The Hill and the Hall Week in Review

(Cross-posted from the mighty mighty Boston Daily)

It’s budget season on Beacon Hill again. And it’s apt that it should coincide, roughly, with the run-up to area colleges’ final exams. After a semester of lying around and drinking, the legislature now has to pull a week of harried all-nighters before it can knock off work for the summer.

In broad strokes, this year’s House budget is big but not unduly wicked big, is unkind to out of state corporations, hates smokers, and offers, in Speaker Sal DiMasi’s own estimation, “nothing spectacular about any new initiative.” But you already knew that already.

So, in the interest of wrapping up the week with some semi-original reporting, here’s a few of the more interesting budget skirmishes to keep an eye on in the upcoming weeks.

The Hill and the Hall Week in Review

(Cross-posted from Boston Daily)

Deval Patrick has got to hate St. Patrick’s week. This time a year ago, House Speaker Sal DiMasi appeared before the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and absolutely brutalized the governor – much to the delight of the assemblage of reporters and rich people in nice suits.

And now, no sooner had the vomit dried on Broadway than the speaker was back before the Chamber, telling everybody that casino gambling “will absolutely cause damage on a grand scale” and ruin lives and everything. If it’s not the end of civilization as we know it, it sounded pretty damn close.

And with that, the great casino death train of 2008 pulled back into the station. In celebration of the occasion, some people jibbered. Others jabbered. Facts, figures, reports and the like were bandied about, and somewhere along the line, the governor’s casino proposal flatlined.

The Hill and the Hall Week in Review

(Cross-posted from Boston Daily)

Word broke early this week that Governor Deval Patrick’s casino bill was dead. House Dean David Flynn told the Taunton Gazette, “The casino bill isn’t going anywhere. I find very little support for it from members of the house,” adding that he expects a roll call vote on his racino bill, while “the casinos won’t,” because Dan Bosley’s committee “will issue an adverse report, preventing the house from voting on the casino bill.”

It’s not how things work – the Speaker’s office has repeatedly said that Patrick’s bill will receive a vote on the House floor before it wraps its budget bill in April, regardless of whether or not it gets a favorable committee report. (PS – it won’t.) But that doesn’t mean that casinos still aren’t headed for a messy demise.

The Hill and the Hall Week in Review

(Cross-posted from Boston Daily)

The most talked-about man on Beacon Hill continued to be widely talked about this week, as news that Speaker Sal DiMasi has been playing golf with a decades-old friend while not playing golf with a guy with a horrific haircut sparked an ethics uproar. It’s the surest sign yet that the state GOP has given up trying to win elections altogether, and will now focus solely on lobbing wobbly ethics complaints at its Democratic foes. And that Scot Lehigh hasn’t met a bad golf metaphor he doesn’t like.

The threat golf poses to democracy extends far beyond the current casino debate, though. Boston minorities who enjoy voting had better watch their backs: DiMasi occasionally hits the links with former Speaker Tom Finneran. Can federal voting rights violations, disgrace, and tears be far behind?

The Hill and the Hall Week in Review

(Cross-posted from Boston Daily)

These are strange times for the state’s coastal legislators.

First, in November, they were subjected to an energy bill sneak attack that, unbeknownst to them, opened up their coastlines to unfettered wind farm development. They balked, as did the Senate, which had been pushing an oceans management bill authored by Senator Robert O’Leary as a way to set up a framework for plopping turbines down in the water. The senate had threatened to hold Sal DiMasi’s energy bill hostage if the House didn’t act on their oceans bill, and so, last week, House leadership pushed a gutted bizzaro version of the senate’s bill to the floor.

Turns out, it wasn’t a whole lot more than a reworded version of amendment leadership tried to cram through in November – reportedly at the behest of prospective developer Jay Cashman.

The Hill and the Hall Week in Review

(Cross-posted from Boston Daily)

Governor Deval Patrick found out what it feels like to be governor last week, as Sal DiMasi’s House finally – finally – got to work advancing the governor’s agenda. It’s only been, what, thirteen months since the inauguration?

Patrick got to see his beloved $1 billion biotech bill emerge from committee. Here’s hoping the cost of inaction isn’t more than a billion large.

More importantly, at least politically, this week saw the speaker reverse course and fall in line with the governor’s long-stalled plan to change the state’s corporate tax code.

For the past year, Patrick’s tax plan has been panned as a burden on business and a recipe for economic disaster. Now, suddenly, the speaker is not only acceding to the governor’s plan, but using the word “reform” to refer to the new taxes. What gives?

When Slots Met Racism

There’s a hilarious, and hilariously depressing editorial in this week’s Banner. Melvin Miller, the paper’s editor and publisher, excoriates the legislature – particularly the Speaker – for trying to run out the clock on the Governor’s casino gambling proposal. Which is fair enough – everybody from broke-ass mayors to labor unions to labor-friendly reps have gotten into that game lately.

But it’s not enough for Miller to just whack Sal upside the head – that act is weeks old. This late in the game, Melvin’s got to have a reason for killing Sal. Conveniently enough, Sal happens to be a filthy racist. Or so we read…

Whoa!

Jon Keller calls King Sal an “excellent profile,” and its author a “brilliant young punk political reporter.” Love you too, Jon.

Electoral Losers and the Code of the Streets

I did some calling around yesterday, trying to get quotes reacting to Mitt Romney’s sudden France-hating, anti-Jihad implosion. And as much as it hurts to say, Howie got it right today – getting dead does do a lot for your popularity. Here’s a guy who, four years after mercilessly excoriating John Kerry as a fake, up and tried to fake his way clear to the White House. It doesn’t work. So what happens? The people in his own party – both those who were with him, and those working against him – praise him for exiting graciously and talk up his bright, bright future. Get your shades, son.

And what of the reaction from Massachusetts Democrats – people who have, more or less, spent the past six years battling Romney, cursing him, serving as the punchlines in his rightward-pandering jokes, and lobbing one nasty quote after another towards reporters? What do they say when this man fails?

Nothing.

Smile a Little, Mitt

These are not fun times for Willard Mitt Romney. His campaign’s nearly done for actually done for and with good reason. Quoth the Globe:

With 499 total delegates up for grabs through March 4, Romney would have to win more than 80 percent of them to catch McCain, assuming the Arizona senator won none. And, even if Huckabee won them all, he would still trail McCain. Dividing the total among the three candidates makes over taking the front-runner more difficult still.

Awww. Looks like woobums needs a hug. Or a good laugh. Hey, that Sal DiMasi’s a funny guy. He’s always good for a laugh.In fact, there was once a time way back in the spring of 2006 when Romney and DiMasi shared a great, full laugh together. What fun they had. In times like these, it’s best to go to one’s happy place – and for Mitt Romney, there can be no happier memory than the day he put on a massive show and signed the state’s landmark health care reform law. Let’s revisit that day, Mitt, and hopefully brighten your day a little bit.