Senate President will outline push for free community college, child care seats, juvenile justice

Coming in hot to kick off House budget week is Senate President Karen Spilka, who has a few noteworthy announcements in store for her address at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce government affairs forum this morning. 

Spilka will outline her plan to make community college free to all students, according to her office. She’s postulating that this move can help the state bolster its workforce and attempt to train the next generation of young people so they can remain in Massachusetts. It’s a timely theme, considering headline after headline points to the state’s reported workforce shortage and increasingly unsustainable cost of living.

According to Spilka’s office, the pricey plan — one report estimated offering tuition-free community college to all would cost the state about $170 million per year — will be woven into her chamber’s annual budget due for release next month. The early commitment immediately provides one predictable obstacle in upcoming House and Senate budget negotiations, as the House’s budget set to be debated this week does not feature universal free community college.

Spilka also plans to announce a proposal for a new public-private partnership to create more child care seats statewide, targeting an area that has long been a priority for her. The program would provide matching funds up to 50 percent of the cost of each new child care seat an employer creates, according to Spilka’s office. Exactly how many seats that could involve, and how much money that program will cost, are blanks we’ll be waiting for Spilka to fill in later this morning. 

On a third point, Spilka’s office said the Ashland Democrat will make a “forceful” call in support of “Raise the Age” legislation, which would gradually expand juvenile jurisdiction to include young adults between the ages of 18 and 20. Spilka has said before that the measure is one of her priorities, and criminal justice advocates have long been pushing for its passage.

Her appearance at the Chamber event comes two days before the House will begin debating its fiscal 2025 budget, and weeks before the Senate unveils and advances its own rewrite.

Spilka’s first two ideas in particular are likely to carry substantial costs at a time when revenues are lagging and her counterparts in the House are calling for fiscal responsibility. That opens up other questions: is the Senate preparing to propose a budget with a bigger bottom line than the House’s — and even Gov. Maura Healey‘s — spending plans? And if not, what are Senate Democrats eyeing to cut to free up resources? — Ella Adams

Rallies will call to save Steward hospitals, patient care communities

Over the next couple of weeks, activists will rally seven times in support of saving Steward Health Care hospitals in Taunton, Brockton and Fall River, among other places. Tuesday’s rally at Taunton’s Morton Hospital will kick them off, organized by the “Our Community Our Hospital” campaign — a coalition of residents, health care workers and other labor and faith organizations served by the Steward hospitals, reports Daniel Schemer for the Daily Gazette. The rallies aim to serve as a way for communities to speak out against the potential closure of Steward hospitals due to both patient and workforce impact. — Taunton Daily Gazette

To prevent encampments, university closes Harvard Yard for the week 

Harvard Yard will be off-limits to everyone but Harvard students and faculty this week, and those who can get in won’t be allowed to set up tents or tables as the university looks to prevent students protesting the Israel-Hamas war from establishing the type of encampment that has roiled Columbia University in New York in recent days. About 200 students gathered in Harvard Yard on Friday, a day after 100 Columbia students were arrested by New York City police.

Meanwhile, student encampments began forming Sunday near Emerson College and on the Kresge Lawn at MIT in Cambridge, Nick Stoico of the Globe reports. — Harvard Crimson | Boston Globe

Harvard poll shows Biden leads Trump in youth voters

A new poll from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics shows that President Joe Biden leads Donald Trump among Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 in the presidential race, reports the Globe’s Travis Andersen. The poll also shows that Biden’s popularity with young voters has dropped since 2020, and differs significantly between young men and young women voters, college-educated voters and those who are not, and white voters and voters of color. A different youth electorate is at play now compared to in 2020, according to the institute’s polling director, as the economy and housing are now major concerns for young people. — Boston Globe

Letter states more concerns over Steward-Optum deal

Eight of nine members of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation sent a letter Friday to the heads of Steward Health Care, UnitedHealth Group, and Optum Health, laying out skepticism about whether Optum’s purchase of Steward’s physician network would actually benefit Massachusetts. The letter follows the handfuls of lawmakers at the state and federal level who have raised concerns about the potential sale, and requests specific information about the proposal by Friday, April 26. The News Service’s Colin A. Young reports that the deal would sell Stewardship Health Inc., which employs PCP and other clinicians statewide to OptumCare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group. — State House News Service

Low, low weed prices in Bay State on weed’s high holiday

Affordability has arrived — at least in the cannabis market. As cannabis enthusiasts marked the legal weed’s unofficial 4/20 holiday over the weekend, Irene Rotondo of MassLive reports recreational pot prices in Massachusetts have not only reached new lows but may be the lowest in the region. An eighth-ounce of flower, which once cost $50 here and still runs $44 in Connecticut, can now be had for under $20 in many dispensaries. — MassLive

Boston Fire commissioner, firefighters union on opposite sides about cadet training time

The Boston fire commissioner and firefighters union are on either side of a City Council proposal that would cut the required training time for cadets from two years to one, reports the Herald’s Gayla Cawley. Councilor Brian Worrell filed the home rule petition in March, claiming the change would promote a more diverse workforce and allow “quality candidates” to move more quickly through the program.The Boston Fire Department has been called out for lacking gender and racial diversity, and is one year into a program aiming to diversify said workforce. — Boston Herald

New Hampshire gov. speaks to idea to toll Mass. border

Transportation Sec. Monica Tibbits-Nutt said last week that a task force developing recommendations for a sustainable transportation finance plan was discussing charging drivers at the state border to help support road and transit systems across Mass., reports Chris Van Buskirk. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu is refuting that idea, saying in response that the idea would be another reason for Mass. residents to make the move to New Hampshire. The secretary’s remarks reference work to figure out the future of state transportation, and the task force is still in its early stages. — Boston Herald

Judge in Springfield case rules against state’s method of taking property for unpaid taxes 

A Superior Court judge has ruled against the city of Springfield in a case of so-called equity theft, in which communities are able to take ownership of a property for non-payment of taxes, even if the amount owed is a fraction of the total value, the Globe’s Sean Murphy reports. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year against the practice has cleared the way for the practice to be deemed unconstitutional here as well, but the Supreme Judicial Court has yet to receive a case that would test the law. — Boston Globe

Razor’s edge: Recount planned for Milford vote already reversed once 

Election officials in Milford will conduct a hand recount of ballots from last week’s municipal election after a seat on the School Committee was decided by just two votes, Tom Benoit of the MetroWest Daily News reports. The recount was requested by Gregory Allegrezza, who initially appeared to have finished third out of four candidates seeking three seats, but fell out of the running after write-in votes were tallied. — MetroWest Daily News

OPINION: Redefinding who gets a seat at the table

President of Hampshire College Edward Wingenbach argues that the recent reinstatement of standardized test scores for admittance into elite colleges doesn’t provide more opportunity for low-income and marginalized students like the institutions claim they will. The institutions’ admission that other measures of success are poor — like the GPA, letters of recommendation, etc. — only shows, Wingenbach writes, that building a new structure and rethinking what “success” really means is the only way to improve access to higher education. What does it actually mean to be “qualified” for an elite education? — CommonWealth Beacon

Last week… (a quick reminder)

The Healey administration acknowledged that funding for the emergency assistance family shelter system may run out as soon as the end of the month, but says it has other cash options to dip into as a backup; legislative leaders still don’t have a cohesive plan to address how much money they should provide for the shelter system and what stay limits should be; Boston Mayor Wu remains in the spotlight as the city discusses her plan to temporarily allow the city to shift the commercial-to-residential property tax ratio; and researchers found that working-age 25-to-44-year-olds are moving out of the Bay State at an increasing rate, at least partially because of Mass. housing costs. — State House News Service

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