Press
For Immediate Release
November 3, 2025
Contact: Andrew Farnitano, 925-917-1354, andrew@acfstrategies.com
With SNAP Benefits for 1 Million MA Residents Affected by Federal Freeze, Raise Up MA Coalition Calls on State Leaders to Tap $8.6 Billion Rainy Day Fund and Protect Massachusetts from Federal Cuts
BOSTON – As more than 1 million Massachusetts residents — overwhelmingly children, seniors, and people with disabilities — prepare to go hungry this month because of the Trump Administration’s decision to delay November SNAP food assistance benefits, Massachusetts is sitting on an $8.6 billion ‘rainy day fund.’ Today, the Trump administration announced that it will only partially fund November SNAP benefits amid multiple legal challenges to its attempt to freeze benefits during the ongoing government shutdown – leaving hungry Massachusetts residents reliant on state government for help.
The Raise Up Massachusetts coalition of community organizations, faith-based groups, and labor unions today called on Governor Healey and legislative leaders to use available state funding to fill the gap in November SNAP benefits, and renewed their call for the state to tap a portion of the rainy day fund this year so that Massachusetts can prevent the worst harm from federal cuts to SNAP, Medicaid, education funding, and other critical programs.
“Massachusetts is at a crossroads. Will we throw up our hands in despair, and simply point fingers at the federal government’s cruelty? Or will we do what it takes to protect Massachusetts residents from the vicious actions of an uncaring federal administration?” said Deb Pimental, Executive Strategist at the Coalition for Social Justice and a member of the Raise Up Massachusetts Steering Committee. “We cannot allow our neighbors to go hungry and have their healthcare ripped away, while billions of dollars sit unused in state coffers.”
“Our members work with hundreds of thousands of families across Massachusetts to help them access their SNAP benefits, and they're hearing firsthand from parents who will be forced to skip meals to ensure their children are fed,” said Dave Foley, President of SEIU Local 509 and a member of the Raise Up Massachusetts Steering Committee. “They're hearing from seniors who are rationing the food they've received from food banks so that it will last longer. This is unacceptable in a state as wealthy as Massachusetts. Massachusetts must step in to fill the gap, fully fund SNAP, and put our families first.”
“The state’s rainy day fund was designed for exactly this moment – a crisis situation that threatens the very underpinnings of our state’s economy. It’s not just raining – the federal government’s actions are causing a Nor’easter of pain for Massachusetts families,” said Max Page, President of the Massachusetts Teachers Association and a member of the Raise Up Massachusetts Steering Committee. “While the courts won us a partial reprieve, this will not be the last emergency created by this regime, and Massachusetts needs to be ready. Without action, we will see grocery stores and hospitals start to shut down, families fall behind on rent, and hungry kids struggle to learn in school. These consequences will only cost us all more in the future. Now is the time to stand up for our neighbors and tap the rainy day fund.”
“Cutting SNAP is nothing short of a moral outrage. Despite this being a federally-created nightmare, people here in Massachusetts will be starving. Thanks to years of sound financial practices, Massachusetts is in a position to maintain our strong financial stability while using a portion of our rainy day fund to prevent permanent harm to our state’s families and economy,” said Cindy Rowe, President and CEO of the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action (JALSA) and a member of the Raise Up Massachusetts Steering Committee. “Ratings agencies like S&P Global Ratings look for states to maintain 8% of their annual budget in a reserve fund in order to receive the highest possible bond rating. Massachusetts’ rainy day fund currently sits at more than 14% of our annual state budget. As one ratings agency director said recently, ‘When those bad times are occurring, to draw it is not a credit negative. If you've done it well, use it well. If it's raining, that's what it's there for.’ It’s clear that Massachusetts has the resources to prevent the worst of these federal cuts. We only need the will to act.”
Background on Raise Up Massachusetts’ Protect Our Care w/ Corporate Fair Share Campaign
Massive federal budget cuts (to fund Trump’s tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations) are about to trigger a major healthcare, hunger, and education crisis in Massachusetts.
Up to 350,000 people in MA risk losing healthcare and food assistance over the next two years due to massive cuts to Medicaid and SNAP
MA is set to lose as much as $3.5 billion in annual federal aid — blowing a massive hole in the state budget.
Federal cuts to PreK-12 schools, colleges, and childcare could hurt more than 1 million students.
Massachusetts can prevent these devastating budget cuts by tapping the state’s $8.6 billion rainy day fund and by making billionaire global corporations like Apple, Amazon, McDonalds, & Walmart pay their fair share in state taxes.
The federal government uses a system known as NCTI (formerly GILTI), to tax the US-generated profits that large global corporations stash in offshore tax havens. But Massachusetts is not taking full advantage of this simple, proven method of ensuring that billionaire global corporations pay their fair share in state taxes. Massachusetts currently only includes 5% of NCTI when calculating the total corporate income subject to the state’s 8% corporate income tax rate, while the federal government and most New England and Mid-Atlantic states, including New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Maine, include 50-60% of NCTI in their calculations. That means we’re vastly undercounting the profits that multinational corporations are artificially shifting overseas.
Raise Up Massachusetts' Corporate Fair Share proposal would simply increase the share of NCTI offshore profits that are included in Massachusetts corporate tax calculations from 5% to 50%, aligning us more closely with the federal government and other states, and raising over $400 million in new annual revenues. The proposal is filed as legislation in the State House of Representatives by Representative Carlos González (H.3110) and in the State Senate by Senators Jason Lewis and Liz Miranda (S.2033), and backed by a majority of state legislators in the House and Senate.
Raise Up is also advocating for the state to tap a reasonable portion of its more than $8.6 billion rainy day fund in response to federal budget cuts, as the fund was built up for exactly this type of emergency. "To replace the state and local loss of federal funds" is explicitly listed as one of the three purposes of the Commonwealth Stabilization Fund, and while credit ratings agencies like S&P Global Ratings want states to maintain 8% of their annual budget in a reserve fund in order to receive the highest possible bond rating, Massachusetts’ $8.6 billion rainy day fund currently sits at more than 14% of our $60.9 billion annual state budget. Tapping a reasonable portion of these reserves — say, 15%, or roughly $1.2 billion — would still leave a large balance for future economic downturns, and the coalition’s Corporate Fair Share proposal would also raise significant new revenue to help ensure the state’s financial stability in future years.
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Raise Up Massachusetts is a coalition of more than 100 community organizations, faith-based groups, and labor unions committed to building an economy that invests in families, gives everyone the opportunity to succeed, and creates broadly shared prosperity. Since our coalition came together in 2013, we have nearly doubled wages for hundreds of thousands of working people by winning two increases in the state’s minimum wage, won best-in-the-nation earned sick time and paid family and medical leave benefits for workers and their families, passed the Fair Share Amendment to invest in transportation and public education with a fairer tax system, and started to build an economy that works for all of us, not just those at the top.