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Weekly roundup - The balancing act
Guv pitches $39.6 billion budget
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Twenty-one years have elapsed between the time a young Charlie Baker assembled his first state budget in 1995 and this week when Baker, now governor, pitched his $39.6 billion spending plan for next year.
For those who like math, the difference between the first budget Baker shepherded through from start to finish as then Gov. William Weld's budget secretary and the document he put forward on Wednesday is about $22.7 billion.
Government has gotten more expensive over the past two decades.
Baker's budget for fiscal 2017 pushes the total tab higher, but limits the growth in spending to 3.5 percent even as tax revenues are projected to grow by 4.3 percent next year. The budget calls for new investments in substance abuse treatment, charter schools and the hiring of more than 280 social workers at the Department of Children and Families, but most areas of government will see little to no growth in budgets as they are asked to do the same or more with less.
Few lawmakers will argue with the value of Baker's push to trim the reliance on one-time revenues to balance the budget down to $253 million, or sock away at least $206 million in the "rainy day" fund. But that doesn't mean they're happy with what the picture looks like after those colors are taken off the palette.
Multiple senators criticized Baker's $72 million increase for Chapter 70 aid to local schools, a modest 1.6 percent increase that Sen. Jason Lewis described as the smallest increase in the "past half decade."
The left-leaning Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center also questioned Baker's decision to push for a corporate tax reform that would save companies that do business in multiple states about $67 million a year when fully implemented in four years, at the expense of pumping those dollars into transportation or education.
Eventually, if history serves, the growing drumbeat from some of the more liberal corners of the State House for more revenues will lead to a concrete proposal, but for now House Speaker Robert DeLeo prefers to echo Baker's no-new-taxes-or-fees mantra. In fact, another tax increase may have to wait until 2018 when advocates hope to have a constitutional amendment on the ballot to tax millionaires an additional 4 percent on all earnings above $1 million.
The Revenue Committee voted 12-4 this week to recommend the constitutional amendment, but it's unclear whether it will surface for a debate next week when the House and Senate convene for another installment of the Constitutional Convention. The amendment needs only 50 votes from the 200-member Legislature to be advanced to the next Legislature, which will be seated in 2017.
The "Benator," regardless of what happens this year, won't be around to see that happen. Sen. Benjamin Downing, of Pittsfield, announced this week that he would be keeping a promise to himself to serve 10 years and leave, and won't be seeking re-election in the fall. Nevermind that at 34, with a decade of experience, Downing is/was a rising a star in the Democratic Party, his departure will also remove another valued leader from Senate President Stanley Rosenberg's Senate that has already seen Anthony Petruccelli depart and will watch Sen. Dan Wolf leave alongside Downing next January.
"When people leave it's really hard, because the new people come in. They've got all the energy and excitement, but they don't have the institutional memory. They don't have the experience in the Senate . . . But make no mistake, everyone in the Senate is fully engaged and these three will certainly be missed but the bench is very deep," Rosenberg said.
Austerity isn't the only song Baker knows how to sing. After preaching fiscal restraint on Wednesday, Baker came out Thursday with a capital spending plan to borrow nearly $1 billion over the next five years to finance economic development, housing and job training programs.
House Bonding Committee Chairman Rep. Antonio Cabral, of New Bedford, said he agreed with the governor that the priorities outlined in the bill could be paid for without hitting the state's debt ceiling, a reality that Treasury officials last year said might have to be dealt with as soon as fiscal 2017.
"He knows economic development is more than just Boston and Kendall Square," Cabral said, referring to Housing and Economic Development Secretary Jay Ash. "These are important programs, the Transformative Development Initiative, brownfields, MassWorks. The challenge will be to turn this from an authorization bill to an appropriations bill and find the revenues to tie in so it doesn't impact the cap."
While the House and Senate will take some time now to review the governor's budget and jobs bills, there were some pieces ready for action this week.
The House finally decided it was time to take up Sen. James Timilty's bill to ban the use or operation of tanning beds by anyone under 18, and the Senate, over the objections of business groups such as Associated Industries of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts High Technology Council, voted in an update to the state's equal pay law that could become a more contentious issue as it now moves across the hall into the House's court.
The Senate also passed legislation to require the state to develop a climate change preparedness plan and to set interim carbon emission reduction goals in 2030 and 2040 to keep the state on track for its 2050 target.
Before all of that, however, DeLeo entered his House to give his eighth annual address to the members, sketching out a path for the next six months that will include attempts to pass comprehensive energy legislation, improve early education and regulate companies like Uber and Lyft.
Ever since Senate President Stanley Rosenberg came out and said the Senate would attempt, despite the skepticism in that body, to draft and pass a charter school reform, that always touchy topic has only grown hotter in the corridors around the State House.
Knowing the hurdle to expanding the cap on charters is high in the Senate, DeLeo still wants to wait to see if that branch can compromise on a cap lift, but the speaker interestingly signaled the House may not wait to consider other options to improve access to charter schools in the coming months.
Just what that might look like remains to be seen, but the charter picture grows murkier by the day. The House and Senate appear far apart on the issue and even if they come closer together, it's possible that their eventual compromise might not prove satisfactory to Baker and supporters of a ballot question on track for November.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Inching closer to $40 billion in spending, Baker budget shows restraint, but leaves some wanting.
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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