Agreement completes Student Opportunity Act commitment, expands housing production, and strengthens the MBTA 

BOSTON — Through the recently signed Fiscal Year 2027 budget, Senator Sal DiDomenico secured $650,000 for community organizations in the district and over $1 million for critical statewide programs that support those with ALS and organizations addressing gang and youth violence. Additionally, dozens of DiDomenico’s statewide priorities that he fought for, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, were also included in this year's budget. 

Without raising taxes on Massachusetts residents, this budget drives down costs for residents, boosts the state's economy, and adds to the state’s savings account. The plan makes record investments in public education, unlocks new housing production, strengthens the state’s public transportation systems, and protects vulnerable residents from the impact of federal cuts. 

“This budget is a victory for people of all walks of life and income levels in my district and throughout the Commonwealth,” said Sal N. DiDomenico, Assistant Majority Leader of the Massachusetts Senate. “I am proud to bring millions of dollars to local and statewide organizations that provide vital services for residents across the communities I represent. These investments will help people put nutritious food on the table, expand access to essential government services, and support local projects that will improve lives and ensure all our children can build the bright futures they deserve.”

Senator DiDomenico’s local amendments totaling $650,000 will support:

• Community Action Programs Inter-City, Inc.

• The Everett Haitian Community Center - EHCC

• John F. Kennedy Family Service Center, Inc.

• East End House

• Chelsea Black Community - CBC 

• Latinos Unidos en Massachusetts

• Boston Housing Authority

• Just A Start's Biotechnology Careers Program

• La Comunidad

• Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House

• Girls on the Run Greater Boston

• Eliot Family Resource Center

• Harvest on Vine

• Cambridge Economic Opportunity Committee

• Transition House

• Special Townies

• Cambridge Nonprofit Coalition

• Courageous Sailing Center

• La Vida Scholars

• Everett Community Growers

• Art Lab Everett

• The Loop Lab

• East Cambridge Business Association

Senator DiDomenico’s statewide amendments totaling over $1,000,000 will support:

Community Safety: Senator DiDomenico secured $500,000 in funding for the Shannon Community Safety Initiative to address gang and youth violence through strategies like social intervention, suppression, and community mobilization. The program, now in its 20th year, currently serves thousands of youth every year and funds anti-gang violence initiatives in 25 communities across Massachusetts. DiDomenico has been funding this program in the budget for many years.

ALS Home Care Services: The Senator directed $250,000 in the Senate Budget for the ALS Association of Massachusetts to provide home care services and essential equipment to patients living with ALS. During his speech on the Senate floor, DiDomenico spoke about his mom's courageous battle with ALS and her enduring love for her family. “My Mom was the kindest, most selfless and most compassionate person I have ever known,” said DiDomenico. “We are hoping that one day there will be a cure, but until that happens the ALS Association continues to provide life-changing services and equipment that ensures individuals with ALS live with dignity and receive the support and care they deserve.”

Career Pathways for Life Sciences: DiDomenico brought in $250,000 for MassBioEd's programming that will increase career pathways for the life sciences sector in his district and across the state. As Chair of the Life Sciences Caucus, it’s a priority of the Senator’s to ensure our life sciences sector is thriving, and importantly, that it is creating a pipeline for a diverse workforce filled with talented individuals from all our state's many communities.

Supporting Nurses in Massachusetts: Senator DiDomenico secured $190,000 for Bunker Hill Community College's Boston Welcome Back Center. This innovative program ensures nurses trained in other places can get trained to become registered nurses here in Massachusetts. This is critical to ensuring our healthcare has all the trained professionals it needs to support patients across the Commonwealth.

Senator DiDomenico’s statewide priorities included in this year's budget:    

Food and Economic Security 

One of DiDomenico’s biggest priorities are anti-hunger, food insecurity, and economic security policies. Thanks to the Senator’s tireless advocacy, the budget protects access to benefits through Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC) and Emergency Aid to the Elderly, Disabled and Children (EAEDC), and includes a $500 clothing allowance per child for families receiving TAFDC benefits. 

It repeals the Learnfare law, which cut off TAFDC benefits when children had too many unexcused school absences and ended up hurting families who lost needed assistance. 

It also provides $56.1 million for Emergency Food Assistance, an increase of $6.1 million over Fiscal Year 2026, and $21.5 million for the Healthy Incentives Program (HIP), which supports local farmers and access to healthy food. 

Education 

DiDomenico has been a long-time champion for increasing school funding and this year’s budget completes the Legislature’s commitment to fully fund and implement the Student Opportunity Act with $7.66 billion in Chapter 70 aid to public school districts, an increase of $297 million over Fiscal Year 2026 and the highest level ever, along with a record $160-per-pupil minimum in local school aid. 

The budget also revives the Foundation Budget Review Commission (FBRC) to examine the K-12 funding formula and assess how the state can address rising costs in special education, student transportation, personnel, and educator health care statewide. 

The budget funds the Special Education Circuit Breaker at $654.6 million to help students who need support, which, combined with $152 million from the recent Fair Share supplemental budget, brings the total investment to $806.6 million, reimbursing school districts for 75 percent of the costs of educating students with disabilities and complex needs. 

Other education investments include $475 million for the Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) grant program to support early education and care providers’ day-to-day operational and workforce costs, $137 million for the MassEducate and MassReconnect free community college programs, $20 million for rural school districts, and $180 million for universal free school meals, which serve nearly 150 million free meals to Massachusetts kids every year.  

The budget also includes $11.7 million to support students receiving special education services through the DESE/DDS Residential Prevention Program, and $2 million for a new grant program helping schools address young people’s social media use. 

Transportation 

DiDomenico has always been a staunch advocate for investing in public transportation systems throughout the district and the state, and this budget provides $465 million in direct investment for the MBTA, which, combined with $595 million from the recent Fair Share supplemental budget, brings the total new investment in the system to over $1 billion for Fiscal Year 2027. It also includes $217 million for Regional Transit Authorities (RTAs), including $40 million to sustain fare-free transit service statewide. The state’s fare-free Regional Transit program has resulted in ridership exceeding pre-pandemic levels. 

The budget also responds to a string of fatal wrong-way driving incidents on Massachusetts highways, including the tragic line-of-duty death of State Trooper Kevin Trainor, by directing MassDOT to implement new infrastructure and officer training, including directional striping, signage, lane delineators, and motorist alert systems. 

Municipalities and Housing 

The budget provides record support to cities and towns across the state, including $1.363 billion for Unrestricted General Government Aid (UGGA), a $40 million increase over Fiscal Year 2026 and the highest level ever. For new dollars, the legislation implements a new funding formula to equitably distribute the increase throughout all of the state’s 351 communities.  

In another step toward addressing the housing crisis and building homes faster statewide, the budget builds on last session’s Affordable Homes Act by streamlining local permitting, supporting development on nonconforming properties, providing reasonable timelines for projects under existing zoning, and modernizing the variance standard, all aimed at boosting housing production and driving down costs. 

Health Care 

The budget extends the ConnectorCare expansion pilot program through 2027. Since 2024, the pilot has helped more than 115,000 residents access more affordable insurance through lower premiums, no deductibles, and reduced co-pays. 

The budget also codifies existing federal protections requiring comprehensive insurance coverage of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) without cost sharing or utilization management barriers and directs a new study to modernize and improve the long-term sustainability of emergency medical services in the Commonwealth. 

Retiree COLA Reform 

This budget includes comprehensive, fiscally prudent reforms to cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for retired public employees, based on recommendations from the Special COLA Commission. It establishes a COLA Reserve Fund financed in part by pension investment returns above target, provides enhanced COLA benefits for certain current retirees based on years in retirement, and allows the base amount used to calculate future COLAs to increase in $1,000 increments as funding allows. 

Protecting Vulnerable Residents 

The budget includes provisions protecting children aged 16 and 17 from sexual interactions with mandated reporters and others responsible for their care and oversight, including teachers, coaches, police officers, and social workers. 

In response to the tragic fire at Gabriel House in Fall River, the budget provides $500,000 to implement recommendations from the Assisted Living Residences (ALR) Commission to improve safety standards, emergency preparedness, and oversight at assisted living facilities statewide. 

The budget also establishes a commission to study transitional youth services for individuals with disabilities whose access to special education services will end due to high school graduation or turning 22, as the Legislature works to preserve community-based care options amid federal challenges to the Olmstead decision. 

Sports Wagering Revenue 

The budget adjusts the distribution of sports wagering revenue, directing 5.5 percent to the Sports and Entertainment Fund and 2 percent to the Economic Development Trust Fund, dedicating new resources to support the Commonwealth’s economic growth.  

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BOSTON — Governor Maura Healey signed Senator Sal N. DiDomenico’s landmark literacy legislation into law this past week. This new law will transform how the Commonwealth teaches children to read to ensure every student learns this essential skill. This bill was signed alongside advocates who have supported these reforms for years: teachers, students, and elected officials from across the state.

“Special thanks to my team, especially my Chief of Staff, Christie Getto Young, who worked tirelessly to bring this to fruition from the first day we drafted and filed this bill, through several iterations and adjustments, and being our lead during the conference committee process,” said Senator Sal N. DiDomenico, Senate Chair of the Conference Committee and the lead Senate bill sponsor. “This was a great day for our educators, families and especially our youngest learners. I am proud to, once again, be passing legislation to ensure our teachers and students get what they need and deserve to flourish and thrive in our state.”

This new law will ensure all our students learn the essential skills of reading and writing, and early literacy curriculum will be evidenced based in every community throughout the Commonwealth. 

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BOSTON — Senator Sal DiDomenico secured language in the Senate Economic Development bill for several of his key policy priorities, and he brought $5 million in bond authorizations for local infrastructure projects in the district. The economic development package lifts up small businesses and burgeoning industries, bans predatory kiosks used in cryptocurrency scams, and reins in the potential dangers of artificial intelligence by instituting responsible guardrails against catastrophes. 

DiDomenico secured several of his own proposed bills in the Economic Development bill

• ENOUGH Act bill that will create an innovative strategy to fight poverty by investing resources in high need neighborhoods and collaborating with community residents to help drive decisions that will ensure investments increase economic mobility.

• E-Bike classification bill that will classify and expand access to more electric bikes across Massachusetts.

• Physical Therapy Licensure Compact bill that will allow physical therapists from other states participating in the compact to practice in Massachusetts without having to endure the relicensing process, and for our physical therapists to do the same in those states.

DiDomenico secured $5 million in bond authorizations for these local infrastructure projects

• $2.5 million to the city of Chelsea for design and construction of a culvert.

• $2.5 million to the city of Everett for subsurface infrastructure improvements.

“I am thrilled to pass three important pieces of legislation I filed so that we can address poverty head on, support health care workers, and empower more people to bike safely across our state,” said Senator Sal N. DiDomenico. “The bond funding I got authorized for local projects has the potential to support my district’s cities in critical infrastructure improvement plans that will benefit residents in our communities and beyond. This package will do so much for our economy, small businesses, and residents across my district, and I look forward to fighting for all this language in the conference committee.”

The bill also surges the production of new housing units through automatic two-family zoning across Massachusetts, creates safety rules for fast electric scooters and e-bikes, and invests $100 million in immediate support for scientific research programs at public higher education institutions. 

With $575.4 million in authorizations, the economic development bond bill is poised to grow quality jobs in the Commonwealth, support innovation, and improve the quality of life for workers and families. 

The bill prioritizes bonding investments to boost every aspect of the Massachusetts economy, including: 

• $100 million to support and promote economic growth and job creation in the defense sector; 

• $75 million to support the development and application of AI; 

• $25 million to support downtown and main street vitality in Massachusetts towns and cities, in addition to $2.5 million to help convert vacant storefronts into pop-up opportunities for new small businesses; 

• $25 million for research and development of robotics technology; 

• $20 million to support construction of early stage and high growth business ventures; 

• $20 million to support community development financial institutions and small businesses; and 

• $25 million to support arts, culture, and the creative economy, building on recent successes of the Massachusetts tourism and cultural sector. 

The legislation requires major AI developers—known as large frontier developers—to account for their AI models’ risk of critical safety incidents by setting frameworks to avoid potential catastrophes. The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) would be empowered to bring civil lawsuits against major AI developers if they violate these new safety requirements. 

The bill would create unprecedented levels of new housing units in Massachusetts by allowing two-family homes on all residentially zoned lots, subject to reasonable local limitations. 

Supporting the Massachusetts economy’s workers and their families, the bill goes further to boost the state’s housing stock by creating a new, easier process for converting commercial properties into residential units, and requiring timely review processes for housing construction projects. 

Recent e-bike and electric scooter technology has moved beyond older state laws into unregulated territory. This bill accounts for these developments by creating new safety standards that keep young children off these devices, some of which can speed at 30 miles per hour, and banning mopeds and similar devices from bike lanes and shared use paths.  

Scientific research drives a significant part of the Massachusetts economy. With federal research funding under threat, the legislation invests an immediate $100 million in bridge funding for public higher education institutions to help maintain the pace of scientific discovery and retain talented graduate and post doctorate workers. 

Over the course of two days of debate, the Senate built on the underlying bill by adopting amendments in critical areas related to responsible technological advancement, the hospitality industry and vibrant business districts, and the ability for certain professions to work across state lines. 

Safety in Technological Innovation 

Stopping Cryptocurrency ATM Misuse (Amendment 374): Responds to the use of cryptocurrency kiosks as tools in predatory scams by fully banning the operation of such kiosks in Massachusetts. Scammers in recent years have directed older adults to use crypto kiosks to send money which is often not recoverable when the fraud is discovered, leading some seniors to lose their entire life savings. 

Frontier AI Risk Reports and Independent Verification (Amendment 471): Verifies that large AI developers are complying with this legislation’s new safety requirements by requiring independent, third-party safety audits. Additionally requires large AI companies to undergo in-depth, independent safety testing every four months to identify any residual catastrophic risks. 

Protecting Against CSAM (Amendment 94): Criminalizes the creation, possession, or sharing of AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM), in response to new AI technology and computer programs capable of generating synthetic images that are indistinguishable from real photos. Penalties for sharing such images go up to 10 years imprisonment. Creating or prompting synthetic CSAM is punishable by up to five years in prison, or 10 years if the image depicts a real child. 

Responsible Robotics (Amendment 118): Ensures the responsible use of robotics technology. Prohibits the possession, operation, manufacture, or sale of robots that are equipped with weapons—including firearms, chemical agents, weaponized lasers and explosives. Prohibits the use of a robotic device to criminally harass or physically restrain another person. Violations are punishable by up to five years in prison. Includes a waiver process for defense companies and contractors; an exemption for the military; and a process for law enforcement to use weaponized robots to destroy or diffuse bombs, with a proper warrant. 

The ‘Fun Agenda’ 

No Soccer No Party (Amendment 595): Convenes a working group to study the feasibility of a future international soccer tournament to be held in Massachusetts. The group, organized under the Office of International Trade and Investment, would study potential dates, venues, operational needs, and funding sources, and would coordinate with representatives of participating countries including the United States, Scotland, and nations with a significant diaspora in Massachusetts. 

Making music affordable by reining in predatory ticket scalping (Amendment 20): Institutes a 110 per cent cap on prices charged by ticket resale platforms for music concert tickets. 

Happy Hour (Amendment 78): Gives cities and towns the option of re-establishing ‘happy hour’ discounted alcohol sales policies, boosting bars, restaurants, and other licensed establishments. Municipalities would regulate happy hours by local ordinance. 

Conviviality Districts (Amendment 309): Builds on the success of a historic summer by permanently allowing cities and towns to permit public alcohol consumption in designated outdoor districts. Municipalities would be able to adopt the local-option districts for areas such as streets and parks, with the requirement that drinks be purchased from licensed establishments within the designated area. 

Public Arts and Entertainment Microgrant Program (Amendment 354): Authorizes $1 million for a new grant program to boost the cultural and economic vitality of downtown areas, commercial areas, cultural districts, gathering places, and nightlife destinations. The Massachusetts Cultural Council would distribute the microgrants to support public arts, performances, and programming. 

Cultivating Agritourism Across Massachusetts (Amendment 70): Authorizes $5 million for grants to support local farms, agriculture, and small businesses through agritourism. 

Massport Liquor License Flexibility (Amendment 441): Allows bars and restaurants at Logan Airport to continue serving alcohol as long as flights are arriving and departing from the airport. 

Networking Jobs Across State Lines 

Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact (Amendment 11): Increases access to psychology services by adding Massachusetts to an interstate compact that recognizes the licensure of psychologists in other participating states. Allows licensed psychologists from those states to practice via telehealth across state lines. 

Social Work Licensure Compact (Amendment 222): Supports Massachusetts social workers by joining surrounding states in the social work licensure compact, ensuring they can continue to care for patients in other states. 

Establishing a Physical Therapy Compact (Amendment 402): Bolsters the physical therapy workforce by working toward the creation of an interstate compact, which would allow licensed physical therapists and assistants to practice across participating state lines.  

Fostering a Strong Local and Regional Economy 

Juvenile Jurisdiction (Amendment 495): Raises the age of juvenile jurisdiction to include residents who are 18 years old. The ‘raise the age’ initiative is proven to decrease crime, increase public safety and improve economic outcomes by allowing emerging adults who are 18 years old—the typical age of a high school senior—to be tried as juveniles instead of adults for certain crimes. 

Requiring Automated Criminal Record Sealing (Amendment 511): Automates and expedites the process of sealing criminal records, ensuring that eligible people are able to move forward without bureaucratic delays. 

Affordable Homeownership Pilot (Amendment 46): Supports the development and construction of permanently affordable homeownership units by aiding the creation of a pilot program. Authorizes $2.5 million to fund the creation of units for low- and moderate-income households, including units within mixed-use developments. 

Municipal Tax Relief (Amendment 554): Gives cities and towns the option of providing enhanced tax relief in the form of a rebate to lower- and middle-income taxpayers who already receive the residential tax exemption. Creates an additional tool on top of the established residential exemption, which gives property tax relief to local residents by shifting more of the residential tax burden onto vacation homes and investment properties. 

West-East Passenger Rail (Amendment 196): Authorizes $5 million for the development of the passenger rail station in Palmer, a key stop for West-East Passenger Rail to span the state from Boston to Pittsfield. 

The ENOUGH Act (Amendment 401): Creates a fund and framework to capitalize on public-private partnerships to lift families and communities out of poverty. Support would extend to community organizations to boost areas such as early education and care, affordable housing, public safety, and civic infrastructure. 

Zoo New England (Amendment 22): Authorizes $5 million for capital improvements at facilities of Zoo New England, which supports education and conservation through the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston and Stone Memorial Zoo in Stoneham. 

Massachusetts National Guard Museum Birthplace (Amendment 366): Unlocks federal dollars to support the development of the Massachusetts National Guard Museum by giving an official designation to the museum. Designates the facility’s location as Salem, the birthplace of the National Guard where the first muster of the colonial Militia was held 389 years ago. 

The package is based on legislation originally filed by Governor Maura Healey. A prior version was passed by the House of Representatives. 

The Senate passed the bill and sent it back to the House of Representatives for further consideration. 

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