Late last week in a social media post, Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton said that the state Senate plans to take action on the “most significant higher education capital investment in nearly two decades” this week. The so-called Bright Act, is a bond bill that's been kicked around for some time in a couple of different iterations. State House News Service reporter Colin Young explains what the proposal is about.
Colin Young, SHNS: Well, we know that this is to borrow more than $3 billion with the plan to put at least $2.5 billion of that back into campuses across Massachusetts. So, we're talking the five UMass campuses, all the state universities, community colleges. And there are a lot of needs on these campuses. Some of it is as basic as, um, deferred maintenance and routine repairs. But some of the plans here also involve things like building state-of-the-art laboratories and building the facilities that these campuses are going to need to really prepare their students for the workforce of the future.
Carrie Healy, NEPM: Do you get any sense of the will of Senators to accept the House version’s local campus earmarks? Do you expect those side agreements to hold?
I do. For now, those types of agreements are generally the ones that the House and Senate can find some common ground on. You know, for every local campus that has a representative making its case in the house, they also have a senator who might be making that case in the Senate. So often there's some common ground between the House and Senate on these.
The question becomes, what happens if this becomes law? And then it is in the hands of the governor and her administration. Governors can withhold earmarks. Governors can hold back some of these agreements. So, I think the Senate might be able to go along with them, but it doesn't mean they're set in stone.
Not a glide path entirely. Let's zoom out to the national stage. A month after Governor Maura Healey used her state of the Commonwealth to criticize President Donald Trump on immigration enforcement, food aid cuts and rising health costs, the president is delivering his State of the Union this week. What will Massachusetts Democrats be listening for? And could the Trump administration's agenda complicate the budget negotiations going on on Beacon Hill?
I think Beacon Hill Democrats have got to be listening to the speech this week and just thinking, you know, what's going to be next. What I've been hearing, especially from the Healey administration lately, is that more than any one specific thing that the Trump administration is doing, what's keeping them up at night is just the uncertainty of it all, not knowing what he's going to do next and really not having a good read on what he might be thinking or being able to telegraph his next move. It's kind of incredible that he's been president or running for president or a central figure for ten years now, and it's still so hard to tell what he's thinking or what he might do next.
On the national stage, in your estimation, Colin, what's the most effective statement that Democrats could make? Is that a coordinated contrast, a visible protest or disciplined silence?
You know, I'm not sure if any of these are going to really make big ripples. Broadly, I think these types of statements matter more for the people who are running for reelection this year. So, you know, Ed Markey has said he's not going to go to the State of the Union. He's up for reelection this year. So I think it's more useful for some people to make these statements, but I don't think they really hit home with voters.
Speaking of reelection here in Massachusetts, three Republicans are lining up to challenge Governor Maura Healey. But, you know, in a solidly blue state, can they gain ground while national Republicans stay closely tied to Donald Trump? Are Bay state voters open to a GOP alternative, or does the National Party brand make that climb even steeper?
I'd say yes to both.
I think Massachusetts voters, especially over the last 35 years, have shown that they are open to Republican governors. The last Republican governor (Charlie Baker) was incredibly popular, and he even overlapped with President Trump.
But I do think the fact that the Trump brand is very unpopular with most voters across Massachusetts. It makes it so difficult for these Republicans because right now they have to run in the Republican primary, where voters are probably looking for closer ties to President Trump.
But if you win that, you just have to turn and run in the general election, where most voters are probably looking for you to keep the president at a greater distance. So that's really the tightrope that these Republicans are walking at this point.
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