30-05-2025
Healey quickly signs off on $190 mil to cover state child care bills
BOSTON (SHNS) – Child care services on the brink of running out of money are about to receive a last-minute funding jolt, but elder home care providers are still waiting for their own supplemental funding infusion.
The House and Senate agreed Thursday to a nearly $190 million bill (S 2521) to ensure child care providers serving low-income families continue to get paid in June. Gov. Maura Healey signed the bill around 4:30 p.m., spokesperson Karissa Hand told the News Service.
'For our early education and care providers, without the authorization of such spending, our providers will not receive their scheduled June child care financial assistance that's due them,' Senate Ways and Means Chair Michael Rodrigues said before the bill was unanimously approved.
The child care funding was part of a $530 million bill that the House approved last week.
'Our intent is to report this out in part, in order to ensure that these child care providers get the payments that they are due, take our time, and work on the rest of the supplemental budget in due time,' Rodrigues said. 'And hopefully, in the next few weeks, we'll be able to report that out for consideration by this branch.'
The bill Healey signed includes $95.6 million for the Department of Children and Families and Department of Transitional Assistance-related child care, as well as $94 million for income-eligible child care.
The Legislature in the fiscal 2025 budget appropriated about $357 million for DCF- and DTA-related child care and $417 million for income-eligible child care.
The Senate enacted the bill as Rodrigues showed New Bedford fourth graders around the Senate chamber.
'Just like that, we spent $189 million,' he told them.
The Legislature in recent years has heavily invested in child care and early education. Rodrigues pointed to the difficulty of funding with precision accounts that he said are 'caseload driven.'
'There are some that you just cannot be 100% accurate on,' he said.
Healey this month signed another bill steering $240 million to the Group Insurance Commission to cover claims for the rest of the fiscal year that were at risk due to underfunding in the fiscal 20225 state budget.
Other supplemental funding requests from Healey remain in limbo, including $60 million for elder home care services, $43 million for rental assistance, and $15.5 million to replace electronic benefits cards.
The unfunded obligations are piling up as tax revenues, apart from taxes on high earners, have softened. It's led to cautionary words about adjusting spending expectations, but the supplemental budgets keep flowing.
Betsey Crimmins, executive director of Mass Aging Access, which represents the state's 27 Aging Service Access Points and Area Agencies on Aging, said 'many' members have not received funding for services provided in March and April. Crimmins said the situation could have been avoided if the Legislature had approved the additional $60 million in funding, which organizations use to pay direct care workers.
'It's really difficult to know that the governor acknowledged the problem and did the right thing. The House acknowledged the problem and did the right thing,' Crimmins told the News Service. 'And for some reason, the Senate — we've nosed around, we've tried to talk to various people in the Senate. We haven't gotten anything back, other than it will be taken up.'
Some ASAPs have taken out loans to ensure providers continue getting paid in the interim, she said.
'There's just frustration because there's very real concern about going into a new fiscal year with incredible cash flow problems,' Crimmins said.
Minority Leader Bruce Tarr agreed to the bill, but expressed concern about supplemental spending trends.
'It is very concerning now, in the last several weeks, to be on the brink of a deficit with regard to insurance for public employees all across the commonwealth, and now child care providers all across the commonwealth,' Tarr said.
Early Education and Care Commissioner Amy Kershaw warned providers this month that stalled action on the supplemental budget might translate into delayed reimbursements.
Rodrigues, asked by the News Service why the Senate did not tackle elder home care alongside child care, said, 'The EEC account was imminently out of money.'
'That was almost like an emergency, and now we can be a little more diligent and deliberative on what else we do in the future,' he said. 'But it will be a very timely manner. We're ready to get it done.'
Crimmins questioned why the Senate is prolonging the process.
'This whole year, we have been very steadily beating the drum that we need the money,' Crimmins said. 'It hasn't changed — it's not gotten bigger, it's not gotten smaller. It was the hole that was identified, and it's the hole that continues to exist.'
Asked whether another supplemental budget could surface next week, Rodrigues said, 'I doubt it.'
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