BHB: April 2003 Archives

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Beacon Hill Beat By Curt Lovelace

April 2003 Editions. Compiled from staff reports, wire services, and the State House News Service.

Opponents of greyhound racing are looking forward to House debate Wednesday on three revenue-related amendments. Rep. Reed Hillman (R-Sturbridge) is sponsoring attempts to roll back a $4.5 million tax break granted to the racetracks in 2001. The Legislature that year agreed to redirect a portion of the state's take from the tracks to increase purses. In his budget filing, Gov. Mitt Romney proposed an outside section repealing the tax break, which was pushed as a way to assist a struggling industry. Hillman will also propose repealing a pair of trust funds that reimburse racetracks for capital improvements and promotions. The trust funds receive state funding based on a fixed percentage of the live handle at racetracks.

Rep. Daniel Bosley, co-chairman of the Government Regulations Committee, which reviews gaming-related bills, favors retaining the tax breaks, but believes racetrack workers will soon need job training. "The racing industry is dying on its own," said Bosley, who last week led the effort to defeat slot machines and casino gaming proposals. "We need to let them die, I think, a natural death. There are a lot of jobs in those industries." Bosley said wiping out the tax breaks will accelerate the industry's demise. House debate on revenue-related budget amendments begins at noon Wednesday.

Two days before the House begins its annual state budget debate, House Democrats again huddled privately Monday to discuss the state of affairs. Following the private caucus, Rep. Daniel Bosley (D-North Adams) said members have been eyeing accounts to draw from in order to pay for their spending amendments. Accounts frequently targeted, according to Bosley, include the state pension line item, a new line item to advertise Lottery games, a correctional facilities account, and a proposed $30 million fund intended to reward efficiency at public higher education institutions.

According to an order in effect for this year's debate, amendments that add more than $100,000 in spending must be accompanied by amendments that subtract an equal amount from another line item. It's not an easy task, says Bosley. Many line items have already been cut, some include retained revenue and others attract federal matching funds.

Dozens of legislators led the charge against an amendment that would preclude Massachusetts from recognizing same-sex marriages as legal. A similar amendment brought forth last year was defeated by the Judiciary Committee and died during a Constitutional Convention. Its supporters point out that it was never voted on directly and allege that their measure would protect children. According to the amendment, it would ''protect the unique relationship of marriage in order to promote, among other goals, the stability and welfare of society and the best interest of children, only the union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Massachusetts. Any other relationship shall not be recognized as marriage or its legal equivalent."

Liberal legislators such as Sen. Cheryl Jacques, Sen. Jarrett Barrios and Rep. Alice Wolf spoke against the proposal. Jacques, who last year "came out," called the amendment "ludicrous," suggesting that same-sex partners are not threatening to heterosexual marriages and should not be treated as a threat to society.

Supporters of the amendment also spoke out. "Every departure from the traditional, stable, mother-father family has severe detrimental effects upon children," said Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, co-author of "Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth." Satinover said same-sex couples "intend to keep in place indefinitely, a family structure known to be deficient in being obligatorily and permanently either fatherless or motherless."

The Judiciary Committee, who heard the testimony on Monday, must submit a recommendation by Wednesday for the amendment to have a chance of being debated during a Constitutional Convention this year or next year. A legislatively-sponsored constitutional amendment requires approval from a majority of Senate and House members, sitting jointly, two consecutive legislative sessions, then approval from the voters. The earliest the measure could appear on the ballot is 2006.

While most Beacon Hill observers are looking toward the beginning of House budget debate on Wednesday, some significant committee hearings will also be held this week. For instance, bills aimed at lowering prescription drug prices will be aired before the Health Care Committee today. Legislators grappling with budget deficits are anxious to reduce the rapid growth in the cost of prescription drugs taxpayers buy for public employees and hundreds of thousands of recipients of state-funded health care. It's a battle that's being waged in every state and in Washington D.C. Drug makers say they are trying to help states cope with cost concerns, but steadfastly oppose any form of price controls.

Pharmaceutical companies have deployed teams of lobbyists to represent them in public policy circles. William Kennedy, former chief of staff to Speaker Thomas Finneran, an ardent opponent of price controls, is representing the Pharmaceutical Research Manufacturers of America (PHARMA) on Beacon Hill.

Monday's agenda also includes House Minority Leader Bradley Jones' bill calling for a task force to study the effects of psychiatric drugs on public school students. An executive session follows the hearing.

Many businesses are eager to see the Legislature approve the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act. The act is designed to make doing business easier by legally validating electronic records and signatures. Sen. David Magnani (D-Framingham), the lead sponsor of the bill, will chair a hearing on it today before the Senate Science and Technology Committee. Sen. Andre Nuciforo (D-Pittsfield) is sponsoring a separate bill with the same goal. Another Magnani bill is also on the agenda. It would establish a commission on law, ethics, science and technology to advise the governor and Legislature on emerging issues.

Insurance Committee Ponders Mandatory Coverage

Bills expanding mandatory insurance coverage to a host of specialized areas of health care are before the Insurance Committee. Patient advocates have traditionally pushed lawmakers to require insurers to cover more procedures. Insurance industry officials generally push back, saying such mandates will drive up already high health care costs.

The Constitutional amendment to protect marriage in its historic form that never reached the floor of last year's House-Senate constitutional convention will try to get a second life today. Rep. Philip Travis' (D-Rehoboth) amendment defines marriage as only the union of one man and one woman. It is expected to draw a large crowd from the gay and lesbian community as well as the Catholic Church and other conservative activists. Both the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus and the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, along with dozens of senators and representatives are expected to turn out and produce a heated debate. A Constitutional Convention voted to adjourn last year before debating a similar amendment that sponsors had hoped to put before voters in November 2004.

Other bills to hear testimony will include an amendment to extend the legislative terms of representatives and senators from two to four years, to allow for the governor to appoint a lieutenant governor with the House and Senate majority approval if the seat were to become vacant, and to abolish the Governor's Council.

Judge E. George Daher's recommendations following Judicial Conduct Commission hearings into the actions of Superior Court Judge Maria Lopez will not be released until Monday or Tuesday of next week. The retired Housing Court chief justice who presided over the disciplinary hearings had been expected to file his findings Friday. No reasons were offered for the delay.

With the House proposing deeper cuts than Gov. Mitt Romney, University of Massachusetts President William Bulger, whose office is preserved in the House plan, offered a measured and upbeat response Thursday morning. The House budget cuts funding to the University of Massachusetts' five-campus system by $79 million, an 18 percent cut to the $436 million university budget. The House mitigates its cut by proposing a $30 million pool of money to be distributed by the state Board of Higher Education to university, state college and community college campuses that demonstrate innovative business practices. Officials say the House plan would force 1,300 layoffs.

"We have many difficult and uncertain days ahead," he said. But the debate over funding for public higher education is just beginning, he said. In the upcoming weeks, he will be appealing to his former legislative colleagues as well as many lawmakers who did not serve with the longtime Senate leader for their support. "This is just the first day of the real debate about the financial course of the Commonwealth and public higher education," Bulger said. "Over the next several weeks, we will be making our case."

The stripped down House budget plan released Wednesday represents a "very solid step toward reform" but "there's more to do," Gov. Mitt Romney said Thursday. He said the $22.5 billion House Ways and Means proposal spends "virtually the same" as his own budget plan, and cuts local aid by about the same amount. The House plan also adopts his health and human services reorganization, the consolidation of the Metropolitan District Commission, and also agrees to many of his cuts in court and higher education funding. He called the House's cut in K-12 education funding a "mistake," and criticized Democratic lawmakers for "taking care of old friends" by inserting budget language that stipulates exactly where State Police are supposed to patrol. His office released a copy of the police details, which Romney said would get in the way of homeland security. He also said he would continue to push for the abolition of the UMass President's Office, the consolidation of the Boston Municipal Court, and the merger of the Highway Department and the Turnpike Authority.

Senate President Robert Travaglini issued a statement late Wednesday afternoon about the House Ways and Means Committee's budget: "The House budget represents two months of diligent work and is an honest reflection of the severity of our fiscal reality. I commend the Speaker and his House leadership for putting together realistic numbers in order to meet this budget shortfall. We will continue to monitor the evolution of this document and closely watch the debate on the House floor as they refine their priorities in the next fiscal year. In the meantime, the Senate will continue its work developing plans for managing state government more efficiently and with greater accountability and compassion. We will be prepared to engage in the budget debate just as soon as we receive the budget document from the House."

It wasn't the tightest-held secret in recent memory, but the House Ways and Means budget which was released Wednesday still was shocking to some, especially in constituency groups faced with large budget cuts. Faced with the deepest fiscal crisis in decades, House lawmakers unveiled a stark $22.497 billion budget [http://www.state.ma.us/legis/04budget/house/frame.html] that makes deep cuts in education, local aid, and health care, while also hiking fees and shunning tax increases.

The legislation, approved by the Ways and Means Committee and sent to the full House, cuts the Quinn Bill, an oft-criticized police benefit program by $9 million, partially repeals the Pacheco Law, a pro-union, anti-privatization law, adds $5 million in new spending on Lottery advertising, preserves UMass President William Bulger's office, while slashing MCAS tutoring funds from $50 million to $10 million, and Chapter 70 education aid by $150 million. Amendments to the budget are due by Friday afternoon. Debate starts next Wednesday, with tax and revenue amendments up for debate first. The new bill is the House response to Gov. Mitt Romney's budget.

While House leaders and interest groups are grateful for a more honest budget released by the House Ways and Means Committee Wednesday, mayors, education advocates and health and human service representatives across the state are finding out just how much the truth of the state's fiscal crisis is going to hurt.

Administration and Finance Secretary Eric Kriss called the $22.5 billion House budget a "good first step" Wednesday, in that the two budgets represent virtually equal spending levels for Fiscal Year 2004. The House adopted an additional $100 million in cuts to higher education, while maintaining UMass President William Bulger's office. It rejected Romney's restructuring recommendations and steered clear of adopting workforce reforms and a merger between the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and the highway department, as the governor proposed. "We are pleased to see the House is following our lead," Kriss said, adding that the two budgets also appear to cut local aid by approximately $226 million but the House did not adopt the governor's reform in distributing that aid. "This is a good first step, but we have a long road and much more work ahead of us."

Gov. Mitt Romney had three goals in mind during his travels in Washington D.C. Wednesday. Romney met with Department of Transportation officials to discuss recovering Big Dig costs relating to project mismanagement and to position Massachusetts for its share of the next round of federal transportation outlays. During a meeting with US Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, Romney was expected to request that the federal government pick up half the cost of the state's Prescription Drug insurance program. That $100 million program, which serves 80,000 seniors in Massachusetts, is on the chopping block due to the state's fiscal crisis.

Lopez Decision Delayed
Judge E. George Daher's recommendations following Judicial Conduct Commission hearings into the actions of Superior Court Judge Maria Lopez will not be released until Monday or Tuesday of next week. The retired Housing Court chief justice who presided over the disciplinary hearings had been expected to file his findings Friday. No reasons were offered for the delay.

Wednesday April 23, 2003
Pioneer Institute Calls on Legislators to 'Make the Hard Decisions'

On a gloomy day, the day before the House Ways and Means Committee will reveal its fiscal year 2004 budget, Steve Adams of the Pioneer Institute challenged legislators to do the hard work of reforming state government. Standing in the rain outside the State House, Adams said that today's release of the House 2004 budget proposal "will be a real bellwether of the legislature's intent to reform state government."

Adams called for major reform in several areas of government, including abolishing the MDC, "real reform for the courts," reducing of the human service bureaucracy, and the introduction of modern management practices to government.

He also called for the "Quinn Bill" to be rescinded. This is a program which pays police for educational attainments. He said that instead, "We should figure out what they [police personnel] are really worth and pay them that and not gin up their pay with the Quinn Bill and details."

Despite assurances by Senate Chair Dianne Wilkerson that he was not there to be "grilled," that's exactly what happed to Public Safety Secretary Edward Flynn at a Tuesday hearing on Gov. Romney's government reorganization plan. The hearing, which had been billed as a hearing of the Senate members of the Committee on State Administration was attended by no members of the committee. Only Wilkerson and Sen. Jarrett Barrios, co-Chair of the Committee on Public Safety were present. The committee has five other senate members.

Flynn and his aides made a presentation of the rough outline of the reorganization plan as it pertains to the Executive Office of Public Safety, including the plan to change the name to the Executive Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security. After explaining details of the planned changes and the savings involved, Flynn was questioned by Wilkerson and Barrios.

Barrios (D-Cambridge) lobbed dozens of questions at Flynn, but said afterward that he was left with "greater concerns than at the start of the hearing." Barrios said, "I'm not satisfied at this point that they have done their homework."

Wilkerson (D-Boston) also expressed a negative perspective on the plan. She raised doubts about Romney's projected cost savings, the wisdom of combining certain boards and agencies, and the planned closing of five community corrections centers. She said she hoped her concerns would influence the proposal before it is formally submitted to the Legislature on May 1, but predicted the plan as it is written now would not pass.

The opposition, which might be expected from Democrats reviewing a Republican plan, takes on more significance because the plan can only be voted up or down in the Legislature, not amended. That legislative quirk is the result of Article 87 of the state Constitution, which allows the governor to reorganize the agencies in his Executive Branch.

House Speaker Thomas Finneran on Tuesday offered a multi-pronged plan for getting the state's economy moving. Announced on the eve of the release of the House budget proposal for fiscal 2004, Finneran's plan is aimed at growing jobs in emerging technologies. He'd take advantage of low interest rates, refinance a portion of the state's debt and invest $100 million in an Emerging Technology Fund, he said. That investment is aimed at garnering many times that amount in private dollars. Finneran hopes that a $500 million infusion of money will boost the biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, plastics, new defense and security, environmental technology/renewable, and information technology industries. He'd also reauthorize the 3 percent Investment Tax Credit and consolidate all economic development agencies into one gubernatorial cabinet office.

The Boston Marathon may be over, but another one is just shaping up on Beacon Hill. Budget negotiations between the House, the Senate and the Governor's office have been long and drawn out in the past several years. This year a lot of the variables are different, but there are plenty of areas of disagreement on how to spend the state's money already. The House officially weighs in this week with its budget offering for the fiscal 2004 year. Wednesday's budget release comes following weeks of withering criticism of the $22.9 billion plan Gov. Mitt Romney filed in late February. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman John Rogers (D-Norwood) was an especially vocal critic. But last week he revealed that the alternative he'll unwrap this week will embrace a surprising number of Romney budget-balancers.

Much is known already about the House budget plan. It will hike half a billion dollars in state fees, include 18 controversial Medicaid changes Romney says will save $500 million, and heed Romney's call to eliminate the Metropolitan District Commission and realign 16 social service agencies.

The Medicaid changes will tighten eligibility for nursing home care, cut certain immigrants off health programs, and increase recipients' co-payments and premiums. Rogers has also said it's time to increase the amount state workers pay toward the cost of their health insurance, although the House plan ups the contribution on a sliding scale, with workers who earn more paying higher shares of their premiums.

In early March, Gov. Romney signed legislation balancing the fiscal 2003 budget in part by drawing $17 million from a trust fund that promotes renewable energy. Romney has since filed a bill calling for the state to purchase a portion of its energy from new renewable sources, such as solar energy, wind power, biomass and fuel cells, paid for with $17 million from the renewable energy trust fund. It will be heard by the Energy Committee today.

"Not only will this purchase make us a leader and role model for other states, it will also provide a guaranteed customer base for renewable energy companies well into the future and help spur the growth of the renewable energy industry," Romney said when he announced the bill in late March. State government, including colleges and universities, uses roughly $100 million worth of electricity a year, according to Romney.

Voter Registration Deadline Approaches For 5th Norfolk District Special Election

Wednesday is the registration deadline for voters in the 5th Norfolk District who on May 13 will choose a new representative. The House seat was left empty when Rep. Joseph Sullivan (D-Braintree) resigned to become the new director of the State Lottery. Braintree School Committee member Matthew Sisk was unopposed in the April 1 Republican Primary and Democrat Joseph Driscoll Jr. won a four-way race for his party's nomination. Driscoll, who has worked in the offices of the attorney general and the Norfolk County district attorney, also once worked as an aide to Rep. Sullivan.

The State House, like most state government facilities, shuts down today to commemorate Patriots Day. The House meets in an informal session Tuesday, so it's not clear whether lawmakers will take up a leadership order (H 3838) establishing a pair of new 11-member committees and bestowing bonus pay upon the committee chairmen. Speaker Thomas Finneran has tapped Reps. Martin Walsh (D-South Boston) and Daniel Keenan (D-Southwick) to lead the new Homeland Security and Federal Affairs and Medicaid committees.

But the committees have not formally been created. The order calls for House rules changes necessary to establish the panels, which Finneran says will modernize the committee structure. The order also lays out the various premium pay levels, from the $35,000 in extra pay afforded to the Speaker to the $7,500 in premium pay earned by various House members who hold leadership posts.

Under the order, Keenan would receive $15,000 in premium pay, Walsh would get $7,500, and the vice-chairman and ranking minority member of the Medicaid Committee would also receive $7,500. Finneran wants the House to eliminate its Counties and Federal Financial Assistance committees. He also wants premium pay levels to be set by the Legislature alone. A bill to accomplish that is pending before the Senate.

Senators who sit on the State Administration Committee hold their second hearing Tuesday on Gov. Mitt Romney's government restructuring plans. The plans are still evolving and are due to be filed May 1. Sen. Dianne Wilkerson (D-Boston) is presiding over three hearings during which administration officials are being asked to defend reorganizations being proposed within their areas. Appearing at this week's session will be Public Safety Secretary Edward Flynn and Chief Legal Counsel Daniel Winslow who'll talk about the governor's plans to create a solicitor general's office. Committee members are also likely to ask Winslow about plans to bring more efficiency to the Judicial Branch of government. Those proposals are included in the Romney budget that was submitted in February. A House task force rejected most of Romney's ideas for the Judiciary.

Democratic Party officials continue public hearings this week as they plot an "action agenda" for the June issues convention in Lowell. Hearings have already been held in Western Massachusetts and in Methuen. Rep. Cheryl Rivera and Methuen Mayor Sharon Pollard chaired those hearings. This week, Christopher Gabrieli, a civic activist and former candidate for Congress and lieutenant governor, leads public hearings in Dorchester and Barnstable. Party officials are looking for public input on "public policies that matter to Democratic activists." The party has near monopoly control of elected offices in Massachusetts, but hasn't held the Corner Office since Michael Dukakis served there. Since then, John Silber, Mark Roosevelt, Scott Harshbarger and most recently Shannon O'Brien have fallen to Republican governors. Much of the mental energy devoted to the action agenda endeavor revolves around figuring out what the party needs to do to connect with voters and convince them to turn Beacon Hill over to the Democrats completely.

There are two hearings this week. On Wednesday, members of the party's Election and Outreach Committee - Sen. Jarrett Barrios of Cambridge and Guy Glodis of Worcester and Somerville Mayor Dorothy Kelly Gay - will join Gabrieli. The Wednesday hearing falls on the same day as the release of the House Ways and Means Committee's fiscal 2004 budget.

Dr. Elizabeth Childs, the director and chief of psychiatry at Caritas Carney Hospital in Dorchester, and past president of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society, was named by Gov. Mitt Romney on Friday as the new commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health. "Dr. Childs's background in psychiatry is critical to provide sensitive and appropriate services to many of the most vulnerable citizens in the Commonwealth," Romney said in a statement. Tobias Fisher, executive director of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, said Childs is a familiar advocate, having spoken at many of the group's events about the need for better mental health services. "We're thrilled," Fisher said. "She is a true missionary. She's spoken on behalf of those who are most vulnerable, not about psychiatrists' need for greater billable hours. She's spoken from a true altruistic standpoint."

Childs is a magna cum laude graduate of Mount Holyoke College and 1986 graduate of the University of Cincinnati Medical School. She performed postdoctoral work at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center in both child and adult psychiatry. Prior to heading up the Carney psychiatry department, Dr. Childs worked as a child psychiatrist for the M.I.T. Health Plan and has also been affiliated with the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Children's Hospital, Gaebler Children's Center in Waltham, Winthrop Hospital, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, New England Deaconess Hospital and the Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati.

Friday April 18, 2003
House Leaders Endorse Sliding Scale For State Employee Health Plans

House leaders said Thursday they plan to hike the amount state workers pay for health insurance, based on their salaries. The state now pays 85 percent of state workers' health care costs; employees pay 15 percent. Gov. Mitt Romney has proposed moving workers' contributions to 25 percent.

The proposal endorsed by House Ways and Means Chairman John Rogers (D-Norwood) is based on a sliding scale. It would raise to 20 percent the amount paid by workers earning between $25,000 and $50,000. Workers earning between $50,000 and $90,000 would pay 25 percent, those earning between $90,000 and $110,000 would pay 30 percent, and workers earning over $110,000 would pay 35 percent of costs.

The plan would mean no change in the amount paid by state workers earning less than $25,000, and no change for retirees who now pay either 10 percent or 15 percent of the cost of their health insurance, Rogers said. "It's the low-wage workers who we were extremely mindful of," he told reporters. The plan, he said, is "fairer" and "more equitable" than Romney's proposal. The House plan would save the state about $35 million in next year's budget, curbing the growth of the $815 million Group Insurance Commission account. Romney's plan would save $65 million. A proposal similar to the one Rogers offered today was rejected by the House last year. Lawmakers may again "respectfully disagree" with the plan, he said, though he predicted it would enjoy greater support because the budget now "is a lot worse."

The interests of business and labor collided Thursday in Gardner Auditorium, where members of a legislative committee tried to determine how to adjust rates and benefits to keep the state's unemployment insurance trust from going broke. Robert Pozen, Gov. Mitt Romney's commerce and labor advisor, told legislators the correct fix combines higher employer taxes, modest benefit cuts and an expansion of the system that rewards employers who rarely lay off workers and imposes higher taxes on companies that regularly issue pink slips.

Business groups, under the umbrella of Associated Industries of Massachusetts, have endorsed Romney's proposal, unveiled on Friday, to raise unemployment insurance rates by $200 million and increase the wage base used to levy assessments from $10,800 to $11,800. Romney's plan also would require workers to work for 20 weeks, rather than the current 15, to be eligible for benefits. Benefits would last for 26 rather than 30 weeks.

Union leaders strongly oppose any benefit reductions, and say such cuts will hurt even more with so many workers unemployed. Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Robert Haynes called the $200 million rate increase a "good thing" but said the taxable wage base should be boosted to $14,000. Haynes said that if rates had been increased when the economy was stronger, the system would not be on the verge of running out of money, as it is now. Pozen said legislative action is needed by the summer.

The House's top budget writer on Thursday slammed the door on local options taxes that mayors say could help cities and towns survive the fiscal crisis without massive layoffs or service cuts. A cadre of influential mayors, including Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, have been lobbying the Legislature for the authority to raise local taxes on restaurant meals, movie tickets, and other items. But asked if the House budget would include state or local option taxes, House Ways and Means Chairman John Rogers said on Thursday, "No." He added, "Most members have a very strong anti-tax philosophy at this point."

Two senators and a state representative announced Wednesday they will renew efforts to abolish the eight-member Governor's Council, a colonial era body charged with screening judicial candidates and pardon and commutation requests. Under a proposed Constitutional amendment, the 40-member state Senate would be charged with reviewing prospective judges and clerk magistrates. Pardons and commutations of felonies would need the approval of the full Legislature and the governor would be empowered to determine the fate of pardons for misdemeanor offenses. Sen. Robert Hedlund (R-Weymouth) said few Massachusetts residents can name their Governor's Councilor and suggested the Senate would be a more accountable judicial screening body simply because more people know their senators. Hedlund attributed the council's survival since its creation in 1629 to "Massachusetts politics."

Another South Shore senator, Democrat Brian Joyce of Milton, said the council escaped abolition in 1964 only because of an "oversight." Voters back then approved a referendum wiping out the council's statutory powers, but the referendum's sponsors inadvertently left the council's Constitutional powers intact. The council was included in the state constitution in 1780, but dates back to 1629, when it served as a check on the royal governor's actions.

One councilor, Democrat Michael Callahan of Medford, said the framers of the constitution had it right. "Everyone knows that John Adams was brilliant," said Callahan. "He knew it would be much easier for eight people to deliberate than forty. It was an efficiency thing with John."

Rep. Barry Finegold (D-Andover) will lead efforts to abolish the council in the House. Finegold said a projected $3 billion budget gap leaves legislators to decide whether to preserve health care programs or, in his words, an "old relic institution." Finegold said abolishing the council is in keeping with the theme of government restructuring.

The bill's sponsors say abolishing the council will save the state $343,000. Councilors earn $25,000 a year and employ three staff members who collectively earn more than $126,000 a year. Pension, insurance, administrative and per diem expenses account for the remainder of the council's budget, according to the legislation's sponsors.

Assistant Attorney General William Meade has moved from AG Thomas Reilly's office to the governor's office. Meade was introduced as Gov. Mitt Romney's new deputy chief legal counsel during Wednesday's routine meeting of the Governor's Council. Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey said Meade, former chief of the Appellate Division in Reilly's Criminal Bureau, would work on criminal justice matters for the administration. The eight councilors, who just weeks ago advised Romney not to proceed with the filling of clerk-magistrate openings on the courts unless absolutely needed, are now wondering about available openings on the Industrial Accident Board. The administrative judges on the IAB hear and adjudicate disputed claims of injured workers.

House Ways and Means Chairman John Rogers (D-Norwood) Wednesday said the House will write some of Gov. Mitt Romney's reorganization proposals into its version of the fiscal 2004 state budget, due out a week from today. The House budget will go along with Romney's elimination of the Metropolitan District Commission and much of his plan to restructure the human service agency hierarchy, Rogers told reporters this afternoon. He also said it will include the governor's Medicaid savings proposals and most of the fee hikes he wants. The fee increases will raise more than $500 million, Rogers said. The House budget will not call for any new taxes and Rogers predicted floor amendments calling for tax hikes will go "down in flames."