Last week, we talked about the Massachusetts budget. Another week has elapsed. Are the expectations any better that the conference committee might make a deal this week?
Matt Murphy, State House News Service: It's hard to say. Essentially we’re status quo. Another week, still no budget dealon Beacon Hill, leaving Massachusetts as the only state without a permanent fiscal 2019 spending plan.
Thursday, Senator Karen Spilka, Senate Ways and Means Chair and lead negotiator -- who's also poised to become the next Senate President -- suggested that they were getting closer by the hour. But that did not lead to a deal before they broke for the weekend, essentially pushing talks into this week, where Tuesday is likely the earliest we could see a vote on the budget.
Carrie Healy, NEPR: In ten days, just before the end of this legislative session, the Senate leadership is going to change. The power transfer has been in the works for months, but it's legislative crunch time. Is this going to get in the way of the legislature finishing its work?
It is crunch time. It was always a bit curious that they picked the last full week of formal sessions to facilitate this transition of power. But in another respect, it made sense because all the lawmakers will be in Boston before they scatter after July 31.
We now know the ceremony has been planned for 1 p.m. on Thursday July 26. This is just five days before they break for the end of the year, at least for formal legislating purposes. And there will most likely still be a number of outstanding significant issues still to deal with.
But having spoken to people around Senator Spilka about her plans, she's not planning to shuffle around the leadership team. She's planning as minimal disruption as she possibly can.
She's also been intimately involved in most of these talks, so she can continue to spearhead those efforts. I think it's probably unlikely that this will really disrupt progress any more, or make it any more challenging than it already is for legislators to meet this deadline and get everything they want done.
Will we see more legislators withdraw amendments to bills just to keep things moving?
I think you will. I think there will come a time where leadership will really kind of put their foot down. And it's not unusual. They do this even in July of the first year of the session.
Sometimes lawmakers are given very little time to read and digest these bills and file amendments, so you see many amendments getting filed. Then when they get to the floor, and either being promised votes at later dates, or learning why leadership doesn't want to move forward with certain amendments, or if they have other plans for such a proposal, these amendments get withdrawn.
But as we get closer and closer, and the number things that need to get done pile up, I think you will see people starting to withhold their attemps to significantly modify these bills, because it also impacts negotiations with the other branch, should those bills go that far. We're getting to the point where they're going to try and keep things clean and simple and keep them moving, if they can.
Remind me what happens when the gavel falls on this legislative session on July 31.
Technically, by July 31 at midnight, the House and the Senate should put themselves into recess. And that will be it, as far as major policy, for the rest of the year, as lawmakers go off to focus on their re-elections --which is what this recess is designed for -- to avoid politics from intruding into the policymaking on Beacon Hill.
There are often bills that still move in informal sessions, but there are typically more the non-controversial things that can get done. It's always a dangerous time, because any one lawmaker can hold up any single bill, which is why they don't hold anything of significance or consequence after July 31.
