Page 10 THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, JULY 16, 2021 LEGISLATURE | FROM PAGE 8 assistance programs accessible and eff ective, and removing the asset limit allows families to save for education, job training, reliable transportation, home expenses and other emergency needs. Other children and family investments include: • $30.5M for Emergency Food Assistance to ensure that citizens in need can navigate the historic levels of food insecurity caused by COVID-19 • $7.5M for grants to Community Foundations to support communities disproportionately impacted by the pandemic • $5M for the Secure Jobs Connect program, providing job placement resources and assistance for homeless individuals • $4.2M for the Offi ce of the Child Advocate, including $1M for the establishment and operation of a state center on child wellness and trauma • $2.5M for Children Advocacy Centers To help families get back to work, the FY22 conference report includes $820M for the early education sector, including $20M to increase rates for early education providers, $15M for Massachusetts Head Start programs, $10M for the Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative to expand public preschool and $9M to cover the cost of fees for parents receiving subsidized early education in calendar year 2021. The FY22 budget provides resources to help with housing stability, including $150M for the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program to expand access to affordable housing, $85M for grants to local housing authorities, $22M for the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition Program and $8M for Housing Consumer Education Centers to help administer nearly $1 billion in federal housing relief. The budget makes the state’s fi lm tax credit permanent and requires an increase in the percentage of production expenses or principal photography days in the Commonwealth from 50 percent to 75 percent. The fi lm tax credit was set to expire in January 2023. The budget also includes a disability employment tax credit for employers that hire employees with a disability. To ensure long-term fiscal responsibility, the FY22 budget repeals three ineff ective tax expenditures as recommended by the Tax Expenditure Review Commission (TERC), namely the exemption of income from the sale of certain patents, the medical device tax credit and the harbor maintenance tax credit, effective January 1, 2022. TERC found that these tax expenditures are either obsolete, fail to provide a meaningful incentive or fail to justify their cost to the Commonwealth. TERC was created as part of a Senate budget initiative in Fiscal Year 2019. The Legislature’s FY22 budget confronts the frontline health care impacts of the pandemic to navigate the challenges posed by COVID-19. It also sustains support for the state’s safety net by funding MassHealth at a total of $18.98 billion, thereby providing more than 2 million children, seniors and low-income residents with access to comprehensive health care coverage. It also invests $15M to support local and regional boards of health as they continue to work on the front lines against the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. LEGISLATURE | SEE PAGE 14
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