Weekly roundup - You win some, you lose some
Powerball fever
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So you thought you were going to be a billionaire. You and everyone else.
The $1.5 billion Powerball jackpot on Wednesday fueled a stampede to local convenience stores early this week - even if it could someday mean paying a higher tax rate in Massachusetts - in what amounted to a cash-grab for the Lottery. At one point Wednesday evening retailers were selling $33,737 in tickets a minute ahead of the big drawing.
Alas, there were no jackpot winners in Massachusetts, but two couples claimed $1 million prizes and the Lottery raked in almost $33 million for Wednesday'sdrawing alone, which, at the very least, will boost its profit margin for local aid.
And Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said winning the General Electric sweepstakes was as good as hitting the Powerball jackpot after one of the country's top 10 largest companies announced it would move its global headquarters, and about 800 jobs, from Connecticut to the Seaport by 2018. Walsh and Gov. Charlie Baker tag-teamed the GE recruitment effort and the timing of the corporate decision will no doubt give each man something to crow about in their annual addresses next week.
Whether it's additional Lottery funds of income taxes pulled from Jeffrey Immelt's pockets, Baker will certainly be able to put that money to use as he prepares to put the finishing touches, if he hasn't already, on a fiscal 2017 budget proposal that his administration and legislative leaders now agree will have $26.9 billion in tax revenues underwriting state spending next year.
Administration and Finance Secretary Kristen Lepore and the chairs of House and Senate Ways and Means are gambling on 4.3 percent growth next year, an optimistic take on the economy that experts in December agreed would grow, but possibly at a slower clip. The revenue accord will give Baker and lawmakers about $1.12 billion in additional tax revenue next year to play with, and Baker has already promised to increase local aid by the same growth rate.
Only the Beacon Hill Institute projected a higher growth rate (5.58 percent), and three out the six estimates from economists and vendors for the Department of Revenue came in under 4 percent.
Other than itself, Massachusetts may not have minted an overnight billionaire this week, but who needs the headache of attention and scrutiny anyway, right?
Sen. Brian Joyce, a Milton Democrat whose ethical compass has been repeatedly called into question in the pages of the Boston Globe, certainly didn't need to defy the odds to have his dirty laundry aired in public.
The senator's dry cleaning was literally hung out in the Boston Globe with another front page story questioning his arrangement with a Randolph dry cleaner who said he gave Joyce free cleaning services for years that were never reported.
The senator's people insist the free dry cleaning was repayment for pro-bono legal services, but that explanation didn't stop the Republican Party from immediately calling for his removal from his remaining committee positions and the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance went so far as to call on him to resign.
Joyce has already given up his leadership posts, and says he expects one ongoing investigation by the Office of Campaign and Political Finance to be wrapped up imminently. The Globe has reported on Joyce using campaign funds to pay for his son's high school graduation party, but the OCPF probe may not stop there.
Baker, who doesn't always like to meddle in the inner dealings of the Legislature, couldn't help himself in a Boston Public Radio interview this week, weighing in on what one advisor described as a "slam dunk." Baker said the laundry allegations against Joyce warrant an immediate review by the Ethics Commission, and said he believes Joyce should be removed from all committee responsibilities until that happens.
Joyce continues to lead a special Senate committee set up to improve government efficiency, but aides confirmed that the panel's ambitious work schedule has been "on hold" for months as its chairman sits in ethics limbo. Senate President Stanley Rosenberg's office said decisions on how to move forward with Joyce, who was brought in to the new president's leadership circle only to become more of a political liability than an asset, are also on hold.
With one-fifth of its members traipsing through Denver on a fact-finding mission to learn more about the legalized pot industry and its impact on public health policy in the Mile High city, the Senate teed up a ban on handheld electronic devices while driving, carbon emissions reduction targets, and lobster processing bills for its first formal session next week.
Across the hallway, House Speaker Robert DeLeo led his troops into a full debate Wednesday over opioid abuse that culminated in the unanimous passage of a bill that would limit prescription sizes for first-time patients to a seven-day supply and require substance abuse evaluations for anyone who presents at an ER with signs of an overdose.
House Democrats stood virtually united against Republican-led efforts to reinsert stricter prescription limits and a provision authorizing hospitals to involuntarily hold overdose patients for up to 72 hours. Both those proposals were drafted and supported by Gov. Charlie Baker, but their omission may be less of a problem than it seems as the governor appeared willing to compromise on both if it meant getting a bill to his desk quickly.
The legislation, however, still has a ways to go before it arrives in Room 360 with the Senate still required to take up the House bill, despite passing its own bill in October, and DeLeo predicting it could "take some time" to work through differences with the Senate.
Speaking of differences, in its eighth week the conference committee that is theoretically negotiating a deal to lift cap on the amount of energy solar-producing customers can sell back to the grid started to feel the pressure from one of its members.
The six-person committee hasn't met since its first, symbolic 15-minute gathering in the waning hours of formal session for 2015, and Sen. Bruce Tarr, who didn't actually make it to that meeting, thinks that needs to change. The leaders of the committee - Sen. Benjamin Downing and Rep. Thomas Golden - continue to have discussions, but the talks appear from the outside to be more of a staring contest than a negotiation.
Tarr wrote to his fellow conferees urging a full sit-down to clear the air.
Not necessarily helping to facilitate movement on either side are some solar advocates who this week railed against the bills produced by both branches, arguing that either bill has to the potential to "wipe out" small-scale community solar projects in Massachusetts.
STORY OF THE WEEK: The House has its say on opioid abuse, in the end passing a bill unanimously.
About the Author »
Matt Murphy covers major media, lobbying firms, government agencies, political junkies as well as towns Statewide. He likes to cover politics and campaigns.
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