News from Beacon Hill

Rep. Stanley helps authorize $200 Million in Chapter 90 Funds

Representatives Tom Stanley and John Lawn joined their colleagues in the House of Representatives to authorize $200 million for local road and bridge repairs, passing legislation before April 1st so that municipalities can take full advantage of the construction season.  Chapter 90 funds may be used for roadway projects, such as resurfacing, drainage, sidewalks, traffic control and lighting, or road building machinery, equipment and tools. The Chapter 90 formula takes miles of road, population and employment statistics into consideration. Under this allocation level, Waltham would receive $1,608,187.

House releases $38 billion budget

The House Ways and Means Committee, of which Rep. Stanley is a member, released a $38 billion budget for fiscal 2016 that includes new investments in early education, substance abuse prevention and behavioral health. The budget calls for new audits of the MBTA's finances and state-of-good repair program. It also suspends for five years an application at the MBTA which puts conditions on the ability of state agencies to contract with private vendors to provide government services.

Officials Discuss New Energy Sources 

The Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy held a hearing on the state's high electrical costs and heard testimony from utilities, regulators and an energy grid official.  At the hearing, utilities and state energy officials expressed interest in using renewable energy from the north and inexpensive natural gas from the south and west.  The committee will soon hold another hearing with the clean energy industry and power plant officials.

Rep. Tom Stanley and Rep. John Lawn joined their colleagues in the House to pass legislation that creates an early retirement incentive program (ERIP) for Group 1 employees in the Office of Governor and Executive Branch. The program was originally proposed as part of Governor Baker's FY16 budget and was taken up separately so that associated savings can be included in the House's budget, which will be released next month. 

MBTA Panel Calls for Fiscal Control Board, Multi-Year Plans To Fix Broken System

The Administration released a detailed report compiled by the MBTA special panel and outlined a plan of action to reform and improve the MBTA.  The panel's recommendations include creating a five-member Fiscal and Management Control Board, as well as the creation of one, five and 20 year spending plans after the group uncovered massive structural and management failures that are on pace to bankrupt the system if left unchecked.

The panel met 18 times over six weeks to review past studies, with MBTA staff, MassDOT leadership, transit advocates and labor representatives in order to benchmark the MBTA against peer agencies and analyze performance through objective analysis.   The panel synthesized recent MBTA studies, conducted a performance review, examined the MBTA's core functions and compared results with other transit operations to assess the status of the system's governance, finances, and capital planning.

The MBTA special panel is co-chaired by Katie Lapp, Executive Vice President for Harvard University and former Executive Director and CEO for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and Brian McMorrow of Massport, and includes Jane Garvey, a national leader in transportation policy, Jose A. Gomez-Ibanez, the Derek C. Bok Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy at Harvard University, Joseph Sullivan, the Mayor of Braintree and former Chair of the Joint House-Senate Transportation Committee, and Robert Gittens, the Vice President of Public Affairs at Northeastern University.

Boston 2024 Backs Statewide Olympics Referendum

Boston Olympic organizers plan to gather signatures and sponsor a statewide referendum on their plans to bring the 2024 Summer Games to Boston. The next statewide election will be held in 2016. Organizers are hopeful that extra time will convince taxpayers that hosting the Olympics in Boston would not increase Boston's problems with public transportation and traffic. 

Gov. Baker Requests Federal Assistance for Historic Storms

Gov. Baker submitted a request to President Obama for a Major Disaster Declaration based on the impacts of an unprecedented 28-day weather event, starting January 26th, that brought record snowfall and bitter temperatures to the Commonwealth.  This Declaration would make federal aid available in the form of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Public Assistance (PA) Program to 10 Massachusetts counties whose PA costs exceed the federal thresholds.  They are Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Essex, Middlesex, Nantucket, Norfolk, Plymouth, Suffolk and Worcester counties.

Additionally, snow assistance is also being requested for nine counties that have either met record or near-record snowfall totals, as defined by the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) or have met FEMA's 'contiguous county' criteria.  These counties are Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth, Suffolk and Worcester counties.

State Leaders Announce Olympic Analysis to Protect Taxpayers

Governor Baker, Senate President Stan Rosenberg and House Speaker Robert DeLeo are seeking a consultant to analyze the potential impacts of Boston hosting the 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. The leaders collaborated to publish a request for response (RFR) seeking independent analysis of Boston 2024's plan, specifically the potential for costs, responsibilities, and potential risks of overruns, to be borne by state and local government.  The Office of the Governor is soliciting the consultant with support from the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development to advise the Governor, Speaker, and Senate President.  The administration expects to select a consultant near the end April and has capped the cost of a report due in July at $250,000.

Specifically, the request seeks assessment of the impacts of the proposed Boston 2024 Summer Olympic plan, including, but not limited to costs, potential revenues, local considerations, funding mechanisms, insurance requirements, protection of taxpayers, required infrastructure investments, and identification of potential responsibilities of the Commonwealth as they relate to the Boston 2024 Summer Olympic proposal and both the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and International Olympic Committee's (IOC) requirements.

Governor Baker Appoints Two New Members and Designates Chairman to Board of Higher Education

Governor Baker announced the appointment of Chris Gabrieli and Dr. Sheila Harrity to the Board of Higher Education, and designated Mr. Gabrieli as the new Chairman.  Mr. Gabrieli and Dr. Harrity will replace Charles Desmond and Keith Peden.

Chris Gabrieli is the co-founder of three non-profit education innovation and reform initiatives and a lecturer at Harvard's Graduate School of Education. As the co-founder of Massachusetts 2020/the National Center on Time & Learning, he has been at the forefront of the movement to expand learning time for disadvantaged students. He co-founded Empower Schools to align student results with community needs and is a Partner Emeritus at Bessemer Venture Partners where he started in the entrepreneurial healthcare software and biotechnology field. He has served in numerous higher education advisory board roles at Harvard HAA, Boston University's School of Public Health and Clark University.

Dr. Sheila M. Harrity is the Superintendent of Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School District and a former Principal at Worcester Technical High School, where she was named the 2013 Massachusetts Principal of the Year, and 2014 National High School Principal of the Year. In 2013, the school received the National Blue Ribbon School distinction for outstanding student achievement by the U.S. Department of Education and was the only high school in the nation in 2014 to host President Obama as a commencement speaker. 

Governor Baker Signs Executive Order to Target Chronic Unemployment

Governor Baker signed an Executive Order to establish a task force on Economic Opportunity for Populations Facing Chronically High Rates of Unemployment. The task force, chaired by Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Ron Walker will lay out a strategic plan to address chronic unemployment among specific target populations. The Secretaries of Housing and Economic Development, Education, Health and Human Services and Veterans' Services, the Director of Access and Opportunity and members of the community appointed by the governor will also serve on the eight month task force.                    

The task force will be charged with focusing on "target populations" facing chronically high unemployment. African Americans, Hispanic or Latino Americans, certain groups of veterans, and persons with disabilities continue to see higher than average annual unemployment rates between 7 and 12 percent despite an annual average state unemployment rate of 5.8 percent.

The task force will meet to study and identify the challenges in the target populations seeking work, review current workforce development practices, recommend strategies to reduce barriers to employment, and develop goals for recommended programs, policies, and practice. They will actively gather input from community-based organizations, business leaders, local officials and advocates. The task force will make policy recommendations to the governor by November 15, 2015, and shall terminate thirty days following the presentation of that plan to the Governor's Office for review and policies that can be implemented within state government.

New statewide panel to screen applications for judicial, clerk-magistrate positions

Governor Baker appointed 21 members to the statewide Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC) established in February by Executive Order 558. The JNC is a non-partisan, non-political Commission composed of distinguished volunteers, appointed from a cross-section of the Commonwealth's diverse population that will screen applications for judges and clerk-magistrate positions.

Governor Baker named Paul T. Dacier, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of EMC Corporation and immediate past President of the Boston Bar Association, as the Commission's Chairman, and selected Carol T. Vittorioso of Vittorioso & Taylor of Leominster and Roberto M. Braceras of Goodwin Procter of Boston as Vice-Chairs.

The JNC seeks judicial applicants who possess the temperament, ability and integrity to freely, impartially and independently interpret the laws and administer justice. It also hopes to recruit applicants who represent not only the geographically diverse parts of the Commonwealth, but also the racial, ethnic, and gender diversity of our citizens.

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March of Dimes looks for support to reduce smoking among pregnant women

The March of Domes plans to launch a smoking cessation campaign in 2015 and is seeking support from the MA legislature.  One out of 10 women smoke during pregnancy in the United States. The group would like the lawmakers to help them boost awareness of smoking-related birth problems, which can be linked to 23 to 34 percent of all Sudden Infant Death Syndrome cases. In 2013, the Commonwealth spent 4.4 percent of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-recommended $90 million on anti-tobacco programs, ranking behind 34 other states and Washington, DC. According to the March of Dimes, approximately 5 to 8 percent of all pre-term births are related to smoking, and 13 to 19 percent of low birth-weight babies can be attributed to smoking during pregnancy.

Government Center Station Closure