 | BY KELLY GARRITY AND LISA KASHINSKY | Presented by |  |
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| PROGRAMMING NOTE: Massachusetts Playbook will not publish on Monday for Memorial Day. We’ll be back in your inbox on Tuesday. STAGE SET FOR BUDGET DANCE — Senators laid their budget cards on the table. Now the trading begins. Here’s a look at what’s headed to conference committee: THE BOTTOM LINE — Senators added about $90 million to their budget through nearly 500 amendments. The upper chamber's budget is roughly $10 million less than the House's, and both are slightly under Gov. Maura Healey’s pitch. Both chambers included several one-time and new funding sources. But they diverge on some of them. One sure sticking point: online lottery sales, which the House is again trying to authorize and the Senate is again pushing back on. EDUCATION VS. TRANSPORTATION — Senate President Karen Spilka’s deputies will now have to convince House negotiators to agree to her $75.5 million free community college plan, along with other differences between the chambers’ blueprints for education spending from early care to college. The Senate is also seeking more money than the House for regional transit authorities. "The state's fiscal situation is cyclical. ... And I think part of the reason Massachusetts has done so well during some of the past recessions is because we have continued to invest in our strengths. And that's what the Senate budget does this time, too," Spilka told Playbook as debate was wrapping up. But the House has its own haggling to do . The chamber’s record $555 million investment in the MBTA includes $40 million for a MBTA Academy that the Senate dropped from its plan. The House is also seeking $190 million for universal free school meals, versus the $170 million the Senate put forward. POLICY PROPOSALS — The Senate backed Gov. Maura Healey's proposal to let Massachusetts residents more easily change their birth certificates, marriage licenses, driver's licenses and other state-issued IDs to accurately reflect their gender identity (something the Senate has tried to push through before). The upper chamber also proposed a commission to study “opportunities for collaboration and consolidation” among county sheriffs and other corrections arms. Something both chambers agree on: Healey's plan to close MCI Concord to save money. Senate Ways and Means Chair Michael Rodrigues said he expects the spending plans to head to conference "by the middle of next week." The goal, of course, is to get the budget done by the start of the next fiscal year on July 1 — a deadline lawmakers routinely blow past. Rodrigues, who has missed several budget deadlines with his counterpart, House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz, isn't making any promises. "[I'm] confident in the fact that Chair Michlewitz and I have done this five times already. This is the sixth time. I hope to get it done by July 1," he said. ODDS AND ENDS: PARDON THE INTERRUPTION — The Senate's debate was briefly held up late last night after alarms started blaring inside the State House around 10:45 p.m. Senators and staff evacuated the building for what turned out to be a water leak, according to State Police. — The mission to reimagine the state’s seal could get another go (after a commission that was supposed to make recommendations wrapped it works last year without doing so ) thanks to a Sen. Jason Lewis amendment that was approved last night. — Senators shot down an amendment from Minority Leader Bruce Tarr that would’ve extended MBTA Communities law deadlines beyond this fall — but not without spirited debate over the controversial zoning law. — A Sen. John Velis amendment that tasks the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education with creating a curriculum to teach students about antisemitism was approved after passionate speeches from several senators Wednesday. GOOD FRIDAY MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS . Props to the prop master, Tarr, and his “Wheel of Outmigration " (which later re-branded into the "Wheel of Uncertainty.") TODAY — Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll have no public events. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is on WBUR’s “Radio Boston” at 11 a.m. THIS WEEKEND — MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale is on WBZ’s “Keller @ Large” at 8:30 a.m. Sunday. GOP U.S. Senate candidate John Deaton is on WCVB’s “On the Record “at 11 a.m. Sunday. Kimberly Atkins Stohr, author Robert Kagan , former Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone and Emily Reichard are on NBC10’s “At Issue” at 5 a.m. Sunday on NBC10 and noon on NECN. Tips? Scoops? Birthdays? Email us: kgarrity@politico.com and lkashinsky@politico.com .
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| DING DONG THE BORDER BILL IS DEAD — The bipartisan border deal is dead again. And though Massachusetts’ two senators weren’t directly responsible for its demise — every Republican except Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski voted against advancing the bill that needed 60 votes to proceed — they didn’t back it, either. Sen. Ed Markey was among the handful of Democrats who joined with Republicans to vote against it. And Sen. Elizabeth Warren did not vote (A spokesperson said she was attending her granddaughter’s graduation, but that she would have voted no.). Markey’s reasoning, per a statement: “I have long prioritized pathways to citizenship, fair adjudication of asylum claims, limitations on detention, and more legal pathways to entry. Any of these policies would help the executive branch manage the border and the reception of new arrivals in the interior. None of these policies are present in the Border Act.” Warren’s Republican Senate rivals were quick to seize on her lack of support for the bill to pump up their own campaigns. But Quincy City Council President Ian Cain took it a step further, hammering GOP rival John Deaton for his recent trip to the U.S.-Mexico border and for saying he “would have backed this flawed legislation.” Cain previously told Playbook that he “would have” voted for the border bill, too. But he said Thursday via email that while he “originally voiced support because I wanted to see Massachusetts taxpayers get some relief ... what’s clear today is that the only solution is the simple solution — secure the border [and] don’t endorse unchecked illegal immigration like Deaton just did.” Deaton said in a statement that it's "not a perfect bill but we need to start making progress on securing our borders.” Meanwhile, Gov. Maura Healey said she was “deeply disappointed that Congress has yet again failed to pass this bill that would have strengthened border security and taken meaningful steps toward reforming our broken immigration system.” But she made no mention of Warren and Markey in her statement. And the senators were applauded by the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy for helping block “draconian policy.” Separately on Thursday, Warren and Markey asked Senate appropriators for $500 million for a new Destination Reception Fund to support new arrivals, a pot that would complement the existing federal Shelter and Services Program. — “Katherine Clark blasts Justice Alito for flags flown at his properties,” by Emily Spatz, Boston.com.
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| TRAVEL LOG — Healey and her partner, Joanna Lydgate , were among the guests at the White House state dinner honoring Kenya on Thursday evening, along with Rep. Richard Neal and the head of the Massachusetts National Guard, Maj. Gen. Gary Keefe . Healey headed to the District Thursday afternoon and is returning to Massachusetts this morning, her office said. — “Healey recommends three more pardons, including two against the advice of her advisory board,” by Matt Stout, The Boston Globe: “Should a state panel approve the pardon requests for Danis Reyes and William Veal, and Healey’s push for a so-called unconditional pardon for a third person, Kenny Jean, Healey will have granted more pardons in roughly 17 months as governor than either Charlie Baker or Deval Patrick did across each of their eight years in office.”
| | ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR |
| — "Hundreds of Harvard students walk out of commencement ceremony in protest of Israel-Hamas war," by Hilary Burns, Alexa Coultoff and Lila Hempel-Edgers, The Boston Globe: "Some 30,000 graduates, family, and friends filled Harvard Yard Thursday for the university’s 373rd commencement, but the ceremony, steeped in tradition and pageantry, was disrupted when hundreds of students walked out about halfway through it in solidarity with 13 classmates who were barred from receiving diplomas because of their involvement in an unauthorized protest of Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip."
| | FROM THE HUB |
| — “After gun scare, police union says Boston City Hall security ‘no match’ for armed assailant,” by Gayla Cawley, Boston Herald.
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| | A message from NextEra Energy:  
| | | | | WHAT'S ON CAMPBELL'S DOCKET |
| TAKING ON TICKETMASTER — Massachusetts is one of more than two dozen states that joined the Justice Department in suing Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation Thursday. “Our lawsuit today alleges that Live Nation’s anticompetitive conduct not only violates the law, but stifles innovation, including by forcing venues to solely use Ticketmaster or strategically acquiring venues in order to eliminate competition,” Attorney General Andrea Campbell said in a statement. Among the local venues under Live Nation’s control: the House of Blues, MGM Music Hall in Fenway, the Leader Bank Pavilion and the Xfinity Center. Dive deeper with POLITICO’s Josh Sisco .
| | PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES |
| TAP TO RIDE — MBTA riders may soon be able to ditch their Charlie Cards. Through a new fare system officials are looking to launch this summer, riders will be able to tap their credit or debit cards, or use digital wallets like Apple Pay to hop on buses and subway lines, similar to the system in place in New York City. More from WBUR. SURVEY SAYS — No surprises here: President Joe Biden holds a commanding lead over former President Donald Trump among Massachusetts voters, according to a new University of New Hampshire poll . The race is a lot closer in New Hampshire, the pollsters found . — “Quincy councilor Noel DiBona announces Register of Deeds candidacy,” by Peter Blandino, The Patriot Ledger: “Councilor-at-large Noel DiBona recently announced his candidacy for Norfolk County Register of Deeds, the office overseeing the county’s real estate records going back centuries. He faces incumbent Democrat Bill O'Donnell, who has held the post for two decades.”
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| | DON’T MISS POLITICO’S ENERGY SUMMIT : The future of energy faces a crossroads in 2024 as policymakers and industry leaders shape new rules, investments and technologies. Join POLITICO’s Energy Summit on June 5 as we convene top voices to examine the shifting global policy environment in a year of major elections in the U.S. and around the world. POLITICO will examine how governments are writing and rewriting new rules for the energy future and America’s own role as a major exporter. REGISTER HERE . | | | | | | | WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD BE READING |
| — “Abroad, Governor Healey and Mayor Wu talk climate change in harmony. At home, real change is messier,” by Samantha J. Gross, The Boston Globe: “Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu presented a united front at a high-profile international climate conference in Vatican City last week, pitching their home state as a model for the rest of the world on bold climate action, and a place where the climate tech economy is ripe to boom. … But beneath the unity and the gauzy rhetoric spun from within a villa nestled in Vatican City are two leaders who have different visions for the best way to tackle the existential crisis that is climate change for our waterfront state, where vulnerable neighborhoods flood on sunny days and where the water line in Boston Harbor will likely rise as much as 7 inches this decade.” — “He once investigated pensioners who broke the rules on working in retirement. Then he accidentally became one,” by Matt Stout, The Boston Globe: “As inspector general, Glenn Cunha once warned that Massachusetts had a ‘weak’ system for enforcing how much retired public servants pulling taxpayer-funded pensions can make if they return to the public workforce. ... Now in retirement, Cunha alerted state officials to yet another offender: himself. The former watchdog paid back the state more than $17,000 after he said he mistakenly exceeded a state-imposed cap on what he could earn as a special prosecutor in Suffolk County while simultaneously collecting his $101,000 annual pension, according to documents and state officials.” — “One family’s journey from Haiti to Boston. ‘We can now sleep with both eyes closed.’,” By Stan Grossfeld, The Boston Globe.
| | MEANWHILE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE |
| — “Political consultant indicted for AI robocalls with fake Biden voice made to New Hampshire voters,” by Ross Ketschke, WMUR.
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| CONGRATULATIONS — to Boston District 1 City Councilor Gabriela Coletta — now Gabriela Coletta Zapata — and Sebastian Zapata , who tied the knot last week . SPOTTED — at the Adams Presidential Center Gala where the late Rep. Bill Delahunt was honored along with Karen and Rob Hale : Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch and council President Ian Cain, House Speaker Ron Mariano ; former Gov. Charlie Baker and his wife, Lauren ; UMass President Marty Meehan, Norfolk County Sheriff Patrick McDermott , George Regan and members of Delahunt's family. HAPPY BIRTHDAY — to Kate Donaghey and Boston Globe alum Evan Allen. HAPPY LONG BIRTHWEEKEND — to Emma Sims-Biggs and Ryan Sherriff , who celebrate Saturday; to state Rep. Sally Kerans, Rachel Pollak, Hana Veselka Vizcarra, Sunny Lee, Allison Davis Tuck, Benchmark’s Colleen Fitzgerald and Brendan Deady, who celebrate Sunday; and to Monday birthday-ers Melissa Ludtke, Andrew Fowler and Brian Choquet. NEW HORSE RACE ALERT: RIGHT ON RESCHEDULE — Shaleen Title of the Parabola Center joins hosts Jennifer Smith and Steve Koczela to discuss a survey on what Americans think marijuana legalization should look like. Plus, how BPS parents feel about the new facilities plan and Koczela’s takeaways from the national pollsters conference. Subscribe and listen on iTunes and Sound Cloud . Want to make an impact? POLITICO Massachusetts has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Bay State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness among this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: jshapiro@politico.com . | |
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