House Ways & Means To Release Budget Proposal April 13
by MALC • April 11, 2016 • DIYA, Issues, Legislation, News
The Massachusetts House of Representatives’ powerful Ways and Means Committee will release its Fiscal Year 2017 (FY17) budget proposal on April 13.
The creative sector will be directly impacted by the final budget when it gets signed into law by Governor Charlie Baker this summer. It is important for artists & arts advocates to pay attention to the budget process and speak up so that our priorities don’t get overlooked.
Budget priorities are represented as “line items” to be funded within the proposal and/or come as subsequent proposed budget amendments if they are not included in the budget(s) as line items.
Governor Baker released his budget proposal in January. (http://www.mass.gov/bb/h1/fy17h1/) and on April 13th, advocates, lobbyists, elected officials, and concerned residents of Massachusetts will look to see where the Ways and Means proposal both differs and aligns with Baker’s.
The full House of Representatives will then get to work crafting amendments to the budget proposal. Amendments must be filed by Friday, April 15.
And that’s when the hard advocacy work begins. At MALC we’ll be focused on every detail of the House Ways & Means budget proposal that impacts the creative sector (funding for the Massachusetts Cultural Council, our libraries, the MA Film Office, Tourism, etc.) We’ll be working with individuals and groups throughout our sector to keep our priorities at the forefront of the budgetary process.
Stay tuned for more MALC budget coverage and what you can do to support our sector!
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To see who serves on the House Ways & Means Committee:
https://malegislature.gov/Committees/House/H34
To learn more about the state budget project — see these helpful links:
