$86M spending bill pushed to Patrick
While some partisan rifts remain, House and Senate leaders from both parties overcame their differences on Friday to pass an $86 million budget bill intended to close the books on fiscal 2014, which ended on July 1.
House Republicans on Thursday blocked passage of the bill, objecting to the inclusion of local spending earmarks so close to Tuesday's statewide and legislative elections.
Some earmarks were included in the final bill that cleared both branches on Friday, while explicit funding for senior centers in Templeton and Hubbardston, which had been sought by Reps. Denise Andrews and Anne Gobi, were not.
The Legislature instead set up a fund controlled by the Patrick administration with $2 million to support municipal public works and public health projects.
Andrews (D-Orange) is running for reelection against Athol Republican Susannah Whipps, while Gobi (D-Spencer) is battling Michael Valanzola (R-Wales) for the seat of outgoing Sen. Stephen Brewer's.
Rep. George Peterson, assistant House minority leader, said the House GOP allowed the bill to advance because of the midnight deadline for the state comptroller to close the books on fiscal 2014 and the need to deliver funding for sheriffs and more than 70 collective bargaining contracts. He said the bill no longer has "direct references" to the earmarks Republicans found objectionable.
"The Democratic majority has really tried to use this tool as a political weapon and it's getting a little bit frustrating and we've been placed in the breach of all these union contracts that have been negotiated in good faith and should have been funded months ago," said Peterson (R-Grafton).
In a Friday press statement, Andrews upbraided Republicans for blocking the bill on Thursday, calling the Templeton Senior Center "vital" to the town and saying center supporters need a "bit of help" from the state to complete construction. She said she and Gobi reached out to House Ways and Means Chairman Brian Dempsey for the earmark.
"After reviewing the many bond bills passed earlier this year and past budgets, it's clear these same people weren't against earmarks for projects in their own districts," she said in the statement. "There is a real fear that the furnace in the current senior center will not make it through the winter."
The version of the bill that Peterson objected to included $500,000 for a senior center in Hubbardston, $300,000 for the senior center in Templeton, and $200,000 for a highway department building in Boylston.
Brewer, the chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said the panel and its House counterpart have to be informed when the Patrick administration will disburse money from the $2 million fund that lawmakers set up after removing the earmarks objected to by House Republicans.
"They won't happen tomorrow. Or before Tuesday," he said, in a reference to the Nov. 4 election.
House Minority Leader Brad Jones objected to Andrews' press release and issued a rebuttal to her statements, calling them "particularly incredible and hollow since I have not heard word one from her about any issue pertaining to the final deficiency/ supplemental budget for the last three weeks."
Separately, the bill directs funds earmarked in the fiscal 2015 budget for the restoration a a Barre public safety building.
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