Fiscal Year 2025 budget
The legislature’s formal session for 2023 – 2024 wrapped up at the end of July, and while there are some growing calls to return for informal session this fall, things will be quieter on Beacon Hill until the new legislature is seated in January.
The fiscal year 2025 budget was finally passed in July and included a few of our priorities, thanks to our collective advocacy. Food literacy was again funded at $1 million; $750,000 of which will support the FRESH grant program and $250,000 of which will support local district-level wellness policymaking. An earmark of $120,000 for UMass Extension was also included in the final budget. A new $14 million Disaster Relief and Resiliency Fund was also established, thanks to the hard work of Representative Natalie Blais and Senator Jo Comerford, in response to the frosts and severe flooding the state experienced last year. Although this new fund is not specifically dedicated to agriculture, we hope that the state’s established support for farmers will continue, and efforts to actively build a climate resilient food system will grow.
Some of our other priorities were notably not funded at the amounts advocated, for, including the Healthy Incentives Program, which was funded at $15 million. This will not be enough to last the full fiscal year and does not include the language the line item has had in recent years that states the program should operate year-round. The Collaborative has communicated our concern to legislative leadership, as the program spent more than $18 million in fiscal year 2024, and will prepare with our Campaign for HIP Funding coalition members to ask for supplemental funding at a later point this year.
Finally, the Governor cut funding for a few food system programs and organizations. This includes a veto of the $250,000 local food policy councils grant program, reduced funding for the Food Security Infrastructure Grant program from $15 to $10 million, reduced funding from $300,000 to $200,000 for the administration of the Mass Food Trust program, and reduced funding from $800,000 to $700,000 for the Buy Locals. The House acted quickly to overturn these budget vetoes – thank you Representative Paul Schmid and Hannah Kane for speaking on the House floor about the importance of these programs. You can watch the representatives speak in the video of the session on July 30 at 1:13:00 and 1:28:00, respectively. Unfortunately, the Senate did not take up the budget overrides during the final hours of formal session, so these cuts stand. These cuts, totaling almost $5.5 million, will impact the reach of some of our closest local food system partners.
Economic development bond
Another casualty of the end of formal session was the economic development bond, which did not pass. The Senate’s version of the bond included; the agricultural equity commission, granting MDAR the authority to buy, protect, and sell farmland, reforms to agritourism permits and the definition of agritourism, and consistency in what’s considered horticultural land for taxation purposes. A new grant program was also proposed in the Senate that would’ve supported food system climate resiliency and workforce development. You can watch Senator Comerford’s remarks here, starting at 10:10 in part 4/4, about the importance of these food system policy pieces during the Senate debate in early July. These pieces could still be passed if the legislature takes action this fall.
Without these policies and funding, Massachusetts will continue to have a local food system that cannot protect enough farmland as rapidly as we are losing it to varied pressures, support its farmers to make a sustainable living, and ensure all its residents can feed themselves. Massachusetts residents cannot wait another two years for these policies. We hope to see the legislature take action in the coming months.
Now is the time to be thinking about bills you’d like to see for next session. Along with refiling the some of our priorities that did not pass this session, like the HIP enabling bill, PFAS, and food donation tax credit, the Collaborative will be working on legislation related to farmland access and other issues. What do you most want to see the legislature address to help strengthen the local food system? Come to the Forum or send us an email to start a discussion.
