Budget passed by Massachusetts lawmakers includes welfare reform, MWRA rate relief.

BOSTON -- The Massachusetts House and Senate yesterday approved a $16.3 billion fiscal 1995 budget, which Gov. William F. Weld is expected to sign within a week.

The state's fiscal year began at midnight today, but the legislature is expected to approve an emergency two-week appropriation so the state can continue to pay its bills until the governor approves the budget.

The budget contains several riders that are expected to be approved by the governor. Two controversial provisions concerning the death penalty and abortion were omitted.

In Massachusetts, the House and the Senate submit budget plans and then a joint six-member committee writes a compromise budget that is voted on by both houses and passed on to the governor. standing debt that the authority has issued for the cleanup of the Boston Harbor and construction of the Deer Island sewage treatment plant.

The $49 million is more than the authority was promised. Originally, it was promised $40 million by the House and $47 million by the Senate, but recent complaints by some of the Boston suburbs about their water and sewer bills prompted legislators to include the additional funds. Earlier this week, the MWRA's board of directors said there would be no rate increase during fiscal 1995.

Legislators also approved about $30 million in tax cuts.

Two controversial riders to the budget were removed by the legislature this week. The first would have reinstated the death penalty for the first time since 1947.

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