Massachusetts lawmakers are home this week getting ready for Thanksgiving — and presumably getting some rest after some late nights last week.
To talk about the week ahead in politics and government, Matt Murphy joins us from the State House News Service.
There's a list of things that didn't get done before lawmakers called it quits for the week. But we start with what did pass both chambers. First up: a long-awaited education compromise.
Matt Murphy, State House News Service: Yeah, that's right. This bill got done. Last session, the legislature waited until the very end of their two-year session. Eventually, they got a bill into negotiations between the House and Senate and they just couldn't push it across the finish line before the end of formal sessions.
They came back this session, this year started much earlier, got this bill worked out ahead of time, largely between House and Senate leaders. They got it passed and into negotiations, and they were able to send it to the governor before the recess began.
And this is a huge $1.5 billion investment in public schoolsover the next seven years. Probably the biggest single investment in education in a generation, and they're hoping it's going to make a difference and help close achievement gaps where students struggled to keep up.
A deal has apparently been reached on flavored tobacco ban, but the FY19 close-out budget is still pending. Senate has agreed to meet until 12:30 a.m. #mapoli
— Matthew Murphy (@SHNSMurphy) November 21, 2019
I have been fighting for this day as a legislator for 18 years (18 years tomorrow, to be exact). A great day for all of our children! #mapoli https://t.co/M9kwu5ZvKI
— Senate President Karen Spilka (@KarenSpilka) November 20, 2019
Another headline grabber was that distracted driving measure that passed as well.
This had been in negotiations for about five months despite passing with really, really strong support in both branches. They were also able to push this across the finish line and get it done, and happy to let this move.
The branches could not agree on a spending bill, closing out the books on the fiscal year that ended June 30th. It's a procedural item that should have been done by the end of October. What now?
This was one of the big failures coming into the recess. This is a bill that proposes to spend the more-than $1 billion surplus from the fiscal year that ended June 30. They've been negotiating both how to spend that money as well as some different policy pieces in there, including a tax provision for corporations that would allow them to avoid an increase in taxes on interest that they invest in their companies.
This continued to be a sticking point as we got into the early morning hours on Wednesday. They just weren't able to hash out a deal.
We've heard from some that they think it's still possible in an informal session.
Just to be clear, this does need to get done. The comptroller does need this bill to certify the state's books for the last fiscal year, and finalize the state's finances and balance the budget. So this is not an optional item. But where we go from here remains to be seen.
Is it a little risky to deal with it in an informal session? Isn't that when just one single vote could topple the whole thing?
Exactly. And that business issue that I mentioned — there are progressive Democrats on one side who don't want to see it included in the bill. There are Republicans and other Democrats who see this as a potential tax increase on businesses who are very interested in getting this done, and on the governor's desk and included in the bill.
Any one of them could block a proposed compromise. So it's going to take some threading of the needle for leaders now, Speaker DeLeo and Senate President Spilka, to get this thing done, and make sure that everyone is happy and willing to let this move through. Because like I said, this does need to get done. It's not really an optional piece of legislation, but it got a whole lot trickier now that we move into informal sessions for the rest of the year.
Commonwealth magazine reports that also buried in that same bill is a provision that will dictate next September's early voting?
Yeah, exactly. There's stuff in that bill — it would set the state primary for 2020 on September 1. There's language in there that establishes early voting for the state primary, as well as some voting provisions around the presidential primary in March, which has Secretary Galvin concerned that this is going to get hung up.
In that piece you mentioned, Galvin floated the idea of getting the governor to file separate legislation of the election pieces, which were agreed to by both branches. So that's not what they're fighting about, but it is kind of tied up in this much larger bill, and that is of concern.
