Beacon Hill Update: Tuesday, June 8th, 2021

Tuesday, June 8, 2021:

• As of Monday night, DPH reported a total of 662,243 cases of COVID-19.
• The state reported 89 new confirmed cases.
• The state has now confirmed a total of 17,552 deaths from the virus.
• House and Senate leaders named a conference committee on Monday to negotiate a final fiscal year 2022 budget bill, tasking the six lawmakers with reaching a compromise on a more than $47.7 billion spending plan that includes major policy changes including those affecting a controversial film tax credit program and fees on ride-hailing companies.
• Each branch appointed its Ways and Means Committee chair, vice chair and ranking minority member to the budget conference committee: Reps. Aaron Michlewitz of Boston, Ann-Margaret Ferrante of Gloucster and Todd Smola of Warren in the House, and Sens. Michael Rodrigues of Westport, Cindy Friedman of Arlington and Patrick O’Connor of Weymouth in the Senate.
• The group will likely begin its discussions in public and then vote to retreat behind closed doors to hash out differences between the House and Senate versions of the budget (H 4001 / S 2465).
• It was not immediately clear when the committee’s first meeting will take place.
• The bills have roughly similar bottom lines of about $47.72 billion, but they vary in several significant policy areas.
• Also during the Monday session the House signed off on the Senate’s amendments to a bill directing the transfer of American Rescue Act Plan money to a dedicated fund.
• After the Senate’s changes, the bill now calls for a transfer of almost $5.177 billion.
• That bill cleared both branches on Monday, moving to the desk of Governor Baker, whose administration says that as authorized by the federal government, the discretionary funding does not require legislative appropriation.
• The bill was amended Thursday in the Senate to account for the $109 million disbursed by the governor late last week to four municipalities disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
• The Senate also teed up a fast-tracked bill – that hadn’t yet been released to lawmakers to extend some temporary pandemic-era policies.
• That bill will be released Tuesday by Senate Ways and Means (to be numbered S 2467), based in part on bills filed by Sen. Will Brownsberger (S 27) and Gov. Baker (S 2452).
• Many temporary policies developed to cope with the coronavirus are tied to the state of emergency, which is scheduled to end Tuesday, June 15.
• The Senate teed up that not-yet-released bill for debate on Thursday, five days before the emergency’s end.
• The bill is slated to emerge from committee on Tuesday, and senators will have until 1 p.m. Wednesday to file any amendments.
• The quick turnaround reflects the time crunch lawmakers are under if they hope to get a completed bill through both branches and to Governor Baker’s desk by next Tuesday, June 15, when the termination of the emergency declaration takes effect.
• A House spokesperson on Monday referred to the forthcoming Senate bill as a “first piece” of legislation, indicating that additional bills could follow in the future.
• With a vote to advance a surtax on household income over $1 million on tap for Wednesday, one of the organizations that was key to keeping the proposal off the 2018 ballot shared an open letter sent to lawmakers Monday urging them to reject tax increases and instead focus on getting people back to work.
• More than 150 Massachusetts companies representing about 15,645 workers have signed onto the open letter, which was circulated Monday morning with contact information for officials at the Partnership for Massachusetts’ Future and the Massachusetts High Technology Council, which was a lead plaintiff when the Supreme Judicial Court in 2018 ruled the surtax plan could not go to voters.
• On Wednesday, the House and Senate will meet in a joint session with the intention of voting to advance the 4 percent income surtax for voters to decide on the 2022 statewide ballot.
• Supporters say the surtax on household income over $1 million could raise about $2 billion in revenue for the state annually.
• If Governor Baker’s latest executive branch reorganization becomes a reality, 13 health-related licensing boards and the 88,000 licenses they oversee would be transferred from the Division of Professional Licensure under the umbrella of the Department of Public Health.
• That would leave the Division of Professional Licensure with about 492,000 licenses to oversee and would streamline things for applicants, license holders, the public and state regulators, DPL Commissioner Layla D’Emilia told the Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Committee during a hearing on the governor’s proposal (H 3774) Monday.
• The licensing boards that would be transferred include allied health; allied mental health; chiropractors; dietitians and nutritionists; dispensing opticians; hearing instrument specialists; podiatry; optometry; psychologists; social workers; speech pathology and audiology; health officers; and sanitarians.
• As local officials wait for the U.S. Census Bureau to provide community-specific population data, Secretary of State William Galvin said Monday that legislation to put Congressional and legislative redistricting ahead of local reprecincting would be “devastating” to cities and towns, putting him at odds with voting rights advocates.
• Galvin, the state’s chief elections official, testified before a legislative committee that it would be a mistake to pass a bill that would reverse the order of the reprecincting and redistricting, arguing that it would strip the authority of local government to define its own political geography.
• The secretary’s position puts him at odds with the House Chair of the Redistricting Committee Michael Moran, a fellow Democrat from the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, who has proposed to reverse the traditional order and follow a process used in the majority of states.
• But advocates say the change would allow the Committee on Redistricting to draw more precise and equitable House, Senate and Congressional districts without worrying about creating confusion for voters by subdividing local precincts.
• It would also give the Legislature more time to finalize state and federal district maps before November, which is the time when lawmakers planning to seek reelection must make sure they reside within their new district boundaries.
• The controversial regional effort to reduce vehicle emissions along the East Coast that advanced in December with just four of 13 interested jurisdictions agreeing to take part appears to have dwindled, at least for the time being, to include just Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C. as active participants.
• Connecticut Democrats and Gov. Ned Lamont, working under the pressure of a mid-week deadline to pass legislation this year and to finalize a new biennial state budget, scrapped the Nutmeg State’s implementation of the Transportation and Climate Initiative Program (TCI) as part of a compromise reported Friday by the CT Mirror.
• Though Connecticut will not implement TCI in its next budget, the CT Mirror reported Monday that Democrats in Hartford “said the Transportation Climate Initiative might get a vote this year, or might be revisited in 2022.”
• In Massachusetts, Governor Baker has the authority to enter into a multi-state carbon reduction pact like TCI on his own, but governors in most other states need to secure legislative approval. Baker’s administration said Monday it remains committed to the program.
• A bill extending some pandemic-era policies beyond next week’s end of the COVID-19 state of emergency is expected to hit the Senate floor on Thursday, though the details of what it will contain are not yet clear.
• Democratic Rep. Tami Gouveia kicked off her campaign for lieutenant governor on Monday, calling for universal pre-kindergarten, debt-free higher education and Medicare for All as she became the first to jump into the 2022 field.
• Gouveia, who was first elected to the Legislature in 2018, released a video announcing her candidacy that focused on her upbringing in Lowell and the role government played in helping her family climb into the middle class.
• The electoral landscape is slowly taking shape for 2022, and the race for lieutenant governor on the Democratic side is wide open.
• Many Democrats with ambitions for statewide office are waiting to see what incumbents like Attorney General Maura Healey, Secretary of State William Galvin and Treasurer Deb Goldberg decide to do.
• Bret Bero, a Babson College business professor and former small business owner, also launched his “exploratory campaign” for lieutenant governor on Monday.
• Bero teaches strategic problem solving, management consulting and business turnarounds, joining the faculty after selling his Orange-based deep-draw metal forming company ECHO Industries in 2019.
• Bero, a Democrat, moved to Boston five years ago after living in the Concord-Carlisle area for more than 20 years, according to his campaign.
• He said the next lieutenant governor must make sure small businesses are at the center of the state’s recovery plan.
• Methuen Sen. Diana DiZoglio plans to start raising money toward a 2022 race for state auditor, filing paperwork indicating her interest in the constitutional office that is set to open up with the departure of Suzanne Bump.
• DiZoglio on Monday changed her campaign fundraising account to list auditor as the office sought rather than senator, according to Office of Campaign and Political Finance records.
• DiZoglio served three terms in the House before winning election to the Senate in 2018.
• In recent months, she has criticized lawmakers for not offering more pandemic relief to restaurants and other small businesses, clashed with Democratic leadership about how much time lawmakers receive to review legislation, and argued that low legislative pay has “priced diversity and equity” out of Beacon Hill.

by David Gauthier

Madeleine Clement

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