Waltham, MA – Governor Maura Healey has once again grown state spending, increasing the budget by 3.8 percent and continuing a pattern of high-cost government at a time when Massachusetts families are struggling to keep up.

Leading Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Kennealy offered the following response to the Governor’s proposal:

“While Massachusetts families’ budgets shrink year after year, Governor Healey’s state budget continues to grow. That imbalance is unsustainable. Government is supposed to support its citizens, but in Governor Healey’s Massachusetts, citizens are treated as the ATM for an ever-expanding state bureaucracy.

Just look at the meager increase in unrestricted local aid – roughly $33 million – despite local officials requesting ten times that amount. It’s clear her priorities do not lie with our cities and towns, but with protecting special-interest pet projects and a bloated state budget.

As your Governor, I will take the same disciplined approach to spending that I took in business, education, and state government: conduct a full audit of spending, identify waste, and implement real efficiencies. That is the leadership Massachusetts deserves – and it’s the leadership we are not getting today.”

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