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Marblehead, Massachusetts 01945
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“Every Tax is a Pay Cut ... A Tax Cut is a Pay Raise”
47 years as “The Voice of Massachusetts Taxpayers”
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their Institutional Memory — |
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CLT UPDATE
Monday, January 4, 2021
Good, Bad, and So-So News entering
2021
Jump directly
to CLT's Commentary on the News
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Most Relevant News Excerpts
(Full news reports follow Commentary)
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A total of $1.24
million per year is the annual estimated price tag for the
salary hikes given last week to the governor, lt. governor,
treasurer, secretary of state, attorney general, auditor, 40
senators and 160 representatives.Here’s how it all
went down last week:
Gov. Baker
announced that the 200 members of the Legislature will
receive a 6.46 percent pay hike for the 2021-2022
legislative session that begins January 6, 2021. The hike
will increase the base salary of each senator and
representative by $4,280 per year— from the current $66,257
to $70,537. The total cost of the hike for all 200
legislators is $856,000 per year.
Baker is required
under the state constitution to determine the amount of a
pay raise or cut that state legislators would receive for
the 2021-2022 session. All Massachusetts governors are
obligated to increase or decrease legislative salaries
biennially under the terms of a constitutional amendment
approved by the voters in 1998. The amendment, approved by a
better than two-to-one margin, requires legislative salaries
to be "increased or decreased at the same rate as increases
or decreases in the median household income for the
commonwealth for the preceding two-year period, as
ascertained by the governor.”...
The new $70,537
salary means the 1998 legislative salary of $46,410 has been
raised $24,217 or 51.9 percent.
In the meantime, a
second pay hike for close to 70 percent of the state’s 200
legislators also takes effect January 6. Currently an
estimated 139, or 69.5 percent, of the state's 200
legislators receive a stipend for their service in
Democratic or Republican leadership positions, as committee
chairs or vice chairs and as the ranking Republican on some
committees. All 40 senators and 99 of the 160
representatives receive this bonus pay ranging from $16,245
to $86,640....
And there’s more.
The 2017 law also requires that every two years the salaries
of the governor and the other five constitutional statewide
officers be increased or decreased based on the same data
from the BEA. This 4.89 percent bump hikes the governor's
salary by $9,797, from $200,355 to $210,152. Add Baker’s
$60,000 housing allowance and the total rises to $270,152.
Other hikes include the lieutenant governor, auditor and
secretary of state by $8,738, from $178,695 to $187,433; and
the state treasurer and attorney general by $9,267 from
$189,525 to 198,792.
The 4.89 percent
hike also applies to the general expense allowance each
senator and representative receives. Members whose districts
are within a 50-mile radius of the Statehouse currently
receive $16,250 per year while members beyond the 50 miles
receive $21,660 per year. The $16,250 will increase by $794
to a total of $17,044. The $21,660 will increase by $1,059
to a total of $22,729. The estimated grand total of the hike
for the 200 legislators is $172,050.
This allowance is
used at the discretion of individual legislators to support
a variety of costs including the renting of a district
office, contributions to local civic groups and the printing
and mailing of newsletters. Legislators are issued a 1099
from the state and are required to report the allowance as
income but are not required to submit an accounting of how
they spend it.
Beacon Hill Roll
Call reached out to dozens of legislators from both parties
to comment on the hikes but received no responses.
“Good luck with
that!” a senior legislative staff member who spoke on
condition of anonymity told Beacon Hill Roll Call. “No one
is gonna respond to your request for a comment on the pay
raise in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic when some
241,000 Massachusetts residents are unemployed and could
only dream of a pay raise.”
Critics of the
hikes were quick to respond.
“The voters in
their infinite wisdom bought the charade of a constitutional
amendment on the 1998 ballot sold by the Legislature as a
means to keep them from ever voting themselves another pay
raise -- after the 55 percent raise they’d just taken,” said
Chip Ford, executive director of Citizens for
Limited Taxation (CLT) which campaigned against the
proposal in 1998. “What they didn’t mention is that they
would never need to with the amendment in place. Upon its
acceptance the Massachusetts Legislature became the only
government body in the world with constitutionally mandated
automatic pay hikes. Then, as the first order of business in
2017, they circumvented even that by voting themselves
outrageous ‘stipends’ to further feather their nests and
abuse their constituents. Voters must educate themselves
better if they wish to disabuse themselves of such schemes.”
“This is a great
illustration of the divide among us,” said Paul Craney,
executive director of the Mass Fiscal Alliance. “Politicians
and the professional government class shut down countless
businesses while never missing a paycheck, and in this case,
giving themselves unjustified pay raises.”
Beacon Hill Roll
Call
Volume 46 - Report No. 1
December 28, 2020 - January 1, 2021
An Estimated $1.24 Million In Pay Hikes Per Year For
Legislators, Gov. Baker And Others
By Bob Katzen
As many
Massachusetts residents worry about where they’ll find their
next paycheck or meal amid mass unemployment during the
pandemic, Beacon Hill officials are welcoming the new year
with a fat raise.
The state’s 200
senators and representatives are each in line for a $4,280
bump in their base salaries — their third raise in as many
legislative sessions. The 6.46% raise will boost their base
pay to $70,536. The House speaker and Senate president will
each pull down $178,000-plus.
Lawmakers will
also be cashing in on a separate 4.89% hike to their office
expense accounts and leadership will get another boost in
their already lucrative stipends.
“We’re in the
middle of record-high unemployment, people can’t pay their
rent, people don’t have enough to maintain their businesses
and their businesses are closing — to me, it’s bad timing,”
said Greg Sullivan, research director of the Pioneer
Institute, noting jobless rates hovering around 6.7% are
double what they were last year....
State Rep. Mike
Connolly, who voted against the raises for party leadership
in 2017 citing its emphasis on “top-down” management, said
he would take the bump in his base salary this year.
“Cost of living
increases make sense for everyone in terms of government
benefits, social security and other programs,” he told the
Herald. He added that by most standards, lawmakers’ base pay
is still well below the state’s median area income, which
Housing and Urban Development placed at $106,000 last
year....
David Tuerck,
president of the Beacon Hill Institute, said “it is utterly
inappropriate for any state government official to take a
pay raise at this time, considering we are still in the
depths of this COVID-19 crisis and considering the fact many
that many people have gone without pay for quite some time.”
Paul Diego Craney
of the conservative think tank Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance
called it a “great illustration of the divide among us.”
Beacon Hill
politicians “ought to be sharing some of the pain” inflicted
by the pandemic, Sullivan said, urging them to reject the
raises.
The Boston Herald
Sunday, January 3, 2021
Lawmakers get 6.46% pay bump as thousands of Massachusetts
residents still jobless
House Speaker, Senate president to pull down more than
$178,000
The House Speaker
Ronald Mariano era is here, and there will be no gently
paced transition period.
Mariano, a
74-year-old Quincy Democrat and longtime deputy to
now-departed Speaker Robert DeLeo, took the reins of the
House on Wednesday with only six days remaining in the
unusual 2020-2021 lawmaking session, against the backdrop of
a still-raging pandemic, and with three conference
committees still working to find compromise on major bills,
one of whom is "very far apart," according to the speaker.
The state's
ongoing COVID-19 response is "job number one" for Mariano,
he told lawmakers in his inaugural speech after securing the
speakership, but it is not the only topic on which he set
his sights.
Mariano listed a
range of other priorities, including housing production,
investing in community colleges, helping community hospitals
survive, improving rural internet access, strengthening
infrastructure, expanding offshore wind, and lowering
pharmaceutical costs....
In an interview
with the News Service after his election as speaker, Mariano
said he hopes all three remaining conference committees -
transportation, climate change and economic development -
can finish their work by the end of session on Tuesday but
conceded the economic development talks are still "very far
apart."
Sen. Eric Lesser,
who is the Senate's lead negotiator on the economic
development bill, said he was "surprised" to see the
speaker's characterization of the talks, describing them as
"at the two-yard line."
"The Earth was
created in six days. We can create an economic development
bill in five," he said, referring to the amount of time
remaining before the lawmaking session ends.
One other
committee is "close," and Mariano has "no feel for" the
other's progress, he said.
There's been
chatter all week about the climate conference getting close
to an accord, and House and Senate leaders this session have
had difficulty getting on the same page on transportation
issues.
State House News
Service
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
Amidst Crisis, Mariano Plunges Into Top House Job
By Tuesday,
Massachusetts will learn whether Beacon Hill Democrats are
able to bridge their differences and finally deliver
economic development, transportation and climate change
bills that have been on hold in private conference committee
talks since the summer. Agreements on those bills are due by
8 p.m. Monday if lawmakers intend to comply with their own
fair notice rules that would give members time to review the
bills before voting on them Tuesday, or by 8 p.m. Sunday in
order to take any of the bills up Monday.
It's an initial
test, both from a policy and transparency standpoint, for
House Speaker Ron Mariano, who while new to his job is an
experienced negotiator. Lawmakers haven't been shy in the
past about suspending their fair notice rules in the final
hours of previous sessions to ensure that major bills get to
the governor....
Crunch Time on
Climate Change Bills
Climate
legislation figured to be a central focus of the 2019-2020
session on Beacon Hill. Eighty-one state lawmakers rang in
2019 and the start of the session by resolving to pursue a
suite of climate policies, and Gov. Baker, former House
Speaker DeLeo and Senate President Spilka all declared their
support for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 on the same
day in January 2020.
But as the year
came to a close, the Legislature had still not advanced a
climate bill to Baker's desk.
Sens. Michael
Barrett, Cindy Creem and Patrick O'Connor have been
negotiating since Aug. 6 with Reps. Tom Golden, Patricia
Haddad and Brad Jones to hash out a compromise version of
legislation the Senate passed in January 2020 (S 2500) and
that the House passed July 31 (H 4933).
If a conference
bill materializes, it could codify the target of net-zero
emissions by 2050, set a different 2030 emissions reduction
target than what the Baker administration set on its own,
address concerns about environmental justice, set a schedule
for the imposition of carbon-pricing mechanisms for
transportation, commercial buildings and homes, call for the
development of a net-zero energy code, address solar energy
net metering and grid modernization, establish workforce
development initiatives, and set municipal electric and
light plant clean energy targets.
Though no report
was immediately forthcoming, the lead negotiators, Barrett
and Golden, were in touch late Thursday afternoon as talks
continued. -- Colin A. Young
$18 Billion
Transportation Bond
Before the
COVID-19 pandemic hit, investing in the state's
transportation infrastructure was a central focus for Beacon
Hill, with both a tax-and-fee bill and a multibillion-dollar
bond bill approved in the House. The former fell out of
favor in the Senate, and the legislation to borrow and spend
money on roads, bridges, rail and other transportation needs
(H 4547 / S 2836) has yet to emerge with consensus between
the two branches.
Reps. William
Straus, Mark Cusack and Normal Orrall and Sens. Joseph
Boncore, Michael Rodrigues and Dean Tran must decide the
final contours of a bill that could direct up to $18 billion
over the next decade toward transportation projects and
infrastructure. Items the legislation fund a wide range of
initiatives from work on the Green Line Extension,
modernizing train infrastructure and replacing and repaving
bridges and highway stretches, South station improvements,
airport improvements, the bridges to Cape Cod, South Coast
Rail project, and a generational renovation to a stretch of
the Massachusetts Turnpike in Allston. - Chris Lisinski
State House News
Service
Thursday, December 31, 2020
Advances - Week of Jan. 3, 2021
After six months
of private talks, legislative negotiators on Sunday
afternoon reached an agreement on a major bill to accelerate
the state's pace toward addressing the global problem of
climate change....
The six-member
conference committee's report will be put before the House
and Senate for up-or-down votes during the final two days of
sessions for the current sitting of the General Court. All
six conferees - four Democrats and two Republicans - signed
off on the deal, which arrives just days before a new
Legislature will be sworn in and all bills start from
scratch.
State House News
Service
Sunday, January 3, 3031
Negotiators Reach Deal on Major Climate Bill
|
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
Bob Katzen, publisher of Beacon Hill Roll
Call, wanted my reaction to the latest
obscene 6.46% Legislative pay grab that had been just announced.
Here's an excerpt from the Beacon Hill Roll Call report published late Saturday (the full
report can be found below):
AN ESTIMATED $1.24 MILLION IN PAY HIKES
PER YEAR FOR LEGISLATORS, GOV. BAKER AND OTHERS
A total of $1.24 million per year is
the annual estimated price tag for the salary hikes given last week
to the governor, lt. governor, treasurer, secretary of state,
attorney general, auditor, 40 senators and 160 representatives.
Here’s how it all went down last week:
Gov. Baker announced that the 200
members of the Legislature will receive a 6.46 percent pay hike for
the 2021-2022 legislative session that begins January 6, 2021. The
hike will increase the base salary of each senator and
representative by $4,280 per year— from the current $66,257 to
$70,537. The total cost of the hike for all 200 legislators is
$856,000 per year.
Baker is required under the state
constitution to determine the amount of a pay raise or cut that
state legislators would receive for the 2021-2022 session. All
Massachusetts governors are obligated to increase or decrease
legislative salaries biennially under the terms of a constitutional
amendment approved by the voters in 1998. The amendment, approved by
a better than two-to-one margin, requires legislative salaries to be
"increased or decreased at the same rate as increases or decreases
in the median household income for the commonwealth for the
preceding two-year period, as ascertained by the governor.”...
The new $70,537 salary means the 1998
legislative salary of $46,410 has been raised $24,217 or 51.9
percent.
In the meantime, a second pay hike for
close to 70 percent of the state’s 200 legislators also takes effect
January 6. Currently an estimated 139, or 69.5 percent, of the
state's 200 legislators receive a stipend for their service in
Democratic or Republican leadership positions, as committee chairs
or vice chairs and as the ranking Republican on some committees. All
40 senators and 99 of the 160 representatives receive this bonus pay
ranging from $16,245 to $86,640....
And there’s more. The 2017 law also
requires that every two years the salaries of the governor and the
other five constitutional statewide officers be increased or
decreased based on the same data from the BEA. This 4.89 percent
bump hikes the governor's salary by $9,797, from $200,355 to
$210,152. Add Baker’s $60,000 housing allowance and the total rises
to $270,152. Other hikes include the lieutenant governor, auditor
and secretary of state by $8,738, from $178,695 to $187,433; and the
state treasurer and attorney general by $9,267 from $189,525 to
198,792.
The 4.89 percent hike also applies to
the general expense allowance each senator and representative
receives. Members whose districts are within a 50-mile radius of the
Statehouse currently receive $16,250 per year while members beyond
the 50 miles receive $21,660 per year. The $16,250 will increase by
$794 to a total of $17,044. The $21,660 will increase by $1,059 to a
total of $22,729. The estimated grand total of the hike for the 200
legislators is $172,050.
This allowance is used at the
discretion of individual legislators to support a variety of costs
including the renting of a district office, contributions to local
civic groups and the printing and mailing of newsletters.
Legislators are issued a 1099 from the state and are required to
report the allowance as income but are not required to submit an
accounting of how they spend it.
Beacon Hill Roll Call reached out to
dozens of legislators from both parties to comment on the hikes but
received no responses.
“Good luck with that!” a senior
legislative staff member who spoke on condition of anonymity told
Beacon Hill Roll Call. “No one is gonna respond to your request for
a comment on the pay raise in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic
when some 241,000 Massachusetts residents are unemployed and could
only dream of a pay raise.”
Critics of the hikes were quick to
respond.
“The voters in their infinite wisdom
bought the charade of a constitutional amendment on the 1998 ballot
sold by the Legislature as a means to keep them from ever voting
themselves another pay raise — after
the 55 percent raise they’d just taken,” said
Chip Ford, executive director
of
Citizens for Limited Taxation (CLT)
which campaigned against the proposal in 1998. “What they
didn’t mention is that they would never need to with the
amendment in place. Upon its acceptance the Massachusetts
Legislature became the only government body in the world with
constitutionally mandated automatic pay hikes. Then, as the
first order of business in 2017, they circumvented even that
by voting themselves outrageous ‘stipends’ to further feather their
nests and abuse their constituents. Voters must educate
themselves better if they wish to disabuse themselves of such
schemes.”
“This is a great illustration of the
divide among us,” said Paul Craney, executive director of the Mass
Fiscal Alliance. “Politicians and the professional government class
shut down countless businesses while never missing a paycheck, and
in this case, giving themselves unjustified pay raises.”
Last night I was contacted by The Boston
Globe's token conservative columnist Jeff Jacoby, another good friend,
who wanted to pick my mind for information he can use in an upcoming
column he is contemplating. Within my response, I noted to him:
Social Security increased by 1.3% for
2021 (1.6% for 2020) but the Medicare deduction from it increased by
30% this year. My actual Social Security monthly check will
increase by eight bucks for 2021. My salary has been
static for over a decade. Must be nice to be the only
legislature in the history of the world with a constitutionally-mandated automatic
pay raise!
Bob Katzen asked me to invite you
all to join
him on his radio program,
“The Bob Katzen Baby Boomer and Gen X Fun
and Nostalgia Show.”
If you're interested you can find all the
details at the bottom, below.
The other big news on Beacon Hill last week
was former-House Speaker Bob DeLeo stepping down and fading away,
replaced by new House Speaker Ron Mariano. The State House News
Service reported on Wednesday ("Amidst Crisis, Mariano Plunges Into Top
House Job"):
The House Speaker
Ronald Mariano era is here, and there will be no gently paced
transition period.
Mariano, a 74-year-old
Quincy Democrat and longtime deputy to now-departed Speaker Robert
DeLeo, took the reins of the House on Wednesday with only six days
remaining in the unusual 2020-2021 lawmaking session, against the
backdrop of a still-raging pandemic, and with three conference
committees still working to find compromise on major bills, one of
whom is "very far apart," according to the speaker.
The state's ongoing
COVID-19 response is "job number one" for Mariano, he told lawmakers
in his inaugural speech after securing the speakership, but it is
not the only topic on which he set his sights.
Mariano listed a range
of other priorities, including housing production, investing in
community colleges, helping community hospitals survive, improving
rural internet access, strengthening infrastructure, expanding
offshore wind, and lowering pharmaceutical costs....
In an interview with
the News Service after his election as speaker, Mariano said he
hopes all three remaining conference committees - transportation,
climate change and economic development - can finish their work by
the end of session on Tuesday but conceded the economic development
talks are still "very far apart."
Sen. Eric Lesser, who
is the Senate's lead negotiator on the economic development bill,
said he was "surprised" to see the speaker's characterization of the
talks, describing them as "at the two-yard line."
"The Earth was created
in six days. We can create an economic development bill in five," he
said, referring to the amount of time remaining before the lawmaking
session ends.
One other committee is
"close," and Mariano has "no feel for" the other's progress, he
said.
There's been chatter
all week about the climate conference getting close to an accord,
and House and Senate leaders this session have had difficulty
getting on the same page on transportation issues.
As The Who wailed in their 1971 hit "Won't
Get Fooled Again" — "Meet the new boss, same as
the old boss." The only redeeming value with Mariano is he was one
vote in the Legislature's constitutional convention against the latest
graduated income tax incarnation, the proposed "Fair Share
Amendment"
constitutional amendment also known as the "Millionaire's Tax."
I just got off the latest multi-state Anti-TCI coalition
hour-long Zoom
conference meeting. Much of the conversation among the
participating groups of opponents began around the just-released Climate
Change Conference Committee report in the Massachusetts Legislature.
The consensus was that this would be even more grave than the
Transportation Climate Initiative as it would affect a much broader
swath of the economy and the lives of citizens across the commonwealth.
It will regulate virtually every aspect of your life
— from what kind of appliances you can
purchase, how buildings are constructed, to how homes will need to be
retrofitted to comply.
The State House News Service reported last
night ("Negotiators Reach Deal on Major Climate Bill"):
After six months
of private talks, legislative negotiators on Sunday afternoon
reached an agreement on a major bill to accelerate the state's pace
toward addressing the global problem of climate change....
The six-member
conference committee's report will be put before the House and
Senate for up-or-down votes during the final two days of sessions
for the current sitting of the General Court. All six conferees -
four Democrats and two Republicans - signed off on the deal, which
arrives just days before a new Legislature will be sworn in and all
bills start from scratch....
The six-member
conference committee's report will be put before the House and
Senate for up-or-down votes during the final two days of sessions
for the current sitting of the General Court. All six conferees -
four Democrats and two Republicans - signed off on the deal, which
arrives just days before a new Legislature will be sworn in and all
bills start from scratch.
The bill's chief
negotiators - Rep. Thomas Golden of Lowell and Sen. Michael Barrett
of Lexington - called the proposal "the strongest effort of its kind
in the country" and the first major update to the 2008 Global
Warming Solutions Act....
The bill, dubbed
An Act Creating a Next-Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate
Policy, addresses a range of other areas, from environmental justice
to hydrogen power, natural gas safety, energy efficiency in
appliances, and the creation of a greenhouse gas emissions standard
for municipal lighting plants.
In its Advances for
this week the State House News Service reported on Thursday:
By Tuesday,
Massachusetts will learn whether Beacon Hill Democrats are able to
bridge their differences and finally deliver economic development,
transportation and climate change bills that have been on hold in
private conference committee talks since the summer. Agreements on
those bills are due by 8 p.m. Monday if lawmakers intend to comply
with their own fair notice rules that would give members time to
review the bills before voting on them Tuesday, or by 8 p.m. Sunday
in order to take any of the bills up Monday.
It's an initial test, both from a policy and
transparency standpoint, for House Speaker Ron Mariano, who while
new to his job is an experienced negotiator. Lawmakers haven't been
shy in the past about suspending their fair notice rules in the
final hours of previous sessions to ensure that major bills get to
the governor.
The Legislature has today and tomorrow to
vote on bills. Failing that it will be back to the drawing board
for the incoming Legislature. Legislators received the Climate
Change conference committee's report last night at the earliest, but
will be expected to vote on it today, tomorrow at the latest. Or
not.
The same is true for the other bills still
in their respective conference committees. We're especially
concerned with the Transportation Bond Bill Conference Committee report,
the Senate version of bill which contains the stealth attack on our
Proposition 2˝ [See
here].
|
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
|
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|
Full News Reports Follow
(excerpted above) |
|
Beacon Hill
Roll Call
Volume 46 - Report No. 1
December 28, 2020 - January 1, 2021
An Estimated $1.24 Million In Pay Hikes Per Year For
Legislators, Gov. Baker And Others
By Bob Katzen
A total of $1.24 million per year is the annual estimated
price tag for the salary hikes given last week to the
governor, lt. governor, treasurer, secretary of state,
attorney general, auditor, 40 senators and 160
representatives.
Here’s how it all went down last week:
Gov. Baker announced that the 200 members of the Legislature
will receive a 6.46 percent pay hike for the 2021-2022
legislative session that begins January 6, 2021. The hike
will increase the base salary of each senator and
representative by $4,280 per year— from the current $66,257
to $70,537. The total cost of the hike for all 200
legislators is $856,000 per year.
Baker is required under the state constitution to determine
the amount of a pay raise or cut that state legislators
would receive for the 2021-2022 session. All Massachusetts
governors are obligated to increase or decrease legislative
salaries biennially under the terms of a constitutional
amendment approved by the voters in 1998. The amendment,
approved by a better than two-to-one margin, requires
legislative salaries to be "increased or decreased at the
same rate as increases or decreases in the median household
income for the commonwealth for the preceding two-year
period, as ascertained by the governor.” Baker said he used
the United States Census Bureau’s American Community Survey
to calculate that median household income in Massachusetts
for that two-year period had grown $5,208 from $80,633 to
$85,841 or 6.46 percent.
Legislators’ salaries were increased by $3,709 per year for
the 2019-2020 legislative session and $2,525 for the
2017-2018 session. Those hikes came on the heels of a salary
freeze for the 2015-2016 legislative session, a $1,100 pay
cut for the 2013-2014 session and a $306 pay cut for the
2011-2012 session. Prior to 2011, legislators' salaries had
been raised every two years since the pre-constitutional
amendment base pay of $46,410 in 1998.
The new $70,537 salary means the 1998 legislative salary of
$46,410 has been raised $24,217 or 51.9 percent.
In the meantime, a second pay hike for close to 70 percent
of the state’s 200 legislators also takes effect January 6.
Currently an estimated 139, or 69.5 percent, of the state's
200 legislators receive a stipend for their service in
Democratic or Republican leadership positions, as committee
chairs or vice chairs and as the ranking Republican on some
committees. All 40 senators and 99 of the 160
representatives receive this bonus pay ranging from $16,245
to $86,640. A pay raise approved by the Legislature in 2017
requires that every two years the stipends of these 139
legislators are increased or decreased based on data from
the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) that measures the
quarterly change in salaries and wages. This year, Treasurer
Deb Goldberg’s office said that based on that formula, these
stipends will increase by 4.89 percent and in 2021-2022 will
range from $17,039 per year to $90,876 per year. That means
the total of the stipends will increase by $165,104 per year
from the current $3,376,360 to $3,541,464.
The highest legislative increases will go to newly-elected
House Speaker Ron Mariano (D-Quincy) and Senate President
Karen Spilka (D-Ashland) who currently earn $152,897 made up
of the $66,257 base salary and an $86,640 bonus for being
House speaker and Senate president. The 4.89 percent bump in
the $86,640 is worth $4,236. Add the $4,280 hike in their
base salary and Mariano and Spilka’s annual salary increases
to $161,413—an increase of $8,516 or 5.5 percent.
And there’s more. The 2017 law also requires that every two
years the salaries of the governor and the other five
constitutional statewide officers be increased or decreased
based on the same data from the BEA. This 4.89 percent bump
hikes the governor's salary by $9,797, from $200,355 to
$210,152. Add Baker’s $60,000 housing allowance and the
total rises to $270,152. Other hikes include the lieutenant
governor, auditor and secretary of state by $8,738, from
$178,695 to $187,433; and the state treasurer and attorney
general by $9,267 from $189,525 to 198,792.
The 4.89 percent hike also applies to the general expense
allowance each senator and representative receives. Members
whose districts are within a 50-mile radius of the
Statehouse currently receive $16,250 per year while members
beyond the 50 miles receive $21,660 per year. The $16,250
will increase by $794 to a total of $17,044. The $21,660
will increase by $1,059 to a total of $22,729. The estimated
grand total of the hike for the 200 legislators is $172,050.
This allowance is used at the discretion of individual
legislators to support a variety of costs including the
renting of a district office, contributions to local civic
groups and the printing and mailing of newsletters.
Legislators are issued a 1099 from the state and are
required to report the allowance as income but are not
required to submit an accounting of how they spend it.
Beacon Hill Roll Call reached out to dozens of legislators
from both parties to comment on the hikes but received no
responses.
“Good luck with that!” a senior legislative staff member who
spoke on condition of anonymity told Beacon Hill Roll Call.
“No one is gonna respond to your request for a comment on
the pay raise in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic when
some 241,000 Massachusetts residents are unemployed and
could only dream of a pay raise.”
Critics of the hikes were quick to respond.
“The voters in their infinite wisdom bought the charade of a
constitutional amendment on the 1998 ballot sold by the
Legislature as a means to keep them from ever voting
themselves another pay raise -- after the 55 percent raise
they’d just taken,” said Chip Ford, executive director of
Citizens for Limited Taxation (CLT) which campaigned against
the proposal in 1998. “What they didn’t mention is that they
would never need to with the amendment in place. Upon its
acceptance the Massachusetts Legislature became the only
government body in the world with constitutionally mandated
automatic pay hikes. Then, as the first order of business in
2017, they circumvented even that by voting themselves
outrageous ‘stipends’ to further feather their nests and
abuse their constituents. Voters must educate themselves
better if they wish to disabuse themselves of such schemes.”
“This is a great illustration of the divide among us,” said
Paul Craney, executive director of the Mass Fiscal Alliance.
“Politicians and the professional government class shut down
countless businesses while never missing a paycheck, and in
this case, giving themselves unjustified pay raises.”
The Boston
Herald
Sunday, January 3, 2021
Lawmakers get 6.46% pay bump as thousands of Massachusetts
residents still jobless
House Speaker, Senate president to pull down more than
$178,000
By Erin Tiernan
As many Massachusetts residents worry about where they’ll
find their next paycheck or meal amid mass unemployment
during the pandemic, Beacon Hill officials are welcoming the
new year with a fat raise.
The state’s 200 senators and representatives are each in
line for a $4,280 bump in their base salaries — their third
raise in as many legislative sessions. The 6.46% raise will
boost their base pay to $70,536. The House speaker and
Senate president will each pull down $178,000-plus.
Lawmakers will also be cashing in on a separate 4.89% hike
to their office expense accounts and leadership will get
another boost in their already lucrative stipends.
“We’re in the middle of record-high unemployment, people
can’t pay their rent, people don’t have enough to maintain
their businesses and their businesses are closing — to me,
it’s bad timing,” said Greg Sullivan, research director of
the Pioneer Institute, noting jobless rates hovering around
6.7% are double what they were last year.
The raises are the result of a controversial pay hike
legislation enacted four years ago that tied biennial
adjustments to inflation. Base salary increases are mandated
in the state constitution.
Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito will decline
the raises, according to a spokesperson.
State Rep. Mike Connolly, who voted against the raises for
party leadership in 2017 citing its emphasis on “top-down”
management, said he would take the bump in his base salary
this year.
“Cost of living increases make sense for everyone in terms
of government benefits, social security and other programs,”
he told the Herald. He added that by most standards,
lawmakers’ base pay is still well below the state’s median
area income, which Housing and Urban Development placed at
$106,000 last year.
The typical household income in the Cambridge Democrat’s
district is even higher, at $119,000 a year.
“There is an element that if we aren’t willing to compensate
legislators and public servants fairly, then the only people
who can seek those positions are the independently wealthy,”
the Cambridge renter said.
Freshly minted Speaker of the House Ronald Mariano intends
to accept the raise. Senate President Karen Spilka’s office
did not respond to a request for comment. For both, their
total income will rise to more than $178,000 a year — an
increase of about $9,000 a year.
The Herald was still waiting for an answer from Attorney
General Maura Healey, State Auditor Suzanne Bump and
Secretary of State William Galvin.
David Tuerck, president of the Beacon Hill Institute, said
“it is utterly inappropriate for any state government
official to take a pay raise at this time, considering we
are still in the depths of this COVID-19 crisis and
considering the fact many that many people have gone without
pay for quite some time.”
Paul Diego Craney of the conservative think tank
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance called it a “great
illustration of the divide among us.”
Beacon Hill politicians “ought to be sharing some of the
pain” inflicted by the pandemic, Sullivan said, urging them
to reject the raises.
State House
News Service
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
Amidst Crisis, Mariano Plunges Into Top House Job
Outlines Priorities Following Election as Speaker
By Chris Lisinski
The House Speaker Ronald Mariano era is here, and there will
be no gently paced transition period.
Mariano, a 74-year-old Quincy Democrat and longtime deputy
to now-departed Speaker Robert DeLeo, took the reins of the
House on Wednesday with only six days remaining in the
unusual 2020-2021 lawmaking session, against the backdrop of
a still-raging pandemic, and with three conference
committees still working to find compromise on major bills,
one of whom is "very far apart," according to the speaker.
The state's ongoing COVID-19 response is "job number one"
for Mariano, he told lawmakers in his inaugural speech after
securing the speakership, but it is not the only topic on
which he set his sights.
Mariano listed a range of other priorities, including
housing production, investing in community colleges, helping
community hospitals survive, improving rural internet
access, strengthening infrastructure, expanding offshore
wind, and lowering pharmaceutical costs.
He also offered a glimpse into how he will approach the job:
while he praised the value of vocal advocacy, the new
speaker placed emphasis on consensus-building and finding
compromise.
"I welcome these new voices, hungry for change, who are not
afraid to press for more, and who expect us to be bold," he
said. "But it's also my job to know that just agreeing in
principle to calls for bold change is not enough. In the
reality of governing, we must live in the world of the
possible and not make perfection the enemy of progress."
No worker should have to commute more than an hour to get to
a job, Mariano said. He called for the Legislature to renew
its commitment to more robust K-12 school funding made in
the Student Opportunity Act, whose promised first-year
increases were trimmed due to the budgetary impacts of the
pandemic.
Warning that Massachusetts stands at a "breaking point" for
housing infrastructure, Mariano suggested that zoning reform
could be a solution, in a possible reference to a
long-sought Gov. Charlie Baker proposal to lower the voting
threshold for local zoning changes.
"People want to live and work in Massachusetts, but we don't
have the housing stock to welcome them," Mariano said.
"Meaningful zoning reform can change that."
As part of economic development bills they passed, both
branches approved language that would lower the vote needed
at the local level for many zoning changes from a two-thirds
majority to a simple majority. However, the legislation has
been stuck in House-Senate conference committee negotiations
for more than five months.
In an interview with the News Service after his election as
speaker, Mariano said he hopes all three remaining
conference committees - transportation, climate change and
economic development - can finish their work by the end of
session on Tuesday but conceded the economic development
talks are still "very far apart."
Sen. Eric Lesser, who is the Senate's lead negotiator on the
economic development bill, said he was "surprised" to see
the speaker's characterization of the talks, describing them
as "at the two-yard line."
"The Earth was created in six days. We can create an
economic development bill in five," he said, referring to
the amount of time remaining before the lawmaking session
ends.
One other committee is "close," and Mariano has "no feel
for" the other's progress, he said.
There's been chatter all week about the climate conference
getting close to an accord, and House and Senate leaders
this session have had difficulty getting on the same page on
transportation issues.
A 30-year veteran of the House who first joined Beacon Hill
when William Weld was governor, Mariano described his
election as speaker as the "culmination" of a career in
public service and pledged that his "door will continue to
be open."
DeLeo in October 2019 said he planned to seek reelection,
and reelection as speaker in 2021, and didn't disclose his
interest in pursuing a new job until this month, during the
ongoing lame duck session and after his election to a new
two-year term.
After serving as DeLeo's majority leader for a decade,
Mariano appeared to have the votes lined up for speaker just
as word spread this month that DeLeo was headed for the
exit.
Mariano said in an interview that DeLeo floated the idea of
stepping down with him just before COVID hit.
"I thought I might go out the door with him. I was tired,"
Mariano said. "I never set out to run to be the speaker, and
I was quite happy being his majority leader, so he decides
to leave and I have to decide, do I want to go through this
again with my fourth speaker? Or do I just want to hit the
road with the guy who's been good to me?
"But after talking to a few folks and listening to their
urgings to retain some institutional memory during the
pandemic, some experienced leadership, they convinced me
that the race -- there would be no race, that it would be
fairly easy for me to win the speakership rather than an
intense personal campaign or battle," Mariano said. "That
was sort of the defining issue."
He faced opposition this month from Rep. Russell Holmes, a
Mattapan Democrat and former leader of the Black and Latino
Legislative Caucus, who condemned Beacon Hill for a pattern
of insular and secretive succession decisions stretching
back to the departure of former Speaker Sal DiMasi.
A contested speaker's race, Holmes said, would ensure "we
won't just roll over and hand over the speakership in
another backroom deal like they did 12 years ago."
Before DiMasi resigned in 2009 to face corruption charges,
he helped position DeLeo as his successor-to-be. Holmes said
earlier this month that he believes the same dynamic is
already underway again between Mariano and House Ways and
Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz.
"It's a pattern. It literally does not matter," Holmes said
earlier this month. "Many of us have been elected since
DiMasi, and still his corrupt poisonous tree still
determines who the speaker is 15 years later. That's
unacceptable to me. It's like none of us matter. This is
what I call structural racism personified."
But with Mariano allies claiming that he had enough votes
pledged to fend off any challenge, Holmes reversed course
this week and took himself out of the race.
Mariano said he "never asked anyone for a vote," and he
repeated a common refrain on Beacon Hill that "the next
speaker's fight begins when the current speaker is sworn
in."
"As of today, the next speaker's fight has begun," he said.
"There will be jockeying. You just have to understand that,
you've got to live with it. People came to me and extended
themselves and said they would support me. By guaranteeing
that I would never run against Bob DeLeo, we gave them the
best of both worlds. Now they didn't have a fight, didn't
have to make a choice where they could lose and feel left
out."
During a Democratic caucus Wednesday afternoon, Holmes made
the formal motion to nominate his onetime opponent by
acclamation as the next speaker, offering a sign of unified
Democratic support.
Dozens of representatives patched into the caucus via
conference call responded "aye" to Holmes's motion --
prompting one unidentified member to remark, "It's all of
us" -- and none expressed any opposition.
There were few defections during the final tally on the
House floor. One by one, 123 of the 157 current House
members pledged their support for Mariano, including
independent Rep. Susannah Whipps of Athol.
Some were more enthusiastic than others: when the House
clerk called on Rep. James O'Day, he replied with aplomb
that he would vote for "my man, Ronald Mariano!"
All 31 members of the House's Republican caucus cast their
votes for Minority Leader Brad Jones, who said in a
statement that he looks forward to "continuing and building
upon the professional and cordial relationship" he shares
with Mariano.
Only three Democrats did not back Mariano: Rep. Jonathan
Hecht of Watertown voted present, while Rep. Denise Provost
and Rep. Tami Gouveia -- the only one among the three who
will still be a member of the House next session -- did not
cast votes.
In a statement after the vote, Gouveia said she did not vote
for Mariano because she was unable to communicate with the
majority leader beforehand and thus did not not have "ample
evidence that Speaker Mariano would be the bold leader that
my constituents expect and our state needs during this
perilous time."
"Additionally, I am deeply saddened that none of my
colleagues could give me a compelling reason as to why I
should vote for Speaker Mariano," Gouveia said. "Instead,
they expressed concern that if I didn't vote for Speaker
Mariano that I could be punished and lose my seat either
through a challenger or redistricting. Others argued that
they want to see me advance my career in the state house and
be considered for other opportunities. On a personal and
friendship level I truly appreciate that colleagues were
looking out for me. Nonetheless, it is disturbing and sad
that none of the arguments focused on what the voters in my
district or in the commonwealth need from us now and in the
future."
Several Democrats who declined to support DeLeo two years
ago opted Wednesday to back Mariano. Reps. Maria Robinson,
Nika Elugardo and Patrick Kearney all voted for Mariano
after voting "present" on the speakership decision in
January 2019, as did retiring House Dean Rep. Angelo Scaccia,
former DeLeo opponent Rep. John Rogers, and Holmes.
Scaccia, who introduced Mariano to the rostrum for his
acceptance speech, prayed for "wisdom and knowledge for you,
Mr. Speaker, in these trying, testy, and turbulent times."
"This gift will serve you well as our leader of the greatest
institution conceived by man," Scaccia, the only lawmaker
other than Mariano who gave remarks Wednesday, said. "Be
wise, be just, be sagacious in your new role, and history
will record you as one of our finest. This role of dean
reminds me of the barracks refrain of long ago, that old
soldiers never die, they just fade away. Like that old dean
and soldier, I, too, fade away from this chamber. But Mr.
Speaker, may God bless you in all your future endeavors."
Mariano in response praised Scaccia, indicating he would
"miss those acrimonious debates on the film tax credit every
session," and other members of the House who are set to
depart at the end of the current session.
Senate President Karen Spilka, alongside whom Mariano will
now need to work on the most critical Beacon Hill efforts,
offered brief congratulations to the new speaker.
"Enjoy this special day," she said in a statement. "I look
forward to working closely together to accomplish great
things for the residents of our Commonwealth!"
— Sam Doran and Chris Van
Buskirk contributed reporting.
State House
News Service
Thursday, December 31, 2020
Advances - Week of Jan. 3, 2021
By Tuesday, Massachusetts will learn whether Beacon Hill
Democrats are able to bridge their differences and finally
deliver economic development, transportation and climate
change bills that have been on hold in private conference
committee talks since the summer. Agreements on those bills
are due by 8 p.m. Monday if lawmakers intend to comply with
their own fair notice rules that would give members time to
review the bills before voting on them Tuesday, or by 8 p.m.
Sunday in order to take any of the bills up Monday.
It's an initial test, both from a policy and transparency
standpoint, for House Speaker Ron Mariano, who while new to
his job is an experienced negotiator. Lawmakers haven't been
shy in the past about suspending their fair notice rules in
the final hours of previous sessions to ensure that major
bills get to the governor.
Gov. Charlie Baker, who hopes negotiations will result in
sports betting and housing production laws, will have scores
of decisions to make in early January on the rush of bills
arriving on his desk. By leaving some major unfinished
business until the end of the session, the Legislature has
taken on increased risk that their priority bills may
collapse, either through the continued impasse between the
branches or due to disagreements with the governor.
Once the current session ends - by midnight on Tuesday at
the latest - Baker and the Legislature will lose their
ability to iron out differences through amendments, as they
just did with a bill reforming policing in Massachusetts.
Any bills left unsigned by the governor after the session
ends would also die by route of the pocket veto.
So salvaging the major proposals at this late stage of the
session may require a higher level of cooperation between
Democratic legislative leaders and the Republican governor
since they all share an interest in seeing the three
remaining big bills become law early in the new year. -
Michael P. Norton
Opening Day Tailored for Pandemic
On Wednesday, the Legislature will show the state how it
plans to swear in 199 members during a public health
emergency that nullifies any prospect of the traditional
packed ceremonies in the House and Senate chambers.
An easy piece of work for the House will be scheduling a
special election to fill the seat that former Speaker Robert
DeLeo of Winthrop resigned this week, 57 days after voters
in his district reelected him.
There are 17 new representatives set to join the House and
two new senators. The branches are expected to quickly
re-elect Speaker Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka.
The new members will spend the early part of the year
drafting and filing bills while Mariano and Spilka make
decisions on which members will get higher paying leadership
and committee chair posts and which ones will serve amongst
the rank and file, sometimes known as backbenchers. -
Michael P. Norton
Democrats Expand Super-Majorities
Following election wins in November, Democrats next week
will officially expand their supermajority numbers in both
chambers when members of the 192nd General Court take the
oath of office for the 2021-2022 session.
At the start of the current session, Democrats outnumbered
Republicans 127-32 in the House, plus one independent
representative, and 34-6 in the Senate.
The GOP lost five seats over the course of special elections
and general elections in 2019 and 2020, and Democrats will
start the new two-year session with advantages of 128-30-1
in the House and 37-3 in the Senate. Former House Speaker
Robert DeLeo's seat is vacant after his resignation, so
until a special election is scheduled and held, the House
will operate down one member.
Nineteen of the lawmakers who will be sworn in Wednesday are
newly joining the Legislature to replace legislators who
opted not to run for another term or who were toppled in
their reelection bids: Senators-elect Adam Gomez of
Springfield and John Cronin of Lunenburg, plus
Representatives-elect Kip Diggs of Barnstable, Vanna Howard
of Lowell, Steven Xiarhos of Barnstable, Adam Scanlon of
North Attleborough, former Rep. Sally Kerans of Danvers,
Kelly Pease of Westfield, Orlando Ramos of Springfield,
Michael Kushmerek of Fitchburg, Meg Kilcoyne of
Northborough, Brandy Fluker Oakley of Boston, Rob Consalvo
of Boston, Patricia Duffy of Holyoke, Ted Philips of Sharon,
Erika Uyterhoeven of Somerville, Steven Owens of Watertown,
Jessica Giannino of Revere, and Jake Oliveira of Ludlow. -
Chris Lisinski
Crunch Time on Climate Change Bills
Climate legislation figured to be a central focus of the
2019-2020 session on Beacon Hill. Eighty-one state lawmakers
rang in 2019 and the start of the session by resolving to
pursue a suite of climate policies, and Gov. Baker, former
House Speaker DeLeo and Senate President Spilka all declared
their support for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 on the
same day in January 2020.
But as the year came to a close, the Legislature had still
not advanced a climate bill to Baker's desk.
Sens. Michael Barrett, Cindy Creem and Patrick O'Connor have
been negotiating since Aug. 6 with Reps. Tom Golden,
Patricia Haddad and Brad Jones to hash out a compromise
version of legislation the Senate passed in January 2020 (S
2500) and that the House passed July 31 (H 4933).
If a conference bill materializes, it could codify the
target of net-zero emissions by 2050, set a different 2030
emissions reduction target than what the Baker
administration set on its own, address concerns about
environmental justice, set a schedule for the imposition of
carbon-pricing mechanisms for transportation, commercial
buildings and homes, call for the development of a net-zero
energy code, address solar energy net metering and grid
modernization, establish workforce development initiatives,
and set municipal electric and light plant clean energy
targets.
Though no report was immediately forthcoming, the lead
negotiators, Barrett and Golden, were in touch late Thursday
afternoon as talks continued. -- Colin A. Young
$18 Billion Transportation Bond
Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, investing in the state's
transportation infrastructure was a central focus for Beacon
Hill, with both a tax-and-fee bill and a multibillion-dollar
bond bill approved in the House. The former fell out of
favor in the Senate, and the legislation to borrow and spend
money on roads, bridges, rail and other transportation needs
(H 4547 / S 2836) has yet to emerge with consensus between
the two branches.
Reps. William Straus, Mark Cusack and Normal Orrall and
Sens. Joseph Boncore, Michael Rodrigues and Dean Tran must
decide the final contours of a bill that could direct up to
$18 billion over the next decade toward transportation
projects and infrastructure. Items the legislation fund a
wide range of initiatives from work on the Green Line
Extension, modernizing train infrastructure and replacing
and repaving bridges and highway stretches, South station
improvements, airport improvements, the bridges to Cape Cod,
South Coast Rail project, and a generational renovation to a
stretch of the Massachusetts Turnpike in Allston. - Chris
Lisinski
Economic Development Bills
The sweeping jobs bill a House and Senate conference
committee has been negotiating since July is now "at the
two-yard line," according to lead Senate negotiator Sen.
Eric Lesser, but House Speaker Ron Mariano has characterized
the two sides as "very far apart."
Along with measures that seek to pour millions of dollars
into a pandemic-battered economy, the panel must come to
terms whether to include House-backed language creating a
framework for legal sports betting. The bills (S 2874, H
4887) also include versions of a zoning reform proposal Gov.
Charlie Baker has been pushing for years in hopes of
encouraging new housing production.
Baker has been prodding lawmakers to get the bill over the
finish line, including when he recently urged people to
contact their representatives and senators about the
economic development bill and another bill he filed that
includes $49 million in small business grants.
"The clock is ticking on the end of the session with respect
to that, but the clock is also ticking for businesses here
in the commonwealth that would benefit from those resources
if we could get them across to our desk, sign them, and put
them to work," Baker said about the two bills on Dec. 21.
Along with Lesser and House Ways and Means Chair Aaron
Michlewitz, that branch's lead conferee, the conference
committee includes Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, who with
Lesser co-chairs the Economic Development Committee, Senate
Ways and Means Chair Michael Rodrigues, and Republicans Rep.
Donald Wong and Sen. Patrick O'Connor. - Katie Lannan
[. . .]
Monday, Jan. 4, 2021
HOUSE AND SENATE: House and Senate gavel into formal
sessions at 11 a.m. and 12 p.m., respectively. (Monday, 11
a.m. and 12 p.m., House and Senate chambers)
Tuesday, Jan.
5, 2021
LAST SESSIONS: If the House and Senate don't end the session
earlier, then Tuesday will be the final day. The Legislature
must end its session by midnight and when it does so it is
referred to as adjourning sine die. Under the constitution,
the 2021-2022 session must begin on Wednesday because it's
the first Wednesday in January.
Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021
OPENING OF 192nd GENERAL COURT: Under the Constitution, the
House and Senate need to gavel in the new session on the
first Wednesday in January. The branches are expected to
reelect House Speaker Mariano and Senate President Spilka
and take care of other transactions that are part of
re-establishing the legislative infrastructure. Inaugural
ceremonies, normally crowded and festive, will be subdued
this year.
State House
News Service
Sunday, January 3, 3031
Negotiators Reach Deal on Major Climate Bill
Toolkit Bill Updates 2008 Global Warming Solutions Act
Michael P. Norton
JAN. 3, 2021 5:45 PM -- After six months of private talks,
legislative negotiators on Sunday afternoon reached an
agreement on a major bill to accelerate the state's pace
toward addressing the global problem of climate change.
The bill (S 2995) would establish in state law a "net zero"
greenhouse gas emissions limit for 2050 and establish
statewide emissions limits every five years over the next
three decades. Within that plan, the bill creates mandatory
emissions sublimits for six sectors of the economy: electric
power, transportation, commercial and industrial heating and
cooling, residential heating and cooling, industrial
processes, and natural gas distribution and service.
And within the 2050 "net zero" target, the bill says gross
emissions by 2050 must fall at least 85 percent below 1990
levels. The statewide emissions limit for 2030 shall be at
least 50 percent below the 1990 level, according to the
bill, and the limit for 2040 must be at least 75 percent
below the 1990 level.
The six-member conference committee's report will be put
before the House and Senate for up-or-down votes during the
final two days of sessions for the current sitting of the
General Court. All six conferees - four Democrats and two
Republicans - signed off on the deal, which arrives just
days before a new Legislature will be sworn in and all bills
start from scratch.
The bill's chief negotiators - Rep. Thomas Golden of Lowell
and Sen. Michael Barrett of Lexington - called the proposal
"the strongest effort of its kind in the country" and the
first major update to the 2008 Global Warming Solutions Act.
"This bill is a climate toolkit, assembled over the course
of months, to protect our residents, and the beautiful place
we call home, from the worsening of an existential crisis,"
they said. "Its particulars owe much to the advocacy of
thousands of citizen activists in Massachusetts. To these
activists, we say thank you. We heard you."
The bill calls for utilities to purchase an additional 2,400
megawatts of offshore wind generation, raising the total
state authorization to 5,600 megawatts. The state this year
expects to hear from the new Biden administration about the
prospects of two offshore projects already in the works.
The Department of Public Utilities would also need to alter
its approach to regulating the electric and natural gas
utilities under the bill, which orders the DPU to balance
the following priorities: system safety, system security,
reliability, affordability, equity, and reductions in
greenhouse gas emissions.
The legislation is also designed to ensure that at least 40
percent of the state's electric power will be renewable by
2030, by making incremental changes in the state's Renewable
Energy Portfolio Standard each year from 2025 through 2029.
The bill, dubbed An Act Creating a Next-Generation Roadmap
for Massachusetts Climate Policy, addresses a range of other
areas, from environmental justice to hydrogen power, natural
gas safety, energy efficiency in appliances, and the
creation of a greenhouse gas emissions standard for
municipal lighting plants.
Massachusetts lost ground in its latest report on reducing
greenhouse gas emissions. The state faces a 2020 requirement
of a 25 percent reduction from 1990 emissions levels. The
Baker administration in October released its latest update
to the Massachusetts Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory
which showed emissions in 2018 were 22.2 percent below
emissions in 1990, compared to 2017 emissions that were 22.7
percent below 1990 levels.
A PERSONAL
MESSAGE FROM BOB KATZEN
A message from
Bob Katzen, publisher of Beacon Hill Roll Call:
Thanks to the
many readers who have been joining me on Sunday nights
between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. for my talk show “The Bob
Katzen Baby Boomer and Gen X Fun and Nostalgia Show.”
Our recent special guests include Jerry Mathers (Beaver
Cleaver) and Tony Dow (Wally Cleaver) from the timeless
sitcom “Leave it to Beaver,” Mike Lookinland who played
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sitcom “The Brady Bunch” and Tina Louise who played
Ginger Grant on “Gilligan’s Island.”
Tune in every
Sunday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. as we jump in my time
machine and go back to the simpler days of the 1950s,
1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
Stop by my
website at
www.bobkatzenshow.com and say hi.
There are many
ways you can listen to the show from anywhere in the
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