HAPPENING TODAY:
10:00 | The Executive Office of Health and Human Services holds a remote public hearing on proposed rate adjustments and increases for certain clinical laboratory services
More than 3,500 volunteers are expected to participate in the 25th annual Charles River Cleanup to help keep the Charles River and its tributaries clean and safe, and to improve the parks, forests, playgrounds and paths around it.
School vacation week is almost over and representatives are preparing to return to Beacon Hill next week for arguably their biggest (and usually longest) debate of the year: the annual budget bill.
Thanks to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation for putting in the legwork, we have a clearer sense of how the 1,495 amendments representatives filed to House Ways and Means‘ $57.9 billion budget break down.
The amendments altogether carry a potential fiscal impact of about $2.02 billion, though MTF stresses that might be a “conservative” estimate. About 73 percent of the proposed changes carry earmarks for local projects or organizations. The most common area for outside section amendments is health care, followed by education and judiciary/public safety/criminal justice proposals, according to MTF. Notable high-cost amendments include changes to public school funding, higher education capital needs, and emergency family shelter.
During last week’s rollout of the draft fiscal 2025 spending plan, House Speaker Ron Mariano noted that at a time when voices both in and outside Beacon Hill are calling for fiscal prudence, his team’s proposal carries a lower bottom line than the $58.1 billion budget Gov. Maura Healey proposed in January.
But that bottom line, of course, is pre-amendment.
Last year, the House added $129.7 million in spending during their budget debate, nearly identical to the amount added by amendments the year before. That had represented a huge jump in add-on amendment spending, according to MTF’s analysis. In fiscal 2022, the House added $66.1 million to the budget during the debate, making the average additions between fiscal 2022 and 2024 to the bottom line $108.5 million.
The House Ways and Means budget is about $150 million below the governor’s proposal, Mariano said last week. If representatives exactly continue their trend from the past two years, their final budget would come up about $20 million shy of Healey’s $58.1 billion proposal.
But the speaker seemed to take a different tone for fiscal 2025 — and representatives might want to hold off on prematurely announcing they’ll get the playground or bridge for their district in this year’s budget.
“We haven’t really talked about setting limits, per se, but I think we both agree we would look at earmarks with how it fits in with the priorities that we’ve established in this budget,” Mariano said of himself and House Ways and Means Committee Chair Aaron Michlewitz. “We need to be consistent in our message on spending, and we intend to be. I think if you analyze a lot of the earmarks that we will let go through the budget process, I think there is an attempt to be consistent.” — Sam Drysdale
THURSDAY in the House and Senate
The House granted initial approval to bills including one that would ban drivers from capturing images or video of themselves, and from viewing any media unrelated to driving on screens or monitors inside the car. Other bills included legislation regarding taxing natural gas infrastructure, local control of boat excise revenue and parking enforcement, reports Colin A. Young for the News Service. Reps additionally processed extension orders and enacted local bills.
The Senate adopted an emergency preamble to the $375 million borrowing bill that would finance local road and bridge infrastructure projects, setting the Chapter 90 bill up for final passage. — SHNS House Coverage | SHNS Senate Coverage
Migrants find opportunity in Mass. work permit services, lawyer program
Many migrant families say they’ve come to Massachusetts because they see online that they’ll receive services upon arrival — and places like the Quincy Center are working to process hundreds of working papers in order to make that happen. By utilizing services like the state’s “lawyer for a day” program, which launched in late January and brings private lawyers to meet new migrants at welcome centers to help them apply for papers, the process moves at a quicker pace. The News Service’s Sam Drysdale follows a family from French Guiana on the waitlist to be housed in the state’s emergency assistance shelter system, currently sleeping at the Roxbury community center overflow shelter, and utilizing the state’s permitting program and services to obtain jobs. — State House News Service
Hands off: Court backs Northeastern in eminent domain battle with Nahant
An Essex County Superior Court judge has ruled that a 2021 action by the town of Nahant to take 12.5 acres of waterfront land from Northeastern University by eminent domain is “null and void” because the town was not acting in good faith. Benjamin Pierce of the Item reports the judge agreed with Northeastern’s argument that the town wanted to take the East Point property to keep the college from expanding the footprint of its Marine Science Center — and not, as the town claimed, to preserve open space and public access. The Select Board will decide next week whether to pursue an appeal to the SJC. — Daily Item
Gloucester harbor’s ‘he said-he said’
The mayor, harbormaster and other city officials of Gloucester are in the midst of a somewhat complicated set of circumstances, following the termination of harbormaster TJ Ciarametaro over a forgery incident for which he claims Mayor Greg Verga unfairly fired him. In the meantime, the former Gloucester police chief was appointed to lead as interim harbormaster. Ciarametaro claims his former deputy harbormaster is responsible for the forgeries, and that he was actually fired because he found “discrepancies in city funds and equipment within the department” — he says he obtained hidden camera footage showing the former shellfish warden took cash from a clerk’s cabinet. The forged signatures were found on two grant contracts after the investigation into the warden — who says those allegations are “unfounded” — and while some support the harbormaster, he has opponents who say he was “anti-fisherman.” — GBH
Another week without a shelter funding deal
House and Senate Democrats once again didn’t come to a deal on a spending bill this week to replenish shelter funding and bring back pandemic-era policies like expanded outdoor dining and cocktails-to-go. A Healey administration spokesperson confirmed shelter funding could run out in less than two weeks, though there’s some flexibility to shift other funds as a short-term solution until the supplemental budget currently in negotiation passes. Some, however, are asking if the shelter money is truly as urgently needed as some lawmakers have claimed. — State House News Service
Plastic water bottle ban lacks enforcement on the Vineyard
A bylaw that bans the sale of single-use plastic drink bottles across Martha’s Vineyard’s six towns is facing enforcement issues. Officials are now recognizing that for almost two years, enforcement hasn’t been put in place, admitting there’s no entity assigned to uphold the ban in Oak Bluffs specifically. Enforcement looks different in each town, but bottles prohibited by the ban are reportedly still sold in Oak Bluffs, Tisbury and Edgartown. While the bylaw has plenty of supporters, some are still concerned that if establishments still selling the bottles begin enforcing the ban, they’d lose business. — Vineyard Gazette
Young, educated people are leaving Massachusetts
A new report out of Boston Indicators shows trends in “domestic outmigration” in Massachusetts, specifically a growing net loss of working-age 25-to-44-year-olds. In a two-year average across 2021 and 2022, analysts found that people leaving the Bay State were “predominantly white, middle- and high-income earners, and college educated.” The Globe reports that Mass. did see, however, positive net migration between 2022 and 2023, pointing to signs that international migration has offset domestic out-migration. — Boston Globe
Steward Good Samaritan infusion facility temporarily closed
Steward Health Care temporarily closed its Good Samaritan Medical Center hematology oncology infusion center in Brockton. Steward attributed the closure to staffing issues, though nearby Brockton Neighborhood Health Center, who refers patients to Good Samaritan, said it had no idea the facility was closing its doors on April 4. Steward Medical Group noted in a letter to doctors that it is working with providers elsewhere to make sure patients get ongoing care in the wake of the temporary closure in Brockton and says it’s in communication with DPH aboutthe status of the closure. — Boston Globe
Don’t get excited: State downplays uptick in tax collections
The Department of Revenue brought in $1.7B during the first half of April — a welcome increase from the same time last year — but state officials say a number of factors, including the mid-April annual tax deadline, mean the numbers shouldn’t be relied on to forecast the state’s financial picture. Colin A. Young of the News Service has the details. — State House News Service
Advocates rally in support of juvenile justice bill
Young activists and formerly incarcerated individuals rallied at the State House on Thursday in support of “Raise the Age” legislation (H 1710 / S 942), which would gradually expand “juvenile jurisdiction” to include those between 18 and 20 — leaving only those 21 and up to be tried in the adult criminal justice system. Proponents say the legislation addresses adolescent developmental needs and racial disparities, as Black and brown people and youth are victims of incarceration and policing at a higher rate. — State House News Service
Worcester-area bus rides will stay free another year
The Worcester Regional Transit Authority has voted to extend its fare-free rides program for another year, keeping the pandemic-era policy in place until at least the summer of 2025. WRTA Administrator Josh Rickman says ridership has jumped 33 percent compared to pre-COVID levels — meaning it is providing an additional 1 million riders annually. Revenue from the so-called millionaire’s tax will help backfill most of the $4.5M the authority will not be collecting at the fare box. — Worcester Business Journal
COVID fraud gets Plymouth man six months in prison
A Plymouth man will spend six months behind bars after pleading guilty to charges that he defrauded COVID-19 relief programs and the state’s unemployment division, Ryan Mancini of MassLive reports. The office of Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro said Thursday that 43-year-old Aaron Fernandes had pleaded guilty to multiple fraud counts and in addition to the jail time was ordered to pay back more than $40K in illegally claimed unemployment benefits. — MassLive
THIS WEEKEND:
KELLER AT LARGE, Sunday, 8:30 a.m., WBZ-TV. Political analyst Jon Keller hosts Massachusetts State Sen. Peter Durant (R-Spencer) to discuss the priorities in the proposed state budget, local aid, pressure on Proposition 2 1/2, and spending on the migrant crisis.
ON THE RECORD, Sunday, 11 a.m., WCVB. Ed Harding and Sharman Sacchetti host Massachusetts State Sen. Julian Cyr. Democratic Political Analyst Mary Anne Marsh and Republican Political Analyst Rob Gray join the roundtable discussion.
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