State Budget Includes Critical Investments

By: Rep. Ryan Hamilton – 3/23

Much has happened on Beacon Hill since my last column. We passed a supplemental budget for this current fiscal year. This budget included critical investments such as;

* 68 million in Early Education and Care workforce stabilization grants
* 65 million for school breakfasts
* 44.9 million in emergency shelter program
* 130 million in continuation of SNAP benefits
* 2 million in reimbursements for stolen SNAP benefits
* 104 million in the MA Clean Water Trust
* 400 Million in MassWorks infrastructure program
* 9.3 million in the MA Broadband Fund.

These investments will help the working and middle-class families of the Merrimack Valley. They insure that our programs will continue to be funded through the end of the fiscal year. As we get closer to the budget, I encourage you to contact me at ryan.hamilton@mahouse.gov to inform me of your priorities for Methuen and Haverhill.

Now I will highlight a piece of legislation I filed this session. This specific legislation is HD2893, an Act relative to expanding property tax exemptions for veterans. The current law states that only disabled veterans can get exemptions on their property taxes. This will stay in place. The goal of my legislation is to expand that to include all veterans as defined in clause forty-third of section 7 of chapter 4. If passed, every non-disabled veteran residing in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts would be eligible for a $400 property tax exemption.

Ryan Hamilton is a former Methuen City Councilor and is in his first year of his first term as a State Rep. for the communities of Methuen and Haverhill. You can email him at Ryan.Hamilton@mahouse.gov. ◊