Massachusetts Casino Cities Likely Won’t Receive Mitigation Money Again
Posted on: December 5, 2025, 02:22h.
Last updated on: December 5, 2025, 02:40h.
- Massachusetts casino towns are supposed to receive state money to mitigate costs
- State lawmakers have opted to keep the Community Mitigation Fund money for a second year in a row
Massachusetts casino cities won’t receive supposedly guaranteed Community Mitigation Fund money to offset the associated costs of the gaming resorts for a second year in a row.
The 2011 Massachusetts Expanded Gaming Act included a stipulation that a portion of the state’s tax proceeds from casino gambling would be returned to host and surrounding cities to help them counterbalance presumed local government cost increases related to the construction and operation of a gaming establishment.
The state directs 6.5% of its gaming tax to the Community Mitigation Fund. Through the commonwealth’s 2024 fiscal year, the fund has issued almost $57 million in grants back to host and surrounding cities of Encore Boston Harbor, MGM Springfield, and Plainridge Park.
Last year, however, state lawmakers and Gov. Maura Healey (D) bent the state’s gaming statute to redirect the Community Mitigation money to help fund the state’s 2025 fiscal year budget. Healey and lawmakers pledged it was a one-time deal, but history is repeating itself in the State House.
Casino Revenues Redirected
This week, the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a supplemental budget by a 141-14 vote for the 2026 fiscal year that keeps the casino Community Mitigation Fund money with the state. The measure now heads to the Senate.
By statute, the Community Mitigation Fund is to help offset “the impact on local resources as a result of new housing construction and potential necessary changes to affordable housing laws, increased education costs and curriculum changes due to population changes in the region, development and maintenance of infrastructure related to increased population and utilization in the region, and public safety impacts resulting from the facility and ways to address that impact.”
Healey and the Democratic-controlled Legislature have argued that the casinos have reached market stability, and the increased costs associated with the three gaming properties’ construction and ramp-up are no longer. Local governments contend they’re nearing a financial tipping point, as the casino money was budgeted into their fiscal plans.
Everett, home to Encore Boston, Springfield, and Plainville, stand to lose the most should the Community Mitigation Funds again be redirected. Those three cities are host cities of the state’s three casinos.
From first responders to mental health programs that treat gambling addiction, the absence of the Community Mitigation Fund grants is significant.
Budget Priorities
The $60.9 billion FY26 Massachusetts budget includes major investments in education, transportation, and housing. Along with the casino money, some of the higher spending is being covered by the “Fair Share” income surtax on high-income earners.
The commonwealth’s 2026 spending plan is 5.4% higher, or about $3.1 billion more, than 2025.
Lawmakers and Healey blame federal policies for needing to subsidize the budget with the casino tax. They say changes in tariffs, immigration, Medicaid, food assistance, and federal program cuts could have significant negative consequences and, in turn, impact state tax collections.
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