BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey filed a $62 billion fiscal year 2026 budget proposal Wednesday that attempts to address slower revenue growth during the post-pandemic era by relying on a voter-approved surtax to buoy spending decisions and targeting specific programs with cuts.

The first-term Democrat, who is contending with a dramatic drop in tax collections after a streak of red-hot years during the pandemic, filed a plan that will also depend on a skeptical Legislature to help cover an expected spending gap for the maxed-out state-run shelter system in fiscal 2026.

Healey, who called her budget proposal a “balanced, forward-looking blueprint,” pitched an overall spending boost of 3% over the current fiscal year, a modest jump compared to when Beacon Hill signed off on far larger increases during the COVID-19 era.

“We’re making historic investments in the infrastructure that our quality of life and economy depend on — stabilizing the MBTA, fixing our roads, bridges, and regional transit, and modernizing college campuses, all while creating good jobs,” Healey said in a statement ahead of a formal announcement later in the day at the State House.

Top budget deputies for the first-term Democrat from Arlington said the state is facing exacerbated demands on key services like health care, high-quality early education and care, and housing stabilization amidst tighter fiscal conditions and moderate tax growth.

Administration and Finance Secretary Matthew Gorzkowicz said budget writers had to come up with areas in which they could save cash because of the fiscal environment.

The spending plan Healey put forward would consolidate hospital services under the Department of Public Health, a move that is expected to save $31 million. The proposal closes the Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children in Canton and moves services to a facility in Westfield.

The governor also proposed staff reductions among case managers at the Department of Mental Health, which Gorzkowicz said would save the state $12 million. He did not say how many employees would be affected.

Assistant Budget Secretary Chris Marino said the administration was reorganizing personnel at the department because the way services were delivered with the current staff structure was not the most effective method.

Marino described the reduction in staff as an attempt to better align personnel with the updated needs of staffing at Department of Mental Health facilities.

Healey also proposed cutting down the amount of money low-income families receive through the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition program, which provides short-term emergency funding to help with evictions, foreclosures, utilities, and other housing problems.

Budget writers for the governor want to change the program to provide each eligible family with $7,000 over two years instead of that amount of money over a single year.

Budget writers for Healey also proposed giving themselves the broad authority to reduce spending on any programs included in two pandemic-era laws — a $3.7 billion economic development bill that former Gov. Charlie Baker signed in November 2022 and a $4 billion federal aid and surplus spending measure he approved in December 2021.

That economic development bill included hundreds of millions for hospitals who were facing fiscal and staffing challenges during the pandemic as well as human service providers who were reeling from the effects of the deadly virus.

The federal aid bill deployed $2.5 billion in American Rescue Plan Act dollars and about $1.4 billion in surplus state tax revenue from fiscal year 2021. Spending was largely focused on initiatives in health care, education, workforce, infrastructure, housing, and education.

Marino said the administration expects to save about $200 million from reducing spending on programs in the two bills that used one-time surplus dollars and by targetting initiatives that have not been obligated or have been completed.

Gorzkowicz did not say which programs could be targeted if Democrats in the House and Senate agree to give him the power to reduce spending in the two laws.

He only said the language in the budget would give his team the power through the laws to look at areas where there are unobligated dollars, unexpended funds, and authorize reductions to support the state’s operating budget.

After facing weeks of heated criticism for her management of the state-funded emergency shelter program, Healey suggested level-funding the program at $325 million — the same amount approved in prior budgets.

But state spending on the program is projected to exceed that number and Gorzkowicz said administration officials will need to eventually ask House and Senate lawmakers for more cash to keep the system running.

Gorzkowicz said a series of restrictive policy changes to the shelter program designed to keep out arriving migrants Healey has asked the House and Senate to approve are expected to bring down the cost of running taxpayer-funded shelters, though he did not provide an exact number.

The budget chief said the Healey administration believes the total spend on the shelter system in the fiscal year 2026 will come in under $1 billion, though that depends on what policy changes legislators sign off on.

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