BOSTON — The holiday season is fully underway, but gratitude is not the dominant feeling aimed at Beacon Hill.
Anger, disappointment and fear deepened this week as House and Senate Democrats failed to make any breakthrough on a stalled $2.8 billion bill that would steer more money to the state’s overburdened emergency shelter system, fund raises for tens of thousands of public employees, and advance the already-overdue closing the state’s financial books for the fiscal year that ended nearly five months ago.
Holiday-themed indignation did not move the needle. Hundreds of state workers whose raises are tangled in the bill tried to shame Democrats into action, rallying outside the State House Monday with signs warning that “Christmas is cancelled for thousands of MA workers.” One sartorially inspired attendee came clad in a Grinch costume with a sign that read, “How the Legislature stole Christmas.”
Procrastination is nothing new for the Legislature, and the central figures involved seem to be entrenched in their positions. House Speaker Ron Mariano used the news that MBTA and MassDOT conference rooms are now temporarily housing shelter-seekers overnight to double down on his view that the Legislature in the spending bill needs to allocate money “specifically reserved for overflow shelter options,” one of the primary points of disagreement between the branches. Senate Democrats want better reporting from Gov. Maura Healey on emergency shelter crisis, but appear content to let Healey manage it and ended the week with some chirping at the House.
“We turned around a bill in six days that took them six weeks to do,” Senate Ways and Means Committee Chair Michael Rodrigues said Wednesday after both branches adjourned until Monday with no visible progress. He was referring to how long the House sat on Gov. Maura Healey’s request for $250 million for shelters before rolling out its many-strings-attached funding plan.
While representatives and senators were enjoying Thanksgiving with their families, as many as several dozen people who are supposed to be guaranteed emergency shelter under state law were on a waitlist, perhaps sleeping in a new overnight shelter hastily set up in MBTA conference rooms, vying for help from a state partnership with the United Way, or left to figure out somewhere to stay on their own.
The Healey administration estimated Monday that 104 families were on a waitlist, up from 22 a week earlier, because the shelter system was at its new capacity limit of about 7,500.
Healey said the number of new arrivals seeking emergency shelter has decreased in recent days. The exact reasons behind that trend are not clear, but it seems likely that shelter-seekers might be more dissuaded these days as the temperatures grow colder.
Ballot questions
Although inertia remained the primary dynamic in the Legislature, the week set off a biennial winnowing of the field for dozens of ballot question campaigns.
Collecting tens of thousands of signatures from registered voters — this time around, at least 74,574 were necessary — always poses a hurdle for campaigns trying to put proposed laws and constitutional amendments before voters, especially those that do not have the backing of well-funded, politically experienced groups.
No fewer than half a dozen measures are set to march onward toward the 2024 ballot, assuming their sponsors’ claims about submitting enough signatures are certified locally and hold true. The sizable field boasts high-profile proposals that could reshape state policy about education, labor, government transparency and psychedelic substances like psilocybin mushrooms.
Their sponsors, which include power players such as the Massachusetts Teachers Association, 32BJ SEIU and Uber and Lyft, might think they have a better chance funding a multimillion-dollar campaign to win over voters than they do convincing the House and Senate to wade into such complex, controversial topics.
Legislative audit
And for Auditor Diana DiZoglio, the ballot is effectively the last hope, barring an unexpected change in legislative leadership.
DiZoglio’s attempt to probe the House and Senate where she previously served has been rebuffed by legislative leaders and by Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who concluded state law does not allow such an audit without the Legislature’s consent. Campbell did, however, certify as ballot eligible an initiative petition that would update the law to explicitly empower the auditor’s office accordingly.
Supporters of the measure, which include transparency advocates and legislative critics on both the right and left, reported gathering more than 100,000 signatures. Fundraising is reportedly already underway, with at least $105,000 from DiZoglio’s own campaign account flowing to the ballot question plus donations from figures such as Rick Green and Ernie Boch Jr.
“We cannot keep doing business as usual, doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. That is the definition of insanity. So we need bold, meaningful change. Working families across our communities deserve access, they deserve a seat at the table,” DiZoglio said in a celebratory video she tweeted. “This ballot initiative is going to give us that opportunity, again, to make it crystal clear that we want to know how our tax dollars are being spent. We expect our elected leaders up on Beacon Hill to be accountable to all working families in this commonwealth, regardless of our family background, our bank balance or our ZIP code.”
Given the resistance Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka have shown to DiZoglio’s overtures, we wouldn’t bet on the Legislature to take up the auditor’s ballot question in the four-month stretch lawmakers will get next year to review each measure in the mix.
They might be more inclined to broker some kind of compromise on work standards for on-demand drivers, particularly given the political morass looming in 2024. The year ahead could bring one driver-related ballot question backed by the companies themselves, another pushed by unions, and a long-awaited trial in the attorney general’s lawsuit alleging Uber and Lyft are violating existing Massachusetts labor laws. Will the Legislature stand by and just let this all play out before a confused electorate, or will they step in and act?
Lawmakers got a stern warning this week from influential business leaders about their budget management in recent years. A coalition of regional groups led by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce warned that state spending rose at “breakneck speed” in the past five years, significantly outpacing inflation.
And they pointedly asked: what has all of that spending purchased?
“Massachusetts consistently is among the top 10 of states in per capita state and local expenditures. Yet the greater Boston area has some of the worst traffic congestion in the world, a failing public transit system, and ranks 43rd in the nation for fiscal stability according to U.S. News,” the business groups wrote. “Meanwhile, Massachusetts now ranks 46 in the country for its tax climate and 50th in the country for its Unemployment Insurance System.”
It’s been a while since there was a concentrated effort to get state spending under control, so this will be a storyline to watch.
ODDS AND ENDS: … David Gibbons, the head of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, is stepping down more than a year before his contract expires amid apparent internal drama … The next front in the long-running debate over reproductive rights became clear as the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and its allies targeted new reforms, including elimination of the need for someone younger than 16 to acquire parental or judicial consent for an abortion … Memorials poured out following the death of former Sen. Susan Tucker, who represented the Merrimack Valley in both the House and Senate for about two decades …
STORY OF THE WEEK: The political outlook for 2024 came into clearer focus, even though some of the biggest business of 2023 remains unfinished.
SONG OF THE WEEK: Before everyone went their separate ways for Thanksgiving, state workers delivered a message to the Legislature: don’t go forgetting about us.