On July 1, 2013, the Massachusetts Senate passed the $34 billion Fiscal Year 2014 Budget that was approved by a legislative conference committee. The committee comprised of two members of the majority party and one member of the minority party from both the House and Senate to agree on differences between the two chambers' budgets.

The final budget depends on new revenue such as an increase in the gas tax, a sales tax on certain computer software services and an increase in the tobacco tax, which were included in the transportation finance legislation passed by the Legislature in April. The budget also draws $350 million out of the state's "rainy day" fund.

The budget includes $920.23 million in local aid funding, fully funding the Special Education Circuit Breaker with $252,819,241, and $4.301 billion in Chapter 70 Education Aid funding.

Many initiatives supported by Senator Moore in the Senate Budget in May were included in the final budget such as:

• Funding the Commonwealth Child Care Rate Reserve by $11.5 million;
• Requiring only providers that prescribe schedule 2 or 3 opioids to utilize the state's Prescription Monitoring Program;
• Allowing the transfer of the former National Guard Armory in Worcester to Veteran's Inc., expanding the current veteran's homeless shelter;
• Creating a voluntary waiver system for small businesses that wish to item price items and not switch to a consumer price scanner system;
• Funding for the Dismas House in Worcester, a program that helps ex-offenders and chronically homeless men recover from drug and alcohol addictions while learning farm skills; and,
• Funding the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Program, which trains workers for advanced manufacturing jobs, by $2 million.

The final budget also includes proposals regarding higher education in the Commonwealth. The budget includes increased funding for UMass, the state universities and the community colleges, which will allow for a freeze in tuition and fees at the current level across the public higher education system for the 2013-2014 school year. The Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, the only veterinary school in New England, located in Grafton, received $4 million in funding, an amendment sponsored by Senator Moore in the Senate budget.

The bill includes language creating the Bureau of Program Integrity within the Department of Transitional Assistance, an oversight office that would be appointed by the inspector general, $56 million to cover winter snow and ice removal and $100,000 in line-of-duty death benefits for the family of Sean Collier, the MIT officer who was killed by the two brothers suspected of the Boston Marathon bombings.

On Friday, July 12th, Governor Deval Patrick signed into law the FY14 Budget, however he vetoed $240 million in transportation fiance funding and $177 million in unrestricted local aid.

The Governor's vetoes were due to a disagreement with the Legislature over the adequacy of the Legislature's plan to finance investments in the transportation system, requesting higher funding, including an increase in the gas tax of at least 6 percent, as opposed to the 3 percent proposed by the Legislature.

In response to the Governor, Senate President Therese Murray and Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo issued a on behalf of the Legislature stating that the Legislature carefully examined revenue proposals and could not increase revenue further, to prevent a negative effect on Massachusetts families and the current economic recovery efforts.

On Thursday, July 18, 2013, the Legislature voted to override the Governor's vetos on the transportation fianance bill. However, on July 19th, Governor Patrick once again vetoed the measure and sent another recommendation to the Legislature. The Legislature will meet later this week to once again debate the Governor's recommendation to the transportation finance legislation.

The Senate also passed a supplemental budget on July 1st, which contained several reforms for the state's Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards, such as placing photo identification on EBT cards. Senator Moore's amendment to last month's Senate welfare reform requiring the Department of Transitional Assistance to work with the Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) to use the RMV's current facial recognition data and resources to verify applicants' identities and to prevent fraud, was included in the supplemental budget.

Senator Michael O. Moore, Senate Chairman of the Joint Committee on Higher Education, on Thursday, July 11, 2013, was appointed to the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) Legislative Advisory Committee. The committee is made up of 24-30 distinguished legislators from the six New England states to address education and higher education issues facing the region.

"I am honored to be chosen to serve on the Legislative Advisory Committee for the New England Board of Higher Education," stated Senator Moore. "As Senate Chairman of the Joint Committee on Higher Education, I understand the importance of ensuring affordability and accessibility for higher education. As a member of this committee, I will have the ability to learn new solutions for education concerns we currently face, and to ensure higher education in the Commonwealth continues to succeed in the 21st Century."

The purposes of the committee include:

• Engaging New England legislators in conversations regarding key legislative activities and agendas;
• Exchanging higher education policymaking perspectives in the region and supporting increased interstate collaboration among legislators;
• Providing timely research and information to participating members through presentations by state, regional and national policy experts; and
• Informing and advising NEBHE's policy research activities.

The New England Board of Higher Education was founded in 1955, when six visionary New England governors, realizing that the future prosperity of New England rested on higher education, committed their states to the shared pursuit of academic excellence. Soon thereafter, NEBHE was approved by New England's six state legislatures and authorized by the U.S. Congress. NEBHE promotes greater educational opportunities and services for the residents of New England. For more information, visit www.nebhe.org.