
676,492
residents plus seasonal
Core infrastructure index
0.34
roads, culverts, dams, coast, flood, energy
The burden index divides the competitive awards Boston received from FY2017 to FY2026 by what it would have received if every program had split its money by its own measure of need: road miles for road programs, crossings for culvert grants, town-owned hazard dams for dam repair, jobs for economic development, residents for libraries. 1.0 is proportional. Boston: 0.53. State median: 0.91. Bridges count by replacement cost and condition, not by number, and only bridges the town owns. Ranks run from 1, the most among 351.
Burden index 0.53; state median 0.91; 1.0 is proportional. Ranks run from 1, the most among 351.
State land and growth
State land eligible for PILOT
155 acres
0.5% of land area · FY2026
State-owned land PILOT, FY2026
$722,000
payment in lieu of taxes, cherry sheet
PILOT per eligible acre
$4,653
statewide $117 · FY2026
New growth per resident
$69,464
FY2017–2025 · 17th of 351 · median town $20,524
State land eligible for PILOT is the Division of Local Services’ count of state-owned acres on which the state pays a payment in lieu of taxes; the payment follows the land’s assessed value, not its acreage, so the per-acre figure is a comparison, not the formula. The state-owned share on the land-area tile above is the MassGIS map of all state-owned open space, a wider count. New growth is the assessed value of new construction and improvements added to the tax base, summed FY2017–FY2025 and divided by 2020–24 residents; taxed at the prior year’s rates, it adds to the levy limit beyond 2.5%.
Costs and the 2½% limit
State aid covered 10.9% of Boston’s general-fund spending in FY2025, down from 25.5% in FY2006.
State aid as a share of general-fund spending
FY2006
25.5%
$554M of $2.17B · median town 14.1%
FY2016
13.9%
$427M of $3.07B · median town 12.2%
FY2025
10.9%
$522M of $4.78B · median town 11.5%
Net of state charges, FY2025
2.8%
FY2010: 17.5% · median town 10.0%
State aid is the gross cherry sheet as entered on the tax rate recap; spending is the town’s general-fund expenditures as filed with the Division of Local Services. Net subtracts the charges the state assesses on the same cherry sheet (charter and school-choice tuition, transit, county and other assessments), itemized from FY2010.
Gross state aid went from $554 million in FY2006 to $522 million in FY2025, −5.8% in dollars. Consumer prices are the Boston-area CPI-U, up 55.1% over those years; government prices are the federal price index for state and local government purchases, up 74.5%. Fiscal-year averages. Flag: in FY2010, $21 million of Boston’s gross aid was in receipts the itemized cherry sheet does not show, consistent with school-building reimbursements that ended by FY2024 (not verified line by line). Part of the change since FY2006 may be that phase-out.
Fixed costs against the 2½% limit, FY2016–FY2025
Health insurance, FY2016–25
+45.0%
$385M to $558M · all towns +54.0%
All fixed costs, FY2016–25
+30.6%
$710M to $927M · all towns +53.0%
Years squeezed
6 of 9
fixed costs grew faster than allowed levy growth
Health insurance
2 of 9
years it grew faster than allowed levy growth
Nine years at 2.5% add 24.9%. Grown that way from FY2016, Boston’s health insurance would have been $480 million in FY2025; it was $558 million, $77.4 million above the path. Its fixed costs would have been $887 million in FY2025; it was $927 million, $40.7 million above the path.
Fixed costs are employee benefits, retirement, insurance and similar costs in the general fund; health insurance comes from a separate DLS report. Allowed levy growth is 2.5% plus new growth, as a share of the prior year’s levy limit; a year counts as squeezed when fixed costs grew by a larger percentage.
Flag: health insurance changed by more than 30% in one year in FY2021 (+37%). Swings this size usually mark costs moving between budget lines, into or out of trust funds, or into the state’s Group Insurance Commission, so the comparison may reflect accounting as well as cost.
Local earmarks against the health-insurance increase
Over the nine budgets, earmarks naming Boston came to $81.6 million, 47.1% of the $173 million rise in its health insurance.
| Measure | Earmarks | Share of the increase | All towns, pooled |
|---|---|---|---|
| Names the town | $81.6M | 47.1% | 28.2% |
| Placed in the town | $210M | 121.1% | 42.3% |
| Everything placed | $225M | 129.7% | 45.2% |
An earmark is a one-year appropriation; a health-insurance increase recurs in every later budget. Earmarks are counted on the three measures and are not adjusted for the January 2024 mid-year cuts or the FY2026 hold. All towns: pooled over the towns that reported health insurance in both years. All dollars nominal. Method.
Schools
Boston’s required school contribution is 3.7% of median household income, 11th highest of 351.
Chapter 70 aid, FY2026
$245M
to the town’s district
Required local contribution
$1.01B
FY2026
Share of household income
3.7%
11th of 351 (1 = highest)
Real aid per pupil, FY2017–26
−6%
after inflation
Boston runs its own school district.
Real figures use the CPI-U, fiscal-year average, in FY2026 dollars. The required contribution is the local share the state sets under the Chapter 70 formula; the share of income divides it per household by the town’s median household income.
Expected and actual
Boston received $493 million in earmarks placed in the town and competitive grants over ten years, 31% more than the $376 million its size, need and institutions predict.
The expectation comes from a statewide model of all 351 municipalities that uses population, road miles, jobs, poverty, income, tax base, school-aid share and the presence of hospitals, colleges and nonprofits. Those factors explain about 55–60% of the differences between towns. The model leaves out many legitimate reasons a town may receive more or less, such as a single large project, so a gap is a starting point for questions, not a finding about anyone’s conduct.
Earmarks here are placed in the town, the second of three measures (enacted); competitive grants are Comptroller payments (paid). Method.
Peers
Boston ranks 1st of 11 on earmark dollars placed in the town per resident among itself and its ten nearest peers.
Peers are the ten municipalities nearest to Boston on population, income need and tax-base need. The best and lowest performers are the highest and lowest on earmark dollars placed in the town per resident in the wider class of 30 nearest, the second of three measures.
No Massachusetts municipality is close to Boston in size. The peers below are the nearest on population and need and should be read loosely.
| Municipality | Fairness Index | Formula aid per resident | Competitive per resident | Earmarks placed in the town, per resident (enacted) | Burden index | School contribution, share of income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bostonthis town | 43 | $9,995 | $157 | $384 | 0.53 | 3.7% |
| Cambridgepeer | 33 | $6,322 | $64.05 | $67.01 | 0.22 | 1.7% |
| Quincypeer | 32 | $7,723 | $176 | $107 | 0.82 | 3.0% |
| Somervillepeer | 40 | $7,819 | $474 | $31.51 | 2.18 | 1.7% |
| Walthampeer | 28 | $6,149 | $102 | $54.73 | 0.45 | 2.8% |
| Barnstablepeer | 26 | $6,526 | $289 | $69.38 | 0.74 | 3.6% |
| Brooklinepeer | 21 | $5,242 | $48.41 | $69.97 | 0.36 | 2.0% |
| Plymouthpeer | 28 | $7,006 | $268 | $53.91 | 0.73 | 3.0% |
| Falmouthpeer | 22 | $5,383 | $146 | $66.46 | 0.76 | 2.9% |
| Woburnpeer | 31 | $6,812 | $255 | $85.93 | 0.44 | 3.5% |
| Medfordpeer | 32 | $6,237 | $331 | $49.53 | 2.03 | 1.9% |
| Marshfieldbest in class of 30 | 38 | $9,344 | $361 | $162 | 1.35 | 3.2% |
| Yarmouthlowest in class of 30 | 27 | $6,216 | $356 | $8.62 | 0.82 | 3.0% |
Formula aid per resident is the ten-year gross total; competitive grants are ten-year totals paid, FY2017–FY2026; earmarks are enacted clauses placed in the town over the same ten budgets. Add up to ten towns to the table; adding needs JavaScript.
Sources
Every figure traces to a public record.
Fairness Index
Representation
State money
What the town carries
- MassDOT Chapter 90 apportionment and Road Inventory
- FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2025
- MassDOT Bridges layer (GeoDOT)
- North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative, road-stream crossings
- DCR Office of Dam Safety inventory, via MassGIS
- American Community Survey housing tables, U.S. Census Bureau
- State grant award lists (Community One Stop, MVP, Green Communities and others)
- DLS Databank, state-owned land eligible for PILOT
- DLS Databank, new growth
Costs and the 2½% limit
- DLS Databank, Schedule A general fund expenditures and revenues
- DLS Databank, health insurance expenditures
- DLS Databank, revenue by source (state aid)
- DLS Databank, cherry sheet receipts and charges by program
- DLS Databank, new growth and levy limits
- Boston-area CPI-U (BLS) and state-local price index (BEA), via FRED
Every figure on this page is built by script from these public sources. Method and limits.
Parcenomics helps towns turn numbers like these into a plan. Municipal services · Contact