Legislative leaders offered a muted response Tuesday to Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker's call for wide-ranging new tax breaks, cautioning that the "devil is always in the details" as the outgoing governor prepares to mount an offensive to support his legislative priorities.
Baker used his final State of the Commonwealth address to forecast substantial tax breaks that will feature in his annual state spending bill, marked for release on Wednesday, and to challenge lawmakers to act on a pair of criminal justice bills he has tried to pass for years.
With the State House still closed, the two-term Republican governor delivered his remarks at the spacious Hynes Convention Center as Massachusetts nears the second year anniversary of the start of a global pandemic that altered the course of his governorship.
Despite his fiscally conservative leanings, Baker has seldom pushed the Democrat-controlled Legislature on tax cuts over his first seven years in office. That will soon change.
Baker plans to double the tax break for families with children and dependents, the governor said in his speech. Baker also said he will propose to eliminate income taxes for the lowest paid 230,000 workers in Massachusetts so that they can use that money instead on necessities like food, housing and transportation.
His plans will also include a "bigger tax break" for renters, and property tax relief for senior citizens, Baker said.
"We've asked the people of Massachusetts to do a lot these past few years," Baker said. "It's time for us to invest in Massachusetts families. To give them back some of the tax revenue they created through their hard work."
The governor's new push will force Democrats to make election-year choices about a menu of tax breaks at a time when state tax revenues have been shattering projections, creating a surplus last year and empowering Massachusetts to bulk its rainy day savings account up to $5 billion.
House Speaker Ronald Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka did not make clear Tuesday if they will support or oppose Baker's proposal, calling it difficult to comment on the issue before more details emerge when the governor files his budget bill.
"The Legislature has given tax breaks, so clearly we support — increasing the EITC, increasing property tax breaks at times," Spilka replied when asked if the populations Baker wants to target deserve tax relief. "We'll take a look. We realize that people are still hurting from COVID, so we'll take a hard look."
"We want to make sure the money's going to the people who deserve it, the people who are most adversely impacted by the pandemic," Mariano added. "The devil is always in the details in these things."
The governor did not in his speech put an estimate on the total value of the tax cuts, or outline specifics for income eligibility, but details are expected when the governor files his final budget for fiscal year 2023.
With just over six months left in the formal legislative session for Baker to cajole Democrats into acting on his priorities before he gives up the office to the next governor, Baker prodded the Legislature to finally act on bills he has filed to close a loophole that he says allows violent criminals to "walk free" before trial, and to prohibit the unauthorized sharing of sexually explicit photos or videos.
Massachusetts is one of two states, Baker said, that doesn't treat what is sometimes referred to as "revenge porn" as a crime.
Baker filed both the dangerousness (H 4290) and sexually explicit content bill (H 4291) — on which Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito testified during a Judiciary Committee hearing earlier Tuesday — in each of the previous two legislative sessions, but neither emerged for a vote.
"We've filed bills to deal with these issues three times, to no avail. The time to do something about this is long past," Baker said.
That jab left Mariano and Spilka scratching their heads.
"I don't remember seeing it three times, so I'd have to go back and look," Mariano said.
Lawmakers have some concerns about portions of the dangerousness bill, Mariano said, which would reclassify which offenses require courts to hold dangerousness hearings. Civil rights advocates have also cautioned about other provisions of the proposal related to pre-trial bail reform.
Mariano said he is "not exactly sure" where the bill criminalizing "revenge porn" stands and said he would discuss the matter with Judiciary Committee Co-chair Rep. Michael Day.
On the Senate side, Spilka said she and Rep. Jeff Roy filed a similar "precursor" bill addressing the issue in 2013.
"Clearly, there is some support in the Legislature for it, and we will take a good look at it," she said.
Baker also said he wants to work with lawmakers to improve mental health care, and plans to file a transportation bond bill that will allow Massachusetts to take advantage of the billions in federal infrastructure aid recently made available by Congress.
The governor opted against seeking a third term last month despite high job approval ratings and unfinished items on his agenda. By staying off the campaign trail, Baker said he would have the time and focus to continue to guide Massachusetts through its recovery from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In preparation for the speech, Baker said he went back and read his previous five State of the Commonwealth addresses and his two inaugurals, finding the common thread to be optimism and positivity.
"We all know the past 22 months have been tough. We've all suffered some degree of loss, disruption, confusion, anger and isolation. But the people of Massachusetts did what they always do. They collaborated, created, reimagined, and made the unbearable bearable," Baker said.
A year ago in his speech to the state, Baker said of the COVID-19 pandemic, "The end is in sight."
And yet, while vaccines have arrived and fewer healthy people are dealing with severe COVID-19, hospitals are again overcrowded and life has not returned to normal. At that moment in January 2021, the Department of Public Health had just reported 2,215 new daily cases bringing the total infected in Massachusetts since the start of the pandemic to 481,617, with 13,640 confirmed deaths.
Fast forward to the present, and the state on Tuesday reported 7,120 new cases and 145 new deaths from the weekend. There have been 21,107 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the state, and the seven-day average of daily recorded deaths is 41, down from 73 at this point last year.
Baker did not offer much in terms of new steps to fight COVID-19, though he did talk about the strategies the state has pursued, the sacrifices made by residents and he offered a defense of vaccines.
"Vaccines and all the other resources we have now work. The chance of suffering serious illness if someone is vaccinated is very, very small," Baker said.
A Republican who has long positioned himself as a moderate, Baker also used his speech Tuesday to warn against the "poisonous brew" of misinformation common in political discourse.
"Today, it's clearly more difficult to build trust, to collaborate in public life than it once was. The explosion of social media, the arrival of hundreds of news channels and information distribution platforms, and the ongoing churn of information has made it almost impossible for anyone in public life who wants to collaborate to build trust," Baker said, calling for public officials to "stand up and accept the responsibility that comes with the work."
Baker has enjoyed a mostly collegial relationship with Democrat leaders in the Legislature during his time in office, and Mariano on Tuesday called his work with the governor a "pleasant experience" marked by some highs and some lows.
The speaker pointed to the regular private meetings that Baker and legislative leaders typically conduct on Mondays as an example.
"We survive Monday meetings," Mariano said. "No one's yelling at each other. No one's throwing cookies at each other. So it's a working relationship. It's like any working relationship."
