Governor Healey Files Nearly $3B Environmental Bond Bill
August 19, 2025
On June 24th, Governor Healey held a press conference to launch S.2542, An Act to Build Resilience for Massachusetts Communities, also known as the Mass Ready Act. This $2.9B environmental bond bill authorizes $2.9B in climate resilience funding over the next 5 years, with significant investments in existing programs, new programs, as well as outside sections (sections that are not related to funding authorizations) that advance various policies. The 2025 Mass Ready Act is about 20% larger than the last environmental bond bill from 2018. As with all bond bills, bill authorizations do not necessarily mean that such funds will be spent, as they still need to be allocated funding through state capital plans, often released annually in late June.
After significant action on climate mitigation through 2021, 2022, and 2024 Climate Acts in Massachusetts, the Mass Ready Act is a welcome investment in climate resilience, seeking to protect vulnerable communities and infrastructure against the impacts of extreme weather events in particular. In addition to investing in resilient critical infrastructure like roadways, dams, culverts, and bridges, the Mass Ready Act also establishes a revolving loan fund for climate resilience, known as the Resilience Revolving Fund. This non-budgetary Fund would be administered by the Mass Clean Water Trust and would provide low or no-cost loans to municipalities and public water and wastewater districts for resilience infrastructure projects. In outside policy sections of the bill, Mass Ready Act also streamlines permitting processes for housing, culvert, and marsh restoration projects, but this does not include other climate resilient waterfront projects. It also establishes climate resilience expertise on the Board of Building Regulations and Standards (BBRS), but as currently written, this would be in place of the current advanced building technology seat.
The Mass Ready Act also makes significant investments to reduce flooding and impacts from extreme heat, including $315M for the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program, and requires flood risk and damage disclosures during home sales and lease signings. Mass Ready Act also invests in local farming and food systems, in habitat restoration, parks, and green space, and nature-based solutions for resilience, including $10M towards tree planting on public and private lands and $20M for additional urban forestry funding in heat island communities. Finally, Mass Ready Act also contains multiple authorizations that seek to implement the recommendations of the ResilientCoasts Plan that further investments in parks, trails, beaches, historic sites, resilient transportation infrastructure, and more.
A Better City submitted comments to the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources on the Mass Ready Act, offering strong support along with the following suggested recommendations for bill amendments: expand authorization for the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program to $500M over 5 years; amend the new Resilience Revolving Fund to make climate resilience financing available to nonprofit institutions and community based organizations; prioritize Clean Water Trust projects that address combined sewer overflows; implement a pilot study for urban tree planting in heat island neighborhoods with minimal street space; streamline permitting for climate resilience beyond Chapter 91 and the Wetlands Protection Act; maintain the “Advanced Building Technology” seat while adding other seats to the Board of Building Regulations and Standards; establish a Resilient Permitting Commission; and establish an Extreme Heat Task Force. Since the July hearing on the Mass Ready Act, A Better City will continue to track the bill’s advancement through the State Legislature and provide additional comments as needed.
Thank you to the many ABC members whose input helped to inform A Better City’s comments on the Mass Ready Act. Please reach out to Isabella Gambill with any questions.
