Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has approved a new state budget that hikes the sales tax by 25 percent, largely preserves education spending, and makes deep cuts to other state services.
The budget maintains current eligibility for state-subsidized health insurance programs and funds dental coverage for MassHealth and Commonwealth Care.
The increase in the sales tax allowed the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority earlier Monday to vote to avoid a planned toll hike scheduled to take effect July 1, relying instead on $100 million from the tax increase.
In signing the $27 billion budget, Patrick issued $147 million in line-item vetoes.
At the same time, he submitted a separate $269 million supplemental budget to fund other initiatives, including $70 million for health care for 30,000 legal immigrants.
