Recap and analysis of the past week in state government
For thousands of South Shore residents, Halloween weekend will begin in darkness after a terrifying storm ripped its way up the coast mid-week, knocking out power and trees along the way.
But on Beacon Hill, it felt a bit more like Christmas.
While parts of the state were entangled in difficult storm recovery efforts, House lawmakers were deep into COVID-19 recovery wish lists, at long last getting their hands on a vast pot of money from the feds awarded last spring through the American Rescue Plan Act.
House Speaker Ronald Mariano and several of his top deputies helped unveil a $3.65 billion spending package on Monday that would dole out parts of the state’s ARPA kitty and three-quarters of the fiscal year 2021 surplus, and still leave more for a second round.
The proposal from House leaders was anchored around an agreement with Senate leadership for a $500 million bonus pay program for low-income, essential workers who stayed on the job during the pandemic, and another $500 million for unemployment insurance.
The bonus pay program would dwarf what had been proposed by Gov. Charlie Baker, but the governor said conceptually he thought it was the “right thing to do.” Baker, however, is also on record agreeing with many business groups that $500 million for UI is too low, having proposed $1 billion himself.
“While this bill is not a panacea, we believe that it specifically targets through a cornucopia of funds the issues that we identified over the last six months that are in most need,” said Rep. Dan Hunt, chair of the House’s Federal Stimulus and Census Oversight Committee, invoking imagery from yet another holiday.
The rank-and-file, however, clearly thought the first draft could get closer to a “panacea” if only they tried a little harder. Over two days, the House combed through more than 1,100 amendments proposing to add $5.8 billion in additional spending.
While the bottom line did grow, it was more like tens of millions than billions of dollars added.
House leadership managed to keep a sizable chunk in the bank, and part of the reason the initial House plan proposed to keep back $2.75 billion in ARPA and surplus money was because Congress continues to deliberate over trillions in spending for infrastructure and other priorities.
President Joe Biden this week put forward a framework for a $1.75 trillion compromise over social spending, on top of a $1 trillion infrastructure package, and state policymakers don’t want to duplicate efforts.
Of course, after Tuesday night, a few extra dollars for climate change mitigation might not hurt. (The initial House bill put $100 million toward environmental infrastructure).
If more severe weather is a symptom of climate change, many parts of the state got a frightening look at their future this week. The storm and ensuing power outages had been forecast, but the wreckage might not have been fully imagined.
As late as 8 p.m. on Tuesday night as the winds started to pick up, Baker was preparing to be in western Massachusetts the next day with stops planned in Amherst, Charlemont and Pittsfield, including ribbon cutting for the aquaponics greenhouse at the Berkshire County House of Corrections.
That swing would get scrapped by late Wednesday morning as Baker was redirected to Scituate and a region in the dark after hurricane-force gusts knocked out power to more than half a million residents from Cape Cod to Quincy. Some still had not been restored by Friday.
Scituate happens to be in Republican Sen. Patrick O’Connor’s district, and that won’t change after 2022 when new district boundaries go into effect. But for many senators, their constituencies could soon change if Gov. Baker signs off on redistricting plans that reached his desk this week.
The House approved a map for its members last week, but the Senate took a little extra time as leadership responded to some criticism of its initial effort by tweaking a few boundaries and overhauling Sen. Michael Brady’s district to make a new majority-minority district centered on Brockton that now includes Avon and half of Randolph.
All in, the two maps sent to Baker would increase the number of districts where non-whites make up a majority of the population from 20 to 33 in the House and three to six in the Senate. Leaders prioritized the creation of opportunities for candidates of color to join the Legislature after the 2020 U.S. Census reflected an increasingly diverse state not matched by representation on Beacon Hill.
The chamber’s three Republicans voted for the plan, including O’Connor whose aforementioned district didn’t change at all, while three Democrats cast the lone dissenting votes. Sen. Marc Pacheco complained that he was misled about the final look of his Taunton-based district, while Sens. Diana DiZoglio and Barry Finegold voted against the map that would dramatically alter their districts in order to create a new, incumbent-free, majority-minority district anchored by Lawrence.
DiZoglio, of Methuen, won’t be running in her new district because she’s seeking to become state auditor, but Finegold would lose Lawrence, a city that he has represented on and off for close to 20 years in both the House and Senate.
Baker hasn’t said boo about either the House or Senate plans, but with legislators from his party mostly on board and whispers of lawsuits all quiet at the moment, he may just sign them without a fuss.
The new political geography won’t come into play until 2022. More immediately, cities around the state are preparing for municipal elections next week.
As the Boston mayoral race stormed into the final stages, Baker said during a radio interview that he would “probably not” sign a city home rule petition seeking to bring back rent control, intentionally leaving the door slightly ajar to one of City Councilor Michelle Wu’s signature campaign proposals.
Baker recalled being a young renter in the city during the days of rent control when he paid market rate, while, he said, older wealthier residents in units next to his paid significantly less because they had a rent-controlled apartment.
“As we all know, that was in many ways one of the biggest issues people have with rent control generally, which is basically it did not treat everybody the same and your income had nothing to do with whether or not you had a rent-controlled apartment,” Baker said.
Baker is also not keen on Wu’s “Free the T” platform to make the MBTA fare free, but the two might have to find a way to work together – at least for a year – if polling holds that continues to show Wu with a huge lead over Councilor Annissa Essaibi George.
It might only be a year, because Baker still has not said whether he plans to seek a third term. Pressed again on the topic this week, Baker would only repeat “soon” in terms of a timeline for announcing a decision.
“It’s a very complicated issue, Jim, for all kinds of reasons,” Baker told GBH host Jim Braude.
