Latest news with #Gorzkowicz
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
State using interest income to pay down $105 million in debt
BOSTON (SHNS) – State finance officials are taking advantage of a new law and a quarter of the interest generated by the state's bulging Stabilization Fund last year to pay off $105 million of the state's debt. Administration and Finance Secretary Matthew Gorzkowicz alerted the House and Senate clerks last Monday that his office 'intends to make an expenditure in the amount of approximately $105,000,000 in funds from the Commonwealth Federal Matching and Debt Reduction Fund (the 'Fund') to retire eligible outstanding Commonwealth General Obligation Bonds, which is within the authorized use of the Fund.' He noted that the expenditure does not require further legislative involvement. As of Jan. 31, Massachusetts had $28.5 billion in general obligation bonds outstanding, according to a new financial report published last week. Almost all of that debt — $28.2 billion or 99.1% — was fixed-rate debt while just $256 million or 0.9% carried a variable rate. A law Gov. Maura Healey signed in September lets her administration leverage up to $750 million in Stabilization Fund interest for grant-matching purposes through November 2026, as well as to pay down state debt. Fiscal year 2024's interest earnings contributed $420.8 million to that new fund, a state financial report confirmed in February. Gorzkowicz said when Healey signed the law that its debt reduction power was 'not something we're looking at now,' but the state is now poised to use it for a second time. The secretary's March 24 letter to the clerks served as the required 30-day notice to the Legislature before an expenditure from the fund, an A&F spokesman said. The administration submitted a similar notice dated Feb. 10 before using $96.5 million from the fund to pay off the MBTA's outstanding legacy debt, a move that Healey announced in January as part of her transportation package. Between the two expenditures, the state will have pulled $201.5 million from the Stabilization Fund interest pool to reduce its debt burden. Meanwhile, A&F spokesman Matthew Murphy said the administration has identified $307.8 million in 'match commitments from the fund,' made in connection to applications seeking more than $2.4 billion in potential federal grant dollars. Some awards have been approved and some remain pending, he said. Gorzkowicz said in February that the Healey administration has 'used those funds for aggressively pursuing federal funds,' and told the Comptroller Advisory Board that the state is 'utilizing that towards a lot of good matching of federal funds.' The new fund has allowed for a $40 million state commitment toward a $400 million federal grant for the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition Hub run by MassTech, an $18.4 million state match commitment to leverage $24.4 million in federal dollars for infrastructure work at the Port of New Bedford, and a $2.5 million match for a $10.2 million federal Safe Streets for All grant through the Department of Transportation, among other projects, Murphy said. The state's recent debt reduction efforts are just some of the moving parts that Gorzkowicz and others monitor as the state attempts to stretch the resources available to it as far as possible while bracing for a potential slowdown in federal government support and warning that Beacon Hill will not be able to fill all the gaps. Reducing the state's overall debt liability will, in turn, free up money for the operating budget, Murphy said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Boston Globe
06-03-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Even building a state budget is getting harder in Trump 2.0, Mass. officials say. ‘The landscape is shifting every day.'
Governor Maura Healey told lawmakers Thursday she's open to reconsidering her initial plan for raising new money under the Her budget secretary also suggested that the administration and Legislature may have to ultimately decide to use state funding differently, warning that changes would require work by both branches. Advertisement 'The landscape is shifting every day,' Healey told lawmakers during a State House budget hearing, saying she and her administration could not have anticipated the 'immediate and damaging 'This is probably as challenging a budget cycle as we have seen in some time,' Healey said. Massachusetts' state budget has relied heavily on federal COVID-era dollars. Still, the state's spending plan as currently constructed leans significantly on federal reimbursements that, if cut, could force the state to slash services or find the money elsewhere, possibly by tapping state accounts meant for emergencies. Healey's proposed budget assumes that state will receive $16 billion in federal funding, including $14 billion in federal reimbursements for MassHealth, the state Medicaid program under which 2 million people, including children, low-income families, and others rely on for health insurance. Healthcare makes up the largest slice of spending in the state budget each year, and Healey's spending plan for next fiscal year proposed spending $22.6 billion for MassHealth, including federal reimbursements — a $2.5 billion over the budget she signed last year. Advertisement But Medicaid has emerged as a target of House Republicans, who have weighed cutting the reimbursement the federal government provides to states to help pay for extending The programs overseen by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which includes Medicaid. The resolution doesn't specify how much could be slashed for the program, and House Speaker Mike Johnson has said lawmakers the so-called Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, the formal name for the share of Medicaid costs the federal government provides to each state. But the potential of any significant cuts has 'Threats to Medicaid, freezing of federal funds and further impacts from DOGE efforts are still in the speculative phase,' Michlewtiz said, referring to the so-called 'Staying disciplined,' he said, 'will continue to be the best mindset.' State lawmakers questioned Healey and her budget chief, Matt Gorzkowicz, for nearly two hours, including over ways the state could protect itself against dramatic changes emerging from Washington. Advertisement State Senator Jo Comerford noted that while the state has created various reserves to account for falling revenue — including an $8 billion 'rainy day' fund — 'there isn't one set aside, for example, to help take a federal blow.' Gorzkowicz said the 'problem is going to be too big for any one branch' of state government to tackle. 'We're going to have to come together. It's going to require legislation,' Gorzkowicz said, suggesting that 'maybe we have to reallocate resources differently than we have in the past.' 'The executive branch isn't going to have the ability to do it all,' he said. Healey later reiterated to reporters the state is not able to 'absorb or make up for cuts that come from a federal administration. And Massachusetts isn't unique.' 'The hope is that there will be enough common sense among Republicans in Congress to stop this from happening, not just [to] Massachusetts, but to states all over this country,' Healey said. Healey's budget proposal did not include any broad-based tax increases, but she did tuck in a range of revenue-generating proposals. It would impose the state's Advertisement Whether lawmakers embrace some, or any, of those is unclear. But Healey said she is personally reconsidering the proposed cap on the charitable deductions amid the uncertainty that federal cuts have created Matt Stout can be reached at
