Weekly Roundup – Chains of Command

Recap and analysis of the week in state government

Masks. Wear ’em if you want to.

Massachusetts joined a growing number of states around the country this week that began to relax masking requirements as the omicron surge fades and imaginations drift to what it would be like to see people’s full faces again.

Stepping back into what has become an increasingly polarized, and political, debate over the continued necessity of masking, Gov. Charlie Baker made the decision to allow masking requirements in public schools to lapse at the end of the month when his order is set to expire.

And Baker was not alone.

Governors in about a dozen states took similar actions, from California and Illinois to Connecticut. But the herd could not fully protect Baker from the blowback that was to be expected, as some Democrats and teachers unions questioned whether it was too soon, or if he should at least wait a few more weeks until after the upcoming school vacation.

“Our kids have had to put up with a lot of disruption, a lot of time alone, and have suffered a real learning loss over the past two years,” Baker said. “Given the extremely low risk for young people, the widespread availability and the proven effectiveness of vaccines, and the distribution of accurate test protocols and tests, it’s time to give our kids a sense of normalcy.”

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on Thursday reported 6,723 cases of COVID-19 among students and staff over the previous week, an 86.8 percent decrease in school-reported cases over the last five weeks.

Baker, of course, said local school districts are free to keep mask mandates in place if they wish, and that’s exactly what Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said she intends to do.

Wu said Boston would wait to drop masks in the classroom until transmission and hospitalization rates support such a decision, the same metrics the mayor is using to determine when to lift the city’s indoor vaccination mandate for businesses. Other cities and towns will be making similar calls before the end of the month.

But if it’s good for the goose, what about the … Legislature?

Still shuttered to the public after 703 days, Baker said he believes the State House should reopen to visitors and anyone with business before their elected representatives, but legislative leaders continue to slow walk that decision-making process.

As Baker made his school masking announcement in the third-floor library of the State House, protesters in the basement pushed past security demanding access to the “People’s House,” among other gripes they chose to air.

“It’s their building, it’s their call,” Baker said, referring to the House and Senate.

State Police officers talk with a small group of protesters after they occupied a State House hallway Wednesday, chanting “this is our building” and demanding leaders “open the State House to the people.” [Sam Doran/SHNS]

Technically, it seems the governor might have a point. While the Bureau of the State House sits within the executive branch, Massachusetts General Laws stipulate that the building superintendent should operate and maintain the building “subject to such rules as the committee on rules of the 2 branches, acting concurrently, may adopt…”

There was nothing concurrent about Senate President Karen Spilka’s declaration that she intends to open Senate sessions to the public on Feb. 22, but it remains to be seen how exactly that would work.

Spilka said the reopening of the State House must be contingent on visitors being vaccinated for COVID-19 and wearing masks, but her office had nothing to say about how that would be enforced, or what would happen once a visitor entered the building and was free to roam.

Perhaps she was just trying to use a deadline to spur the House to get on board with a reopening plan, but only time will tell.

House Speaker Ron Mariano, who supports proof of vaccination to enter the building, wouldn’t say if he supports a Feb. 22 reopening.

“The Speaker is eager to safely reopen to the public,” Mariano spokeswoman Ana Vivas said on Friday afternoon. “Understanding it’s a public building, the Speaker is prioritizing safety while also ensuring everyone has equal access when open to the public. The House is in active conversations with the Administration and the Senate to finalize the plan and work through logistics.”

Mariano may not be ready to hang the welcome sign above the General Hooker entrance, but after years (decades?) of debating whether undocumented immigrants should be able to get a driver’s license the speaker is ready to try to answer that question. And the answer is, “Yes.”

Mariano signaled plans to put the license bill on the floor next week for a vote, the first time it has progressed that far in either branch. Baker has long suggested opposition to the idea, but House leaders say they’re hopeful once he sees the public safety protections included in the legislation he can be persuaded.

Like dropping its school mask mandate, Massachusetts wouldn’t be alone in this either. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia already have laws allowing residents who can’t prove legal status in the United States to show other documentation to prove their identity and qualify for a license.

Mariano’s vote-whipping skills will be put to the test next week, and it’s likely he’ll find more opposition than he did Thursday to legislation reforming oversight of the Holyoke and Chelsea soldiers’ homes.

The bill spawned from multiple investigations into a early-pandemic COVID-19 outbreak at the Holyoke long-term care facilities won near unanimous support in the House, but one vote that wasn’t immediately evident from the 156-1 tally was that of Rep. Linda Dean Campbell.

The retiring Methuen Democrat and veteran voted present, despite helping to lead the Legislature’s investigation into the Holyoke tragedy and writing a comprehensive reform bill with Sen. Michael Rush.

Campbell said the bill she and Rush wrote was “much more comprehensive” than the one leadership presented on Thursday. Among other changes, the House bill did not elevate the secretary of veterans affairs to full Cabinet status or give the governor direct authority to hire, and fire, the superintendent of the facilities.

Both reforms, Campbell and others said, would help establish a clear chain of command after so much was made in the aftermath of Holyoke of how much Baker knew and when.

The Senate will get its chance at the soldiers’ home bill soon, Spilka said, but first up was Sen. Cindy Friedman’s bill to rein in high pharmaceutical costs, putting the drug manufacturers and pharmacy benefit manager under greater state scrutiny and capping out-of-pocket patient costs for insulin at $25 a month.

While the Legislature made progress on some of the priorities of its leaders this week, the chairs of the House and Senate Ways and Means committees were more circumspect when it came to one of Gov. Baker’s top budgetary initiatives – tax relief.

Administration and Finance Secretary Mike Heffernan kicked off the annual budget hearing process by making the case for Baker’s package of nearly $700 million in tax cuts for renters, seniors, low-income households, middle-class investors and anyone who pays the estate tax.

Heffernan said it was time to give back and make Massachusetts more competitive at a time when employees and businesses have more freedom than ever before to live and work where they want, or can afford.

Rep. Aaron Michlewitz and Sen. Michael Rodrigues both said they’d give Baker’s proposal its due respect, but neither appeared to be drooling over the prospect of tax cuts, even in an election year.

Speaking of which, Secretary of State William Galvin is running for reelection this fall and warning that Baker’s budget proposal deeply underfunds elections, especially if the Legislature expects to authorize voting-by-mail.

Rep. Carolyn Dykema won’t be on the ballot, working her last day in the Legislature this week as she leaves for a job in the solar energy industry, and Rep. Sheila Harrington could be next to depart after her confirmation hearing before the Governor’s Council this week to become the next clerk magistrate in Gardner District Court.

Unlike those two colleagues, Republican Rep. Shawn Dooley hopes to be on the ballot in November, but he’ll be running for the Senate instead of his House seat after deciding to take on incumbent Democrat Sen. Becca Rausch in a district historically favorable to Republicans.

Remember when President Donald Trump was running for reelection and a controversy ignited over Trump’s name being included on the memo line of stimulus checks being mailed out to millions of Americans?

Well, we’re not sure if Baker’s name will be on the checks when they start going out next month (and he’s not running for reelection), but the governor finalized plans this week to send $500 to about 500,000 low-income workers.

The money was included as part of the $4 billion American Rescue Plan Act spending law and intended to be a bonus for low-income, frontline workers who stayed on the job during the early days of the pandemic, though the only criteria Baker is using for eligibility in this round is income.

The checks to be mailed in March allocate about $250 million of the $460 million bonus-pay fund.