Massachusetts

Massachusetts Without a Budget at Start of New Fiscal Year

The new fiscal year begins Saturday and Massachusetts lawmakers have yet to approve a new state budget.

A six-member committee made up of members of the Massachusetts House and Senate failed to agree on a single compromise budget on Friday as the clock ran down on the 2017 fiscal year.

The House and Senate have each approved separate versions of the approximately $40.3 billion budget.

Although there isn't a new budget in place, Massachusetts government won't shut down. Lawmakers had earlier passed - and Republican Gov. Charlie Baker has already signed - an interim budget that will keep government functioning through the end of July.

Complicating the negotiations is a shortfall in state tax revenue that has thrown into doubt the original assumptions on which the budget is based.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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