Latest news with #Michlewitz
Boston Globe
08-07-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Money has major influence on Beacon Hill. These charts show how.
The Globe found that most of that money came from a tight circle of major companies and industries — particularly health care and real estate — that regularly have business before the state Legislature and the executive branch. While corporations cannot donate to politicians directly, their employees can give more freely. To trace patterns of influence, the Globe totaled donations from contributors' listed companies and broader industries. Donors also tend to open their checkbooks when an elected official's influence is rising and pull back when someone is seen as headed out to pasture, our reporting showed. Advertisement Here are the key takeaways from the Globe's analysis: Healey, the state's highest-profile Democrat, raked in $1.6 million in 2024, far more than any of the other politicos included in the Globe analysis. People who work in the real estate and construction industries gave her about $223,000 — her largest source of campaign cash, excluding unemployed and retired contributors. The industries also topped donations for Michlewitz and Rodrigues, the House and Senate budget chiefs, underscoring the sector's efforts to wield influence last year as the Legislature considered key housing-related bills. Advertisement Those included Healey also raised more than $200,000 from the legal sector. The company whose employees gave the most was the The Globe analysis showed donors shift their bets on politicians as their stars rise and fall. That dynamic was especially visible in the widening gulf between Mariano and Michlewitz, who is generally viewed as the speaker's likeliest successor. Michlewitz, the chamber's most active fund-raiser, raised about $560,000 in 2024 — nearly 14 times the funds brought in by Mariano. Observers have long speculated about when the 78-year-old speaker might retire, though Mariano told the Globe in June he Michlewitz's donations have steadily ramped up in recent years, as donors bet on his bright future. He became House budget chairman in February 2019, a move that vaulted him into the chamber's upper ranks. After that promotion, Michlewitz was 'firmly planted in the conversation' about future leaders of the lower chamber, a Advertisement It's no secret that influential budget leaders often ascend to the top. When Mariano became speaker in 2021, Michlewitz's prospects brightened further. (Michlewitz has declined to comment on what his political future may hold, saying he is happy in his current role.) Amid speculation about Mariano's eventual retirement, donations to the speaker have steeply declined. Meanwhile, contributions to Michlewitz have soared — a clear indication of where the donor class expects power to land. Michlewitz's top contributor in 2024 was Tufts Medicine, whose flagship medical center sits in his district. The Mariano, the House's powerful leader, raised less than $41,000 in 2024. The speaker does not actively fund-raise and has not faced a serious challenger in his district in recent years, though state campaign finance records show he has about $250,000 on hand. Employees of Blue Cross Blue Shield — who collectively made the company Mariano's top donor — gave $6,700 to him in 2024 — about the same as Spilka, his counterpart in the Senate, though far less than employees there gave to Healey. Some of Mariano's other top donors, including Smith Costello and Crawford and Dempsey Insurance, employ top lobbyists on Beacon Hill whose clients had stakes in debates over issues such as energy policy. Several of those groups, however, donated far more to other top lawmakers: Employees of Smith, Costello, and Crawford, for instance, gave Michlewitz $2,500 — more than double the contributions employees of that firm gave to Mariano. Advertisement The five companies whose employees gave Spilka the most were all in health care or insurance, with workers from Arbella leading at $7,200 and Blue Cross employees close behind. Last year, the Legislature took up a wave of health care bills — including efforts to strengthen hospital oversight, expand access to pharmaceuticals, and improve maternal health care. While lawmakers on Beacon Hill routinely engage with the health care industry, which plays a crucial role in the state's economy, Spilka in particular has long prioritized mental health care as a top issue. Rodrigues, the Senate budget chief, had a more eclectic mix, with major donors from consulting, and the food and beverage industry. Blue Cross Blue Shield topped his list, with employees of that company giving a total of $4,500 to him, followed by Horizon Beverage, an alcohol retailer. The Dewey Square Group, a political consulting firm that employs a number of Democratic strategists, was another of his top donors. Moran, the House majority leader who oversees the chamber's large Democratic caucus, raised less than all but Mariano, though the array of most generous companies represented in his campaign account departs from that of his colleagues. His top contributor was Enterprise Mobility, the parent company of several car rental agencies that did not appear on any of the other top officials' filings. His second highest donor, the Davis Company, saw employees give Moran, collectively, $4,000. Davis Company, too, had business before Beacon Hill last year: It's one of the key real estate firms involved in developing the area around a proposed soccer stadium in Everett, which the Legislature approved in a major economic development bill last year. Advertisement Still, these charts don't capture the full scope of money's influence on Beacon Hill. Massachusetts' 30-year-old campaign finance law bars corporations from contributing directly to political candidates and office-holders, and caps contributions from registered lobbyists at $200, lowering donation totals compared with other states. Neena Hagen can be reached at
Boston Globe
26-06-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
‘Big brother in the business': The political odd couple whose partnership could reshape Boston politics
Wu, 40, calls 47-year-old Michlewitz her 'big brother in the business,' though he jokes that it's hard to see the powerful mayor of Boston as a 'little sister.' For more than a decade, they have been close friends and strong political allies, and when she speaks, he watches with the pride attendant to the familial role. Michlewitz is poised, if the parlor game is to be believed, to ascend to the House's most influential post when Speaker Ron Mariano ultimately retires. That potential promotion — the first time in nearly a generation that Boston would have one of its own in that role — could make a friendship that started 15 years ago in Boston's South End into the most important political partnership in New England. And it could mark a momentous shift for a city unusually beholden to the whims of Beacon Hill. Advertisement Wu and Michlewitz make up something of an odd couple. She is a locally elected progressive constrained by the more centrist tendencies of state powerbrokers; he is one of those powerbrokers. She is fighting Beacon Hill to give Boston rent control; he is on Beacon Hill opposing rent control. Her expansive agenda for the city depends on support from his colleagues at the state, and he does not always deliver it. Advertisement Aaron Michlewitz endorsed then-Councilor Michelle Wu for mayor in 2021. Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff And yet the two are undeniably close, sharing a genuine friendship that is not rooted in political expediency, according to conversations with more than a dozen people who know them. Michlewitz is one of the people the independent-minded mayor listens to above others, say people who know them well. And Wu's outside perspective has influenced Michlewitz, too, he says. Even when they are not at some event together — cutting ribbons, delivering canned remarks, cheesing at a It's hard to overstate how much Boston relies on Beacon Hill: for its funding, for its public transit system, for permission to do everything from grant a new liquor license to levy a new tax. Having Michlewitz at the helm could reverse the fortunes of a city known for Related : Of course, Michlewitz isn't speaker yet, and he declined to speculate on his political future. (Mariano, 78, has not said when he will retire, though speculation runs rampant; a spokesperson said Advertisement To be sure, even the best-placed ally can not guarantee that Boston will get what it wants from the Legislature. Michlewitz and other House leaders sometimes simply disagree with Wu, or believe the broader membership will disagree. In other moments, when they do line up, Michlewitz has muscled Wu's agenda through the House only to watch it die in the Senate, where she has fewer allies in leadership. Even so, Boston politicians say the close link between City Hall and the State House has already benefited both — to a point. 'Boston is the big winner in the situation,' said state Representative Adrian Madaro, an East Boston Democrat. Still, 'that doesn't mean that every mayor is going to get whatever he or she wants. Boston is not the be-all, end-all at the State House.' The Boston delegation is a limited faction of the 200-member state Legislature, Madaro added. 'It takes a lot of convincing to get anything done in this building.' Opposite paths to power Now arguably Boston's two most influential politicians, Wu and Michlewitz took opposite paths to power. Michlewitz is a self-described 'city kid.' A lifelong resident of the North End, he worked in college for former Boston mayor Tom Menino, then for Sal DiMasi, the last Bostonian to serve as speaker of the Massachusetts House. After DiMasi resigned in scandal, Michlewitz won his House seat in a 2009 special election — the innermost of inside tracks. Michlewitz has steadily climbed the ranks since; he is now House budget chair, one of the most powerful posts in the state. Advertisement Wu came from the outside. She arrived at Harvard from the Chicago area 20 years ago as a homesick college kid. The daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, she was a management consultant, a small business owner, and a law student before she found her way to politics, earning a summer fellowship under Menino in City Hall and working for Elizabeth Warren's first Senate campaign in 2012 before running for City Council herself. Wu and Michlewitz met about 15 years ago, when she was his constituent, and grew closer through her work leading the Ward 4 Democratic Committee and then through shared efforts on the Warren campaign. Michlewitz said he knew immediately that Wu would go far. They had not overlapped at City Hall, but they were both part of the broader 'Menino family,' a group bonded by devotion to the long-serving mayor. And both had a mentor in Near the end of 2012, Michlewitz recalled, Wu asked him to lunch at Zen in Beacon Hill and told him she was running for city councilor at-large. At that time, it looked like there would be four incumbents seeking reelection in the race, which meant, to win, Wu would need to knock one of them off. Standing with her could mean rocking the boat. Michlewitz agreed to back her before she could even get the words out to ask, he recalled. He was her first endorsement. Once Wu was elected to the City Council, they became close collaborators on local issues, discussing sewers, alleyways, restrictions on Uber and AirBnB. In August 2014, Michlewitz posted a video in a white undershirt Advertisement 'It's so rare and it's so meaningful in a space like politics to also find room for friendships,' Wu said in an interview. 'In some ways, it's felt like we've grown up together in Boston politics.' The two politicians agree often, but not always. In 2016, when developers proposed a hulking, 700-foot-plus Winthrop Square tower, critics fretted about the shadow it would cast on Boston Common. Wu Michlewitz confessed to being 'frustrated' by some of the city's new bike lanes, which Wu campaigned on expanding. But their friendship endures despite those disagreements. 'We both have jobs to do. We have mutual respect for each other, which I think is important. And sometimes those jobs don't necessarily align,' he said. There are times when rigid State House traditions seem to take precedence. In 2021, Michlewitz endorsed his House colleague Jon Santiago for mayor of Boston, backing him — as many state lawmakers did — over Wu. The message was clear: Beacon Hill stands by its own. Related : There seem to have been no lasting hard feelings. When Santiago dropped out of the race months later, Michlewitz endorsed Wu and campaigned with her. On the day before the November election, with polls heavily favoring Wu, she and Michlewitz had lunch with Uncle Frank. Michlewitz recalled how optimistic he and Chin felt about the outcome. Wu remembered it as an anchoring moment of calm before the storm. Advertisement Michlewitz wore a Michelle Wu for mayor button as he campaigned for her in 2021. Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff When Wu won the next night, Michlewitz introduced her at her victory party. He hugged her, then stepped out of her spotlight so she could greet the triumphant crowd. 'The best ally' Their relationship has only grown more central to the region's politics since that night. In the beginning of her term, they spoke every day, Michlewitz said. ''What do you think about this … How quickly should we do this?'' he recalled. 'Sometimes she'll listen to me, sometimes she doesn't.' How often are they in touch now? 'A lot,' Wu said, with a laugh. Every Boston mayor has relied on allies at the State House, in part because Rent control, fare-free public transit, major elements of her plans for a greener city — all rest in the hands of her counterparts in the state Legislature. And history shows Boston mayors don't have a strong record there, even those, like Marty Walsh, who were once state legislators themselves. Related : With Michlewitz in her corner, as well as other key allies such as Majority Leader Michael Moran of Brighton, Wu has notched some major wins. The city has been granted a seat on the Having allies in leadership makes those victories possible. 'Everything that the city needs at the House level is something [Michlewitz] is very helpful on,' said Phil Frattaroli, a North End restaurateur who has been involved in city politics. 'He's the best ally. … He's the best card to have in your hand.' Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Massachusetts House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Aaron Michlewitz embraced at the podium during a Massachusetts Democratic Party fund-raiser at Empire Garden restaurant in Chinatown in May. Erin Clark But sometimes — as in the case of rent control — Michlewitz does not agree with Wu, leaving a policy proposal nowhere at the State House. Cynical political observers note Michlewitz is unlikely to risk his own standing — or his path to the speaker's office — to benefit the mayor. Wu acknowledged that the two don't always agree; 'at the city level versus the state level, there are different considerations,' she said. 'It's a different pace up there,' which can be frustrating, she continued. 'There's always something to be moving forward and collaborating on, and maybe, from his perspective, there's probably always something that I'm impatient on at any given moment. But that's my job.' When Michlewitz does line up with Wu, sometimes even his influence can take her agenda only so far. The ugliest battle Wu has faced to date on Beacon Hill was her effort last year to shift Boston's tax burden. She needed the state's permission to temporarily raise rates on businesses in order to blunt the increases to residents' bills. It was a tall order on Beacon Hill, where business leaders who feel scorned by Wu tend to find more favorable treatment. The powerful real estate industry staunchly opposed Wu's proposal. Michlewitz knew it would be 'challenging' to pass it, but thought Wu should have the flexibility to maneuver through a difficult economic cycle. Cue the negotiations. After Wu and Michlewitz agreed to a slightly narrower, 'He worked in the House to assure everyone that this was the right thing to do, because it wasn't an easy thing to get through,' said Jason Aluia, a lobbyist and leader of Boston's Ward 3 Democratic Committee who grew up with Michlewitz in the North End. Wu and Michlewitz are able to talk frankly even about difficult political realities, Aluia said. 'He has a very keen political sense,' Aluia said. 'He's going to say, 'I could help you do this, but that's not happening right now,' and she accepts that because she knows the State House is his place, and the city is her domain.' Trouble stirred again, though, when Wu's proposal headed to the Senate side, where a carefully Related : It wasn't the first time, nor is it likely to be the last, that Wu's agenda cleared Michlewitz's wing of the building only to die on the side where he wields far less influence. For some, there is a simple structural explanation: Beacon Hill runs on hierarchy, and Boston's stock is higher on the House side. Of course, Wu is not the only one who benefits from the relationship. Michlewitz can turn to her on constituent issues or local city matters, such as street design (though, as they both readily acknowledged, they don't always agree). In recent years, as they navigated a Wu and Michlewitz appeared in the North End amid a bitter debate over outdoor dining in the neighborhood. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff A second-term mayor with a strong mandate from voters, plus a freshly crowned House speaker from her city, would make for a powerful political force. But it remains to be seen whether each will take that next step, and whether they will row in the same direction if they do. 'Having leadership that's connected to Boston, of course, is going to shed a light on the needs in our city,' Wu said. 'There's always a lot to talk about on work issues and politics, but I'm grateful for a friendship that goes far beyond that.' For his part, Michlewitz said of Wu, 'Sometimes she can convince me, sometimes I have to try to convince her.' 'The thing that I appreciate about the mayor the most is that she is an honest broker,' he said. 'That to me is more important than policy sometimes.' Emma Platoff can be reached at
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
House joins Healey in pressing forward on spending
STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, APRIL 16, Democrats will push for a significant increase in state spending after months of voicing discomfort about federal funding uncertainty and economic upheaval. The House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday will roll out a $61.4 billion annual budget for fiscal year 2026, a plan whose combined traditional and wealth surtax spending is about 6.4% higher than the budget Gov. Maura Healey signed last summer. Lawmakers traditionally add spending to the budget through the amendment process, which will unfold when the House takes up the proposal during the week of April 28. Beacon Hill has been wracked with angst for months about President Donald Trump's dramatic efforts to cut federal spending, which could whittle away significant dollars that flow toward state governments. Healey previously estimated that federal revenue would contribute about $16 billion toward her budget plan. House budget chief Aaron Michlewitz said representatives 'feel confident' that they can sustain spending growth at more than twice the rate of the prior year. 'In some respects, there's greater need, like in food insecurity and places like that. I think our budget is balanced, it's responsible,' Michlewitz told reporters. 'We feel that it provides the services that are necessary in these times, which is unprecedented in terms of the chaos that we're dealing with from not having a reliable partner on the federal side of things.' The House budget is the first major state spending plan for next year to emerge after Trump and Republicans moved to significantly overhaul federal funding. While the bottom line may grow during House budget debate, mostly through mega-amendments constructed in private that steer millions of dollars to local earmarks, the House Ways and Means Committee draft starts nearly $600 million lower than Healey's plan. Michlewitz said with a slightly smaller bottom line than Healey proposed, the House budget would enable the state to be able to better respond to federal cuts that might materialize. 'The aggressive actions of the new administration in Washington, particularly around tariffs, will only drive prices up and will further put pressure on both the state's fiscal outlook and people's wallets,' Michlewitz said. 'A trade war on top of unilateral funding freezes and a general sense of chaos emulating out of our nation's capital leads to major challenges towards constructing a budget, to say the least. The worst-case scenario for a budget writer is uncertainty. When faced with cuts, we know where we can cut. When faced with a surplus, we know what we can add. But not knowing what the future will bring means that we have to plan for anything and everything.' The House Ways and Means budget redraft omits a series of new taxes and tax increases Healey proposed in her version, including a charitable donation cap and a tax on prescription drug manufacturers for excessive price increases, together worth an estimated $471 million in revenue. The panel matched Healey's proposal to draw about $1.6 billion from one-time sources to pay for spending increases, including an idea to redirect more than half a billion dollars in capital gains tax collections that normally would be deposited into the state's long-term savings account. Some of the spending growth would be driven by the voter-approved surtax on wealthy households. In the fiscal 2025 spending plan, lawmakers and Healey agreed to use $1.3 billion in revenue from that source; in fiscal 2026, that would rise to $1.95 billion. Surtax dollars in the House budget would continue to fund free school meals for all students, early education grants, and free community college. They would also contribute to a significant increase in funding for the MBTA -- the House proposes a total of $687 million for T operating costs -- at a time when the transit agency faces a major funding gap that could imperil recent service improvements. The largest area of spending remains MassHealth, which combines Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program under one umbrella. House Democrats proposed $22.43 billion for the program, a $2.36 billion increase over last year's budget. Much of that money is traditionally reimbursed by the federal government, but Republicans in Washington, D.C. are seriously considering deep Medicaid spending cuts in part to fulfill their tax relief goals. House Democrats packed their plan with several noteworthy policy riders. The bill would expand the duration of a pilot program at the Massachusetts Health Connector from two years to three years, and raise the eligibility threshold for subsidized ConnectorCare coverage from 300% of the federal poverty level to 500%. Michlewitz and House Speaker Ron Mariano now also appear to be on board with limiting the impact of broker fees on renters, an idea that House Democrats killed during negotiations with the Senate on a housing bond bill last year. The House budget would prohibit a real estate broker from charging a tenant or prospective tenant for finding an apartment if the renter did not initiate use of the broker's services. Mariano said the measure would ensure 'that the party who hires the broker ultimately pays the fee.' 'While shifting the burden of those fees is only one facet of our effort to bring down the cost of renting here in the commonwealth, the fees are simply unfair,' Mariano said. 'It's an unfair cost for renters who do not contract a broker and therefore should not have that as a responsibility.' Representatives outlined significant changes to education funding and policy compared to Healey's budget, calling for a minimum school aid amount of $150 per student, compared to $75 per student in Healey's budget, and moving to block any changes to vocational school admissions policies for at least a year. Their budget also seeks a cut in funding for the emergency assistance shelter program, which for much of Healey's term has been crushed by soaring demand. Lawmakers and Healey have agreed to several additional rounds of dollars to the program, pushing the annual cost close to $1 billion, while implementing reforms designed to cut eligibility, length of stay and caseloads. The House budget -- rolled out as the Healey administration said current caseloads in shelters dropped below 5,000 for the first time in nearly two years -- would fund the program at $275 million in fiscal 2026. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Taxes still on table as House prepares budget unveiling
BOSTON (SHNS) – The House budget chief declined Monday to rule out tax increases as he prepared to roll out a budget plan. A week before releasing a redraft of Gov. Maura Healey's $62 billion fiscal 2026 budget, House Ways and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz initially dodged the tax question but then said taxes remain on the table. 'Certainly everything's still on the table for conversation,' he said, after initially telling reporters outside his office that 'you'll hear more about that in the coming days' when asked about tax changes in the budget. 'We're trying to build a budget that is fiscally sound and also allows us to be able to pivot if necessary based off a lot of these challenges that we're seeing from the federal government, from a financial standpoint a lot of uncertainty,' Michlewitz added. 'And then certainly with this tariff situation, top down with the affordability crisis that we're facing, we certainly are taking that all into consideration.' Healey's budget was up for a public hearing in Attleboro on Monday and its final hearing is planned for Tuesday. Michlewitz said he wanted to wait for the hearings to wrap up before making final determinations on taxes. 'Once that happens, you'll hear more of those conversations,' he said. House Speaker Ronald Mariano in late March said House Democrats would not adopt Healey's plan to add new taxes on prescription drugs, appearing to take off the table more than $200 million in proposed levies. He also indicated the House would likely not pursue Healey's idea to apply the sales tax to candy. Raise Up Massachusetts, the coalition behind the income surtax on wealthy households that voters approved in 2022, is lobbying this year for a 'corporate fair share' tax package that would target businesses that use 'offshore tax havens' to steer profits overseas. Taxing these corporations the same way that other states do could yield hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding for Massachusetts, according to the coalition. Michlewitz said estimated tax returns and non-withholding tax data in recent months suggest another income surtax surplus tied to fiscal 2025 is in the works. 'We will probably have a good amount of surplus next year based off how the numbers are coming in so far,' he said. 'We won't know those finalized until summertime, or some point.' With financial markets tanking on news of President Donald Trump's efforts to reshape global trade through tariffs, some analysts say budgetary support from the surtax and capital gains taxes will dry up and believe lawmakers need to immediately write down tax revenue estimates for the budgets they are about to debate. 'It's hard to predict,' Michlewitz said. 'Obviously the unpredictability and kind of the fluidness that's going on right now within the federal government is going to cause a lot of concern, and if that changes anything we'll have to react to it.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Expert offers tips for budgeting on 'roller coaster ride'
BOSTON (SHNS) – One of the economic experts most often relied upon by Beacon Hill's budget managers recommended Thursday that the Legislature and administration develop a strategy to digest and respond to federal government shifts, and to do so in a way that relates closely to the ongoing state budget process. Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation President Doug Howgate said he thinks it's still too early to be thinking about potential changes revenue assumptions being used to build the roughly $62 billion state budget for fiscal year 2026, which starts July 1. But he urged lawmakers at a hearing of the Joint Committee on Ways and Means to work with Gov. Maura Healey's team to coordinate a state response to the flurry of changes President Donald Trump has made or says he will make, many of which could significantly affect state spending plans. 'So much has happened. We don't know what the impacts are going to be, and we don't know what's going to happen. And so how does the state respond to that when we know that the resources available to us — whether it's financial resources, time, process — they're all limited, right? It's critically important that we create, I think, an approach across the administration, House and Senate, that allows us to collect information, assess options and coordinate a response,' he said. 'And I think it's critically important that as that exercise obviously takes into account how we listen to our communities, constituents, fellow members, but it also needs to reside pretty closely to budget decisions. At the end of the day, so much of what is going to be coming down the pike related to whatever the feds do or don't do, whatever happens to the economy, is going to be intertwined with the budget.' Trump has moved quickly in his second term to reshape the federal government and its budget, making or planning steps that could force Massachusetts officials to rethink the state's plans. Two weeks before House Democrats are due to release their rewrite of Healey's budget (H 1), there'ss significant uncertainty around the future of Medicaid funding and other federal programs that are critical to the state budget. Medicaid reimbursements account for the majority of the $16 billion of federal dollars baked into the governor's budget. Senate Ways and Means Chairman Sen. Michael Rodrigues, who gets about a month longer than House chairman Rep. Aaron Michlewitz before he needs to unveil his committee's proposal for fiscal 2026, asked Howgate during a hearing on spending surplus surtax revenues whether he and Michlewitz should 'be reconsidering what we had proposed for FY '26 given the actions of the president.' Rodrigues, Michlewitz and Administration and Finance Secretary Matthew Gorzkowicz agreed in January to build the fiscal 2026 budget on a $43.614 billion consensus revenue estimate, including $2.4 billion expected from the state's surtax on high earners. Howgate said his answer would be 'a provisional no' given where the state is in its budget development. 'The question is, if you were to make different assumptions now, what would that be based on? And would they be better than the assumptions you'll make in May or June once you see some of those numbers? And my gut is the answer to that is probably no,' he explained. 'Now, setting correct expectations for folks that this stuff may not be written in pen right now, and we may need to make some serious adjustments — just as both chairs made in 2020, when I think you took the appropriate action in terms of adjusting the budget, adjusting the timeline, in light of circumstances. We're not in that world right now, but folks need to know that when stuff changes, we have to adapt as well. I think that needs to be out there, but I don't know that you would have better information to make informed adjustments right now compared to a little later in the process.' Responding to broad questions about Trump's economic policy from House Vice Chair Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, Howgate detailed what he's watching for from D.C. He said he expects to know what the federal budget will look like and the fate of tax cut extensions by July, but that it will be harder for the state to anticipate or plan for administrative changes or shifts in economic conditions. 'You can only kind of plan for the information you have. And so that's why I do think, as you think about the actions that the House, Senate, [and] administration are taking, keying in on the Congressional budget process and the tax cuts extension, along with what's going on in the stock market and what's going on with the economy, those are the three things we can best track day to day to day, because I think we're gonna have to hedge quite a bit for federal policy uncertainty that's going to continue to be, I'm sure, quite a roller coaster ride for the next three plus years.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
