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Will Baker's Vetoes Test His Relationships On Beacon Hill?

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed the "grand bargain" bill on June 28, 2018. He's shown here with the two legislative leaders, as of 2021, Senate President Karen Spilka (left) and House Speaker Ron Mariano (second from left).
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Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed the "grand bargain" bill on June 28, 2018. He's shown here with the two legislative leaders, as of 2021, Senate President Karen Spilka (left) and House Speaker Ron Mariano (second from left).

Last week, Governor Charlie Baker vetoed the climate bill passed by lawmakers in the final hours of the last legislative session. Many lawmakers were very pleased with that bill they crafted over five months and they plan to send it right back to the governor.

Carrie Healy, NEPM: First, what were Baker's concerns?

Matt Murphy, State House News Service: We're expecting Democratic leadership in the House and Senate to try and send it back to the governor as soon as possible, after the governor laid out quite a number of objections he had to the bill — despite, he said, agreeing with the larger thrust of the bill and what it hopes to accomplish, namely pushing Massachusetts towards net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

But the governor, objecting to some of the interim carbon emission reduction goals, particularly of 50% reduction by 2030, intended by the legislature to keep Massachusetts on track. But he said this could add up to $6 billion in additional costs to Massachusetts residents. He says that the state can still achieve its goal by getting to 45% reduction by 2030.

He also has concerns with a provision that would allow cities and towns to adjust their building codes to adopt a new net-zero standard. He says this would fly in the face of another piece of legislation he signed into law in his long-sought housing choice provision intended to spur development of housing and address the housing crunch in Massachusetts. He doesn't want to do anything, he says, to stop the production of new housing or make it more costly. Those are two of his biggest objections.

So lawmakers can't just try to override the governor's veto because we're now in a new session of the legislature. But leaders say they'll just pass the same bill again, potentially setting up a veto override vote. Does this signal a more confrontational relationship than in the past?

Potentially. The effort by the legislature to try and push the governor into signing this bill by coming out strongly before he had even acted — something rare, something we don't often see from legislative leaders who often have a more behind-the-scenes approach and play a little more nicely with the governor.

But, because the previous legislature ended, the governor had no options here to return this with amendments. The legislature, by sending this back, probably has the votes to override, should the governor choose to veto again. The governor is hoping that they're willing to hear him out and talk with him, maybe work on some of these amendments, but we're just not sure if that's going to play out.

Right now, the signals we're getting from Democrats in the House and Senate is that they want this bill intact as it was passed right before the end of the last session, in the first week of January. So, time will tell.

The governor also vetoed chunks of policy from big transportation funding bill the legislature sent him, including changes to taxes on ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft. Are we likely to see the legislature revive some of that bill?

Yeah, this could all come back in new legislation. This probably will take a little more time, though, than the climate bill. The legislature has to organize itself now. They have to get committees set up. Any new bills that get filed will have to go through the process, get hearings.

The ride-sharing fees that the governor objected to, he said, was because the travel patterns of Massachusetts people during the pandemic have changed. And he doesn't want to institute a fee structure that was intended to encourage people to carpool, encourage people to use less single rides, encourage people to commute to work different ways.

Well, people aren't commuting to work the same way they used to commute. So he wants to take some time. He wants to study the changes in travel patterns. And we'll probably see new legislation this session to address some of these issues.

We learned over the weekend that Massachusetts has had its first confirmed case of that new, more contagious strain of the coronavirus. This comes as the state begins vaccinations for people in jails, prisons, group homes and treatment centers. Briefly, what's the plan for this rollout?

Yeah, well, the new strain, of course, obviously worrying. I think the good news is the science I've seen so far does not suggest that this any more dangerous than the previous strain, but anything more contagious is only going to heighten the need to get the vaccine out and into people.

The last weekly report we saw from Massachusetts showed about two-thirds of the vaccines Massachusetts has received have been used — and there is a lag in that reporting. But we're still talking only about 350,000 doses, many more needed.

The state this week is expected to start rolling out the vaccine it does have to congregate care settings. Last week, it started making it available to first responders. They're also planning to open up Gillette Stadium this week for first responders to be able to go and get vaccinated, and this will eventually be able to serve as a mass vaccination site for the general public, when the public becomes eligible to receive the vaccine. But even when they ramp up to full capacity, potentially as much as 5,000 shots a day they'll be able to handle, they need the vaccine to be able to do that.

Keep up here with Beacon Hill In 5.

Carrie Healy hosts the local broadcast of "Morning Edition" at NEPM. She also hosts the station’s weekly government and politics segment “Beacon Hill In 5” for broadcast radio and podcast syndication.
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