If Gov. Deval Patrick’s $1 billion, 10-year transportation plan telegraphs ambition in the fast lane, then the Legislature’s $500 million, five-year design signals austerity in the slow lane.
CommonWealth’s Paul McMorrow notes that House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray are putting up a united front, presenting a transportation plan that is a fraction of the cost and half the taxes of Patrick’s proposal.
House and Senate leaders rationalized their response as more “cautious” than Patrick’s. Transportation Committee co-chair Thomas McGee backs the plan and has stressed the need for “ongoing discussions.” At issue is the scope of the vision: a full decade of investment plus capital expansions versus shorter term fixes that go easy on the state budget. “He put out a 10-year vision, and we’re just saying maybe 10 years is too ambitious right away,” Murray told The Boston Globe.
Rather than solving the transportation finance crisis once and for all, the Legislature’s own framework acknowledges that the goal is “to complete a responsible and balanced [fiscal year 2014] budget on time, while we also debate important tax and transportation issues.”
The leadership may be maneuvering to play out the clock until well past the 2014 election by continuing to debate longer-term strategies, but rank-and-file lawmakers have to go back home soon and sell unpopular options like a gas tax increase and extended timetables for expansion projects. The Legislature’s bare-bones plan drops some long-awaited transit lines such as South Coast commuter rail. Will transportation finance be the issue that finally gives the pockets of resistance among the rank–and-file the backbone to buck leadership and push for a third way?
The DeLeo-Murray schema aims to finally put the state’s regional transit authorities on to forward funding in fiscal 2014, a goal that glosses over the 2009 transportation reforms that also promised forward funding, but, instead, delivered a bookkeeping sleight-of-hand that did not provide funds, forward or otherwise.
Leadership’s plan delivers significantly lower RTA funding than the governor’s proposal, yet RTA caucus chairs are already lining up behind DeLeo and Murray. Rep Sarah Peake, a Provincetown Democrat, said the Legislature’s plan has to balance “the Santa Claus wish list with what the state can afford to do.” “It’s the Goldilocks bill: the porridge isn’t too hot, it’s not too cold, I think it’s just about right,” Peake told CommonWealth at Tuesday’s announcement of new seasonal weekend rail service to the Cape. The Worcester Telegram reports that RTA caucus co-chair Sen. Harriette Chandler, a Worcester Democrat, finds that the legislative plan is “doable.”
The plan’s new gas tax increase, a hike that was once anathema to DeLeo, promises drama for Western Massachusetts representatives. Rep. Sean Curran, a Springfield Democrat, and Sen. Gale Candaras, a Wilbraham Democrat, told The Republican that the three-cent hike would not go over well in the region.
In a subtle foreshadowing of the horse-trading to come, Candaras, who has been outspoken on regional equity issues, described the leadership plan as an “interesting trial balloon,” Sen. Dan Wolf, a Harwich Democrat, also “doesn’t think this is the final plan,” and indicated that he could not support the current framework.
Meanwhile, the Republicans in the Legislature continue to cling to their no-taxes-not-now-not-never strategy, thereby ensuring their continued irrelevance to a debate that centers on drumming up new revenues. The Boston Herald’s Michael Graham is happy to back them up in their opposition to tax hikes, of course, but points out, “Voters need a Republican Party that’s at least strong enough to get a [public] hearing” on the Legislature’s proposal.
How the rank-and-file lawmakers ultimately respond to the DeLeo-Murray double-teaming on the governor’s plan promises to be one of more intriguing spectacles on Beacon Hill in recent years.
However, the person pushing state lawmakers to a more pragmatic middle lane may come from an unlikely place: Washington.
US Sen. Elizabeth Warren suggested that the new route for transportation in Massachusetts must rely on some type of compromise. “The governor laid out a plan, an ambitious plan for the entire Commonwealth…Some of the leaders in the Legislature have come back with a more modest plan, but one that’s easier to pay for,” Warren said Tuesday. “Somewhere in between, I hope they find the right place for the future of this Commonwealth.”
–GABRIELLE GURLEY
BEACON HILL
Barry Bluestone and Alan Clayton-Matthews of Northeastern rebut criticism of their report on state support for the life sciences industry.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Rust-choked water pipes made it impossible for Lawrence firefighters to put out a fire on Sunday, and now the City Council wants to know what’s being done to fix the problem, the Eagle-Tribune reports.
Lawrence Mayor William Lantigua appoints a part-time security guard to the agency that oversees city elections so the agency can reach a quorum, the Eagle-Tribune reports.
The Herald News, in an editorial, laments how too many Fall River teenagers are having babies and how many mothers overall in the city (64 percent) are unmarried. Colorado, meanwhile, has success reducing repeat teen pregnancies, the Denver Post reports.
A messy situation is brewing in Fairhaven where a challenger for the Board of Health was declared the winner and sworn in an hour after the polls closed but a count of ballots rejected by the machine showed he was actually the loser of the race by one vote.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
A House committee in Indiana approves legislation requiring one employee at every public school or charter to carry a loaded gun during school hours, the Indianapolis Star reports.
No one flip-flops anymore; they simply evolve, the Daily Beast reports.
ELECTIONS
Republican newcomer Leah Cole, 24, wins a special election to fill the state rep seat left vacant by the death of Joyce Spiliotis, the Salem News reports.
Rep. Marty Walsh and Suffolk DA Dan Conley jump into the race for Boston mayor. Felix Arroyo tells the Herald’s Peter Gelzinis that while he doesn’t have “Dan Conley money sitting in a war chest,” he has an army of activists at the ready. Gelzinis compares Arroyo to Mel King and Ray Flynn. Howie Carr is pulling for a double-dipper; either one will do. MassDOT Secretary Rich Davey won’t run.
While all eyes are on the forming field of Boston mayoral candidates, at-large city council candidate Michelle Wu kicked off her campaign yesterday. With at least one at-large vacancy now looming and with a compelling story and plenty of smarts, she has some serious tailwind.
Former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford wins the GOP primary for his old congressional seat, the Wall Street Journal reports.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
JetBlue announces it will start flying out of Worcester Regional Airport in November, the Telegram & Gazette reports.
Buyout mogul Carl Icahn swoops in and acquires 9 percent of Burlington-based Nuance Communications, which makes the technology behind Dragon voice-recognition software and Siri on Apple’s iPhones.
The Chicago company seeking to build a slots parlor in Worcester has been fined $483,000 for violations of gambling laws in Pennsylvania and Illinois, the Telegram & Gazette reports.
A group of local fishermen met with Sen. Elizabeth Warren in Marshfield yesterday to air a litany of concerns about issues that are killing the industry, chief among them a pending reduction in groundfish catch quotas.
Fannie Mae’s sudden return to profitability complicates federal plans to put the mortgage company out to pasture.
EDUCATION
A new pay system rewards Lawrence teachers based largely on merit, allowing the best teachers to earn more than $100,000 a year, the Eagle-Tribune reports.
The good news is that enrollment for next year looks like it’s up in Boston elementary schools. The bad news is that it’s creating a space crunch that means nine schools will lose space now dedicated to art, computer, and science instruction.
UMass Dartmouth unveiled its archives of a “treasure trove” of papers donated by former US Rep. Barney Frank.
Bridgewater State University, looking to cement its town-gown relationship, has established scholarships for 25 graduating seniors from Bridgewater-Raynham High School who show a financial need and commit to community service.
Keller@Large cheers Harvard students for organizing a petition to remove rapper Tyga from their annual spring concert because of the sexism and violence they say are the basis of his songs.
Meanwhile, The Crimson reports that the Harvard email snooping kerfuffle widens. Here is the Globe account.
HEALTH CARE
Radio Boston examines how Boston College is trying to balance sex with spirituality.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
CommonWealth obtains a fundraising letter sent by an Osterville developer who opposes Cape Wind. He says the end is near for the project.
A WBUR story suggests fracking is a threat to the Massachusetts clean energy sector.
National Grid, preparing to replace a high-voltage transmission line in Salem, favors using the existing right of way through downtown rather than an alternative route under the waters of Salem Harbor, the Salem News reports.
MEDIA
Suddenly, the local newspaper market is awash with properties. The Wall Street Journal reports that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. is putting the Dow Jones Local Media Group, which includes the Cape Cod Times and the New Bedford Standard Times, up for sale.
The Orange County Register’s hard-paywall, invest-in-news approach wins grudging praise.
The Herald accuses Globe spotlight reporter Bob Hohler of misrepresenting his identity by applying for a taxi driving job and listing his employer as “NYT Company.”