There are just a handful of days left for the Massachusetts legislature to get things done before essentially breaking until January. There's a lot on the to-do list, but one item that appears headed for passage is a ban on all flavored cigarettes and tobacco products.
Matt Murphy of State House News Service joins us to talk about the bill and other goings-on this week in Massachusetts state government.
Sam Hudzik, NEPR: Growing up, I have this very distinct memory smell of my Little League coaches smoking menthol cigarettes during games, around all the kids. The days of that are likely long gone, and menthol itself may be entirely on the outs. Does that look likely to happen?
Matt Murphy, State House News Service: It does seem likely to happen. Of course, those coaches — I guess we could flash back a few decades — would still be able to smoke, but they'd probably have to go to New Hampshire or Rhode Island to get them. The House last week passing legislation to ban all flavored tobacco and vaping products. Included in that flavor ban is menthol and mint flavors, which were exempt when the federal government banned flavored tobacco a decade ago.
The opponents of this bill pointed to the fact that this was a gift for convenience stores and others in border states like New Hampshire. But this is intended as both a public health reform as well as an effort to further keep smoking products out of the hands of kids, because of flavors like mint have proven to be very popular.
There is no possession ban on this. Folks can still legally have these menthol cigarettes if this passes; they just can't buy them in Massachusetts.
That's exactly right. And...during the House debate there were some amendments, some members arguing that perhaps possession should be penalized, that that would be a more effective way of keeping these out of the hands of kids. Those amendments were defeated and now this bill is moving over to the Senate where we are expecting it's likely to pass before the November recess.
A poll came out last week from MassINC on how to pay for transportation improvements. That was released around the same time that Beacon Hill leaders decided to punt on their debate over the same issue. A big part of this is about whether to raise the state's 24-cent-per-gallon gas tax. Where are we at with that?
House Speaker Bob DeLeo has basically been saying since March that he was eyeing the fall for a debate on new revenues to pay for transportation improvements, including infrastructure and public transit -- the MBTA and regional transit authorities — and other road and bridge projects. And he had said at the time that everything was on the table.
And as the date got closer, we heard people like his deputies, Bill Straus who chairs the Transportation Committee and Mark Cusack who chairs the Revenue Committee, saying that [it] was going to be very difficult to put a package together that did not include...at least an increase of some level in the gas tax.
Enter the business community, who published a survey that they did of some of the largest employer groups in the state and there was a bit of a mixed reaction. Some are supported as much as the 15-cent increase in the gas tax. Others didn't want to see any increase in the gas tax.
Speaker DeLeo slowing down House transpo revenue talks, "Shooting for January now." https://t.co/hkTDOdzLHZ #mapoli
— Matthew Murphy (@SHNSMurphy) November 14, 2019
So that gave House leaders a lot to think about. And DeLeo...told me just last week on Thursday...that he had decided to push this off. He's now eyeing a January debate. He said the business group's involvement had sparked a lot of interest among members themselves, who were coming to leadership with different ideas and they were juggling a lot of different interests and thoughts about what direction they should move, and they just weren't ready to pull the trigger.
I can't imagine the decisions on that get any easier next year.
They don't, and the poll that you mentioned kind of shines a light on that. Strong support in this MassInc poll of registered voters across the state. Seventy-seven percent said they would support new revenue for transportation. But once you get into the ideas for how to raise that transportation [money], it gets a little more dicey.
There [are] a lot of ideas there and as you push this into 2020, members are also starting to think about their own reelections, and it's less popular and less enticing to take a tax vote in an election year.
