Amid uncertainty from Trump's Washington, Mass. Democrats trimmed the budget. They left their earmarks intact.

Boston Globe

15-07-2025

While earmarks make up a relatively small slice of the state's $61 billion budget, they are coveted on Beacon Hill, delivering pots of money directly to members' districts and nonprofits serving the voters who elect them. This year's list of earmarks would fund programs ranging from senior centers and food pantries to $35,000 for a robot lawn mower in Topsfield, $50,000 for pickleball courts in Peabody, and $10,000 to restore Andover's
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They also quickly became a target for potential belt-tightening. Citing pending federal funding cuts and a potential economic slowdown, Healey said she intends to delay releasing $125 million of those local earmarks until at least October.
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But it remains unclear
exactly which ones Healey will hold back. Matt Murphy, a spokesperson for Healey's budget office,
said officials 'do not have a complete list that we could share.'
Legislative leaders told the Globe the final budget deal represented an effort to practice fiscal restraint while still delivering for communities.
House leaders also noted they added less money in earmarked spending this year than last; analyses from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a budget watchdog, found the chamber's plan included about $5.6 million less
even though the House actually tacked on more individual earmarks (
'At a time when
Legislative leaders, however, found one common target in trimming the budget plan: a half-dozen Republicans who voted against their chamber's initial budget plans when they came to the floor in April and May.
State representatives John Gaskey, Alyson Sullivan-Almeida, Ken Sweezey, and Justin Thurber had all of their earmarks snipped from the final budget bill, even though
none of their districts'
relatively modest hauls topped $70,000, the Globe found. State Senator Ryan Fattman had all $500,000 of his earmarks slashed, while his fellow GOP senator Kelly Dooner, a first-term Taunton lawmaker who also got a half-million in earmarks, had all of hers cut except for $15,000 that funded body-worn cameras for police in Seekonk.
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Another of Dooner's requests and one of Sullivan-Almeida's also ultimately survived, but only because different lawmakers asked, and received, money for the same earmark.
'Any money is good money. But I feel like I can work outside of these earmarks and still bring more to my district,' said Thurber, a first-term Somerset lawmaker who had $20,000 in earmarks cut from the final deal. He said he voted against the budget out of principle — 'a [nearly] 6 percent increase is unsustainable' — and is willing to sacrifice some earmarks to use his vote to address wider issues.
In Somerset, he said, 'I have 20,000 residents.
Is their voice worth a dollar or two dollars [per resident]? I don't believe it is.'
State Representative John Gaskey is one of a handful of GOP lawmakers who voted against their chambers' budget and later had their earmarks slashed from the final spending plan.
Erin Clark/Globe Staff
Gaskey, a first-term representative from Carver, said he wasn't surprised to see negotiators cut the $25,000 earmark he sought
to help repurpose
a Carver school's roof.
'I felt it was laughable that everybody was like, 'We need a lower budget.' And the entire Legislature jumped in and pushed the budget even higher,' said Gaskey, who initially sought $200,000 for the roof project, as well as money for other local departments. 'I admit I put mine in as well — but I didn't have an expectation of getting them.'
Together, legislative leaders cut more than $1.1 million in earmarks for those
GOP lawmakers. That's in addition to a separate $500,000 increase Senate minority leader Bruce Tarr sought, but budget negotiators cut, for regional emergency medical services.
'The local earmarks represent communities getting their relative share of state spending. And I don't think that should be dependent on how a particular legislator votes,' Tarr said of his fellow Republicans' cuts. Tarr, a Gloucester Republican, voted for the budget and otherwise got $1.45 million in other
earmarks.
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The Globe analysis found that legislative leaders also cut nearly $5.5 million in Democrat-filed earmarks that had passed in the initial House and Senate plans. However, for the vast majority of those cuts — $4.6 million worth —
budget negotiators simply eliminated earmarks that were duplicated elsewhere, including in another lawmaker's request. In most cases,
negotiators opted for the earmark that gave more money to the project, and cut
the one with the smaller price tag, according to the Globe's analysis.
For example, state Representative Jay Livingstone's $50,000 earmark to make improvements to the Museum of Science's
Those budget maneuvers left $875,000 in Democratic earmarks that appeared to be cut entirely,
according to the Globe analysis.
But even
some of that money appears primed to resurface.
Representative Patricia Duffy, a Holyoke Democrat, said a 'senior staff' member in the House's budget committee told her that her request to fund a job training program at Holyoke Community College was taken out by mistake and would be restored in a future spending bill. Michlewitz's office confirmed the earmark 'should not have been removed.'
Representative John Lawn didn't receive the $200,000 boost he requested for a helpline for residents enrolling in health insurance coverage. The Watertown Democrat said the helpline is critical amid federal cuts to Medicaid and that he plans to try and 'get some of that funding back.'
'It's not over,' Lawn said, adding that he believes budget negotiators 'are just being very conservative.'
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As they have done
Michlewitz, widely regarded as House Speaker Ron Mariano's likely successor, added nearly $2.2 million in total earmark funding for his priorities, topping what all 25 House Republicans received in local earmarks in the final budget combined. It included $50,000 for indoor bocce courts in Michlewitz's North End neighborhood and $400,000 for the North End Waterfront health center.
Mariano, meanwhile, secured just under $1 million in earmarks, with $500,000 going to the
Nearly every member of the Legislature sought — and scored — some type of funding, too. Tarr, the Senate's top Republican, scored a varied haul of earmarks that would both help protect right whales and pay for a new autonomous robotic lawn mower for Topsfield, where officials are
'This is another piece of the pie to get the most out of the [town's] fields,' said Topsfield town administrator Kevin Harutunian, who said the town requested the earmark. 'One of our goals is to look for innovative ways to deliver the best possible services.'
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The Healey administration said it could decide to release the earmark money in October, when her budget czar has to certify whether state revenues can cover expenses. The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, the business-backed budget watchdog, called the decision to
'Government needs to absolutely prioritize the core things that government does,' said Doug Howgate, the foundation's president.
In tough times, he said, 'it is appropriate to focus on [funding] major programs . . . and focus a lot less on very specific earmarks.'
Samantha J. Gross can be reached at