Gov. Maura Healey finally signed the Commonwealth’s 2024 budget on Aug. 9 — more than a month into the fiscal year, which began on July 1. The governor had already signed two interim budget authorizations to keep the government running while negotiations proceeded on Beacon Hill.
Much of the debate centered on how to spend the $1 billion in unallocated revenue that has already been generated by the Fair Share Amendment — a 4-percent state income tax surcharge on taxable income over $1 million per year.
The amendment was on the November 2022 ballot, passed with 52 percent of the vote, and went into effect on Jan. 1 of this year. In future years, when the tax has been in effect for an entire calendar year, it is expected to account for around $2 billion in added revenue per year.
Fair Share funds are dedicated to education and transportation. In the new fiscal 2024 budget, $524 million went to education, including earmarks for free school lunches in K-12 schools statewide, and the rest went to transportation.
The $56-billion budget also includes several earmarks for Outer Cape towns and regional initiatives.
Wellfleet Harbor is getting $125,000 for new ice machines to help local oyster farmers meet time and temperature control regulations.
“Having these industrialized machines in the harbor is really going to help aquaculturists and harvesters get the ice they need to cool the product quickly, preserve the safety of the product, and expand capacity in Wellfleet,” state Sen. Julian Cyr of Truro said.
Other Outer Cape line items include $30,000 for the Provincetown Film Society for theater upgrades and $50,000 for Sustainable CAPE’s farmers markets and educational programs in Provincetown and Truro.
Another $100,000 will go to local training for the Cape’s fire departments. The Mass. Firefighting Academy runs its programs many miles away in Stow, Springfield, or Bridgewater. In recent years, Cyr said, the budget has funded the purchase of “portable props” that allow for mobile training courses. “It’s like a training building on wheels,” he said.
Mental Health Court
Before budget season, Cape and Islands District Attorney Rob Galibois publicly asked state legislators for increased funding for his 65-member office.
“My stance is I’m trying to provide the same level of service as a comparable district attorney office in Massachusetts,” he told the Independent in May, pointing in particular to the Northwestern District Attorney’s office, whose budget exceeds the Cape and Islands office by around $3 million.
The region’s two state senators, Cyr and Susan Moran of Falmouth, secured a final allocation that was $350,000 above the House’s proposal for the D.A.’s office.
That brought the final Cape and Islands D.A. budget to $6.3 million — an increase from last year’s $5.5 million, but still nearly $3.2 million less than the Northwestern D.A.’s new budget.
Part of that new money will go toward designated staffing for a mental health court session.
Mental health courts bring clinical professionals into the courtroom to help judges and probation officers understand a defendant’s experience of mental illness (including co-occurring substance use disorders) and advise on incorporating treatment into sentencing. The sessions can result in court-approved alternatives to incarceration, such as specialized case management or community-based services as a condition of probation.
The mental health professional is in the courtroom to “identify the core issues that bring that person before the judge,” Galibois told Truro’s select board in May. “And when you make that identification, you can treat it, and therefore reduce recidivism, making all of us safer.”
Assistant District Attorney Shaunna Souve has been named as the designated Barnstable Mental Health Court prosecutor, according to Danielle Whitney, spokesperson at the D.A.’s office.
Creating a mental health court session was a signature promise in Galibois’s campaign for the D.A. spot last fall. There are currently 12 mental health courts in the state.
Once the Barnstable Mental Health Court is launched, clinicians will evaluate defendants when they enter the system and submit their findings for review to the judge, prosecutor, and district attorney in a case, Galibois said. The court then determines whether the person qualifies for a specialty session.
Crucially, qualifying cases from neighboring district courts, such as the court in Orleans that handles most Outer Cape proceedings, can be transferred to Barnstable for this purpose, Galibois said. “The court needs to order it transferred, but we can certainly make the request,” he said.
Barnstable County already operates a specialty adult drug court, one of 28 statewide, which similarly brings in professionals to advise on potential services.
