Several interesting tidbits from Beacon Hill today.
- The house unanimously passed the Global Warming Solutions act. The House version is not identical to the Senate’s, so this is not a done deal yet, but according to the Globe the Senate is “expected” to go along.
- Supreme Judicial Court Justice John Greaney has announced that he is leaving the bench on December 1 to join the faculty of Suffolk Law School. Greaney would have hit the mandatory retirement age of 70 next April, so Patrick knew he’d be filling this seat eventually. This announcement just moves up the vacancy date by a few months.
- The legislature added an “emergency preamble” (discussed here) to the repeal of the 1913 law, meaning that once Governor Patrick signs the bill it will take effect immediately. Without the preamble, the bill would have taken effect in 90 days.
- From the comments, David Guarino very helpfully provides a running tally of the House’s veto overrides so far. Of course, the Senate must go along for these to take effect.
Department — Spending Account Description — Conference Committee Amount — Veto Amount
FWE — Marine Fisheries — 5,700,068 — 200,000
AGR — Agricultural Resources — 5,506,927 — 319,732
DCR — Beach Preservation — 4,303,025 — 183,025
DCR — Central Artery Parks — 1,603,959 — 165,325
MRC — Vocational Rehabilitation — 10,982,471 — 100,000
MRC — Employment Assistance — 8,561,446 — 100,000
MRC — Independent Living — 12,449,034 — 100,000
MRC — Head Injured Programs — 10,933,588 — 100,000
WEL — Family Shelters — 87,224,342 — 645,195
DPH — Health Care Quality — 8,817,714 — 100,000
DPH — Family Health Services — 7,620,000 — 360,000
DPH — Health Promotion and Disease Prevention — 14,709,996 — 511,634
DPH — School Based Health Programs — 17,457,134 — 390,000
DMR — Residential and Day Programs — 569,561,352 — 600,000
DMR — Autism Division — 6,264,413 — 1,000,000
SJC — Suffolk County Clerk — 1,283,205 — 53,554
CPC — Committee for Public Counsel Services — 29,294,603 — 458,465
TRC — Trial Court-Court Officers — 66,111,070 — 859,469
TRC — Commissioner of Probation — 142,372,102 — 7,630,158
TRC — Community Corrections Administration — 7,776,254 — 1,656,417
TRC — Community Corrections Programs — 19,316,186 — 206,045
EOL — Small Business Association Layoff Aversion — 200,000 — 200,000
SEA — Mass Technology Collaborative — 250,000 — 125,000
DOE — Foundation Reserve — 5,500,000 — 250,000
POL — Department of State Police — 256,755,080 — 240,121
DFS — Department of Fire Services — 19,398,315 — 3,028,812
right about now having all these great bills being passed!
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p>What a great legislature we have here in Mass.
and year, in fact.
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p>The preamble is especially good news because now we really don’t have to worry about it being an election issue. 90 days would have been around the election, now it won’t be.
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p>I’m happy to see that the Global Warming Solutions Act has lived to see another day. I really hope they get this done. The major difference between the two bills is this:
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p>That’s a pretty wide range, but it’s certainly better than no progress at all. Let’s hope the rate is as close to 20% as possible. I doubt we’ll get 25%, but even 15-20% would make an impact and set the tone.
I’d like to see Massachusetts take up Al Gore’s challenge.
The House also began voting on select overrides to the Governor’s budget vetoes. So far, here is what we have done. We expect to consider more tomorrow. As you see, there are some pretty important items here that the House (and hopefully the Senate) believes should not be cut.
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p>Sorry for the layout of this, it isn’t perfect but it’s late. First column is the department in state government, second is a brief description of what it is, third is the amount of the final conference committee agreement of the House/Senate budget sent to the Governor and the last column is the amount of the Governor’s veto.
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p>Department — Spending Account Description — Conference Committee Amount — Veto Amount
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p>FWE — Marine Fisheries — 5,700,068 — 200,000
AGR — Agricultural Resources — 5,506,927 — 319,732
DCR — Beach Preservation — 4,303,025 — 183,025
DCR — Central Artery Parks — 1,603,959 — 165,325
MRC — Vocational Rehabilitation — 10,982,471 — 100,000
MRC — Employment Assistance — 8,561,446 — 100,000
MRC — Independent Living — 12,449,034 — 100,000
MRC — Head Injured Programs — 10,933,588 — 100,000
WEL — Family Shelters — 87,224,342 — 645,195
DPH — Health Care Quality — 8,817,714 — 100,000
DPH — Family Health Services — 7,620,000 — 360,000
DPH — Health Promotion and Disease Prevention — 14,709,996 — 511,634
DPH — School Based Health Programs — 17,457,134 — 390,000
DMR — Residential and Day Programs — 569,561,352 — 600,000
DMR — Autism Division — 6,264,413 — 1,000,000
SJC — Suffolk County Clerk — 1,283,205 — 53,554
CPC — Committee for Public Counsel Services — 29,294,603 — 458,465
TRC — Trial Court-Court Officers — 66,111,070 — 859,469
TRC — Commissioner of Probation — 142,372,102 — 7,630,158
TRC — Community Corrections Administration — 7,776,254 — 1,656,417
TRC — Community Corrections Programs — 19,316,186 — 206,045
EOL — Small Business Association Layoff Aversion — 200,000 — 200,000
SEA — Mass Technology Collaborative — 250,000 — 125,000
DOE — Foundation Reserve — 5,500,000 — 250,000
POL — Department of State Police — 256,755,080 — 240,121
DFS — Department of Fire Services — 19,398,315 — 3,028,812
but I’m not sure I get this. These two confound me.
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p>EOL — Small Business Association Layoff Aversion — 200,000 — 200,000
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p>POL — Department of State Police — 256,755,080 — 240,121
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p>-$90,121 shall be expended for the costs associated with a training seminar for fourteen members of the Massachusetts State Police Bomb Squad in collaboration with the Israeli General Security Service and the Israeli National Police.
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p>-$150,000 shall be provided for the State Courts Against Road Rage program. aka SCARR (state courts against road rage)
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p>For a grant for the Small Business Association of New England for the layoff aversion through management assistance program for consultant and technical assistance to manufacturing companies in Massachusetts to prevent business closure and employee displacement.
that what I thought was going on. Thanks!
No vote on EDR yet? Today’s the last day. Call them!
attached to the 1913 repeal. It is only right that when a travesty of justice is discovered, it be remedied at the earliest possible moment. But mostly, I’m just happy for all those couples overjoyed to be able to have a summer or autumn wedding in their own neighborhood on US soil.
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p>I also suspect that this will have a beneficial effect in the effort to defeat the anti-equality amendments in California (Prop 8), FL (Amendment 2) and AZ (Prop 102). The sort of voters it will effect are those worried about “letting the cat out of the bag” in the USA (oddly, people often ignore that marriage is available to all in Canada, etc.). During the time that MA was still discriminating against people from other states, such a person in CA, FL or AZ could say “let’s not be the first to expose the nation” (again, ignoring canada…). But now they can say, “well, the door is already been open, there’s nothing we can do about it so might as well join the party and rake in some cash to boot”.