Massachusetts ended fiscal year 2025 with a state budget bottom line that quietly crept higher and higher and ultimately eclipsed the budget Gov. Maura Healey signed five months ago for fiscal 2026.
When all fiscal 2025 spending is tallied, including a stream of supplemental spending laws, the state finished the year more than $3.2 billion above the $60.9 billion fiscal 2026 General Appropriations Act.
The bottom line was was driven upwards by a 10-plus percent expansion in spending over the course of the year, from the $57.7 billion budget Healey signed to $64 billion spent by December…