H 2297 Massachusetts House · 194th Legislature (2025-2026)

An Act relative to protecting municipalities from unfunded mandates

HD 273 prevents new state legislation from imposing costs on cities and towns without providing funding. It requires the legislature to include clear cost explanations ("fiscal notes") for bills that would create such expenses before they can be approved. The bill also mandates that the legislature cannot pass any law with municipal costs until it has first allocated funds to cover those costs. This directly affects municipalities by ensuring state laws don’t create unexpected financial burdens without prior budgetary support.
Bill status passed 3 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2025
Committee Review
Feb 2025
Senate Passage
Feb 2025
Governor
Introduced Feb 27, 2025 Last action Feb 12, 2026
Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the Senate. No roll call record of that vote is available.
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
7
Key actions
1
Committee
1
Feb 27, 2025
Upper · Passed
Senate concurred
upper
Feb 27, 2025
Committee
Referred to the committee on Municipalities and Regional Government
lower
0 primary · 5 co-sponsors

Sponsors

No sponsor information available.