MassInsider

Press Release: 2021-12-07

The Most Secretive State Legislature in the Country:

Last week, the legislature finally pushed their federal ARPA and “surplus tax” spending bill over the finish line coming in around $4B. This bill included about $2.5B in ARPA dollars and $1.5B in surplus tax collections leaving $2.3B in ARPA money yet to be allocated at a later date. The final bill was loaded with earmarks and non-COVID related spending. We highlighted many of these non-COVID related earmarks in the past (https://www.massfiscal.org/ma-house-passes-3-8-billion-relief-bill). In fact, the compromise bill that came out of committee was $180M more than the bills that came out of either chamber.

This is significant because the bill that ended up passing was done in a very scarcely attended informal session with no recorded vote, or even an explanation as to where the excess spending came from.

Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka pushed this once in a lifetime spending bill through during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season in their sparsely attended informal session, to take the path of least resistance. They’ve done it before. Informal sessions are generally held to keep up with non-controversial housekeeping measures that require legislative approval. Only a handful of legislators attend. Any bill only needs one legislator to stop it in its tracks. Any Republican lawmaker can shut it down. For that matter, any Democratic Socialist lawmaker can do the same. However, history has shown the people charged with policing these sessions prefer to cut deals for themselves and let new tax increases pass through, as they did with the tax on short term rentals like AirBnB and VRBO. Despite Minority Leaders Brad Jones and Bruce Tarr being there, these new taxes passed days before Christmas in 2018.

Last Wednesday night, the conference committee’s ARPA bill was released and by Thursday morning it passed during an informal session in the House. As a result, no roll call vote was recorded, no debate occurred and absolutely no transparency was observed. Only a few lawmakers actually know what passed. The Senate wasn’t much better as it passed the $4B bill the following day.

Lawmakers are elected to do the peoples’ business. Instead, they are doing the Speaker and Senate President’s business. No one would have ever thought that an elected body of 160 House and 40 Senate lawmakers would be stripped of their responsibilities in order to appease a particular Speaker and Senate President, but that’s exactly what has happened. Rank and file lawmakers need to ask themselves why they are even there if they are not even going to review budget items. The Massachusetts State House has been closed for over 600 days, and this is exactly the reason why—leadership prefers it. Constituents have no way of observing the closed doors deliberations that occur to determine how their tax dollars are spent.

During the debate on the joint rules at the beginning of session, the House rejected an amendment that called for no conference committee reports to be filed after the hour of 5:00 p.m. and would have given lawmakers and the public at least 72 hours review time of any report before a vote could be taken on it. That amendment was rejected on a 35-123 near party line vote. The Senate offered a similar amendment during their rules debate that was also rejected by a 6-33 vote.

As a result of MassFiscal’s watchdog activities, we were quoted in almost every daily newspaper shining a light on the opaque process.

State House News Service:

Paul Craney, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, called the earmarking an "insult to the taxpayers." "Lawmakers are basically treating COVID-19 relief money as just another budget for their pork pet projects that will be funded next year during an election year. The biggest missed opportunity in this ARPA bill is the unemployment insurance fund for businesses," he said. The final bill allocates $500 million to help fortify the fund used to pay unemployment benefits, but employers are potentially on the hook to repay billions more over the next 20 years to cover the debt racked up during the height of the pandemic. Baker proposed to use $1 billion from the federal pot for UI relief. Craney said the $500 million investment is "not even close to enough." "The best way to reinvigorate the economy is by letting small business flourish and hire more people, but instead it's going for a pier in Hull and a turf field at Brad Jones's high school," he said. Craney was referring to the $150,000 earmark in the bill to rebuild the public boat ramp at the A Street pier in Hull, and $100,000 to replace the turf field carpet at the Arthur Kenney field in North Reading, part of House Minority Leader Brad Jones's district.

"No one would have ever thought that an elected body of 160 House lawmakers would be stripped of their responsibilities in order to appease a particular Speaker, but that's exactly what has happened," MassFiscal spokesperson Paul Craney said in a statement. "Rank and file lawmakers need to ask themselves why they are even there if they are not even going to review budget items. The Massachusetts State House has been closed for over 600 days, and this is exactly the reason why -- leadership prefers it. Constituents have no way of observing the behind closed doors deliberations that occur to determine how their tax dollars are spent in the Massachusetts House of Representatives."

The Boston Herald:

“Today, they used an informal session, a process ostensibly reserved for the passage of non-controversial housekeeping items, to pass the multibillion-dollar spending package. As a result, no roll call vote was recorded, no debate occurred and absolutely no transparency was observed,” Paul Diego Craney of the Mass Fiscal Alliance said. “Only a few lawmakers actually know what passed in today’s opaque process due to the conference committee not releasing its final version until just last night.”

The Boston Globe:

“If there’s anything lost in the media, it’s really the governor’s news that is going to trump it,” the Westport Democrat said, referring to Baker’s announcement Wednesday that he won’t seek reelection next year. Not all agree. Informal sessions are typically reserved for “non-controversial housekeeping items,” argued Paul Craney, a spokesman for the conservative Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, not to pass a multibillion-dollar spending package.

As the legislature will continue to hold informal session until next year, we will be watching to see what else they want to sneak through without a vote to hold them accountable. After all, their elections are coming up next year and they wouldn’t want a blemish on their non-existent record.