Upon the bill’s unanimous passage, Senate President Spilka hailed the legislation as “part of our ongoing effort to protect our residents, defend our values and lead Massachusetts during a time when those values are under attack.”

The branch's combined veto overrides return previously agreed-upon funding levels to Trial Courts, MassHealth nursing home supplemental rates, early intervention services for infants and toddlers with developmental delays, career technical institutes, the emergency assistance family shelter system workforce, and charter school reimbursements, among other accounts.

Sheriffs — and the facilities they operate — remain a critical part of the state’s criminal justice system, one funded by the taxpayers. This long overdue scrutiny — by lawmakers and the inspector general — couldn’t come at a better time.