The Boston Globe
Wednesday, October 16, 2002
Key legislators reject Swift on budget
They say wait on numbers, vote
By Rick Klein
Globe Staff
House and Senate leaders yesterday ruled out coming back
into session before the Nov. 5 elections, rebuffing Acting Governor Jane Swift's plea that they immediately pitch in on
the budget crisis.
Swift met for nearly two hours yesterday afternoon with
House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, Senate President Thomas F. Birmingham, and their budget chiefs, in an effort to
convince them to resume formal legislative sessions to avoid another round of budget cuts.
But Finneran and Birmingham both said she didn't make the case that immediate action is
necessary, and both said they'd prefer to wait until next month.
"At the present time, it is not feasible," Finneran said in
a statement released after the meeting. "The people of Massachusetts will soon select a new governor as well as their
senators and representatives for the coming legislative session. Minimally we should await the
results of these elections."
Birmingham said he's still not convinced that the $100
million deficit that Swift is projecting will materialize.
"There is a difference between an actual revenue shortfall
and a projected revenue shortfall, and we're still in the realm of the projections," Birmingham said. "We want to see at least
the October numbers so that we don't gratuitously inflict this huge pain on real people over what
could be a flawed projection."
Swift tried to goad legislative leaders into action over the
weekend, circulating a list of $60 million in cuts that she's promising to make if the Legislature doesn't act quickly -
everything from gutting the elder home care program to slashing welfare and Medicaid benefits. She has
offered several cost-saving ideas to lawmakers, including limits on state
lottery prizes and forcing higher-paid state workers to contribute more to their health insurance.
But Birmingham dismissed those ideas as "warmed-over
offerings" since they were proposed by Swift and rejected by the Legislature last spring, and said he didn't think they
would be embraced now. He added that, if the Legislature does come back before January, everything
- including new taxes - would be considered.
"She should start making the case to the members, instead of
just rattling sabers about how we ought to come back into session," said Birmingham, who, like Swift, is leaving office
at the end of the year. "She has not lifted a finger to muster any legislative support for these
proposals that have already been rejected."
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The Boston Herald
Wednesday, October 16, 2002
Top Beacon Hill lawmakers reined in acting Gov. Jane M.
Swift's plan to close a $100 million budget gap yesterday, even as the Registry of Motor Vehicles announced it will halt
Saturday service at eight branch offices to save $150,000.
House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran and Senate President Thomas
F. Birmingham, after a State House meeting with Swift, indicated they are in no hurry to call a special legislative
session to act on her cost- and revenue-shifting proposals.
Birmingham said he is waiting for the state's October
revenue figures "so we don't gratuitously inflict this pain on real people for what could be a flawed projection."
Finneran, in a written statement, indicated that a special
session "is not feasible" before the Nov. 5 election.
Swift, who unilaterally cut $202 million last week,
continued to push for quick action on further measures requiring legislative approval. Among them: reducing lottery
prizes, increasing the amount state employees pay for health care, passing another early retirement
program, and cutting health benefits for 50,000 low-income residents in February
rather than April.
The alternative to acting quickly, Swift said, "is to make
cuts at a time at which you no longer have options.
"If the Legislature waits until all capital gains checks are
opened next year ... there will be very little savings left," Swift said.
Birmingham warned that if he agrees to a special session
"everything is on the table, including tax rates." Swift replied, "I've never said 'my way or the highway.'" ...
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The Boston Globe
Wednesday, October 16, 2002
In session, out of touch
By Eileen McNamara
Globe Columnist
Let's be clear: The Massachusetts Legislature is in session.
Yesterday, the House convened at 11 a.m. By the time
lawmakers adjourned 13 minutes later, they had authorized the town of Marion to appoint alternate members to its
Conservation Commission, approved another liquor license in Ware, and congratulated the
Giampas on their 50th wedding anniversary.
The Senate had a slightly less rigorous day, convening at
11:05 a.m. and adjourning at 11:10 a.m. but the few senators who were at the State House were not without accomplishment:
They adopted five ceremonial resolutions, celebrating the accomplishments of one or another
of their constituents.
Because the two chambers are meeting in "informal" sessions,
no one elected to serve in the Legislature is actually expected to show up these days. Instead, the men and women
responsible for the state we are in are out campaigning or, since so many
are running unopposed, home watching the leaves turn and wondering, like the rest of us, what Acting
Governor Jane Swift is going to slash next from the state budget.
All this benign neglect would not be worth mentioning - news
being the reporting of the unusual, after all - were it not for the fact that we are in the midst of both a budget crisis and
a gubernatorial campaign fixated on said budget crisis. Wouldn't you think our elected
representatives would want a say in setting the state's fiscal priorities?
Well, you would be wrong. Speaker Thomas M. Finneran is not
sure he wants to call the House back into formal session to address the state's precarious fiscal status because so
many of the key decision-makers are lame ducks. To his way of thinking,
why wrestle over the tough issues with Swift and Senate President Thomas Birmingham when, next January,
the new Senate president and the new governor might have other ideas.
For Birmingham's part, it might as well be January. He still
comes to work; he even gaveled the Senate to order for its marathon five-minute session yesterday. But, since losing his
primary campaign for the Democratic nomination for governor to state Treasurer Shannon
O'Brien last month, he has given up the bully pulpit at his command. Where is the voice of
the man who ran his campaign as a champion of the poor, the frail, and the
elderly? Why no public outrage at the decision by Swift to deny hearing aids and eyeglasses to the elderly and
extended kindergarten classes to the young? Why such muted objections to
unilateral budget rewriting by a Republican governor?
"He has been very clear, whenever he is asked by reporters,
that he thinks that these cuts are being made prematurely, before we know what revenue will be," says Allison Franklin,
Birmingham's press secretary. "He is meeting regularly with senators. At this moment, we
don't have an actual deficit. The most important thing is not convening a formal session but
finding out what is the actual fiscal situation."
Gathering the entire membership of the House and Senate in
one place with one focus would be the precursor to that effort if the Legislature were the deliberative body it claims to be.
Birmingham meeting privately with Senate Ways and Means Committee chairman Mark
Montigny to decide which revenue projections they prefer is no substitute for open and
vigorous debate.
Swift last week made almost $202 million in cuts in social
services. She promises millions more to close what she insists is a gap between revenues and expenditures of least $100
million. The nonpartisan Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation predicts the gap for the next
fiscal year could surpass $1 billion.
In a representative democracy, when there is a difference of
opinion on crucial policy matters, the usual approach is to convene the lawmaking body, gather the pertinent data, and
then act in the public interest. But then, this is Massachusetts.
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