Beacon Hill’s favorite buzzword these days is “competitiveness,” but the meaning isn’t always the same among the three big players in state government and their different approaches to the topic are shaping the upcoming budget debate.
The Senate appears to be leaning into its more liberal reputation in defining competitiveness, proposing beefy investments in human capital with free community college and a more welcoming approach to undocumented students. The House, meanwhile, has tacked toward tax breaks as a way to make the state more competitive. Gov. Maura Healey seems game for a grab bag of policies.
A change to in-state tuition rules, long sidelined by the Legislature, is included in the Senate’s $55.8 billion initial version of the budget. If a student attends a Massachusetts high school for three years and graduates or achieves the equivalent degree, the Senate proposal would allow them to pay in-state tuition rates at public institutions regardless of their immigration status.
In remarks after the budget announcement, Senate President Karen Spilka said the tuition change was more than a moral move. “Twenty-three states plus DC already have this,” she said. “We need to be competitive as well.”
Since its introduction some 20 years ago, the policy hit early roadblocks with then-governor Mitt Romney and the House. Speaker Ron Mariano, who voted against a standalone proposal to expand in-state tuition to undocumented students in 2006, did not take a position on the matter Tuesday, setting up an uncertain path through the more moderate chamber he leads.
Healey is “supportive of efforts to provide in-state tuition to students who are living in MA and going to high school here,” spokesperson Karissa Hand said in a statement. “Expanding access to education and training is also important to address our workforce needs.”
The Senate budget also steers a bigger chunk of money toward free community college than the House. Like the House plan, it allocates $20 million for Mass Reconnect, a Healey proposal to make community college free for those age 25 and older. But it also throws in another $35 million to build out the program generally and specifically train more nurses, at a time where health care providers are hammered by workforce shortages.
Meanwhile, House leadership has leaned on tax relief to make Massachusetts, as Mariano put it last month, “more competitive with other states.” The House tax plan mirrors what Healey proposed with cuts in capital gains and estate taxes along with breaks for elders, renters, and caregivers, and tosses in two other measures, one benefitting low-income residents and one for businesses.
Spilka says the Senate will seek “permanent progressive tax relief that is smart and sustainable,” which remains a bit of a mystery in the face of an April tax revenue downturn.
Even online Lottery sales have created a competitiveness flashpoint. The Senate, at this point, isn’t biting on a House pitch to boost early education and childcare by allowing online lottery sales. While supporters of the plan say it would generate $200 million for child-centered grant programs, Senate leaders opted to fund them through other sources at a slightly lower amount. “We think it needs more time to be vetted,” Senate Ways and Means chair Michael Rodrigues said of online Lottery.
The House is pushing online Lottery sales, while Healey has jumped on board in part because she is concerned the state’s gambling enterprise can’t compete against DraftKings and other online sports betting operations.
As always, the chambers will need to hash out their philosophical and practical differences in a conference committee, and it remains to be seen if they can find common ground on the best ways to keep the state competitive.
JENNIFER SMITH
FROM COMMONWEALTH
Senate budget rundown: Senate leaders unveiled a budget proposal that offers in-state tuition rates to undocumented immigrant students in Massachusetts, nixes an online expansion of the Lottery, and reserves $575 million in fiscal 2024 for a tax relief package.
– Senate President Karen Spilka indicated the in-state tuition issue is a priority for her for both humanitarian and practical reasons. “While Massachusetts leads in so many areas in education,” she said, “we are falling behind other states, including the red states, in offering what is not only the right thing for these immigrant students but good for our atmosphere of inclusion, equity, and overall success. Twenty-three states plus DC already have this. We need to be competitive as well.” (For an earlier in-depth CommonWealth report on the in-state tuition issue, click here.)
– Senate budget chief Michael Rodrigues said the Senate budget proposal doesn’t embrace an online expansion of the Lottery, an initiative included in the House budget and supported by Gov. Maura Healey. “We think it needs more time to be vetted,” Rodrigues said.
– The Senate proposal also doesn’t go along with most of the House changes in the voter-approved tax cap law, including an initiative to return excess tax revenue in equal amounts to all taxpayers instead of proportionally based on how much they paid. The one area of agreement was exempting money collected with the millionaire tax from the tax cap formula.
– The Senate also sets aside $575 million in fiscal 2024 for a tax-relief plan. Spilka, the Senate president, had been coy about the Senate’s tax relief plans, but the set-aside of money indicates a fairly substantial plan is forthcoming. Read more.
Abortion rights matter: A new poll indicates abortion rights matter to three quarters of students and parents in nine northeastern states as they go about deciding where to attend college. Read more.
OPINION
Inequality concerns: Neily Soto of the Massachusetts Housing Coalition explains why she thinks rent control measures would deepen inequality. Read more.
Let them vote: Kristina Mensik and Adam Eichen say the state should repeal a 2000 constitutional amendment that banned voting by felons while incarcerated. Read more.
FROM AROUND THE WEB
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
It’s back to the (district boundary) drawing board for Boston city councilors after a federal judge tossed out the map they approved last year. (Boston Globe)
A surge of migrants arriving in Massachusetts is straining the resources of service agencies, and more are expected in the wake of the looming change in a federal pandemic policy that made it easier to expel those illegally crossing the southern border. (Boston Globe)
HEALTH/HEALTH CARE
Brigham and Women’s Hospital will launch a new center focused on immunology and inflammation thanks to a $100 million donation, the largest it has ever received, from Gene Lay, the founder of a California company that makes reagents and antibodies used in biomedical research. (Boston Globe)
A Disability Law Center report determined that neglect led to the death of a 60-year-old Black man while he was a psychiatric patient at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital. (MassLive)
Cape Cod organizations and legislators say a recent 300-page Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth report reflects an under-discussed mental health crisis and suggests needed reforms. (Cape Cod Times)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
Former president Donald Trump was found liable for sexual assault and defamation in a civil lawsuit brought by former writer E. Jean Carroll and ordered to pay close to $5 million in damages. (New York Times)
George Santos, the serial fabulist Republican congressman from Long Island, surrendered this morning to federal authorities and is facing a list of fraud and money laundering charges. (New York Times)
EDUCATION
The Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams takes a pass on a proposal to use an empty dorm to house homeless people. (Berkshire Eagle)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upholds a lower court ruling awarding $37 million to a Newton woman who claimed tobacco giant Philip Morris misled her about the safety of Marlboro Light cigarettes. (WBUR)
A former Woburn police officer has been decertified for his involvement in a 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. (WBUR)
MEDIA
State House News Service’s Michael Norton has been named to Editor & Publisher’s 2023 class of “Editors Extraordinaire.”