Recap and analysis of the week in state government
Weekly Roundup – Sufficient Bonding
Craig Sandler
STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, JULY 26, 2024…..”Insufficient bonding?” Beacon Hill might beg to differ.
GE Vernova said Wednesday that was the problem behind one of the biggest stories of the summer, the failure of a 57-ton wind-turbine blade south of the Islands that’s still washing up in hideous fiberglass pieces on Nantucket’s south-facing beaches. Adhesives used in the blade-manufacturing process – their composition or application – are suspected as the cause.
And yet, on Beacon Hill, there was all the bonding a person could want: the housing and economic development bonds … the Democratic State Committee bonding with Kamala Harris … and sufficient bonding between the House and Senate that a huge info-tech capital bill and a wage transparency bill went to the governor on the heels of a substantial, controversial enhancement of the state’s gun-control laws, not to mention a budget that was late but not that late.
Now, the question for the whole policy community and the public beyond is, are leaders and conferees of the two branches on good enough terms to fashion agreements around a slate of high-impact policy priorities that could have been done months ago but weren’t, and therefore need to get done RIGHT NOW. Only two days of formal sessions are left on the schedule.
And just as urgently, the administration and Legislature will have to address the shocking announcement Friday by Steward Health Care that it intends to close Carney Hospital and Nashoba Valley Health Center around Aug. 31. Healey administration leaders have said they meet daily to review the Steward state of play, and have prepared plans for such a contingency.
Now they must execute them. The governor, speaker and Senate president have said there won’t be a bailout of Steward per se. And powerful electeds on Friday condemned Steward, but gave no indication of plans to keep the two hospitals open. The problem is, even though the governor told reporters Tuesday that all the Steward hospitals in Massachusetts got bids, apparently they weren’t all qualified bids. So – what’s the next move? Communities depend on their hospitals, and as the governor said Friday, “This is not over.”
As to the end-of-session agenda: two years ago, Charlie Baker identified a “six pack” of premium priorities like sports betting and reproductive rights as the Legislature went through the same opaque high-wire act it’s performing now on this year’s top items.
The 2023-24 slate is more like a beer paddle than a sixer, and just this week more selections were added. On Monday, conference-committee work officially began on a $2.86 billion economic-development bill that centers on the life science and climate tech industries but could include reforms to juvenile justice and the first steps in a major-league soccer stadium in Everett. Tuesday, the conference committee on clean-energy development and siting officially commenced.
Wednesday, conferees were named on a major hospital finance stability bill, and Thursday, legislation targeting prescription-drug pricing and pharmacy benefit managers got its conferees. They join the housing-production bond bill the whole building seems to feel is destined to pass, at the last second, next week. Long-term care regulation reform cleared the Senate as well Thursday, likely headed to conference.
There are two schools of thought as to whether House-Senate acrimony led to the long periods of seeming inactivity and the resultant need for a last-second frenzy. One is that Speaker Mariano and President Spilka, and a number of their paired committee chairs, dislike each other so much they don’t communicate frequently enough or well enough and policy progress suffers.
The other, just as valid, is that they’re not best buds, but the discord is overstated and they work together fine, they just do it one-to-one and out of sight, without much urgency because they know they’ll get to Yes in the end. This “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” view of things will now be tested – and even if true, arguably dooms the progress of mid-level bills such as, say, wheelchair-warranty improvement legislation.
News of the Steward closings came just as the governor and her team tried to get on top of another difficult, expensive, burgeoning crisis: the migrant-shelter situation. The governor announced significant new limits on emergency shelter Tuesday, including prioritizing certain Massachusetts residents for shelter, limiting stays in overflow shelters to five days, and making clear there’s to be no more expansion of the migrant-shelter apparatus.
The governor has been observably ratcheting down on this system incrementally, as tension and objections from the cities and towns has ratcheted up. Speaker Mariano and President Spilka on Tuesday affirmed their support of the governor’s intentions. Healey’s doubtless been hearing from the leaders about the political restiveness the members are feeling about migrant-shelter funding. And Healey can see the same MassINC Polling Group numbers we all did this week, where respondents said controlling the migrant program should be just as big a priority for state government as controlling the cost of housing.
Don’t be surprised to hear some grousing about excessive generosity in another realm – tax credits for the film industry – after Matt Stout reported in the Boston Globe that the producers of “Don’t Look Up” received $46.4 million in state film-production tax credits, a new record. “I don’t know why this is such an outlier, why it’s so big. We’ll have to find out,” the speaker told Stout – perhaps presaging future drama.
R.I.P.: Pat Lynch of Lynch and Fierro, a well-known and respected lobbyist, has passed away, her business partner Ben Fierro related this week. “Throughout her career both in state service and in private practice she always conducted herself with integrity and honesty,” Fierro wrote. “She was a zealous advocate for our clients. She took issues, but not herself, seriously. One of a small group of women lobbyists in the 1990s, she was a mentor and role model for many young women interested in government and public policy. I was proud to have her as my partner. There will be a celebration of her life in October.”
STORIES OF THE WEEK: At a time when much of the state is sitting on the end of the dock at the lake, enjoying a Popsicle, buttoned-down Beacon Hill feels like it’s still just getting started; the looming hospital closures will do nothing to lighten the mood or workload.
SONG OF THE WEEK: Main title theme from “Don’t Look Up.” Hey, you paid for it — you might as well enjoy it.