Baker OKs Overdue Budget as Interim Spending Power Runs Out

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has signed an overdue $43.3 billion state budget into law, hours before a stopgap spending plan for state government was about to expire.

The signing on Wednesday came after the Republican governor spent more than a week reviewing the budget that was delivered to him by the Democratic-controlled Legislature on July 22, three weeks after the start of the state’s new fiscal year.

In a highly unusual move, Baker did not exercise his line-item veto power to trim any spending in the budget, saying it wasn’t necessary because the spending plan was balanced.

The new budget does not raise taxes but increases overall spending by 3.3% over the most recent fiscal year. It projects tax collections to rise 1.4% over preliminary revenue estimates for last year.