By Jay Fitzgerald and Keith Regan

03/22/2017

Budget Black Hole | Hoops and scoops | GM drives debate

Rosenberg on the radio

Senate President Stan Rosenberg will speak on Boston Herald Radio, 70 Fargo Street, Boston, 9 a.m.

Cannabis Reform Lobby Day

The Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition and NORML hold a lobby day to ‘insist that our Representatives and Senators respect the will of the people in the implementation’ of the state's new legal marijuana law, State House café, 10 a.m.

Funeral Mass for Rev. Monan

Boston College's Jesuit rector, Rev. Robert Keane SJ, celebrates a Mass of Christian Burial for former BC president Rev. J. Donald Monan SJ, St. Ignatius Church, 28 Commonwealth Ave., Chestnut Hill, 10 a.m.

Rattlesnake update

Fisheries and Wildlife Board holds its monthly meeting with chair Joseph Larson, who also chairs the board's Rattlesnake Review Group, scheduled to give an update on the group, Richard Cronin Building, One Rabbit Hill Rd., Westborough, 10 a.m.

Firefighter funeral

Funeral is held for Watertown firefighter Joseph Toscano, who died March 17 while on duty fighting a two-alarm fire, Church of Saint Patrick, 212 Main St., Watertown, 11 a.m.

House supplemental budget

House members plan to meet in a formal session where they’re expected to take up a likely reworked version of a mid-year supplemental spending bill, with a Democratic caucus at 2 p.m. and roll calls set to begin at 3 p.m., House Chamber, formal session at 11:00 a.m.

Senate Dems caucus

Senate Democrats meet in a closed-door caucus to talk about the importance of immigration to the Massachusetts economy and the supplemental budget, Senate President's Office, 11 a.m.

Governor’s Council

Governor's Council holds its weekly assembly with a vote possible on Gov. Charlie Baker's nomination of Gloucester attorney Mary Rudolph Black to the Probate and Family Court bench, Council Chamber, 11:45 a.m.

Senate session

Senate meets in a formal session and, depending on House action, plans to take up supplemental budget matters, Senate Chamber, 1 p.m.

Deval Patrick Prize

Paul Grogan, president and CEO of the Boston Foundation, and former Gov. Deval Patrick present the 3rd annual Deval Patrick Prize for Community Colleges, 75 Arlington St. - 10th floor, Boston, 3 p.m.

Cunningham visitation

Visitation for friends and loved ones of the late Robert Cunningham, a former state government official and Republican party leader, will be held today, the day before his planned funeral, Quealy Funeral Home, 116 Adams St., Abington, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Rattlesnake Review Group

Fisheries and Wildlife Board's Rattlesnake Review Group holds the third of four planned meetings, Knights of Columbus Hall, 126 West Main St., Ware, 6:30 p.m.

Today's News

How do you plug a potential $2 billion budget hole? We’ll give you one guess

Gov. Charlie Baker yesterday said that the Republican health care bill in Congress could end up costing the state $1 billion in federal revenue by 2020 and nearly $2 billion by 2022, asBruce Mohl reports at CommonWealth magazine. And the Republican plan could put at risk health-care coverage for 500,000 state residents, as the Globe’s Joshua Miller reports.

Assuming Congressional Republicans move ahead with gutting ObamaCare, final budget details and number crunching are needed before potential solutions can be seriously discussed regarding this budget black hole. But with numbers of the magnitude that Baker is estimating – and with the majority of the state budget now already consumed by health-care spending – one thing is growing pretty obvious: New taxes will eventually be on the debate table. Whether the Republican Baker likes it or not.

The Herald’s Matt Stout and MassLive’s Shira Schoenberg have more on Baker’s health-care revenue estimates.

Diehl: White House is targeting ‘major obstacle’ Warren in 2018

Republican state Rep. Geoff Diehl, who’s eying a run for U.S. Senate and who’s huddled with President Trump's team, says the White House is clearly taking aim at U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren in 2018, the Herald’s Matt Stout reports. “I think the president himself sees the senior senator as a major obstacle to a lot of what he wants to do,” said Diehl.

And if the Trump folks fail to stop Warren in 2018, they may have another shot at her in 2020,writes Colin Reed at the Herald, saying Warren is “not doing much to hide her White House ambitions.”

Boston Herald

Uber, Lyft, Google et gang lobby against GM-backed self-driving bill

General Motors is apparently trying to corner the market on future self-driving cars in Massachusetts – and Beacon Hill lobbyists for Uber, Lyft, Google and even Ford and Volvo are crying foul, reports Adam Vaccaro at the Globe. Here’s the graf that jumped out at us: “Filed by Senator Eric Lesser in January, the GM-backed bill would only let companies that have previously ‘manufactured and distributed motor vehicles in the United States’ make self-driving technology available to the public, in applications such as ride-hailing services.”

Boston Globe

Middleborough SouthCoast rail route is ready to leave the station

State transportation officials will take their most formal step yet toward embracing the Middleborough route for a long-mulled extension of commuter rail service to the SouthCoast region by filing for an environmental review of the route, Michael Holtzman reports in the Taunton Gazette. Secretary of Transportation Stephanie Pollack will brief lawmakers on the move, which doesn’t preclude the state from going back to the original Stoughton route that has seen years of delays and cost-estimate increases as the project languishes.

Taunton Gazette

Donald is watching: Five state communities listed on ICE’s new ‘non-cooperating’ list

Isaiah Thompson at WGBH reports on the Trump administration’s “first edition” list of cities and town across the country that haven’t cooperated with the feds on immigration matters. No surprise: Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Northampton and Amherst, all sanctuary cities, are on the list. But what’s creepy is that the list is a clear we’re-watching-you warning from Trump administration.

In related immigration news, ICE nabbed two Irishman last week in Quincy, one of whom, facing a prior OUI, was transported to the Suffolk County House of Corrections, reports Universal Hub.

WGBH

Hoops coach hire shakes up state’s highest-paid list

UMass Amherst has a new basketball coach and that means a new name atop the list of the state’s highest paid employees. Matt Vautour of the Hampshire Gazette reports that while full contract details haven’t been made public, Pat Kelsey will receive an average of $800,000 in salary per year over the five-year life of his contract, with pay increasing in the later years—in part to give UMass time to pay off the $1.6 million buyout owed to fired coach Derek Kellogg. Kellogg was the state’s top-paid worker last year, MassLive reported in January, earning just over $1 million.

Gazette

Under Marty Baron, Post scoops up Globe journalists

The Washington Post, now owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and edited by former Globe editor Marty Baron, denies it’s deliberately raiding the Boston Globe for talent. Still, the BBJ’s Don Seiffert reports: “Since Bezos took over in October 2013, the Post has hired no fewer than 11 reporters, editors and designers from the Boston Globe, another three from Boston.com, and two former Globe journalists who landed at the Post after a year or two somewhere else.”

BBJ

Brockton construction firm agrees to pay $150,000 penalty for donations

A Brockton construction firm, J. Derenzo Companies, and its owner, David Howe, have agreed to pay $150,000 in penalties for improperly making donations to high-profile pols – including Gov. Charlie Baker, Mayor Marty Walsh, and former Gov. Deval Patrick – and mispresenting where the donations came from, according to reports at the Enterprise and Globe.

Walsh and Tito tangle over police leadership

City councilor and mayoral candidate Tito Jackson’s indirect swipe at Police Commission Bill Evans yesterday drew immediate fire from Mayor Marty Walsh, who accused Jackson of not understanding policing issues and needlessly tarnishing Evans’ reputation, reports Dan Atkinson at the Herald. The Globe’s Meghan Irons has more on the mayoral campaign flare-up.

Separately, the Herald’s Atkinson is also reporting that Walsh netted nearly $30,000 in donations from scores of city cops after the city and police union reached a new contract. “There’s absolutely nothing to do with the contract,” Walsh said.

Boston Herald

House gives a trim to Baker’s mid-year spending bill

From SHNS’s Matt Murphy: “The House budget committee on Tuesday released a $144 million midyear spending bill that will get a vote on Wednesday to shore up underfunded programs and agencies but Democratic leaders left many of Gov. Charlie Baker's spending requests out of the redrafted bill.”

SHNS (pay wall)

Exterminators, landscapers push back against pesky pesticides bill

From Christian Wade at the Salem News: “Exterminators, landscapers and others who use pesticides are pushing back against a plan that would require them to register with the state. The proposal — tacked onto Gov. Charlie Baker’s $170 million, mid-year budget bill — requires companies that use pesticides on farms and lawns or for pest control to register each year with the state Department of Agriculture and pay a yet-to-be-determined fee.”

Salem News

Remains of Korean War soldier to return to Holyoke

This is sad, via Scott Croteau as MassLive: “The remains of Army medic Cpl. Jules Hauterman Jr., a Hampden soldier who went missing during the Korean War, will be brought back to Massachusetts for a March 31 burial in Holyoke.” Hauterman apparently disappeared during bitter fighting near the Chosin Reservoir in late 1950. His remains were actually recovered in 1954, but weren’t identified until recently. Now he’s coming home.

MassLive

How hot is Seaport? Deutsche Asset pays $447 million for 100 Northern Ave.

No wonder many companies say they can’t afford leases in Seaport. From Catherine Carlock at the BBJ: “Deutsche Asset Management has closed on its $447 million acquisition of 100 Northern Ave., a 17-story office building on Fan Pier in Boston’s Seaport District, according to a Suffolk County deed. The 516,000-square-foot commercial office property is home to Goodwin Procter, Boston’s second-largest law firm.”

BBJ

CORI reform a ‘more complicated problem than advocates realized’

The Globe’s Adrian Walker says CORI reform advocates had high hopes that changes to criminal-privacy laws might help ex-cons land jobs. Though the reforms appear to have helped a bit in reducing prison recidivism, they haven’t exactly worked on the job front, he notes: “There isn’t a conclusive explanation for why this is so. Some people believe the reforms did not go far enough. Others attribute it to stubborn reluctance on the part of employers. Others say the issue is a combination of both, plus a sluggish job market for low-skilled workers. Clearly, it is a more complicated problem than advocates realized.”

Boston Globe

DeLeo creates working group on how to respond to Trump administration

Only the other day, House Speaker Robert DeLeo said all the news swirling around President Trump was actually becoming a distraction at the State House. But yesterday, in an unusual move, nine House Democrats were appointed to a working group that a “worried Speaker Robert DeLeo says will provide guidance on how to respond to ‘unprecedented actions’ of the Trump administration,” writes SHNS’s Michael Norton. "At its core, this group is tasked with finding practical ways to safeguard our residents and our economy in a way that works for each corner of the Commonwealth,” DeLeo said in a statement.

SHNS (pay wall)

Lawyer who sued Trump detained at Logan, claims racial profiling

From the Herald’s Antonio Planas: “A prominent civil rights attorney whose organization sued the Trump administration claims U.S. Customs’ personnel profiled him earlier this month when he was detained and questioned about his passport at Logan International Airport. ‘I have no doubt that this happened to me because of my race and ethnicity. There was no reason other than racial profiling to single me out for additional screening,' said Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of the Boston-based Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice."

Boston Herald

Businesses ask Baker to back off pipeline support

Environmental groups say they have a list of 500 small business owners statewide who want Gov. Charlie Baker to drop his support for expanding gas pipeline infrastructure in the state and allowing utilities to pass costs along to ratepayers, Tony Dobrowski of the Berkshire Eagle reports. The groups plan to collect more signatures before presenting their petition to the governor.

Berkshire Eagle

DCR to boost fees at state parks and beaches

From SHNS’s Andy Metzger at Wicked Local: “Campers and day-trippers visiting the Bay State's parks and beaches will start paying more this summer. The Department of Conservation and Recreation plans to hike fees for out-of-state residents and initiate fee hikes on state residents pushed through more than two years ago by the outgoing Patrick administration.”

Wicked Local

Today's Headlines

Metro

State proposes turning nearly a third of Boston’s only large forest into a woodsy dog park - Universal Hub

Wynn reduces luxury retail space at Everett casino - Boston Globe

Walsh, Jackson clash on work of police to address shootings - Boston Globe

Lawyer who sued Donald Trump delayed at Logan - Boston Herald

Massachusetts

Pro-Trump vandalism spurs concerns - Cape Cod Times

Senators get earful at Lowell stop on listening tour - Lowell Sun

Management of Brockton parking garage project causing concerns for city councilors - Brockton Enterprise

State files for environmental review of Middlesborough route for SouthCoast rail - Taunton Gazette