Latest news with #Rodriques
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mass. budget debate points to a subtle but seismic shift on Beacon Hill
People talk a lot about inflection points — and it's always in the past tense. You rarely recognize them as they're happening. But if you were paying attention to Beacon Hill this week, you saw one in real-time and in the most unexpected and resolutely anodyne of places: The start of the Massachusetts Senate's annual budget debate. Ready? Here it is, courtesy of Senate Committee on Ways and Means Chairperson Michael Rodrigues, D-1st Bristol/Plymouth. 'Over the course of the last few months, we have witnessed firsthand how our federal partners have unleashed unprecedented amounts of uncertainty, unpredictability and volatility,' the South Coast lawmaker said Monday as the majority-Democrat chamber started debate on a $61.3 billion spending plan for the new fiscal year that starts July 1. 'In past turbulent times, the question we asked ourselves was, 'How much help can we expect from our friends in D.C.?' Yet today, we find ourselves in the unique position of asking, 'How much is D.C. going to hurt us today?'' Rodriques mused, according to State House News Service. The sentiment isn't a new one. Elected and community leaders across the Bay State have been sounding the alarm for months about the impact that diminished federal funding will have on the state's bottom line. And a word about process: The Senate is expected to spend most of the week wading through more than 1,000 amendments to the budget proposal. Senators have been advised of a 'potential' formal session on Thursday as well, the wire service reported As a refresher, Massachusetts gets nearly $23 billion in funding from Washington every year, with around $16 billion of it pumped into the state's operating budget, data show. But spending cuts across the federal government that already have taken place, and those being eyed by Republicans on Capitol Hill — including Medicaid and hunger assistance — are expected to throw states' economies into disarray. And that doesn't even count the hit that nonprofits and colleges and universities, all of them economic players, are taking this year. Democratic Gov. Maura Healey, who will have a big say in the final shape of the spending plan that hits her desk, already has announced an executive branch hiring freeze because of the shaky funding picture. Read More: These key public services won't be hit by the state's hiring freeze, Mass. Gov. Healey says One more big tell about the changed political and economic topography? While there's not exactly emphatic Republican agreement about the Democrats' spending priorities, there's a clear-eyed recognition that the state is facing seismic forces this year that it has not seen before. Here's Senate Minority Leader Bruce E. Tarr, R-1st Essex/Middlesex: 'I dare say that while every budget is important and while every budget is a challenge, the consequences of our decisions with this budget are perhaps more intense than some of the recent budgets that we've dealt with,' Tarr said Monday during the customary GOP response. The Gloucester lawmaker noted that he and his colleagues had faced uncertain times before, notably during the COVID-19 pandemic, State House News Service reported. But, he allowed, 'we always found a way to move forward to address the uncertainty and those difficult economic times.' That makes it 'imperative that we do so once again,' and while Rodriques pointed to one 'element of uncertainty, there is another element. And that other element deals with the issue of what could be an economic downturn that could have significant consequences for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.' Tarr isn't the only one thinking that way. Jim Rooney, the president and CEO of the influential Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, had the same issues on his mind recently. Massachusetts already was struggling with economic competitiveness and job creation issues before Trump returned to office in January, Rooney told WBZ-TV's 'Keller @Large' program last weekend. 'Now you layer on job-impacting types of federal policies like tariffs, like research funding, like immigration and that was going to be tough anyway,' Rooney said. 'And ... if you look at where our jobs are, [with] high concentrations in life sciences and medicine ... this is right in the gut of the Massachusetts economy,' he continued. Those concerns are further underlined by new research by Mark Williams, a master lecturer in finance at Boston University, concluding that the Republican White House's policies could result in billions of dollars in lost revenue and tens of thousands of job losses as early as next year. That's because, compared to other states, the Bay State's economy 'disproportionately' depends on such sectors as life sciences, higher education, trade and tourism, Williams said. All of those already have been — or will be hit — by Trump's economic policies. Which brings us back to Rodriques and the admittedly limited palette that he and his fellow lawmakers, along with Healey, have to work with this budget season. The Senate's top budget-writer has ruled out dipping into the state's Rainy Day Fund to backfill any lost federal money. Healey has repeatedly said the state doesn't have the cash to do it on its own. And over in the House, which passed its $61.4 billion budget proposal earlier this month, House Committee on Ways and Means Chairperson Aaron Michlewitz, D-3rd Suffolk, has been similarly circumspect. The fiscal picture could be clarified as the June 30 deadline to approve a new spending plan approaches — and as the two chambers reconcile the differences between the $62 billion budget plan backed by Healey and their respective proposals. Spending cuts appear to be decidedly off the table. Right now, the only certain thing is the budget deadline, and lawmakers routinely blow through that. So it's good to know we can count on at least one thing. From Baker to Ballot: Republican Mike Kennealy makes his pitch for governor | Bay State Briefing Rümeysa Öztürk chose grace over bitterness. What we can learn | John L. Micek 'What About Us?': Native leaders say time's up on broken promises | John L. Micek Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘All bets are off' if Trump cuts Medicaid, Mass. Senate budget boss warns
As unenviable positions go, this one has to be right up there. On Tuesday, as they rolled out a $61.3 billion, no-tax-hike budget for the new fiscal year that starts July 1, Democrats who control the state Senate had to contend with the very real possibility that the rug could be pulled out from under them at any second. That's because the Trump administration and its Republican allies on Capitol Hill could still shut off the flow of billions of dollars in federal funding that provides a critical underpinning to programs across state government. And that's nowhere more plain than in MassHealth, the massive state health care program, which accounts for 37% of total general fund spending in the Democrats' fiscal blueprint. It dwarfs other key sectors, including transportation (2%), public safety (3%) and even education (8%). So, even with Medicaid squarely in Congress's crosshairs as it tries to drum up money for tax cuts, Senate budget-writers in the Bay State moved ahead with their spending plan, assuming the best, and decidedly preparing for the worst. 'We think it's prudent to move forward and to pass a budget based upon the facts that we know now, and then we'll deal with the future,' Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairperson Michael Rodriques, D-1st Bristol/Plymouth, said during a briefing in his State House Office on Tuesday morning. 'We hear from experts that there's no way [President Donald Trump] is going to touch Medicaid, because Medicaid reductions will hurt so-called red states more than us, because they have such a high percentage of [beneficiaries],' he mused. And if Congress and the Republican White House do take a weed-whacker to Medicaid? 'We've just got to stay calm, stay focused, and be open-minded enough that we might be back at the table in a few months,' Rodriques, of Westport, said, referring to the supplemental budgets the Legislature frequently passes when cash runs short. He also ruled out dipping into the state's Rainy Day Fund just in case. The spending plan unveiled Tuesday, an increase of $3.6 billion, or 6.3% above the current approved spending of $57.7 billion, pumps more money into public education, transportation and social services. It also comes in below the $62 billion proposal that Democratic Gov. Maura Healey proposed earlier this year, and a smidge lower than the $61.4 billion spending blueprint the majority-Democrat House approved last week. Rodriques dismissed suggestions that the Senate's plan, while lower than both those offered by Healey and the House, boosted spending too much at a time of acknowledged uncertainty. 'You know, think nursing homes, long-term care for seniors. Think health care for seniors, for [the] disabled, for low-income individuals,' he said. 'That's the driver ... unless we want to stop reducing services to our residents. I don't see any way that we [can]. You know, we've scrubbed it clean." But if Trump and Republicans do slash funding, then 'all bets are off,' Rodriques warned. In some ways, you could argue that there was nothing new under the sun on Tuesday as Rodriques, at one point joined by Senate President Karen E. Spilka, sketched out the Hobson's choice that policymakers could face on federal funding in the coming months. It's the same one that faces Healey and the House as Beacon Hill moves into the thick of budget season. It was nonetheless noteworthy to hear it discussed in such frank terms — and to have it juxtaposed against two pandemic-era budgets when Washington was firehosing federal assistance onto the states. 'Now the situation is how much Washington could hurt us and restrict us from providing what we think the citizens deserve,' Rodriques said. Since his return to power in January, the Republican president has cast a long shadow over Massachusetts, from his battery of executive orders that touch nearly every part of public life, to his ongoing, pitched battle with Harvard University. 'We are in an uncertain moment — you all know this as well as I do," Spilka, of Ashland, said. 'Things change, not week to week, or even month to month, or day by day, it's hour to hour. So it's impossible to know the level of chaos that's going on, and we can only produce a budget based on what we do know.' 'And we do not know [whether] the federal government might decide to punish the state financially for being who we are. And that, to me, is among the worst punishments possible,' she continued. 'They may cut funding for being who we are as Massachusetts. [But] we will continue to protect our residents, defend our values and lead Massachusetts.' Which brings us back to MassHealth, as Medicaid is known in Massachusetts. The sprawling program provides services to 2 million of the state's 7.1 million residents, state data show. Of that number, 1.6 million are low- to moderate-income families, while another 500,000 beneficiaries are people living with disabilities and older adults. On Capitol Hill, majority Republicans are walking a tight rope as they try to slash federal spending by $1.5 trillion, with hundreds of billions likely coming from Medicaid, as they seek to pay for Trump's tax cuts. Republican leaders have denied that they'll cut one of the third-rail entitlement programs. But experts agree that it's tough to imagine them reaching their targets without cutting Medicaid, according to CBS News. Back in Boston, with the Senate's budget unveiled and all the chess pieces on the board, there's not much more to do than to wait and see what happens next. And anyway, 'we've got other things to move on to,' Rodriques said. Read more analysis from John L. Micek Read the original article on MassLive.
