Written by Chief of Staff Jared Freedman
What do Trump’s tariffs and persistent inflation mean for state budgets? Why are so many states moving to decouple from the federal Internal Revenue Code? And how can we adapt the higher education business model as enrollments drop?
I had the opportunity to explore these questions with leading experts at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Fiscal Institute Symposium in Washington D.C. on November 17th and 18th.
NCSL serves lawmakers and staff in all 50 states. Every legislator and staffer is a member. NCSL provides research, training, technical assistance — and, critically, hosts conferences like this one where policymakers can learn from one another across geography and ideology.
Years ago, Senator Comerford was appointed to be a member of NCSL’s Budget Working Group, probably because she is a budget wonk. At Senator Comerford’s first Budget Working Group conference in 2022, she connected with some ridiculously smart and kind people from Pew Charitable Trusts.
Senator Comerford and the good folks from Pew got to discussing that Massachusetts did not have a state fund for disaster relief, and three years later, we now have a Disaster Relief and Resiliency Fund with $14 million in it.
In December 2023, I traveled to Austin, Texas to continue working with the Budget Working Group, and we produced a report on best practices for maintenance of state-owned capital assets. (Riveting stuff, I know.)
So when I arrived in Washington, D.C. I had the benefit of already knowing many of the legislators and staff from other states who are members of this working group.
A session on the U.S. economic outlook in Washington, D.C. in November 2025
Participating in the budget working group in Austin, Texas in December 2023
On Monday, we heard presentations on the national economic outlook, the impacts of tariffs and inflation on state budgets, state revenue trends, using data to inform policymaking, as well as Medicaid and SNAP changes under the federal One Big Brutal Bill act.
Now you might think my head was spinning after all that, but when you’ve worked for Senator Comerford for seven years like I have, that’s called a slow Monday.
To wrap up Monday, we broke into roundtables, which is where I always learn the most. New Mexico recently made childcare free. Washington State must balance its budget across a four-year horizon. Utah bases its budget on long-term revenue forecasting. And across the country, rising health care costs and cost of living pressures remain universal challenges.
A slide notes Massachusetts’ $10 million investment in the Department of Transitional Assistance. Senator Comerford advocated for this funding with the Mass Law Reform Institute.
Our higher education working group discusses affordability issues and solutions.
On Tuesday, we were back at it, discussing decoupling from the Internal Revenue Code, financing disaster relief, and the financial ratings outlook for the higher education sector.
Also on Tuesday, I joined a higher education funding working group with some great colleagues from Washington, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, Pew, and NCSL.
I shared with Senator Comerford what I was learning in real-time, and we set about applying these best-practices and hot-off-the-press learnings to the issues we’re working on in Massachusetts.
OK, I’m almost done, three final thoughts:
First, the collaborative work environment at these NCSL conferences isn’t bipartisan, it’s nonpartisan. Everyone joins together on the same team to attack shared problems. These cooperative relationships create a highly effective learning environment and allow for creative problem-solving. It’s a tremendously hopeful experience.
Second, while I was in Washington, D.C., I felt very grateful to the staff we have in our office who didn’t just handle the day-to-day while I was away, they crushed it on behalf of constituents: our Legislative Director Rachel who has become a trusted expert with a dogged work ethic; our Director of Communications and Engagement Katelyn who keeps constituents engaged and informed in real-time, using mediums of communication that I’ve never even heard of before; our Director of Constituent Services Jessie who raised her hand to roll up her sleeves on behalf of our municipalities (while our legendary District Director Elena is out on parental leave); and our Legislative Aide Lauren who is not only highly effective on behalf of constituents, she’s also deeply kind. (No, I’m not just saying that because she laughs at my bad jokes. Lauren is kind in other, albeit less important, ways too.)
Third, and finally, anyone who knows me knows that I went running daily while in Washington, D.C.
I would run from the Capitol Building along the National Mall, past the Washington Monument and up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
In those silent and still pre-dawn moments at the Lincoln Memorial, it was just me and a 19-foot tall statue of Honest Abe. How dramatic!
Inscribed on one wall of the Lincoln Memorial is the Ghettysberg Address. “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced…”
I returned from Washington D.C. energized and rededicated to that ever unfinished work.
