Advocates rally behind endangered anti-poverty boost

Yahoo

18-04-2025

BOSTON (WWLP) – Concerned the boost to cash assistance grants that took effect at the start of April could be short-lived, anti-poverty advocates called on lawmakers Thursday to preserve the 10% increase and then support another 10% jolt in fiscal 2026.
Advocates with the Lift Our Kids Coalition, which has 160 member organizations, say the grant amounts are still not enough to support the basic needs of very low-income Bay Staters living in 'deep poverty,' or whose incomes are below half of the federal poverty level. For a family of three, that monthly level is $1,110 per month, according to the coalition.
As of April 1, the new maximum monthly grant for a family of three is $861, up from the previous amount of $783. The increase was incorporated in the fiscal 2025 budget.
That increase would be rolled back under Gov. Maura Healey's fiscal 2026 budget recommendations for the Emergency Aid to the Elderly, Disabled, and Children and Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children programs, the coalition said.
'We need to maintain the increase in FY '26. We cannot go back,' April Jennison, a lead coalition member, said at a briefing Thursday afternoon. 'Without a further increase, we'll continue to lose ground to inflation, undermining the progress that we and the Legislature have made.'
Budget-writers are contending with modest revenue growth and deep uncertainty around federal support, but that didn't stop House Democrats on Wednesday from embracing steeper spending in their fiscal 2026 budget proposal.
Cash assistance grants have increased by 45% over the past five years, according to the 'Lifting Our Kids Out of Deep Poverty' display on the State House's fourth floor. From July 2000 to December 2020, grants were stalled at $593 per month for a family of three.
Healey previously slashed more than $17 million from the public benefits programs during fiscal 2024 budget cuts.
'Remember, we would be over $950 right now if the governor had not cut it last year,' Rep. Marjorie Decker, who grew up in poverty, said.
Healey's fiscal 2026 budget would undo the latest grant increase, advocates say. In a January budget brief, the Healey administration wrote the funding 'maintains historic growth in caseload and benefits but does not raise average benefit levels above those in effect as of January 2025.'
At a March 25 budget hearing, Department of Transitional Assistance Commissioner Jeff McCue acknowledged the cut.
'The Administration has carefully considered the allocation of resources for FY26 to ensure the most effective support for families in need,' McCue said, according to his prepared testimony as shared with the News Service. 'While the decision not to include the entire 10% increase for TAFDC and EAEDC was a challenging one, it reflects a commitment to balancing competing priorities within a constrained budget environment.'
Asked whether the newly unveiled House budget also rolls back the recent boost to cash assistance grants, Ways and Means Committee spokesperson Blake Webber told the News Service on Thursday, 'No we believe our language maintains the increase.'
The House budget development drew a round of cheers and applause at Thursday's briefing.
'So I'm really excited, and there's some good news,' Decker, of Cambridge, said. 'We were checking yesterday to make sure that the House budget that came out, it does annualize the cash increase that we got.'
Advocates are promoting legislation from Decker and Sen. Sal DiDomenico (H 214 / S 118) that would gradually raise cash assistance grants to the deep poverty level and require annual cost-of-living adjustments. The grant dollars have lost 40% of their value between 1988 and 2025 due to inflation, according to the coalition's display.
'Until we get a law on the books, until we pass an actual bill to make this what it should be — a law — we have to fight for every dollar in the state budget every single year,' DiDomenico said. 'And this year more than most years, it's going to be very difficult — very, very difficult.'
DiDomenico pledged to file a budget amendment to inject more into the benefit programs if the investments do not appear in the Senate Ways and Means Committee budget next month.
The Everett Democrat emphasized advocates and lawmakers are confronting a 'pivotal moment.'
'If we go backwards just one year, it's harder to recover the second time around,' DiDomenico said. 'We have to keep the momentum building. People are depending on us to do that.'
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