These slides were used during a 101 briefing on early education and care programs and funding in Massachusetts on September 15th. The briefing covered frequently asked questions about Child Care Financial Assistance, childcare capacity in the state,...

On July 4th, President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) into law. The massive tax and spending bill has been scored by the Congressional Budget Office to increase the nation’s debt by $3.9 trillion over the next ten years, and...

The state’s UI system is still feeling the impact of significant unemployment during the pandemic, which resulted in thousands of additional individuals receiving UI benefits for an extended period. By April 2020, the state’s unemployment had...

The pandemic hugely disrupted the state’s economy and workforce, as unemployment rates jumped from 3.1 percent in February 2020, one of the lowest in state history, to 17.8 percent in April 2020, the highest in over four decades. During the pandemic,...

The Conference Committee for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget is actively working to reconcile all spending, policy, and technical differences between the House and Senate budgets, with the goal of delivering a compromise spending bill to the...

The federal government spends more than $6 trillion each year through its annual budget. The federal budget process shares some similarities with the state, but it also differs in many ways.This resource provides a basic outline of that process and...

The purpose of this chartbook, and MTF’s follow-up research, is to contextualize the potential impacts of federal action on Massachusetts. In this introduction, we provide a rubric for how to think about those federal impacts, including the...

The Healey-Driscoll administration’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget proposal tops $62 billion, increasing spending over the FY 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) by $4.3 billion (7.4 percent) and over the administration’s estimated spending level by...

On January 22nd, the Healey-Driscoll administration released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget proposal, which included notable spending increases in health care, education, and transportation. The $62.07 billion spending plan is a $4.3 billion (7.4...

On January 22nd, the Healey-Driscoll administration released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget proposal, which included notable spending increases in health care, education, and transportation. The $62.07 billion spending plan is a $4.3 billion (7.4...