$20M for CPA Delayed: State Surplus in Limbo

Last week, Governor Baker declined to sign off on a budget bill that would allocate $20 million in surplus funding for the CPA Trust Fund; instead, he returned the language back to the Legislature with a proposed amendment that would still leave the funding for CPA intact. And while the Legislature continued to work throughout the weekend, unfortunately the bill containing the CPA amendment was not acted on before the formal session ended on Monday morning. While this is a disappointing development, there are still many paths for the legislation to pass, and recent news from the State House has shed some light on why the Legislature may have decided to delay their final decision on this funding.

An unusual series of dominoes falling over the last few days has disrupted plans for not only the $20 million for CPA, but for billions in state budget surplus spending. In the midst of the final days of the session, legislators discovered that an obscure state law, Chapter 62F, is set to trigger this year due to an unprecedented multi-billion dollar state budget surplus. The last time this law was activated was in 1987, but it is now primed to send roughly $3 billion in surplus dollars back to taxpayers, upsetting the carefully laid plans the Legislature had for these funds. It’s likely the Legislature feels they need more time to navigate the complications concerning Chapter 62F before they can decide exactly how to allocate the FY22 surplus.

With formal sessions now finished, the Legislature moves into informal sessions—at this stage, unanimous consent from all present legislators is required for any bill to pass. Despite this strict requirement, surplus spending has been enacted during informal sessions in the past. The Legislature will almost certainly act on the large FY22 surplus in some fashion during this period, including a decision on any allocations for the CPA Trust Fund. The timing for when this could occur is still unclear—the Legislature now has until October 31st to close the books on FY22, meaning it could be several more months until any additional funding is approved for CPA communities.

The Coalition will provide further updates as the situation develops.