Gov. Charlie Baker signed a supplemental FY2020 budget into law on Friday, officially shifting the burden for this year’s projected Steamship Authority deficit from the five port communities onto the state.

Based on figures for the first half of 2020, the Steamship Authority is projecting a $25 to $26 million operating deficit for the year, general manager Robert Davis said told the board of governors at their monthly meeting Tuesday.

A bill that would temporarily exempt the Steamship Authority’s five port towns from covering any year-end financial deficit now awaits a final signature from Gov. Charlie Baker.

After experiencing issues of non-compliance, the Steamship Authority said it was tightening up its own ship with regard to mask-wearing on Wednesday.

As of Thursday morning last week, financial projections for the Steamship Authority included a potential tax assessment for the six Island towns upwards of $7 million. Then the picture changed.

The budget amendment would exempting all port towns from having to cover a Steamship Authority pandemic-related budget shortfall.

On a sun-splashed day with calm seas, the M/V Nantucket sailed into the newly-repaired wharf, the first SSA vessel of the summer season in Oak Bluffs waters Wednesday. It was also a day for delays.

The Steamship Authority has settled a legal dispute with a Rhode Island shipyard that was contracted to take the freight ferry Katama into drydock this year.

In the wake of its busiest weekend this year, the Steamship Authority is set to open the Oak Bluffs terminal Wednesday and reintroduce its full summer fleet.

Repairs to the Oak Bluffs Steamship Authority wharf are on track to be completed by June 15, a week ahead of schedule but nearly a month after the terminal’s normal opening, boat line governors learned Wednesday