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.

The House voted 95-59 late Tuesday afternoon to reject legislation authorizing slot machines at the state's four racetracks and at two other locations in Central and Western Massachusetts. At 4:20 p.m., the House voted 87-65 to turn down legislation allowing 1,500 slot machines to be installed at the state's four racetracks. Several House members predicted the Senate will embrace slot machine legislation and add as much as $500 million in related revenues to its budget. If that occurs, it would set up a major budgetary disagreement between the branches.

Sensing that some of its government reorganization proposals are foundering in the Legislature, the Romney administration is considering abandoning its plan to submit the plan as a single package.

Romney has proposed sweeping reorganizations of the state agencies that oversee health and human services, the environment, higher education, transportation, economic affairs, and other areas. Under the state Constitution's Article 87, the plans can only be voted up or down by the Legislature; they cannot be amended.

As several of the proposed reorganizations have met with criticism from lawmakers, concern has risen in the administration that the entire reorganization plan could be rejected in one vote. In a bid to salvage as many of the reorganization plans as possible from wholesale legislative defeat, a Romney administration official said the governor and his aides are now considering breaking the plans apart. "The ideal situation was to have us work out all our differences with the Legislature. But there may be some pieces of the reorganization that ultimately are not going to be palatable," the official said. "The idea is, if there are pieces that the Legislature really isn't going to like, maybe we should explore that option of separating them out, so it's not an all-or-nothing type of approach."

The Taxation Committee Tuesday was urged to think green, as in environment, but it was obvious lawmakers and environmentalists alike are actually thinking red - as in ink. That's why a bevy of bills granting tax incentives for environmentally responsible construction and consumerism probably won't pass this session. It was a repeated refrain at today's hearing. More than one witness said that while many of the credits for activities such as repairing dirty oil burners, installing efficient appliances in multifamily homes and putting up solar panels have merit, they can't be adopted if they would lower the state's revenue take.

Rep. Douglas Peterson (D-Marblehead) acknowledged as much when he testified on his own legislation, to give tax incentives to middle-income landlords for upgrading the energy efficiency of their properties. "No matter how laudable my proposal is, it's unlikely the committee will enact these, given the (economic) climate," Peterson told his colleagues.

With his budget proposals under attack in the Legislature, Gov. Mitt Romney accused Democrats Monday of trying to stifle reforms to pave the way for new taxes or deeper program cuts. Recalling his election victory six months ago, Romney said, "The voters have made it clear they want change, they want reform, and nothing else is going to be satisfactory." Romney's remarks came in response to an item-by-item criticism from the House's top budget writer, Rep. John Rogers (D-Norwood).

In a letter Monday, Rogers contends that Romney's proposals are based on "false revenue assumptions and unrealistic savings estimates." He says Romney's budget banks on $950 million in "unrealistic or questionable revenue estimates." The House budget, he warned, "will be considerably more severe" in its cuts. "Our conclusion . . . is that the problems our state faces and the actions necessary to solve them will prove far more difficult than the administration's PowerPoint presentations suggest," Rogers said, poking at Romney's boardroom-style budget presentations.

At a news conference, Romney rejected the criticism, said his budget figures were accurate, and suggested the remarks were part of an aversion to change on Beacon Hill.

"This is really the House leadership saying, 'Give us taxes, or give us cuts, but don't give us reforms,'" Romney said. "What I'm fearful of is that House leadership wants to keep the things the way they are, doesn't want to see change, wants the status quo."

The House and Senate could set the bonus pay of its chairmen and leaders without seeking the governor's approval, under a bill approved on a 100-50 vote Monday. Supporters said the new powers would be used responsibly and that the House should be able to manage its own affairs without interference. Critics said there's no need to remove a check and balance that has been there for 200 years, and said the timing of the move, coming on the eve of massive budget cuts, is bad. The debate before the vote was often heated. The House adjourned just after 3 p.m. A formal session to debate gambling is set for today at 11 a.m.

When a policy analyst for the prescription drug industry told state lawmakers today that price controls "would not be in the best interests of patients," dozens of senior citizens laughed incredulously. But Andrew Wisniewski wasn't trying to be funny. The senior director of state policy at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association of America said price controls are bad for business and make it difficult to attract investors. Ultimately, that slows the research that leads to the development of the prescription drugs that are so popular because they can save and improve lives. The United States accounts for 45 percent of the drugs developed between 1975 and 1994, said Wisniewski.

But Wisniewski seemed unable to discredit the perceptions of many activists and lawmakers that drug manufacturers are reaping profits at the expense of those who need the drugs they make. With individuals struggling to pay for drugs and state government buried by rising costs, efforts to control prices and extract savings for individuals and taxpayers are popular among senior citizens activist groups and state legislators.

Rep. Patricia Haddad (D-Somerset) said individuals and governments are paying for more than just the price of drugs. "We're paying for everyone's research and development," said Haddad.

The House has scheduled a Tuesday session to debate two bills expanding legalized gambling here. Both bills come to the House floor with a recommendation from the Government Regulations Committee that they be rejected. One authorizes slot machines at the four existing racetracks and the other authorizes slots, Indian gaming and three commercial casinos. Twenty-two new House members were seated in January so the numbers may change but the House was pretty solidly against expanded gambling when last polled. During budget debate last May, two gaming amendments were considered. The House then voted 94-58 against allowing slot machines at racetracks and 133-13 against any casino operation. The odds Tuesday are that both bills will die as the committee has recommended.

Tuesday's debate is expected to be lengthy but, under an order already adopted by representatives, it will mean there won't be any more talk of gambling as a revenue source during the upcoming House budget debate.

In fact, the order adopted by the House has some senators wondering what it might mean if that branch endorses expanded gaming and includes it in its version of the budget. While there's been some backroom debate over whether the House would even consider any gambling provisos surfacing from the ultimate House and Senate budget conference committee, most believe it would survive as a matter of courtesy between the branches - and tradition. Measures shot down in one branch are often included in the budget of the other branch and in the final spending plan that goes to the governor.

While there's been some buzz about the House and Senate getting along better now that Senate President Thomas Birmingham is no longer sparring with House Speaker Thomas Finneran, the House and Senate have still not agreed on changes in the basic rules that govern the way they interact. The failure to act has created some confusion. Senate President Robert Travaglini (D-Boston) has appointed senators to three committees House Speaker Thomas Finneran wants abolished. Because their fate is up in the air, no bills can be sent to or processed by the committees on Counties, Local Affairs or Federal Financial Assistance. Finneran has also proposed creating two new committees - the Homeland Security and Federal Affairs and Medicaid committee are operating on an unofficial basis. But he can't pay the salary bonuses he intends to the people he tapped to chair them. That's because a bill allowing House and Senate leaders to set such pay themselves has not yet been approved by either branch or been signed by the governor.

The Public Service Committee heard the bill last Thursday morning and it's scheduled to hit the floor for debate today.

A slate of bills, all intended to curb rising prescription drug prices, will be heard by the Health Care Committee today. Senior citizens and health care advocates are intent on legislating changes that will force the pharmaceutical industry to change the way it does business. State legislators persistently point to rising drug prices, which affect the $5.5 billion Medicaid program and the state's own group insurance programs, as a major budgetary cost driver. Legislators have not been able to get far because prescription drugs are popular, the state is at the mercy of a national market, and the pharmaceutical industry has a powerful lobby.

Sen. Mark Montigny (D-New Bedford), one of the Legislature's most outspoken members on the issues, has been working with colleagues from other states on regional strategies. Montigny is the chief sponsor of five of the 11 bills up for consideration this week, including legislation (S 559) establishing the Massachusetts prescription drug fair pricing program.

Bills relating to discrimination are before the Commerce and Labor Committee. The agenda includes bills affecting the financial exploitation of the disabled, employment discrimination against veterans, compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act, racial and ethnic classifications, and discrimination based on a person's height and weight.

Bills filed by Attorney General Thomas Reilly and Sen. David Magnani (D-Framingham) intended to crack down on unwanted commercial e-mail and spam will be heard by the Senate Committee on Science and Technology today. The committee will also take testimony on Sen. Magnani's bill requiring public schools and libraries to adopt plans designed to protect minors from "dangerous, illegal or obscene" Internet material. The fourth bill on the agenda, filed by Sen. Michael Morrissey (D-Quincy), requiring the disclosure of contact information on certain web sites.

The House on Monday is set to approve a controversial plan that would give Speaker Thomas Finneran more authority to raise the pay of his leadership team, after the bill raced through three committees Thursday. The bill allows the speaker to distribute pay raises to top lieutenants without approval of the governor. Finneran says that for now he is not raising pay levels, but is seeking to eliminate and create several committees. The net result would be the creation of one new leadership position, at cost to taxpayers of $15,000. Committee chairmen are paid an extra $7,500 or $15,000 above the legislative base salary of $53,381. They also enjoy more power.

At a public hearing Thursday, no lawmakers spoke in favor of the bill. In a letter, Pamela Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts, a watchdog group, said the bill would violate the intent of a 1998 voter-approved law that ties lawmakers' pay to the cost of living. "By adding new positions with additional pay, you will be breaking that contract," she told members of the Public Service Committee. "Any proposal that enables that is problematic and should be rejected."

The committee approved the bill, over the objections of Reps. Paul Demakis (D-Boston) and Douglas Petersen (D-Marblehead). Both are vocal critics of Speaker Finneran. The bill was recorded by the House clerk's office as having been approved by the Ways and Means Committee, and the Steering and Policy Committee, neither of which had posted notice of a meeting. By the afternoon, the bill appeared on the list of legislation to be debated Monday, called the House calendar.

Authors of a major overhaul of the system by which voters take their own initiatives to the ballot said Thursday they are willing to rewrite their proposal in the wake of legal concerns and widespread opposition. Before the Election Laws Committee is a call for the first major revision in the initiative petition process in more than 50 years. Its sponsors - Sen. Stanley Rosenberg (D-Amherst) and Rep. Robert Spellane (D-Worcester) - said the change is needed to prevent what has become a "manipulation" of the process by "wealthy special interests."

A broad and surprising coalition of groups who use the process to pose radically different questions to voters has formed to oppose what the activists call an outright attack on the initiative petition process and the right of voters to go to the ballot when they believe legislators are unresponsive.

Two pending bills make significant changes in the system. In addition to raising the number of signatures needed to get a question onto the ballot, they also impose stricter financial reporting requirements on those for and against any question, change the method for crafting explanations of the question for voters, and impose restrictions on those who collect signatures. "I don't think the system is fundamentally broken," said Rosenberg. "I have no hostility toward direct democracy." But at a time when groups are increasingly taking their issues to the ballot rather than the Legislature, and are also resorting to paid signature-gathering companies and often to out-of state interests, "the process can be manipulated by wealthy interest groups," he said.

Among the strange bedfellows joining the coalition to preserve the current process are Citizens for Limited Taxation in the Coalition to Protect Citizen Initiatives are: Common Cause of Massachusetts, MASSPIRG, CPPAX, Mass Voters for Clean Elections, Grey 2K USA, and the Sierra Club of Massachusetts.

The Election Laws Committee has an Apr. 23 deadline for reporting out proposed constitutional amendments.

Attorney General Thomas Reilly asked lawmakers Thursday to expand his office's spy powers to include email and Internet communications, saying his investigators are hampered by the state's 1960s wiretapping laws. A bill before the Legislature's Criminal Justice Committee would give investigators the power to eavesdrop on conversations, cell phone calls, emails, and pager communications, if a Superior Court judge determines police have exhausted all other means first. It would also allow investigators to seek a wiretap if they see evidence of a range of about 25 crimes, including making terrorist threats and terrorist hoaxes, possessing or using chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, forgery, child sex crimes and child pornography. The current list of crimes for wiretaps can be authorized is too restrictive, Reilly argued.

Current wiretap law was written in response to the rise of organized crime in the 1960s, and focuses mostly on tracking mob crimes such as loan sharking, fraud, and illegal gaming, said William Bloomer, chief of the state's special investigations unit. Thirty five years ago, investigators used wiretaps to track con artists in a "boiler room" making phone calls to steal financial information and bank numbers. Now, investigators face a new generation of criminals who can use a single computer to wreck havoc hundreds of miles away. "It's very frustrating," Bloomer said. "Where we're limited to crimes that were prevalent thirty-five years ago, such as organized crime, we're out of the game before we even get up to bat."

While businesses and insurers may soon face new health care-related charges emanating from Beacon Hill, the Romney administration has withdrawn its controversial proposal to hit health insurers with a new $90 million fee to help pay for the state's $5.5 billion Medicaid program. "We've taken it off the table," state Health and Human Services Secretary Ronald Preston told the State House News Service Thursday afternoon. "It was not a good idea. It was a mistake." The administration plans to use surplus fiscal 2003 revenues, federal Medicaid funds and transfers, and reserve monies to make up for the money.

Massachusetts lawmakers are beginning to float the idea of new taxes on beer and wine, despite veto warnings from Gov. Mitt Romney. Thirsty for budget fixes, lawmakers say hiking excise taxes on alcohol for the first time since 1976 could raise $64 million to support addiction programs and help close the state's budget shortfall. Massachusetts has the 40th lowest alcohol tax rate, lawmakers say. Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral said Wednesday that 45 percent of the 1,473 inmates under her watch are behind bars on alcohol and drug related felonies, costing the state about $30,000 to $43,000 per prisoner annually. If the state were to raise alcohol taxes, millions could be spent on prisoner treatment programs that she said help stop criminals from re-offending. She maintained, "We do this purely to reduce recidivism."

The beer and wine industry is lobbying hard to defeat any new alcohol taxes, which they say will hurt sales, send buyers to New Hampshire, and burden social drinkers, the proverbial Joe Six Packs looking to relax with a drink after a hard day's work.

While stopping short of recommending changes to curb the costs of police details and education, members of House budget task forces on Wednesday began releasing lists of dramatic ideas they are considering to help the state close a projected $3 billion budget gap. The proposals, which are being recommended to the House Ways and Means Committee, range from slashing local aid to cities and towns by 15 to 18 percent to giving administrators the flexibility to lengthen the school day or year and eliminating or suspending the requirement that transportation be provided to all elementary school students.

In addition to suggesting schools consider four-day weeks while still meeting the requirement for 180 school days, student transportation fees are also getting a closer look as the committee prepares to release its budget April 23. House task force members recommend maintaining 17 separate forms of local aid that are worth more than $5.1 billion to cities and towns. They further recommend that 12 of the accounts be level funded and that the five largest local aid accounts be cut by between $653 million and $805 million. Gov. Mitt Romney has offered a $232 million cut in local aid, but House leaders say Romney's budget is full of unrealistic proposals that won't generate savings.

Rep. Patricia Walrath (D-Stow) says Lottery revenue is expected to surge by $100 million next fiscal year and House leaders are contemplating using $70 million to make sure school districts to not fall below so-called foundation levels of spending and the other $30 million to ease the backlog of school building assistance projects.

Task force members are also recommending a moratorium on creating charter schools, the elimination of the state Office of Educational Quality and Accountability, and maintenance of special education funding commitments. They say an idea "with merit" that warrants further consideration is making teachers laid off at the end of the school year eligible for health benefits but ineligible for jobless benefits until Aug. 31, when the layoffs actually take effect.

Bolstered by referendum questions approved last November in 19 Massachusetts districts, advocates for overhauling the state's drug laws began pushing the Legislature Wednesday to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. Voters in 19 legislative districts approved non-binding questions indicating their support for making possession of less than an ounce of marijuana a civil crime for adults over 17, punishable with a $200 fine. It is now a crime, punishable by up to a year in prison, under state law.

Sen. Charles Shannon (D-Winchester), a former police officer, who supports decriminalization, said marijuana possession is rarely prosecuted as a crime, and moving it to a civil penalty, similar to a speeding ticket, would mean little practical change.

Opponents — including the Romney administration — said marijuana is a serious and harmful drug, far more potent than in decades past, and should not be treated lightly under the law. "That's an easy one," said Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey. "We need to focus really on controlling crime. We don't want to get sidetracked by these issues that aren't useful. Marijuana is not the marijuana of the 1960s. It's a serious drug. The impact is not trivial and it shouldn't be treated as such."

Wednesday April 9, 2003
Romney Would Merge Turnpike Authority, Highway Department

Gov. Mitt Romney on Tuesday proposed taking control of the agency that oversees the Big Dig, combining it with another transportation agency, removing much of its independence, and expanding its board to include four gubernatorial appointees. Romney said Tuesday "it makes no sense" to have an agency free from oversight by elected officials running the nation's largest public works project, the $14.6 billion Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel project. If something were to go "terribly wrong on the Big Dig, neither the governor nor the Legislature could do anything about it," he said. "That just doesn't make sense on a project of this scale." Romney said the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, was inefficient, unaccountable, and performing the same duties as the Massachusetts Highway Department. Merging the two together could save $30 million in wasteful spending, and save $190 million in one-time money by rolling its debt over to the state.

Rep. Joseph Wagner, House chairman of the Transportation Committee, said he doubted the savings Romney claims. He also said allowing the governor to fire board members would put an end to the authority's independence. "At that point, they're not necessarily an independent authority," Wagner (D-Chicopee) said. "They're an authority in name only. That change would remake the turnpike authority, and would frankly remake it in the image of the administration."

The same arguments were used for two disparate bills before the Public Safety Committee Tuesday. Both measures will save lives and ease the budget deficit, legislators were told. Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey and prosecutors said this is the year for passage of a "per se" law, i.e., legislation declaring anyone found to have a .08 blood alcohol content to be drunk. The law will prevent the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid in coming years, the witnesses said, not to mention discouraging drunk driving. Dozens of immigrants crowded the hearing room to support proposals allowing undocumented immigrants to receive drivers' licenses. The legislation would result in safer roads because immigrants would take driver's tests, get insurance and follow proper post-accident procedures, advocates said. If one-third of the 150,000 immigrants now driving were to obtain licenses and register their cars, the state would take in about $11 million a year, supporters estimated.

A legislative panel on Thursday will hear Speaker Thomas Finneran's new bill that would allow the House and Senate alone to adjust the premium pay of their members. Present laws require the governor to sign off on any premium pay increases. Finneran aides say Gov. Mitt Romney was able to create new leadership posts and set the pay of his own top aides, and they should be able to do the same. The House chairman of the Public Service Committee, which will hear Finneran's bill Thursday, supports the bill. "I don't think there's anything far afield here," said Rep. Robert Koczera (D-New Bedford). "We're all accountable to our constituencies and we're all aware of public perceptions. It's very unfortunate that other people are seeing this as some kind of a license to abuse the system or in some way be irresponsible to the public that we serve. It really pertains to the separation of powers between the branches of government."

The bonus pay changes are part of a committee modernization package that would
formally create a House Committee on Medicaid. Finneran has tapped Rep. Daniel Keenan (D-Southwick) to lead that committee and proposes paying Keenan $15,000 on top of his constitutionally-set legislative base salary of $53,380. Finneran is also proposing the elimination of the Joint Committees on Local Affairs, Counties and Federal Financial Assistance. He would replace them with a Joint Committee on Homeland Security and Federal Affairs and new House Committee on Local Affairs and Regional Government. For changes in the joint committee structure to take effect, senators must
agree.

Hundreds of doctors, joined by hundreds of patients and other caregivers, overflowed State House corridors Tuesday lobbying for reform in the medical malpractice system they say is forcing physicians in high risk specialties to abandon their practices. Gov. Mitt Romney vowed to stand with the doctors and fight for change. Earlier, victims of malpractice told their own stories and expressed opposition to any cap on damages.

Last week Gov. Mitt Romney refused to swear in incumbent Democrat Matthew Patrick as the Representative from the 3rd Barnstable House District. This week, a Beacon Hill committee chairman is refusing to schedule a public hearing on Gov. Romney's proposed Medicaid changes until the administration responds to four pages of questions. Health Care Committee Co-chairman Sen. Richard Moore (D-Uxbridge) said answers to his questions are needed to complete a committee analysis of Romney's bill. The legislation (H 3732) was filed in late February and referred to the committee in late March, after a top administration official cautioned that hundreds of millions of dollars in proposed savings were at risk if the bill were not passed immediately.

In an April 3 letter to the administration, Moore says he is prepared to schedule a hearing on the bill "at the earliest possible date" following responses to his questions.

If Sen. Stanley Rosenberg has his way, the voters in 2006 will be asked to make it even more difficult to place questions on the statewide ballot. While people like Citizens for Limited Taxation's Barbara Anderson contend that the Amherst Democrat wants to destroy the initiative petition process, Rosenberg insists that he simply wants to return to the standard intended by those who established the process by which the people get to make their own laws via the ballot. His proposed constitutional amendment, S-362 [http://www.state.ma.us/legis/bills/st00362.htm], changing the rules of the ballot question game gets a hearing Thursday before the Election Laws Committee.

The State Constitution now requires that sponsors of any proposed ballot question must collect certified voter signatures equal to at least 3 percent of the total vote cast during the previous election for the office of governor. Fifty years ago, Rosenberg points out, that meant backers had to have 70,000 certified signatures to keep their initiatives alive while the number needed for the 2002 ballot was just 57,100. The population, and the number of certified voters, has increased by 35 percent but the number of people who actually vote has declined. Rosenberg's bill would require that 3 percent of registered, rather than actual, voters be used to calculate the signature requirement.

Budget Task Force Reports

House members will spend much of this week in closed caucuses where they will hear from colleagues who served on task forces that have been searching for budget-balancing ideas. Wednesday's caucus focuses on initiatives related to local government, education financing, and health and human services. Thursday's is devoted to Medicaid and the courts. Another is set for Monday to examine recommendations from the task forces on workforce development and the state's credit rating. Each session takes place at noon in Rooms A-1 and A-2.

The Senate will meet without a calendar Thursday at 11 a.m., but Senate Democrats have scheduled a caucus for that day at 1 p.m. in the president's office. Sen. Robert Havern, who presided over today's brief meeting, said the topic will be the budget, and Senate President Robert Travaglini (D-East Boston) wants to live up to his promise of inclusiveness. "We need to hear from all members about what they think about spending," Havern said. He said the senators will bring to the caucus their sensitivity to the number one factor that keeps them in office - the needs of their districts. Therefore, Havern said, concerns about cuts in local aid from suburban lawmakers will play off against the interest of urban senators in staving off cuts to programs that serve the poor. "There's not going to be any confluence of opinion, that's for sure," Havern said. "The president promised to include everyone in the discussion. People have different needs depending on their district, but you don't know if you don't ask."

Back in court Monday are principals in the battle over whether a new election should be scheduled in the 3rd Barnstable Representative District. The question has been in and out of the Superior Court since the Nov. 5 election in which voters handed a squeaker to incumbent Rep. Matthew Patrick (D-Falmouth). Following a recount of the 17,268 votes cast, Patrick held a 17-vote lead over Republican Larry Wheatley (R-Barnstable), but a number of irregularities prompted a Superior Court judge to order a new election. The problems encountered were not blamed on either candidate.

House leaders have insisted that, once the election is held, the House itself is the final judge of whom should be seated. Two weeks ago, members voted along party lines to reaffirm that contention and Patrick was scheduled to be sworn in by Gov. Mitt Romney last Wednesday.

At the last minute, the governor stepped back and decided to leave the next move up to the court. Wheatley, Patrick's GOP foe, will ask Superior Court Judge Richard Connon to hold the state's top election official, Secretary of State William Galvin, in contempt for not scheduling a new election as ordered by the court. At the same time, Galvin will ask the judge to vacate his order for the new election since the House has determined that Patrick was duly elected and should be seated.

Bills affecting regulation of utilities, energy efficiency, facility siting, employee training and area codes will be heard by the Government Regulations Committee this week. The committee has already, by voice vote, rejected bills authorizing casinos (H 2792) and allowing slot machines at the race tracks (H 3153). The question before the House when it convenes for a gaming debate April 15 will be whether to accept those adverse reports.

Bills adding to the list of official state emblems will be aired Monday before the State Administration Committee. This year's proposals include several bills to commemorate the terrorist attacks of Sept, 11, 2001, along with others to designate May 25 as Missing Children's Day, Oct. 20 as Democracy Day, Dec. 15 as Bill of Rights Day and the first week of October as Massachusetts Safe Schools Week. Others designate Oxford as the official Flag Town of Massachusetts, encourage skateboarding and inline skating on government property, create a special commission to consider making the Brookwood Farm in Milton the site of a governor's mansion. The 70-acre property was once a working farm dating back to the 17th century. The last owner willed the farm to the Metropolitan District Commission in 1994 in hopes it would someday be used for an executive mansion. There is also a bill to rename the Criminal Justice Training Academy in Agawam after Harold F. Skelton Sr.

During the last legislative session, lawmakers designated the Boston Crème as the official state donut, Dr. Seuss as its children's author and "Make Way for Ducklings" as its official children's book.

Plans to create a system that allegedly could help law enforcement trace bullets or shell casings found at a crime scene back to the gun buyer have long split gun owners and gun-control advocates along predictable ideological lines. Gun owners attack the so-called ballistic fingerprinting systems as error-prone and unreliable. They say criminals can tamper with their gun barrels to render their bullets and shell casing untraceable. Gun control advocates say few criminals possess the foresight to alter their gun barrels before committing a crime. Ballistic fingerprinting systems have proven effective in New York and Maryland, the two states that have begun them, and with the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, advocates say.

But in a sign of how the debate about public safety is shifting this year, much of the argument about the system now seems to revolve around its cost. Gun owners still assail the merits, but say that with the state facing its deepest fiscal crisis since World War II, it could cost up to $10 millions to buy the computers and the bullet-imaging machines, and hire and train the staff to run the system. The expense makes little sense in a year when police are being threatened with layoffs and other public safety programs face cutbacks, said James Wallace, legislative director for the Gun Owners Action League of Massachusetts.

The bill, S-1327 (http://www.state.ma.us/legis/bills/st01327.htm), is now before the Public Safety Committee. Predictably it is co-sponsored by Sen. Cheryl Jacques (D-Needham), is also backed by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and the city's police commissioner, Paul Evans.

A former aide to Rep. Joseph Sullivan, who is now running the state Lottery, won a four-man race Tuesday for the Democratic nomination to replace Sullivan in the House. Joseph Driscoll pulled in 2,256 votes during the primary for the Braintree-based seat. His closest competitor, Joseph Powers, received 1,885 votes. Driscoll will face off against Republican Matthew Sisk, who was unopposed Tuesday, on May 13. Driscoll left Sullivan's office about four years ago. Since then, he has worked at the attorney general's office, for Norfolk County District Attorney William Keating, and served on the Braintree Board of Selectmen.

The Senate on Thursday morning admitted House Speaker Thomas Finneran's bill allowing the Legislature to set bonus pay rates for those in leadership positions without needing the approval of the governor. The Senate concurred with the House's referral of the bill to the Public Service Committee. Before adjourning to meet again Monday without a calendar, the Senate also adopted a House order reviving a special committee on joint rules and instructing the committee to issue a report by April 16. The House met briefly Thursday morning and simply adjourned until Monday when another informal session is scheduled.

Common Cause of Massachusetts, an advocacy group which favors clean election laws released a study on Thursday which proved what many people know intuitively: it takes money to win elections. Some of the specifics of the study include the following:

The average winner in a Mass. House race last year spent $40,987; the average loser, $21,709. For the Senate, winners averaged $112,144 in spending, losers, $49,066.

Nine out of 10 of candidates who outspent their challengers by 20 percent or more won their race.

65 percent of representatives had no opponent last year; 69 percent of senators.

Measured by the number of contested seats, Massachusetts remained the second-least competitive legislature in America last year.

Thursday April 3, 2003
Sex Offender Website Coming Online, Offends Public Defenders

Beginning May 15, members of the public can check a state-run website to find the names, photos and addresses of high-level sex offenders living in their neighborhoods, Gov. Mitt Romney said Wednesday. The state's public defender office said it would immediately file a court challenge, arguing that state law forbids publishing sex offender information online. Romney said he fully expected foes of the registry to challenge its legality in court. Administration officials said state law makes no explicit reference to posting sex offender information online but allows the state to "actively disseminate" offender information.

"We've already made the determination that the Internet is included in 'active dissemination,' " said Jennifer Franco, general counsel for the Executive Office of Public Safety, who is to become the new chair of the Sex Offender Registry Board next week. "We fully anticipated having challenges." Carol Donovan, special litigation director for the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state's public defender office, said state law only allows the government to publish information about sex offenders locally - for example, at neighborhood post offices. Posting the information online broadcasts the information to a potentially global audience, she said.

In 1998, the Legislature passed a law to crack down on individuals who steal the identities of other individuals. Now, top state criminal justice officials say the law needs to catch up to thieves who are fraudulently using the names of charities and businesses.

Top deputies in Attorney General Thomas Reilly's office told lawmakers Wednesday that they have no way of criminally prosecuting individuals who pose as business owners or representatives of charities to deceptively raise money. Based on anecdotal evidence and complaints from police, district attorneys and victims, officials say such activity is on the rise and has the potential to destroy lives and undermine public trust.

"There are no criminal penalties available to us," Jamie Katz, chief of Reilly's public charities division, told Criminal Justice Committee members, who are reviewing Reilly's bill expanding the state identity theft law.

Under larceny laws, prosecutors must prove defendants intended to keep stolen money. Under the proposal, they would need to prove the defendant intended to defraud someone and did so by impersonating a charity or business. Satisfying larceny proof standards in identity theft cases would be "difficult, if not impossible," according to Katz.

Bankers Seek Higher Risk For Bank Robbers

Saying the new year is off to a "bad start" with nearly 100 bank robberies to date, the Massachusetts Bankers Association on Wednesday urged lawmakers to approve new minimum criminal sentences more akin to federal laws. The association's legislation would call for a minimum 30-month sentence for robbers who use notes, and a minimum five-year sentence for those who use disguises or a weapon. Association officials say robbers successfully prosecuted under federal law typically face sentences of between eight and 12 years. But judges in state courts, where 25 to 50 percent of cases are tried, are not bound by minimum mandatory sentences. Association president and CEO Daniel J. Forte says that means first-time offenders may be sentenced to probation, or a few months in jail.

Jean Morrisey, a leading advocate of the Baby Safe Haven Law which died in the legislature last year, and a BHB reader, sent us a reaction to the statement of Senate President Robert Travaligni regarding child abuse. We share the note, unedited.

Saying "nothing tears at my heart more than child abuse," Senate President RobertTravaglini kicked off Child Abuse Prevention Month. Senate President Travaglini quicklyforgot the two newborns that died in his own neighborhood just weeks ago, at the time hewas stopping cold in its tracks the Baby Safe Haven bill that would have more then likelystopped their deadly abandonments.

Senate Presidents Travaglini knows how bad his single handed stopping of the Baby Safe Haven bill passage is, Massachusetts is the largest state to not have a Baby Safe Haven law. We're more then three times larger then any of the remaining five states that have not passed these life saving laws. New York went fourteen months without a deadly newborn abandonment, in the same time period we had three here in the Bay State, six deadly newborn abandonments out of ten in the three years since the original Baby Safe Haven bill was filed. Senate President Travaglini should hang his head in shame, think about the two tiny liveslost within blocks of his residence that need not have died just because he listens to one ofthe tiniest factions in the Commonwealth, that have subverted this law that is now passedin states that cover over 96% of the US population.

Shame on you Senate President Travaglini. As Illinois celebrates their Save Abandoned Babies Month in April, Connecticut forwarded their Save Children First Baby Safe Havencampaign last month, both with the support of their legislatures, US Senators, Governors and LT. Governors. Senate President Travaglini buried our Baby Safe Haven bill so deepinto the "legislative process" quagmire that all predictions are that it won't pass foranother three to five years, and up to a dozen more deadly newborn abandonment "childabuses" later.

April may see another deadly newborn abandonment, right in the middle of "Child Abuse Prevention Month." We will not prevent a deadly abandonment, we do not have a Baby Safe Haven law.

A day before Matthew Patrick was scheduled to officially take his seat, Gov. Mitt Romney stepped back and is declining to administer the oath of office to the Falmouth Democrat. The swearing-in ceremony had been scheduled for noon Wednesday. Last Nov. 5, Patrick beat Republican Larry Wheatley by just 12 votes. His lead grew to 17 votes after a recount but a Superior Court judge found that a series of irregularities had occurred and prevented many voters from casting ballots. The problems with the election did not appear to be the fault of either man and the judge ordered a new election. But a special committee named by Speaker Thomas Finneran to look into the matter opined that, following an election, the House itself decides who will be seated and Finneran has refused to schedule another election.

The full House concurred with that conclusion last week. Meanwhile Patrick, who represented the 3rd Barnstable District during the 2001/2002 session, has continued to vote and collect a pay check - although he has yet to take the oath. That had been set for Wednesday but the governor's communications director Eric Fehrnstrom said Tuesday that the ceremony will not take place in light of yet another court hearing scheduled for next week. "This delay causes no harm to the citizens of the 3rd Barnstable District," Fehrnstrom said. "We could cause serious harm to Mr. Wheatley by swearing in his opponent while the court case is still open . . . The governor wishes to show respect for the judicial branch."

Among the several bills on the agenda for the Joint Committee on Health Care Monday were two bills related to the medical use of marijuana. The bills seek to allow medicinal use of controlled substances as well as legal growing of marijuana and "experimental use" for the treatment of some diseases, such as HIV and AIDS.

H-2965 [http://masscann.org/medicalbill1.htm] would allow possession, for personal medical use "four ounces of dried, useable, cannabis, and no more than ten plants, four of which can be mature (flowering)." According to Lea Cox, President of Concerned Citizens for Drug Prevention , Inc., "This is ludicrous. Four ounces is enough to make more than 400 joints. They're still trying to make this into a medical issue. They're trying to do an end run and sneak this into law rather than going through the extensive medical trials that should be required. But they can't do that because in order to be certified for medical use you need a substance with a single ingredient that can be standardized. You can't do that with marijuana because in has 480 ingredients, which become more than 2,000 when lit."

Steven Epstein of Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition\NORML views the matter quite differently. He wrote in a press release, "The use of marijuana as a medicine rather than its synthetic, patented, and expensive primary ingredient Dronabinol, makes this a money issue. While we have no information on how many Massachusetts residents on Mass Health are regularly being prescribed Dronabinol to treat the wasting syndrome associated with AIDS, or, as an appetite stimulant due to other illnesses or conditions, we believe, the Commonwealth could save significant money by adoption and implementation of House 2965."

S-676 [http://www.state.ma.us/legis/bills/st00676.htm.] is a one sentence bill which would change state law to read, "Upon presentation of sufficient medical data by a physician to the department, the department may approve the experimental use of marijuana in the treatment of additional disease entities, including HIV positive and AIDS." Cox believes this bill is just part of the continued effort to make marijuana seem like a harmless, even helpful, substance. She told the BHB, "This drug is extremely dangerous. It even changes DNA. The more we study it the more we learn about its dangers.

Saying "nothing tears at my heart more than child abuse," Senate President Robert Travaglini kicked off Child Abuse Prevention Month by vowing to protecting funding for problems that serve and protect neglected and abused children. Travaglini ticked off the byproducts of abuse: learning disabilities, low self-esteem, trouble with relationships, substance abuse and criminal behavior. "The vacillation in our economy will not have any affect as it relates to these types of situations in the Senate budget deliberations," Travaglini said, attracting applause at a Nurses Hall event organized by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. "We do not lose sight of our mission . . . In the end I promise you we will be where we have to be."

Travaglini said child protection advocates are fortunate to have allies with "significant political influence" in the Senate. The new chairmen of the Children's Legislative Caucus, Sen. Thomas McGee (D-Lynn) and Rep. Stephen LeDuc (D-Marlborough), joined Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey in vowing to raise awareness of child abuse during April.

Although all House bills have not even been numbered yet, and many are still not available online, legislative committees have begun the work of sorting them out. The Beacon Hill Beat will list bills in which our readers have interest and , when possible, link readers to the text of those legislative proposals. Here are some of the bills we're watching.

Tuesday April 1, 2003
Finneran Bill Would Cut Governor Out of Legislative Bonus Approval

House Speaker Thomas Finneran on Monday offered legislation that would allow the House and Senate alone to adjust the premium pay of their members. Under Finneran's legislation, which aides say will be debated by the House on Wednesday, the House and Senate could adjust the bonuses members receive for leading committees by making rule changes rather than by sending a bill to the governor's desk. Finneran aides say Gov. Mitt Romney was able to create new leadership posts and set the pay of his own top aides, and they should be able to do the same. The change is part of a committee modernization package that would formally create a House Committee on Medicaid. Finneran has tapped Rep. Daniel Keenan (D-Southwick) to lead that committee and proposes paying Keenan $15,000 on top of his constitutionally-set legislative base salary of $53,380.

Finneran is also proposing the elimination of the Joint Committees on Local Affairs, Counties and Federal Financial Assistance. He would replace them with a Joint Committee on Homeland Security and Federal Affairs and new House Committee on Local Affairs and Regional Government. For changes in the joint committee structure to take effect, senators must agree.

Only the Joint Banks and Banking Committee has remained in its current form over the past 145 years, Finneran says, noting there used to be a Joint Committee on Parishes and Religious Societies. The House admitted Finneran's bill and referred it to the Joint Public Service Committee Monday. The Senate received the Finneran bill, but did not admit it before adjourning. To be properly placed before the Legislature and its committees for public hearings, bills need to be admitted first in both branches.

Legislation to jump-start a 12-year-old law legalizing the use of marijuana for therapeutic purposes and to expand the medical conditions for which it could be prescribed was aired Monday before the Health Care Committee. A 1991 law was designed to allow the substance to be prescribed to cancer patients because its use is believed to alleviate the nausea and other side effects of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. It could also be used legally to decrease the ocular pressure of those who suffer from glaucoma and decrease airway problems for those with asthma. But the state Department of Public Health (DPH) never established the marijuana research program because there was no source of the substance authorized by the federal government. One of the two bills heard Monday would permit a patient over age 18 to possess a limited amount of pot grown under certain conditions. The bill, filed by Rep. Frank Smizik (D-Brookline), would also make it available to those suffering from AIDS, multiple sclerosis or Crohn's disease, epilepsy and other chronic or painful conditions.

"There's no logical reason not to do this," said Sen. Charles Shannon, a Winchester Democrat who sponsored the second bill expanding legalized use to AIDS patients. "As a former police officer, I can assure you that I'm not in favor of any widespread use of marijuana." Opposition to similar bills in the past has come from those who worry that legalizing marijuana will lead to abuse and that a safe supply of the substance must be guaranteed. The state DPH has not yet taken a position on the bills.

Senate Committee Chairman Richard Moore (D-Uxbridge) said the panel would take no action on the bills until April 14 at the earliest.

Realizing that its plan to collect "Blocking Payments" from neighboring states which operate casinos, the Romney administration on Monday abandoned its plan to negotiate millions from casino operators in neighboring states and threw its support behind a new proposal to build three slot machine parlors in Massachusetts. Romney aides said auctioning off five-year licenses for three slot machine houses could bring the short-term benefit of $300 million a year to help protect education and health programs from budget cuts, while not committing Massachusetts to the long-term problems associated with casino gambling, such as crime, corruption and gambling addiction.