May 29, 2019

MTA’s Government Relations Specialist Sean King reported that the supplemental budget that contains “validation” language for the MSCA day collective bargaining agreement passed the House of Representatives this afternoon. The validation language is needed (rather than an actual funding request) in the supplemental budget since a collective bargaining reserve account was established earlier this fiscal year. This practice of creating a reserve and then validating the contract began during the Deval Patrick years.

Sean reports that the Senate is likely to take up the supp next Thursday. At that point Governor Baker would have 10 days to sign the bill.

The final steps would be for Administration and Finance to release the funds to the Board of Higher Education, and then for the Board to release the funds to the universities.

CJ O’Donnell
MSCA President