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On June 17th, the House passed H.5510, the Mass Ready Act, also known as the environmental bond bill. The EBB is introduced and passed by the legislature once every five years (the last one was passed in 2018). Bond bills authorize funding amounts for the state to fund capital grant programs. The EBB was first introduced by the Governor in July 2025, and hearings on the proposal were held by the Committees on Environment and Natural Resources and Bonding, Capital Expenditures and State Assets before being referred to Senate Ways and Means in January 2026, passed by the Senate in April, and then referred to House Ways and Means.

The bond bill as released from House Ways and Means mirrors the Senate and Administration’s proposal with some additions:

• $150M authorization for the Food Security Infrastructure Grant program – a $25M increase from the Senate and Adminsitration
• $26M authorization for CSAP, FVEP, urban agriculture, compost, food safety, Farmland Plan implementation, plus a commitment to carry forward $26.3M of unspent funds from the 2018 environmental bond bill
• $42M authorization for APR, plus a commitment to carry forward $18M of unspent funds from the 2018 environmental bond bill
• An outside section (3) that will distribute the $1 million milk producers security fund and subsequently close the fund.
• An outside section (5 and 6) that adds UMass Extension and the Division of Marine Fisheries to the Massachusetts Food Policy Council.
• An outside section (20) that grants MDAR a right of first refusal, positioned behind a municipality’s, on agricultural land protected under Chapter 61A when it comes up for sale. This is a critical step toward slowing the rate of farmland loss.
• An outside section (48 and 49) that modernizes animal commercial feed regulations.

The House did not include specific earmarks for the Healthy Soils and Mass Food Trust Programs, unlike the Senate. The Healthy Soils program is included in general in a larger line item, it is not zero’d out.

During debate, amendments relating to the food system that were adopted include:

• ATV bill
• A port development commission

Amendments that were not adopted that the Collaborative supported:

• An amendment sponsored by Agriculture Committee Chair Aaron Saunders to create a working capital loan program, to be administered by MDAR in partnership with a CDFI or similarly qualified institution.
• An amendment sponsored by Representative Arena-DeRosa to ban the land application of sludge and create a PFAS Relief Fund for farmers, capitalized with $50 million.
• An amendment sponsored by Representative Duffy to authorize $5 million for the urban agriculture grant program.
• An amendment sponsored by Representative Sylvia to capitalize MDAR’s new Buy-Protect-Sell authority with $10 million.

The differences between the House and Senate bond proposals must now be worked out by a conference committee, and the proposal will then be sent to the Governor for her signature. We will share an update on how to write to the conference committee soon. Bond authorizations are then drawn down into capital budgets (or capital improvement plans), which are set by the Governor’s Administration on an annual or 2 year basis.

On May 5, 2026, the Massachusetts Senate Ways and Means Committee released its fiscal year 2027 budget proposal. State Senators introduced 1158 amendments to the proposal for new policy proposals and increased funding for various state agencies and programs. Over four days of debate, the amendments were packaged into consolidated amendments based on topic, and passed. Many amendments supporting the local food system were proposed, including:

• $1 million for FRESH grants and food literacy by Senator Lewis, which was adopted
• $200,000 increase to MDAR’s administrative budget by Senator Fernandes, which was not adopted
• $ 7 million for a new, state-funded LFPA program by Senator Eldridge, which was not adopted 
• $7 million increase to DTA’s caseworker line item by Senator Robyn Kennedy, which was not adopted

Senate Ways and Means proposed $29.7M in new funding for the Healthy Incentives Program, level to the Governor’s proposal of $29.7M in H.2, and $250,000 for another round of the local food policy council grant program. The Collaborative thanks the Senate for their leadership, especially SWM Chair Rodrigues and Vice-Chair Comerford for mentioning HIP once again in their remarks to open debate. Please thank Senate leadership, and your own state senator, for voting for full funding for the above programs! The conference committee has been appointed as of May 28, 2026, and will spend June hashing out the differences between the House and Senate proposals, for a final version that will be sent to the Governor’s desk by July 1. A call to action for the conference committee can be found here. 

See our updated budget table below.