Senate President Karen Spilka used the “b” word in describing the governor’s State of the Commonwealth speech.

Maura Healey’s plans, said Spilka, were “bold.”

That’s code for expensive.

Healey’s vision is bold, and then some. Her anticipated 2025 budget proposal, coming next week, features “transformative investments to improve all the ways we get around in Massachusetts” and “record levels” of money for local roads and bridges, the Herald reported.

Transformative is another code for expensive.

One promise stood out: “We will establish a permanent, reduced fare for low-income T riders; and continue affordable options at regional transit authorities,” Healey said.

Mayor Michelle Wu could give Healey a glimpse at the invoice for free T rides. In 2022, Wu initiated a pilot program to eliminate some MBTA fares until next month. Just three bus routes, no trains. That slice of free service took $8 million in federal funds to pull off.

How does Healey plan to cover gratis rides on buses and trains in Boston and beyond? The feds aren’t exactly forthcoming with financial help to cover the $45 million per month the state is spending on migrants and the homeless, so a cashier’s check from Capitol Hill can’t be counted in the plus column.

Here’s where Healey could, and should, outline at least some of the nuts and bolds for financing all those bold plans. After all, in Healey’s view Massachusetts is doing great.

The people leaving the state because it’s gotten unaffordable might disagree, but they’re not in the corner office.

Healey gets an A for optimism in her premise that the state must invest and spend in order to grow and thrive. That’s all but wiped out by a D- for fiscal clarity. Last week, her administration cut $375 million from the fiscal year 2024 budget amid a $1 billion revenue shortfall. That meant programs and services on the financial chopping block.

If we can’t afford to find this year’s budget, how will be find the cash for 2025 outlays? When you have to put back items when you can’t pay at checkout, that’s not the time to fill up another cart.

Healey, however, plans to stock up with abandon. There’s the five-year “Literacy Launch” program to make reading materials available to school districts. Some $10 million is slated for developing  “service models” to help young people struggling with mental health issues.

House Speaker Ron Mariano didn’t directly address the state’s ability to take on more spending, telling reporters after the speech “the devils are the details.”

As are future budget cuts, potential fees and tax increases, which Healey didn’t touch on when discussing her spending plans.

The Massachusetts Healey described sounds terrific – affordable, competitive and ready for anything. Residents aren’t pulling up stakes for places with a lower cost of living, and businesses are flocking here because of our robust tax climate.

We could get there – but we can’t do it on the back of a spending spree that state can’t afford.

Editorial cartoon by Steve Breen (Creators Syndicate)