Two lawmakers made key decisions on closeout spending bill

FOR 16 DAYS in November, the fate of the state’s closeout budget bill was in the hands of just two lawmakers.

From late on November 14, when the Senate passed its version of the bill, until November 30, when a compromise blended version of the bills approved by the House and Senate was unveiled, Rep. Aaron Michlewitz of Boston and Sen. Michael Rodrigues of Westport were the only ones wrangling over the final shape of the $3.1 billion spending plan.

This concentration of power in the hands of a few people is commonplace in the Legislature, so much so that it is largely taken for granted. Indeed, the closeout budget garnered attention mainly for how long it took to pass and the extraordinary steps Democrats took to win passage. Largely overlooked was how Michlewitz and Rodrigues, the top budget officials in the two chambers, cast aside a conference committee set up by the Legislature to handle the negotiations and made all of the major decisions themselves on the final makeup of the bill.

In interviews last week, conference committee members from both parties voiced some surprise – but little concern – about being cut out of the talks, even though they acknowledged a more collaborative effort is regularly utilized in conference committees dealing with the state budget itself. 

The closeout budget bill included a number of measures to allow the state comptroller to close out the books on the previous fiscal year, which ended on June 30. The bill also included a number of other measures that had to pass, including funding for pay raises awarded to public sector unions, as well as more controversial initiatives that supporters hoped to pass by latching them on to the spending bill. 

Gov. Maura Healey got the ball rolling in September by filing the original bill, which included a request for $250 million to shore up the state’s emergency shelter program. The program was being overwhelmed by migrants from other countries who were flocking to the state.

The House approved its version of the bill in early November, inserting very specific language directing how the emergency shelter money should be spent. The Senate passed its version on November 14, giving Healey flexibility on how to spend the emergency shelter money while tossing in a provision to change the zoning on a piece of waterfront land in Everett where the Kraft family wanted to build a soccer stadium for the New England Revolution.

With November 15 the last day before the Legislature broke for its holiday recess, Rodrigues seemed optimistic he and Michlewitz could wrap things up in a day. He and Michlewitz talked well into the night, but no deal emerged. As the Legislature left for recess and informal sessions, where typically only noncontroversial measures are taken up, lawmakers voted to widen the negotiating team, appointing a conference committee made up of three members of the House and three from the Senate.

That conference committee never convened, according to members of the panel. Instead, Michlewitz and Rodrigues continued their one-on-one talks. Members of the conference committee who agreed to be interviewed said they were surprised the panel never met but had no major problem with the fact that it didn’t.

“We never even met procedurally,” said Rep. Todd Smola, a Republican from Warren and a member of the conference committee. “I wasn’t privy to any of these discussions.”

Smola said he was first contacted by Michlewitz after his negotiations with Rodrigues had wrapped up. Smola said he assumed he had been left out of the talks because he had voted against the House’s version of the bill and was likely to vote against the final version.

Sen. Patrick O’Connor, a Republican from Weymouth who was appointed to the conference committee, said he was kept abreast of the negotiations between Rodrigues and Michlewitz via texts and phone calls from Rodrigues on almost a daily basis. He said he was comfortable with the two of them negotiating a deal.

“It made sense to me. I wasn’t critical of it at all,” he said. “They got there and that’s the thing that matters. I have a lot of faith in Mike and Aaron.”

Sen. Cindy Friedman of Arlington, the vice chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee and another of the appointees to the conference committee, said Rodrigues kept her abreast of the negotiations. She also said Rodrigues was representing the Senate in the negotiations and as such wasn’t really working alone, but was receiving input from fellow senators and particularly the Senate president.

Friedman said it often makes sense during negotiations for the person most knowledgeable about the subject to take the lead. “You can’t solve a problem out in the open with 200 people,” she said, referencing the total number of House and Senate lawmakers on Beacon Hill.

Once Michlewitz and Rodrigues reached a deal, the closeout budget bill went to the Legislature, where lawmakers passed it with no debate and no roll-call vote at what appears to have been a first-of-its-kind quorum session. The special session required lawmakers to return from their holiday break to overcome Republican resistance to passing the bill at an informal session, where historically only noncontroversial bills are taken up.

Healey signed the long-delayed and long-awaited bill as soon as it reached her desk.

Neither Michlewitz nor Rodrigues could be reached to discuss the way the negotiations were handled. Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante of Gloucester, the vice chair of the House Ways and Means Committee and the sixth member of the conference committee, also could not be reached for comment.