BOSTON — House leaders called off a meeting with Gov. Charlie Baker and Senate leaders on Monday so they can instead dedicate more time to the state’s unsettled budget situation and development of marijuana legislation.
House and Senate leaders had been scheduled to meet with Baker at 2 p.m. in Baker’s office. The meeting cancellation came on the first business day after Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings downgraded the state’s credit rating, citing inadequate efforts to rebuild the state’s reserves.
A committee led by Rep. Mark Cusack of Braintree has for months been developing a bill to overhaul the ballot law legalizing adult marijuana use and is also said to be closing in on a final product. One senior House official confirmed that the House hopes to have the bill released and on the floor for a debate Thursday when the House has a formal session scheduled and no other specific business on the agenda.
With fiscal 2017 closing at month’s end, Gov. Baker has yet to describe with any detail how he’s managing a revenue shortfall of nearly half a billion dollars. The revenue base for the fiscal 2018 budget, which is before a six-member conference committee, is also likely far too optimistic and may necessitate major budget revisions. The committee planned to meet on Monday, but aides would not disclose the time and location of the meeting.
Gov. Baker signed a $45.5 million mid-year spending bill on Friday that will allow the state to pay off winter road cleaning bills, open pools on time and enable the state’s prison’s to meet payroll, according to the governor’s office.
Baker inked his name to the spending bill a day after the House and Senate vote on final passage and two days before the Department of Correction was due to run out of money, jeopardizing its ability to meet its payroll obligations.
The bill includes $15 million for the Department of Correction, $14 million for leftover road-clearing bills and $1.5 million for the Department of Conservation to guarantee adequate staffing to open state pools on time this summer.
Lawmakers pushed up against the DOC payroll deadline after the Senate added an amendment to the bill (H 3718) requiring the Baker administration by Jan. 1, 2018 to issue a report detailing inmate population, costs per inmate, expenses on payroll, and expenses on programming for recidivism reduction, reentry support, and behavioral health counseling.
The amendment was added following the release of a MassINC report that found DOC and county sheriff spending rising despite declining prison and jail populations.
The Senate backed off its amendment to get the budget bill through, but Senate President Stanley Rosenberg said he intends to revisit the issue in negotiations over the fiscal 2018 budget currently before a conference committee.