Middleboro Review 2: POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: State budget cuts coming

Monday, January 8, 2024

POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: State budget cuts coming

LESS MONEY, MORE PROBLEMS — Gov. Maura Healey is planning hundreds of millions of dollars in budget cuts, according to eight lawmakers who received calls over the weekend from members of her administration alerting them to the move.

Healey is eyeing about $375 million in cuts as the state runs about $769 million behind tax revenue projections. It was not immediately clear where Healey plans to cut costs, but lawmakers are being told certain earmarks — which provide funding for nonprofits, local projects and more — are being slashed in half.

The governor said just weeks ago that she was not considering cuts to the nearly $56 billion budget, telling the State House News Service in a mid-December interview — before the latest revenue report dropped — that her administration was “going to manage the situation.”

Gov. Maura Healey waved off concerns about the state's finances in end-of-year interviews. | Lisa Kashinsky/POLITICO

But that appears to have changed , according to the lawmakers who were granted anonymity to speak freely about the pending cuts — referred to as “9C cuts” because of the section of the law that gives the governor the authority to make them. The last 9C cuts were made by then-Gov. Charlie Baker in 2016 .

Healey’s administration did not directly confirm the cuts are coming. But Administration and Finance Secretary Matthew Gorzkowicz said in a statement Sunday the governor had directed him to “evaluate any and all necessary steps” to ensure a balanced budget and that he would “provide more information in short order.”

Gone are the days of soaring revenues during the pandemic that triggered $3 billion in givebacks to taxpayers. The state brought in just under $3.8 billion in December — about $82 million, or 2.1 percent, less than December 2022 and $138 million, or 3.5 percent, below benchmark, according to the latest revenue report. Collections over the first six months of the fiscal year are running ahead of the same period in fiscal 2023. But they’re about three-quarters-of-a-billion dollars, or 4.1 percent, less than the year-to-date benchmark. Revenues have now failed to hit benchmarks for six months straight.

During that same time, Healey signed into law $1 billion in tax cuts and credits. She also sought $250 million in additional funds for the state's shelter system and is poised to return for more, with her administration projecting the emergency assistance program will run $224 million into the red this fiscal year.

The administration wants to cover that cost — and part of the nearly $1 billion tab the shelter program is expected to run up in fiscal 2025 — with $700 million in pandemic-era surplus funds that Baker stashed in a transitional escrow account. But that idea already seems to have gotten pushback from at least one top Democratic lawmaker. “We protect our reserve funds,” Senate Ways and Means Chair Michael Rodrigues told reporters last week.

GOOD MONDAY MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. This no good, very bad Patriots season is finally, mercifully, over. We’re onto the draft — and maybe the post-Belichick era?!

Not everyone wants Bill Belichick gone, apparently. | Steven Senne/AP

TODAY — Healey has no public events. Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll attends the inaugurations of Quincy Mayor Tom Koch at 10 a.m. and Melrose Mayor Jennifer Grigoraitis at 7:30 p.m. House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark and Auditor Diana DiZoglio also attend Grigoraitis’ inaugural.

Tips? Scoops? Know of any budget earmarks getting cut? Email us: lkashinsky@politico.com and kgarrity@politico.com .

DATELINE BEACON HILL

DEPARTURE LOUNGE — Another lawmaker is leaving for the Healey administration. State Rep. Josh Cutler, the House chair of the labor and workforce committee, will be the governor’s undersecretary of apprenticeship, work-based learning and policy.

House Speaker Ron Mariano has yet to call a special election to fill Cutler’s seat. But Ken Sweezey , a Hanson Republican who challenged Cutler in 2022, is already jumping in the race. “The 6th Plymouth was a historically Republican district prior to the last decade. This is the year we can return to that legacy,” Sweezey said in a statement announcing his bid.

FROM THE HUB

— “21 North End restaurants accuse Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu of discrimination in new lawsuit,” by Phil Tenser, WCVB: “ The 163-page federal lawsuit, in which the North End Chamber of Commerce joined with 21 restaurants, asks the court to end the city's ban on outdoor dining in the busy neighborhood. It also seeks financial compensation, including a refund of fees charged under a previous edition of the program that allowed outdoor dining in the North End if restaurants paid $7,500 to participate.”

LYNCH BUCKS BRIDGE PLAN — Rep. Stephen Lynch doesn’t appear to be on board with Boston’s plan to rebuild the Long Island bridge and reopen recovery services there, saying that “warehousing people on an island ... [is] not ideal.” He suggested during an interview on NBC10 Boston’s “At Issue” that the money it would take to rebuild the bridge would be better spent on “redo[ing] a major hospital."

FROM HARVARD YARD

‘HOW HARVARD’S BOARD BROKE UP WITH CLAUDINE GAY’ — The New York Times’ Maureen Farrell and Rob Copeland share a stunning account of how Harvard Corporation members’ support for Claudine Gay crumbled after initially backing her to stay on as president — and how Gay knew her tenure was over days before she formally resigned on Jan. 2.

Top Massachusetts Democrats who have passed through Harvard’s hallowed halls were silent in the immediate aftermath of Gay’s announcement that she would step down. But they’re starting to speak now.

Gay “made mistakes,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said on WCVB’s “On the Record.” But even as the former Harvard Law professor said she disagreed with what Gay said about genocide, she blamed “billionaires and the right-wing extremists” who don’t “care about our academic institutions and how to make them stronger,” or about antisemitism, for driving Gay’s downfall .

— “Harvard professors aghast that Claudine Gay resigned without transparent review of plagiarism accusations,” by Hilary Burns and Mike Damiano, The Boston Globe.

— “Corporate compensation for Harvard’s new interim president stands out among Ivy League peers,” by Elizabeth Koh, The Boston Globe.

FROM THE DELEGATION

LET’S MAKE A DEAL — Congressional leaders have struck a deal on government spending levels that could avert a partial government shutdown in less than two weeks, though it still has quite a ways to go.

Also possible this week: a border and immigration deal that could unlock more aid for Israel and Ukraine. But it’s unclear if the money the Biden administration is seeking — and that Gov. Maura Healey really wants — for shelter and services for migrants will make it in, our colleague Burgess Everett reports .

“Everyone realizes that we need to take action on Israel, we need to take action on Ukraine and we need to do something on the border. It’s become out of control. We’ve lost control of the border,” Lynch said on NBC10, sounding optimism that a deal could clear both chambers — depending on what’s in it.

But Warren sounded less optimistic on WCVB: “There’s always progress, but none of this counts until you make it across the finish line.”

WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD BE READING

— “Winter weather in Massachusetts sparks concerns for unaccompanied homeless adults,” by Chris Van Buskirk, Boston Herald: “Cold weather arrives as one provider told the Herald that they have seen more unaccompanied, unhoused adults seeking shelter compared to last year. It comes at a time when most of state government is focused on housing migrants arriving in Massachusetts.”

— “Northampton makes case for joining fossil-fuel free pilot,” by Alexander MacDougall, Daily Hampshire Gazette: “The pilot program, established by the state’s Department of Energy Resources (DOER), late last month officially accepted seven municipalities into its program: Acton, Aquinnah, Brookline, Cambridge, Concord, Lincoln and Lexington. … Newton and Arlington, were also accepted on a conditional basis. … With West Tisbury’s withdrawal, only nine of the 10 available slots for the program are filled, and Northampton is one of two substitute candidates hoping to occupy the last slot. The other candidate is the city of Somerville.”

FOLLOW YOUR OWN RULES — The New England First Amendment Coalition is calling out the Massachusetts Trial Court system for not posting online all of the information about criminal cases that’s required by law, the Boston Herald’s Flint McColgan writes.

2024 WATCH

BALLOT BATTLE — The state's Ballot Law Commission is mulling whether to take up a challenge seeking to bar former President Donald Trump from the ballot under the so-called insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment. Shannon Liss-Riordan is helping spearhead the challenge . But Warren, who backed Liss-Riordan for attorney general in 2022, said on WCVB that while it's "pretty clear that Donald Trump participated in an insurrection" she'd rather "see this resolved at the ballot box, because I don't want there to be any question about the legitimacy of it."

GRANITE STATE OF MIND — Liz Cheney is urging New Hampshire voters to reject Trump at the ballot box in just over two weeks. The former Wyoming congresswoman and vocal opponent of Trump continues to flirt with a third-party presidential bid as she looks for ways to block him from returning to the White House.

NOT QUITE BUSINESS AS USUAL — The Democratic National Committee scolded New Hampshire Democrats for holding delegate-selection caucuses on Saturday for the state’s “meaningless” unsanctioned presidential primary, we scooped, as the fallout from Democrats’ inability to agree on a nominating calendar this cycle continues. But New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley brushed the criticism aside, saying it’s “nothing new” and “we persist.”

Healey, a Biden surrogate, appeared at caucuses for Biden delegates in Manchester and Concord to promote his allies’ effort to write him in on the Democratic primary ballot after the president passed on participating in the contest over the calendar spat.

It is “imperative that we do everything that we can to have the strongest showing for Joe Biden on Jan. 23, to send a signal not just to the great people of New Hampshire but to the people across this country about what needs to happen,” Healey said in Manchester (h/t ABC News' Kelsey Walsh ) .

MEANWHILE, IN PENNSYLVANIA — Attorney General Andrea Campbell attended Biden’s speech marking the anniversary of Jan. 6, 2021, in which he cast Trump as a threat to democracy. Campbell said in a statement: “I do not want to wake up on Wednesday, November 6, 2024 to a world in which Massachusetts must jump into action to protect our residents from a new radical, extremist administration." More from Mass. lawmakers on the anniversary.

CHRISTIE’S CONTRAST — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has spent months accusing former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley of changing her message based on her audience, as her rise in New Hampshire diminishes his chances in the state in which he’s staking his campaign. Now he’s taking that argument to the airwaves in a new ad , part of his seven-figure pre-primary advertising push.

MEANWHILE, IN MAINE — Christie won’t be on the ballot in Maine after he declined to appeal a court’s ruling that he didn’t submit enough signatures, per the Portland Press Herald .

HEARD ‘ROUND THE BUBBLAH

CONGRATS — to Dorchester's own Ayo Edebiri on her Golden Globes win .

TRANSITIONS — Amelia Aubourg is now chief communications officer for MassDOT.

— Caitlin Golden is now chief policy and strategy officer for the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance.

— Kathleen Patrón is now chief of staff to state Sen. Julian Cyr. His former chief of staff, Liz Ganz , is now VP for government affairs and public policy at the Association for Behavioral Healthcare.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY — to Alexis Orzeck . Happy belated to Sandy Lish of The Castle Group, who celebrated Sunday.

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