Late-budget drama drags into summer at Statehouse

BOSTON - In a sign of continuing conflict between House and Senate Democrats, both branches adjourned Thursday for another long weekend without an agreement on an overdue annual state budget that has now resided in the darkness of conference committee talks for seven weeks.

The fiscal 2024 budget was due by July 1 but Massachusetts is again among a small group of states where a final spending plan is not in place. State government is being kept open and services are available due to a barebones temporary budget with enough money to cover expenses through roughly July.

While Massachusetts lawmakers for years have blown past their deadlines, the most recent string of late spending plans has occurred with the same two budget chiefs at the negotiating table: Rep. Aaron Michlewitz of Boston and Sen. Michael Rodrigues of Westport. Both lawmakers have declined to explain areas of disagreement that keeping them from reaching consensus, leading to mounting speculation about why Democrats are unable to find common ground.

The House and Senate each unanimously approved fiscal 2024 spending plans and sent them in early June to the six-member conference committee, which has elected to again conduct its deliberations in private. There are four Democrats and two Republicans on the conference committee, which does not publicly communicate about the frequency or location of its talks.

Asked Thursday about the status of negotiations, conference committee member Sen. Cindy Friedman replied, "I think they're going, people are, you know, very, you know, a lot of talks. I think it's going."

Friedman, who is vice chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said she is not worried that Massachusetts is three weeks past the original due date for an annual budget.

"No, I'm not concerned. You know, this is a huge lift," the Arlington Democrat said.

The House and Senate each loaded their spending plans with scores of policy matters, and the attention devoted to the budget has coincided with a dearth of standalone bills reaching either branch for debate and votes, despite a daily stream of prodding from people pushing solutions to scores of problems.

'Countless' differences

The budget bills feature "countless" spending and policy differences, according to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. In addition to decisions on how to spend $1 billion in new income surtax revenue, lawmakers face choices about how much revenue to set aside for tax relief, the subject of a separate conference committee.

According to MTF, the combination of all spending in both budgets exceeds available revenue by $500 million, a difference that would be shaved by about $300 million if Democrats agree to a House plan to authorize the Lottery to make its products available online. The business-backed group in late June issued a report contrasting the two budgets and noting the bulk of more than 130 policy sections in the budgets are unique to one bill or the other.

Once the budget conference committee agrees to a single bill, the accord will not subject to amendment and will likely be quickly approved by the branches. The House this month has tentatively scheduled numerous formal sessions, possibly in the event of a budget deal, and then scrapped those plans.

House and Senate Democrats usually strike a budget deal in July. The last time the stalemate stretched deeper into the summer was 2020, when Gov. Charlie Baker filed a second temporary budget on July 22 and then a third on Oct. 22. State operations were disrupted that year by the COVID-19 pandemic, and Baker did not sign a final budget until Dec. 11, 2020.

A Healey administration official declined to say Thursday if or when Healey would file another interim budget.

On July 13, Michlewitz said it was "too early to tell" when Democrats might agree on an annual spending plan. He declined to outline areas where the branches are dug in, saying, "I don't think it's fair for us to, you know, talk about this out in a public setting like this."

Rodrigues has taken a similar stance. The Senate budget chief was listed as the "special guest" for a 5:30 p.m. fundraiser Wednesday for Sen. Nick Collins of South Boston. However, a Rodrigues spokesman told the News Service that Rodrigues did not attend the Leader Bank Pavilion gathering and aide Sean Fitzgerald did not respond when asked whether his absence was due to talks on the state budget or tax relief bills.

Rep. Todd Smola, one of the two Republicans on the budget conference committee, said he thinks a second stopgap spending plan is "something that's on the table." He also declined to describe any specific areas of disagreement holding up a compromise.

"There's some concerns about the fact that the new fiscal year has started, but our job is to try and get it right as opposed to doing it on time," Smola, of Warren, said. "We've done this many times before, so I think it's -- I think the process is going just fine."

Despite a run of late budgets, the branches have stuck to a schedule whereby the House passes its budget in late April and the Senate in late May, leaving more than a month for negotiations, which has proven in recent years to be insufficient time for negotiators to reach deals.

Accountability on meetings

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, the chamber's top GOP official, said Thursday that he wants Michlewitz and Rodrigues to tell lawmakers and residents "how frequently they are meeting" to trade proposals.

"It does concern me. It's not unusual for us to take a little bit of time to resolve the largest spending document that we do in any given year, but we are now getting to a period of time that's very concerning because the conference committee has had a fair amount of time to work on this," Tarr said.

At numerous turns this year, Democrats who hold super-majorities in both branches and now have a member of their party in the governor's office have found ways to disagree with one another.

A seemingly routine annual local road and bridge funding bill has been hung up for months due to minor differences. A push for gun law updates is stalled because lawmakers can't agree on which legislative committee should vet gun-related bills. Tax relief has been promised for more than a year, but remains the subject of back-channel talks among Democrats. Underneath the disputes on spending and policy, the branches have also been unable to agree on basic joint rules changes geared toward introducing more transparency, after also ending the 2021-2022 session stuck at an impasse over those reforms.

Amy Carnevale, chairwoman of the Massachusetts Republican Party, recently swiped at Democrats as the new GOP chief tries to stablize party operations.

"Democrats are mired in gridlock despite control of both chambers in the legislature," Carnevale wrote on July 13. "For more than 16 months, Beacon Hill has promised tax reform but to no avail. The state budget is 12 days late and counting. Fighting continues over where bills should be heard instead of addressing the real needs of Bay Staters. Recently, the governor is spending more time out of state than in it."

Through the first six months of the two-year term - which only allots about 18 months for major business - Healey has signed 22 bills into law, virtually none of which featured substantial controversy or required serious negotiation by legislators. Eleven of those laws are minor local matters like renaming boards or granting additional alcohol licenses, and seven others create sick leave banks for individual public employees.

'Bill signing alert'

Healey's office on Thursday issued a "bill signing alert," which went on to note that on Tuesday she had signed three bills: S 1302 changing the name of the Hanover Board of Selectmen of the Hanover Select Board; H 345 authorizing the town of Berlin to grant up to two additional alcoholic beverage licenses; and H 3821 establishing a sick leave bank for a Department of Correction employee.

The branches appeared in alignment earlier in the spring when they each approved bills authorizing $200 million for the Chapter 90 road and bridge maintenance program and $150 million for other transportation-related infrastructure grants. The only noteworthy difference between the House and Senate versions was where to direct $25 million of those grants.

Despite their similar starting points, Democrats have failed to close the gap between the two bills and have opted against advancing parts of the legislation where they agree, leaving cities and towns waiting for a guarantee they will receive state dollars toward critically important local projects.

Rep. William Straus, the lead House negotiator on the transportation funding conference committee, on Wednesday declined to offer details about why the once-routine matter has been so delayed.

"That I can't comment on other than to say that the conference committee members and my co-chair, as I said earlier, are in regular contact," Straus said, adding that he and fellow co-chair Sen. Brendan Crighton are "in contact multiple times a day right now."

Asked if lawmakers would finish the annual road and bridge funding bill before they retreat for a traditional August break, Straus replied, "That's certainly, I think, everyone's preference."

"I'm not trying to be cute," he said. "I think that that's a high priority for everyone."

Sam Drysdale and Sam Doran contributed reporting.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Massachusetts state budget still overdue with no end in sight