Legislative negotiators filed a compromise $56.2 billion annual state budget Sunday night, packing major education, transportation and health care policy measures and spending into an overdue fiscal 2024 accord that is expected to win House and Senate approval on Monday.
A tax relief bill had been moving in concert with the budget, but House and Senate Democrats did not reach an agreement on that bill, which contains many ideas that legislators were touting in early 2022. Budget negotiators did set aside $581 million for tax relief this fiscal year, and allocated $1 billion in revenues from the state’s new surtax on annual income above $1 million. Of that, $523 million will go to education and $477 million for transportation.
According to House and Senate officials, the accord includes a Senate measure that will allow students without legal immigration status to qualify for in-state tuition rates, and state financial aid, at public colleges or universities here if they have attended a Massachusetts high school for at least three years or obtained their GED here.
