In Boston this week, families and shelter providers from around Massachusetts will ask Governor Charlie Baker to put another $30 million for rental housing vouchers in his proposed budget.
In his 2020 budget, Baker funded these housing vouchers at $100 million. The housing solution coalition, among others, is asking for more.
The vouchers address just part of an affordable housing crisis that's going on statewide. Matt Murphy with the State House News Service joins us to talk it through for a quick look at the week ahead in politics and state government.
Jill Kaufman, NEPR: Aside from the budget, Baker is putting forward a new housing bill, as I understand from you. What might it look like?
Matt Murphy, State House News Service: This lobby day is coming up this week. The advocates are looking for more money, and the governor is basically proposing to level-fund the rental voucher program this coming year, starting July 1. That would support just over 9,200 vouchers in Massachusetts. The administration is touting that this as a 34 percent increase since he took office.
But there's always room for more, especially given the high cost of housing in Massachusetts. The governor told us last week that he, again, is going to be making housing a big push of the first year of his second term, and he's going to be filing a new housing bill soon.
If you remember, his housing bill died last session, and that was a pretty straightforward and simple bill that would make it easier for cities and towns to change zoning laws, and relax local zoning restrictions, to encourage more housing — the idea being: you build more housing, the stock goes up. Hopefully prices come down.
But there are lawmakers who blocked that bill last session, because they wanted to see a more comprehensive effort to perhaps pour more money into affordable housing, either through some local fees that could be used for affordable housing, or to tie affordability requirements to these zoning waivers that the governor is looking to make easier to obtain.
Let's talk about another big-ticket item: how schools are funded in the state will be a big discussion over the next few months. Baker last week outlined his plan for the state to revamp the public school funding formula. The Baker budget would expand state education funding, though, by $200 million and more. It's not the first time the funding formula has been looked at, and some lawmakers say there have been huge opportunities missed in past years.
This is, no doubt, going to be a difficult debate. The formula, and this issue itself, stirs a lot of passion, and it's very complex. We saw that last session, when talks collapsed in the final hours of formal session in July, when House and Senate lawmakers couldn't get on the same page.
One thing that's working in their favor this time around: the governor, the Senate president, and the speaker all seem to want to get this done this session. This is really tackling four major issues in education funding, including health insurance or school districts, and how the state pays for special education services for English language learners and low-income students.
And lawmakers are not the only ones passing comment, at least. The MTA —Massachusetts Teachers Association — is not happy at all.
The teachers are not backing it. There are some cities and towns that are not thrilled with the governor's proposal. Some people think it doesn't go far enough, even though the governor is saying he's fully implementing the recommendations of this foundation budget commission that recommended all these changes several years ago. There will be a debate about how much money the system needs, and how to get it into these schools.
Finally, let's talk about rule-making. Democrats have recommended that there be some alterations to the Senate rules around, specifically, recruitment of a diverse workforce and sexual harassment. If you could just step back for a moment, though, and give us a sense of why changes now?
This is a process that takes place at the beginning of every two-year session. The House and the Senate have to come up with their own rules. You mentioned a couple areas, like workforce diversity and sexual harassment, and workplace safety training measures.
The Senate, in particular, is trying to make sure that interns are included in all of these policies, which is a change from the past. They're in some ways responding to situations that have arisen over the past year or so, that you know, generated some negative headlines for the Senate, including what happened with former Senate President Stanley Rosenberg and his husband. But this is also, you know, new members trying to come in, and make this body more transparent.
