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.
