Massachusetts agreement clears path to a state budget

Massachusetts legislators expect to meet Friday to vote on the final version of a state budget to present to Republican Gov. Charlie Baker a week into the fiscal year.

A six-member conference committee, while giving no details, said Thursday night it was able to come to an agreement between the House and Senate versions of the budget. State law requires such concurrence.

Problems arose in deliberations of the roughly $40 billion spending plan due to a revenue shortfall for fiscal 2017.

The state government avoided a shutdown by passing a $5.2 billion interim budget last month. The mini-budget will last through July 31.

Baker will have 10 days to review and sign the budget or make any vetoes.

Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, denied that budget talks mingled with debate over changes to a marijuana law that voters approved last November.

One night earlier, House Speaker Robert DeLeo, D-Winthrop, urged colleagues to table marijuana discussion until they pass a spending plan.

“I’ve been in this building for 40 years and that’s about the most absurd thing that I have ever seen,” Rosenberg told reporters Thursday at the State House in Boston. “There were never any discussions linking the two. It was BS.”

S&P Global Ratings last month downgraded Massachusetts’ general obligation bond rating to AA, citing inadequate progress toward reserves. Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service rate Massachusetts GOs AA-plus and Aa1, respectively.