When House Ways and Means chairman Brian Dempsey opened the floor to questions from reporters at a Wednesday afternoon press briefing on the just-released House budget for 2017, he was probably ready to address use of one-time revenues, chapter 70 school aid, or any other details of the $49.4 billion spending plan.
He clearly wasn’t prepared for the the leadoff question from Springfield Republican reporter Shira Schoenberg.
Why, she asked, were a select group of State House reporters given an advance briefing on the budget, while others were kept in the dark?
That’s an “excellent question,” said Dempsey, which seemed be a way of saying it was an inquiry for which there was no excellent answer.
“I think that we have traditionally limited the amount,” Dempsey said. “It’s basically, I think it really comes down to probably time more than anything and how we can get a diverse group in early and we can get the message out.”
It turns out reporters from four news outlets were given an advance briefing on the budget: the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, State House News Service, and Community Newspaper Holdings, which owns a set of newspapers that includes, Schoenberg points out, Dempsey’s hometown Haverhill Gazette.
Schoenberg points out that Baker’s Executive Office of Administration and Finance held a briefing for all members of the State House press corps before the governor’s budget was released. The Senate, she writes, did not hold a briefing before releasing its budget, but Senate President Stan Rosenberg has held regular briefings for reporters.
Schoenberg says the favored four outlets got a 23-page PowerPoint and a thick budget book, with their stories on the budget embargoed until 1:30 pm Wednesday, the time scheduled for the Ways and Means Committee to publicly unveil the spending plan.
The less-than-open-door approach to coverage of the budget doesn’t speak well for transparency in the House. The recent publicly-held conference committee meetings on public records law legislation have been a highly unusual breath of fresh air.
The dominant House thinking on media coverage, however, seems to be that less is more.
Setting the tone for that is Speaker Robert DeLeo, who is wary of the press to the point where he would not sit down for an interview for CommonWealth’s recent cover story on him — the first public figure not to cooperate for a profile in the magazine’s 20-year history.
–MICHAEL JONAS
BEACON HILL
We knew the fix was in with MassHousing’s decision to replace its executive director with his second-in-command, but we didn’t realize the participants literally followed a script in making the appointment. (CommonWealth)
In an op-ed, Gov. Charlie Baker makes the case for not raising taxes, saying financial pressure is the best way to force change. As evidence, he cites the MBTA, the Health Connector, and state government in general. (The Sun)
Baker defends the waffling on a transgender rights bill that got him booed off the stage at an LGBT event earlier this week. (Boston Globe)
Rep. John Fernandes of Milford decides not to seek reelection, calling it quits after 10 years and leaving an opening at the top of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee. (State House News)
The suicide of an inmate at Bridgewater State Hospital is again putting a spotlight on its care and custody of those in the facility. (Boston Globe)
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Events through the day today will commemorate the third anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings. (Associated Press)
The New Bedford City Council dropped a proposal to license panhandlers after some councilors expressed concern passing the measure would trigger a costly court battle over constitutional rights. (Standard-Times)
Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch set a statewide record for per voter spending in a mayoral race, doling out $55 per vote in the 2015 election. (Patriot Ledger)
An intense battle is brewing between the Middleboro town manager and the town’s veterans’ agent over the hiring of a part-time clerk for the veterans’ office, whose funding was approved by Town Meeting but which the town manager has refused to fill. (The Enterprise)
CASINOS
Two wise guys at the center of the Wynn Resorts land deal trial offer their take on the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. (CommonWealth)
The Plainridge Park Casino, open for six months, has not fueled crime in the area. (MassLive)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
David Remnick kicks the tires on John Kerry’s foreign policy. (New Yorker)
Tom Keane says there’s plenty of “pragmatic hypocrisy” in the the posturing and boycotts by performers and companies over LGBT rights issues, but that’s most OK. (WBUR)
US Rep. Nikki Tsongas files legislation that would require the Department of Defense to buy American-made sneakers. (Lowell Sun)
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam vetoes a bill that would have made The Bible the official state book. (The Tennessean)
ELECTIONS
Brawlin’ in Brooklyn: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders went at it in pre-New York primary debate that got testy and loud. (Boston Globe) Clinton says the time for “vigorous agreement” is over. (U.S. News & World Report) The New York Post endorses Donald Trump.
The Republican Party fires back at Trump’s remarks that the primary process is rigged and unfair. (Time)
A pro-marijuana legalization group plans to fire back today at Gov. Charlie Baker and Mayor Marty Walsh over their announced plans to help champion an effort to defeat the legalization ballot question this fall. Among their arguments: The pols’ anti-pot stance reeks of hypocrisy since both have supported expanded liquor sales and an easing of licensing requirements for booze businesses. (Boston Globe) A McLean Hospital substance abuse specialist says the state should get over the legalization question since it’s very likely to pass and figure out the most sensible regulations on a new industry. (Boston Globe)
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
The fight for a $15 an hour minimum wage lands at the State House. (Boston Herald)
EDUCATION
An appeals court reverses the controversial Vergara decision that overturned teacher tenure in California. (New York Times) Here is an extended CommonWealth interview from last year with David Welch, the Silicon Valley executive who single-handedly funded the Vergara lawsuit. (CommonWealth)
A Duxbury father will probably get bankruptcy relief after amassing $246,000 in debt to send three kids to college and then being out of work for years. (Boston Globe)
The Fall River School Committee voted 6-1 to send out pink slips to all 130 school administrators as a “precaution” against impending budget cuts. (Herald News)
A janitor at Algonquin Regional High School in Southboro collects $100,000 to settle a discrimination claim. (Telegram & Gazette)
Officials say 32 schools received robocall bomb threats on Thursday. (WBUR)
HEALTH/HEALTH CARE
The Baker administration plans the biggest overhaul of MassHealth in two decades, looking to convert the state Medicaid program into one that uses accountable care organizations designed to better control costs without sacrificing services or quality. (Boston Globe)
A lawsuit is filed to block the expansion of Boston Children’s Hospital and the destruction of Prouty Garden. (State House News)
TRANSPORTATION
Seth Moulton, newest champion of the North-South Rail Link. (Boston Globe)
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Entergy announced it will keep Pilgrim nuclear power plant open until May 2019 when it will shut the Plymouth facility down for good. State Rep. Sarah Peake of Provincetown has filed a bill to create a panel to oversee the decommissioning of the plant, including ensuring there is enough money to safely shut down and store the nuclear waste. (Cape Cod Times)
An Eagle-Tribune editorial sounds the alarm about a new threat to the Merrimack River, the development along its shores.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
A New Bedford Superior Court jury awarded $300,000 in a civil suit brought by an anonymous student against his former sixth-grade teacher at Notre Dame School in Fall River, claiming the teacher sexually abused him in the mid-1980s. (Herald News)
A Salem Superior Court judge releases a former Salem mother who was convicted and sent to prison in 2011 for deliberately withholding chemotherapy treatment from her 9-year-old son, who later died. (Gloucester Times)