Outlining our FY25 Budget Funding Request – $28M for Arts & Culture

Bethann Steiner, Senior Director of Public Affairs

Budget

Mass Cultural Council, the Commonwealth’s independent state arts agency, is primarily funded each year through the Commonwealth’s General Appropriations Act, often referred to as the annual state budget.

The budget building exercise that takes place in the State House will kick off in January, when Governor Maura Healey releases her Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 spending recommendations. This budget bill, referred to as H. 2, will then be assigned to the Committees on Way & Means for review and discussion. A series of hearings will likely be convened for the House and Senate Committee members to ask questions about the Governor’s spending plan. These hearings will be followed by the House of Representatives’ FY25 budget debate in March, and then the Senate’s in May. A conference committee will be appointed to negotiate all differences between the two Chambers’ final budgets, and once adopted by the House and Senate the final budget will be sent to the Governor to be signed into law. As with all legislation, the Governor has 10 days to review and act on the budget bill once it arrives on her desk. FY25 will span from July 1, 2024-June 30, 2025.

Mass Cultural Council is requesting a FY25 funding appropriation of $28 million, and recently submitted testimony to the Governor outlining this request.

Budget