Surtax debate heats up as Massachusetts lawmakers tackle 'geographic equity' in funding

It's budget season at the Statehouse in Boston, and one major expense is transportation. Reporter Chris Lisinski of the State House News Service provides an overview of the entirety of Mass. Governor Maura Healey’s proposed state transportation funding strategy, and the various funding streams that make up that total transportation picture.

Chris Lisinski, SHNS: The way that the governor likes to pitch it is an $8 billion plan over a ten-year period. So, more than is included in just one bill stretches across a few different legislative vehicles, including that one-time surtax spending plan that got a hearing last week, but also this [current] annual budget, subsequent annual budgets, and what we call it the Chapter 90 bill (the annual measure authorizing the state to reimburse cities and towns for local road and bridge maintenance). So, there's certain money involved, other general state appropriations involved, and there's quite a bit of borrowing involved in the big [overall] picture.

Carrie Healy, NEPM: So last week some lawmakers asserted the transportation surtax funding scenario for transportation didn't seem fair to Western Mass. residents. What were lawmakers saying?

We heard from Republican Todd Smola [1st Hampden District] and from Democrat Jo Comerford [Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester]. So, bipartisan frustrations on behalf of western Massachusetts! They both looked at the surtax bill that Healey put forward, which has something like $780 million for the MBTA, more than half of the entire bill's balance and the vast majority of its transportation dollars, and said, ‘Hey, what gives? We can't go back to western Mass. and say, yeah, we're advancing a bill that has an overwhelming amount of money for the [MBTA] and very, very little for [regional transit authorities] roads and bridges and micro-transit.’

You know, one detail that Comerford did not overlook is that "penny of our sales tax" on purchases made in western Mass., which fund the T, which she said most of her people will never ride.

That's right.

Since the millionaire's tax revenue can only be used for transportation and education, I'm curious what lawmakers are hearing from those on the education side, who are looking to get their piece from that $1.3 billion pot.

I think some of the biggest priorities we've heard for folks, some of the areas they really want to see the surtax money go toward include bumping up transportation reimbursement for school districts.

That's another issue that is especially significant out in your neck of the woods. More rural areas, longer distances to travel are a heavy lift and it's an area where, as I understand it, the state has really struggled to meet the reimbursement targets it actually set for itself over the years.

Another big area of focus is career technical education [or] vocational education. The governor is proposing to use a good chunk of tax money to bulk that up. And that's just an area that's been in the headlines for months now, amid a broader debate over admissions policies to those schools.

Looking forward this week, a Joint Committee of the Judiciary will hear a slew of proposed constitutional amendments. I talked with Senator Paul Mark of Becket about his bill that creates a provision for filling lieutenant governor vacancies. He recounted several times that this issue of a resignation or a step-up to governor then leaves the position empty. He has filed this measure for about a decade. Chris, why is it so important that the constitutional amendments, like Mark’s, are being heard early this session?

It's very simple. There is a ticking clock that's different for constitutional amendments than it is for more standard bills. Committees only have until April 30th to report on bills seeking to propose the state constitution. There's an extensive and very deliberate process for constitutional amendments needs to get approved in a joint session of the House and Senate meeting together — I believe in two consecutive lawmaking terms before final ratification by the voters.

So, you see this every time there's a new two-year session underway. Those constitutional amendments always get considered at the committee level first, because they need to by the end of April.

And the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution is the oldest, still in effect in the world.