“IT’S BEEN YEARS since legislative democracy truly flourished at the State House,” the Boston Globe editorial board sighed in exasperation a few weeks ago. For more than a decade, Globe editorials have been denouncing the Legislature’s m.o., which was fashioned by Democratic supermajorities in both House and Senate: consolidate power within a small group of […]
Margaret Monsell
Posted inOpinion
Breaking down the Legislature’s ARPA veto options
WHEN THE LEGISLATURE ended its formal business for 2021 on the third Wednesday of November, as its rules require, it left behind one of the year’s biggest bills, a spending measure allocating federal American Rescue Plan (ARPA) money. The bill, which the governor had filed in June with considerable emphasis on the urgency of the […]
Posted inOpinion
Incumbent-first law is unique to Massachusetts
AMONG THE WAYS that Massachusetts is unique among the 50 states: our state election ballots give top billing to incumbent state officeholders who are seeking re-election, with the other candidates listed in alphabetical order below. (Cities and towns can choose alternatives – Boston, notably, selects candidate order by lottery.) No other state reserves the top […]
Posted inOpinion
Is it true no one wants to work anymore?
AMRHEINS RESTAURANT in South Boston recently posted a notice on its door advising would-be patrons that it was not to be held responsible for the sub-par dining experience awaiting them — that was the government’s fault. “Amrheins Restaurant welcomes you,” the notice read. “Sadly, due to government handouts, no one wants to work anymore. Therefore, […]
Posted inOpinion
Will DOC’s insistence on jury trial hold up?
IN ADDITION to consuming most of the attention of the legislative and executive branches of government, the COVID-19 pandemic is also keeping the judicial branch busy. Twelve times in the last 11 virus-wracked months, the Supreme Judicial Court has issued decisions resolving some legal tangle caused by COVID. Among the questions the court has answered: […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Trump’s rise — and fall — carry a Massachusetts echo
HIS ELECTORAL TRIUMPH seemed like a fluke. Just to pursue our highest public office as a first-time candidate was improbable enough. To go on to win it was so flabbergasting as to cause the many pollsters who had predicted his defeat to question their sampling methods. But in retrospect, the victory was not entirely surprising. A […]
Posted inOpinion
Legislature punted on emergency powers issue in 2009
“DON’T YOU HAVE to admit that Governor Baker has done a pretty darn good job here, especially when you compare him to the other states?” That was a question Supreme Judicial Court Justice Elspeth Cypher posed during oral argument last month in Desrosiers v. Baker, the case brought by 21 individuals and businesses challenging the […]
Posted inOpinion
Why is Beacon Hill embracing sick bank bills?
A RECENT Commonwealth opinion piece by former state senator Ben Downing forcefully criticized “the glacial pace of change on Beacon Hill.” For the past three decades, Downing argued, our political leaders have habitually failed to respond to major challenges with the necessary urgency, contenting themselves instead with “preserving political power rather than using it for the greater […]
Posted inEconomy
Trump labor secretary spreads dangerous misinformation
PRESIDENT TRUMP’S secretary of labor, Eugene Scalia (yes, he’s the son of the late Supreme Court justice), has been on the road this month, touting the return of American workers to their jobs, even as COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to climb. In a stop on what might be called his “Whistling Past the Graveyard” tour, […]
Posted inOpinion
Soldiers’ Home early retirements costly
IN A PRESS CONFERENCE last Wednesday on the scathing report by an independent investigator into the COVID-related deaths of 76 veterans at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, Gov. Charlie Baker lamented that “veterans who deserve the best from state government got exactly the opposite. And there’s no excuse or plausible explanation for that.” House Speaker Robert […]