After 500 amendments, Senate passes budget

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For as frequently as they suspend some of their own rules, you might have thought this would be the week for senators to set aside Rule 61B and -- gasp -- allow themselves to conduct Senate business without wearing a jacket on the floor.

With air conditioning lacking throughout the State House on what was the hottest week of the year so far and temperatures climbing in the sweaty Senate Chamber, New Bedford Sen. Mark Montigny rose Wednesday with a good-natured threat to ask for the two-thirds vote required to waive the rule.

"The rebel that I am, I might have to strip the coat off," he said while the mercury was on the march to 91 degrees Wednesday afternoon, tying Boston's daily record set in 1996.

The dean of the Senate, Montigny joined at a time when it was routine for senators to suspend Rule 61A, the no smoking rule, but the decorum of dress has been more stridently preserved over the years. The motion never came, despite Sen. Will Brownsberger welcoming it from the rostrum.

"I would only caution him that if he were to remove his jacket, we will know what’s up his sleeve," Minority Leader Bruce Tarr told Montigny, to eye rolls and laughter from others in the chamber.

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What was up the sleeve of Senate Democrats -- and after a 40-0 vote Thursday evening, the entire Senate -- was a roughly $63.4 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. 

The four-day budget window opened Monday with flowery language from Tarr and Ways and Means Chairman Michael Rodrigues, who likened his budget proposal to a sunflower because they "withstand adverse conditions, and they orient themselves towards the sun in a constant search for light."

Senators adopted 518 amendments -- adding $70.53 million in spending and 44 outside policy sections that will soon move into negotiations with House leaders. The Mass. Taxpayers Foundation said the Senate budget increases spending by $2.3 billion (3.8%) over the budget the governor signed last summer, and is $4.2 million larger than the governor's January proposal and $49.6 million leaner than the House budget.

Some of the additions could have statewide impact, like $1.2 million for a program that provides intensive resources to young adults with disabilities, a $1 million bump to state parks and recreation operations, and an $450,000 for a program that helps cover security costs at nonprofits that are vulnerable to hate crimes or terrorist attacks.

Other outlays address specific desires: $50,000 towards "an immersive dinosaur dig in Dinosaur Hall" at the Springfield Science Museum, $10,000 to support for drug and alcohol free entertainment for high school seniors through Grad Nite Live in Marshfield, $10,000 to repair a courtyard fountain at the West Roxbury branch of the Boston Public Library, and $25,000 for the Beantown Diaper Bank to run a free diaper program for low-income families.

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There were plenty of policy additions, too. Among them: a special commission to study the distribution of unrestricted general government aid to cities and towns (report due by July 1, 2027), a requirement for the state to establish a comprehensive plan "in the most expeditious manner possible" to eliminate instances of wrong-way driving, the repeal of a 1995 policy that strips families of public benefits if a child in the household has missed too many days of school, and a vision that the former Essex County Superior Courthouse and county commissioners buildings in Salem be turned into the Massachusetts National Guard Museum.

Senate Democrats shot down a series of Republican-backed amendments, including proposals to investigate the drivers of chronically high electric rates, probe the Group Insurance Commission's spending and block SNAP benefits from being used on certain food, give communities subject to the MBTA Communities Act an extra two years to come into compliance, and have the UMass system conduct a study of population change. 

About 10 Republican tax relief amendments were ruled out of order by Democrats, but Tarr made clear that he intends to raise them on the Senate floor again soon.

"There are seeds that have been planted in this discussion that may not yet have risen as fully formed sunflowers. But they have the potential to. And what happens next is up to us," he said in his closing remarks Thursday evening. 

Tarr had used a prop scroll to demonstrate the breadth of the tax policy ideas he proposed and he concluded his final remarks Thursday by handing that scroll to Rodrigues.

"I promise you, Mr. chairman, you are going to see these again," he said.

BARNEY FRANK, AT 86: Former Congressman Barney Frank, who represented Massachusetts in Congress for 32 years and was elected to the Massachusetts House for eight years before that, died this week at the age of 86. Tributes poured in, noting Frank's work around LGBTQ+ equality, post-Great Recession banking regulations, and issues affecting working people. U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, who overlapped with Frank on Beacon Hill and got to Congress four years before him, said Frank "loved softball, and no one hit more home runs in Congress than Barney Frank."

"Barney and I sat right next to each other on the floor of the Massachusetts statehouse, in seats 67 and 68. We didn’t have staff. He didn’t need it. He was one of the smartest, funniest, most insightful, most unapologetic yet practical leaders I had ever met, and he remained so for the entire time we worked together and after," Markey said.

LOOSE ENDS: While most of the attention was on the Senate, the House this week voted to ban weaponized robots and drones, things that were "once the stuff of science fiction" but have more recently become reality, chief sponsor Rep. Michael Day said. Reps passed a handful of other bills during the same session, including to expand access to EpiPens and screen newborns for an additional condition ... Gov. Healey's lobbying and the pressure of her physical presence did not sway the Governor's Council, as it sank her most recent nominee to the Parole Board. Healey sent councilors a letter extolling Vincent DeMore's experience and then made an unusual appearance at Wednesday's council assembly to make a last-minute pitch for her nominee, but only three of the seven councilors present agreed with her ... Healey needed no confirmation to appoint the new, three-person Cannabis Control Commission, tapping former revenue commissioner and HHS chief of staff Christopher Harding to chair the new-look panel. The governor also installed western Mass. economic development official Xiomara DeLobato and cannabis law advisor Anthony Wilson on the marijuana regulatory body, which announced Friday that it will start auditing THC levels in cannabis products to ensure the actual THC potency is within a range from "75 to 125 percent of what is reflected on the label."

KELLER AT LARGE: 8:30 a.m., WBZ-TV. Political analyst Jon Keller's guest is UMass President Marty Meehan. They discuss the system's revenue shortfall, the slow progress of Gov. Maura Healey’s DRIVE Act proposal on Beacon Hill, and the impact of AI on graduates' employment prospects.

@ ISSUE SIT DOWN: 9:30 a.m., NBC 10. Reporter Matt Prichard interviews Jim Segel, longtime adviser and friend of the late Rep. Barney Frank.

ON THE RECORD: 11 a.m., WCVB. The guest is Plymouth and Barnstable Sen. Dylan Fernandes.

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