Weekly roundup - A family feud?
Even good friends can have a row every once in awhile
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Even good friends can have a row every once in awhile.
Maybe you forgot to call on their birthday, or said you'd help them move only to be too busy when it came time to load the U-Haul. Either way, it was probably only a matter of time before Gov. Charlie Baker's carefully cultivated partnership with local officials would hit a pothole, and it seemed to come this week.
King Phillip Regional School Committee member Patrick Francomano used his time with the governor on Tuesday to take issue with the administration's proposed funding in the fiscal 2017 budget for local education aid, a somewhat meager 1.6 percent increase.
"The administration's public focus is overwhelmingly on charter schools, and while our excellent vocational schools have also received your attention, the majority of public school students are not significantly helped by this budget," Francomano told Baker, continuing to suggest that some constituents are starting to consider the administration's professed commitment to public education "disingenuous."
Needless to say, Baker didn't take too kindly to the criticism, telling the group of assembled local officials that he "flat out rejected" the notion that his budget signaled a lack of interest in supporting traditional public school systems.
"I heard the word failing in there, which bothered me a bit," Baker would later tell reporters.
Democrats looking for an issue that could splinter some of the governor's rock-solid approval ratings sensed an opening. Emails sent out by the Democratic Party keyed off the comments made during the meeting as party leaders sought to drum up support for special election candidates and signatures for a petition calling for more education funding.
Officials already disappointed with the governor's proposed investment in public schools could not have been feeling any better by Friday when the governor's request for local road and bridge repair funding come through.
Baker on Friday filed a bill requesting $200 million for the annual Chapter 90 road repair program after municipal officials urged him to seek $300 million for the unmet needs they see in their communities every day. He also failed to follow through on something he said had committed to just three days prior.
The local leaders had asked the governor to fight for a multi-year road funding bill so they could better plan and execute larger projects, and even though Baker told them the Legislature was not interested in a multi-year authorization, he told reporters on Tuesday he would file a multi-year bill anyway.
He didn't.
The dust-up, however, is unlikely a harbinger of harder feelings to come. Consider that many municipals officials actually left the meeting with the governor on Tuesday to go testifying before a legislative committee hearing a portion of Baker's Christmas tree of a municipal governance improvement bill.
The governor also requested an additional $50 million on top of the Chapter 90 ask for a new program to help towns fix the 1,300 very small bridges that sit on municipally-owned roads and aren't eligible for federal assistance.
Massachusetts Municipal Association Executive Director Geoff Beckwith said the MMA "in no way" questions Baker's support for public education. But that won't stop the MMA from lobbying lawmakers to do a little better for schools and roads this spring.
Speaking of spring, warmer days seemed a distant dream this week as snow forced the first shutdown of government offices on Monday and a bitter cold settled into the state ahead of the long-weekend that could put a chill on Valentine's Day this Sunday.
The snow-day led straight into the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday where Donald Trump trumped the competition and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders delivered a drubbing to Hillary Clinton, the favorite of elected leaders in Massachusetts who flocked north of the border in the days leading up to voting, but could not stop the landslide.
Baker's endorsement of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie four days prior and his appearance on the stump last Saturday didn't help much either. Christie finished a disappointing sixth, and ended his campaign the next day leaving the governor once again without a horse in the race.
"I'm going to focus on my job," he said, when asked what he'll do now with the Massachusetts primary looming in three weeks. "I don't think there's going to be a second endorsement."
One might ask Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, a Clinton-backer, the same question after the Amherst Democrat sounded almost like he was having a bit of buyer's remorse this week.
After crediting Sanders with "touching a nerve" in New Hampshire that Hillary couldn't pinch because she sounded like a "traditional politician," Rosenberg joked on a local radio station that he might start unbuttoning his suit jacket, pulling his tie askew and messing up the little hair he still claims to reach the millennials.
"Here we got Bernie talking about income inequality and bringing large corporations under control and we've got Trump building walls and telling Muslims, 'Go away,' and they both have a landslide victory. What does that mean?" Rosenberg wondered aloud.
Baker's distaste for the stylings of Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz - now the frontrunners for the Republican presidential nomination - could have a little something to do with Baker wanting to renegotiate the state's federal Medicaid waiver before President Barack Obama leaves office.
Former Gov. Deval Patrick secured a new five-year deal in 2014, but that agreement worth $41.4 billion did not fund the state's safety net care pool in the final two years of the deal.
The governor's budget chief Kristen Lepore told lawmakers last week that the state's would start losing $1 billion a year in federal support starting July 1, 2017, but Baker doesn't want to wait that long and hopes to have a new deal in place by summer.
The run from the Supreme Judicial Court continued this week as justice Nan Duffly announced that she would follow her colleagues Francis Spina and Robert Cordy into retirement this summer. With two more justices approaching the mandatory retirement age next year, Baker will now have five vacancies to fill, a startling turnover at the highest court where judges enjoy lifetime appointments.
Applications will be accepted by a new, special vetting panel led by the governor's chief legal counsel Lon Povich and Judicial Nominating Commission Chair Paul Dacier through March 18, and Baker said he's looking for not just the brightest jurists, but an ethnically and geographically diverse pool of nominees.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Turnover at the SJC will give Baker a unique opportunity few saw coming so early in his term.
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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