Gov. Maura Healey filed legislation Tuesday to ease everyday costs for Massachusetts residents, at the gas pump, on electric bills, and when buying concert and sports tickets, while directing new money to food assistance, maternal health, and public safety, her office announced.
The measure is a supplemental budget that would close the state’s 2026 fiscal year in balance, appropriating $2.24 billion in gross spending at a net cost of $1.46 billion after revenue offsets, the administration said. Its most immediate provision is a two-month suspension of the state’s 24-cent-per-gallon gas tax. Under the bill, gas stations would be required to lower prices to pass the savings to drivers, and the roughly $120 million in forgone revenue would be replaced with surplus Fair Share surtax collections so that transportation projects and bond obligations are not affected, the governor’s office said.
Healey tied the relief to a spike in fuel prices she attributed to President Trump’s conduct of the war in Iran. In her office’s telling, prices have climbed more than 50 percent since February. Independent data support the direction of that claim, if not the exact reference point: AAA Northeast reported that the average price of regular gasoline in Massachusetts reached $4.41 a gallon on Sept. 21, up 36 cents in a month and $1.31 higher than a year earlier, when it stood near $3.10. In early March, AAA had pegged the state average around $3.29 to $3.31 as the conflict began driving up crude oil. AAA has consistently attributed the increases to global supply disruptions tied to the war, now in its seventh month, including turmoil around the Strait of Hormuz. The war framing and the assignment of blame are the governor’s; the auto club documents the price movements.
Beyond the pump, the bill packages several of Healey’s earlier proposals.
Her Great Divide Act would cap the resale price of tickets at 110 percent of face value, limit reseller service fees to no more than 10 percent of the resale price, and ban the sale of “speculative” tickets — listings for tickets a seller does not yet possess — along with new consumer protections aimed at resale platforms such as StubHub and SeatGeek. A separate change to how utilities buy electricity for basic-service customers, giving regulators and utilities more flexibility on purchase timing, is estimated to save ratepayers $610 million, the administration says.
The legislation also moves to protect food assistance. It provides $41.5 million to the state Department of Transitional Assistance to administer the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, including $26.6 million for caseworkers — maintaining 78 hired in the past year and adding 10 more — and $14.9 million for technology and staffing to improve payment accuracy and meet new federal requirements. Healey’s office framed the funding as a response to federal SNAP cuts under Trump; the state aims to keep eligible residents enrolled.
On maternal health, the bill directs $2.25 million to postpartum care and mental health support, including $2 million to expand the Department of Public Health’s voluntary Welcome Family home-visiting program statewide and $250,000 to strengthen a psychiatry-access program for new mothers known as MCPAP for Moms, expanding provider training and data collection on postpartum psychosis.
The package also includes funding for MassHealth, public health hospitals, the Department of Correction and Public Safety, the creation of a Health Care Stabilization Fund to respond to federal policy changes, fire-service grants in New Bedford, and updates to state corporate law.
“While President Trump is driving up costs with his war and tariffs, in Massachusetts, we’re doing everything we can to make life more affordable for people and businesses,” Healey said in a statement, adding that the bill would protect the “health care, food assistance and services” residents rely on. Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said the legislation delivers “immediate cost relief” while strengthening core services.
Several of the measures reach households across the Massachusetts communities CTN serves. SNAP enrollment, electric bills and postpartum care touch immigrant and diaspora families directly, and the gas-tax pause — if the Legislature approves it — would show up at pumps used by working families and drivers across the state. The bill now goes to the House and Senate, where its provisions will be debated before any take effect; as a filed proposal, none is law yet.
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