Mass. lawmakers push taxes while SNAP benefits hang in the balance

It's still uncertain how the federal judges’ decisions will immediately affect the SNAP food assistance program, which aides about 1 in 8 Americans. The Trump administration has warned it could take weeks to issue November payments, and that recipients might only get half their usual amount.

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State representative, Homer Gomez, D-Easthampton, has filed a bill to establish community fridges in Massachusetts for families struggling to get food, with over a million state residents missing out on SNAP benefits. State House News Service reporter Sam Drysdale updates us on the status of this bill.

Sam Drysdale, SHNS: That bill did receive its hearing in the Agriculture Committee in September. Rep. Gomez did talk about his own experience receiving SNAP benefits when he moved to Massachusetts in 1997. The committee thanked him for sharing his personal experience. He also pointed to the looming cuts for SNAP.

It is now up to the committee to decide what they want to do with it. So far, we haven't heard anything from them. It's certainly a place that legislative leadership could look to if they're interested in trying to bridge gaps as SNAP dollars dry up, but for now, it is stuck in that committee.

Carrie Healy, NEPM: You know, a community fridge is available for neighbors in need in Buckland, Mass., and there are others scattered around the state. But what key provisions in Gomez's bill would make these more accessible?

Representative Gomez's bill would ensure that community fridges have a designated manager responsible for cleaning and oversight, which, you know, is really important for those kinds of fridges and would also make sure that they're prioritized placement in high needs areas like food deserts, where people need to travel far to get to a grocery store. It tasks the Department of Public Health with creating guidelines for the safe and sanitary storage of food. But at the same time, it also limits liability for civil damages for restaurants and grocery stores that distribute foods to these fridges, to incentivize them to make sure that they donate food without needing to incur liability.

Sam Drysdale

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SHNS

So, what does this moment in time teach us about the state's role in food security? Did Governor Maura Healey set a precedent by not fully bridging that gap funding gap with state money?

It has shown us that state leaders are not willing to tap into at least the rainy-day fund in this sort of situation, which is an $8 billion pot of money. They also didn't touch it during the shelter crisis a year or two ago. At this point, it seems like they might not be willing to use those reserve funds unless revenues are declining, which at this point they're not. Which makes it more of a recession fund than a rainy-day fund.

But many advocates have a hard time seeing this $8 billion pot of money go untouched and can't understand why food aid drying up doesn't count as a rainy-day sort of scenario. We also see that Governor Healey has used this playbook a few times to ask for private donations in the face of a crisis. That's what she's doing now. She's paired up with United Way to ask people to donate money for food pantries and food banks. It's a similar playbook to what she did in the summer of 2023, and didn't tap into state coffers then, either.

Dan Denis

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Meanwhile, the Legislature's revenue committee is set to review Governor Healey's local option tax proposals. That happens later this week. What kinds of taxes could cities and towns adopt to boost local revenues?

She's proposing to increase the maximum local option tax on hotels, motels and rentals from 6% of the price of a room to 7%, or in Boston from 6.5% to 7.5%. It would also increase maximum local option sales tax from 0.75% to 1%, and allow cities and towns to add a surcharge of up to 5% on motor vehicle excise bills.

The governor's proposal is very popular with municipal officials who want more flexible options to boost revenue, but it doesn't have a lot of support among legislative leaders.

Is this politically, though, the right time to talk about new taxes while residents are already feeling a pinch?

It's a great question, and that's the question that Legislative leaders are worried about. And I think the reason why they're so hesitant to take up this bill, is that they let a similar proposal from the governor die last year when she proposed it. It got a very cold reception. So, I think we're going to see something similar this year would be my guess.