$259M in spending, reproductive legal shield, and infrastructure bills land on Healey's desk
Photo I Chris Lisinski/SHNS
Bar advocate Sean Delaney (left), joined by a couple dozen of his peers, rallies inside the State House on Thursday calling for lawmakers to boost pay for the attorneys beyond what legislative leaders proposed.
The Legislature treated the last day of July as it so often does: with a blitz of action to advance or wrap up multiple bills before lawmakers give themselves an extended break.
On the eve of a traditional summer recess, the House and Senate sent Gov. Maura Healey measures instituting new legal shields to protect reproductive and gender identity care, funding $259 million in spending including investments in legal representation for indigent defendants, and investing heavily in local road repairs.
The Senate also overwhelmingly approved legislation prohibiting cellphones in K-12 classrooms in most instances. With schools preparing for another academic year, House Democrats have not indicated if or when they plan to tackle that issue so it's unclear whether the policy offensive will have an impact in the fall.
Much of the work completed Thursday had been in the mix for months, and with the votes complete, lawmakers tied off key loose ends, hand the governor a trio of major bills before decamping for vacations.
"Today, as we know, is our last day of formal session before we take a much-needed recess in August," Senate budget chief Michael Rodrigues said from the chamber floor.
One pressing crisis the Legislature targeted in Thursday's flurry left some of those involved dissatisfied.
Roughly 30 bar advocates gathered on the Grand Staircase to slam proposed pay increases included in the spending bill lawmakers sent Healey. The attorneys sought raises of $35 per hour in the first year and $25 an hour in the second year, three times more than the $20 an hour over two years the Legislature approved.
Sean Delaney, a bar advocate who has become a de facto leader for attorneys frustrated by the situation, said he wants lawmakers to understand that "we're going nowhere."
"Your ridiculous proposal that you put forward yesterday has only strengthened our resolve. You must understand that before you go off on your monthly sojourn in August and disappear from these halls," Delaney said. "You're strengthening our cause and our resolve. Personally, I am not taking another case until they do what is right. They know what it is. They have the means and the manner to do it. They refuse to do it."
Some bar advocates stopped taking new cases in late May to protest their pay rates, which are significantly lower than other New England states. As a result, some courts had to release defendants or dismiss cases.
Legislative leaders, who were frustrated with the labor action, on Wednesday rolled out a proposal to increase bar advocate pay, declare any similar refusal to take new cases in the future an antitrust violation, and boost funding for the Committee for Public Counsel Services by $40 million to hire additional staff attorneys.
House budget chief Aaron Michlewitz on Thursday recounted efforts to scale back some spending increases in the final annual state budget, saying "there were many worthy line items and programs that saw reductions."
"Yet due to the work stoppage and some bar advocates holding people's constitutional rights to counsel hostage, we have found the space to offer these proposals," Michlewitz told his colleagues. "Many people would be thrilled at a 30% raise, because I can assure you that most state workers or contractors will not see anything comparable for any of that in the near future, and you don't see any of them holding up our constituents' constitutional rights as a bargaining chip or using them as leverage in negotiations."
Bar advocates are private attorneys hired essentially as independent contractors to represent clients who cannot afford lawyers. Without a centralized leadership, the decision on whether to resume accepting new cases will fall to each lawyer as an individual.
Christine Fosco, a bar advocate in Norfolk and Suffolk counties, called the Legislature's proposal "insulting" and a "very disingenuous offer."
"I was personally upset and insulted and disappointed, honestly. Honestly, that was my emotion when I heard that this was the offer," Fosco told reporters Thursday. "I was disappointed that the state of Massachusetts, who should be in the forefront of things like protecting constitutional rights, isn't doing it."
Asked whether she is prepared to take on new cases with the incoming $10 raise, Fosco said, "Absolutely not." Fosco said that's also the sentiment she's heard from more than 100 bar advocates over the past day.
"My understanding is that advocates who continue to take cases are glad to hear of the raise," she said. "But the ones who have not taken any new cases, my understanding and the people that I've spoken to personally, are not going to take it at $75."
Advocates' new strategy is to call on Healey to do "the right thing" and return the supplemental budget to lawmakers with a "better suggestion," Fosco said.
Shane Callahan, another attorney who has been doing bar advocate work in New Bedford, said he understands why some of his counterparts are frustrated but views raise proposed by lawmakers as "a fair compromise."
"Everybody wants a pay increase. I'd love to have a pay increase starting next month," he said. "That would be great."
In addition to the defense attorney funding, the bill lawmakers finalized Thursday (S 2575) includes funding for rental aid, elder home care services and chipped electronic benefit transfer cards.
The House voted 150-6 to accept the compromise legislation. All six no votes came from Republicans: House Minority Leader Brad Jones of North Reading and Reps. Paul Frost of Auburn, Nicholas Boldyga of Southwick, John Paul Gaskey of Carver, Marc Lombardo of Billerica and Alyson Sulliva-Almeida of Abington.
The Senate then shipped the bill Healey's way on an unrecorded voice vote.
The latest-breaking addition to the Legislature's agenda arrived Thursday morning, when top Democrats announced they reached an agreement on legislation that would further shield reproductive and transgender care amid federal scrutiny and legal threats largely led by Republicans in other states.
That bill (S 2572) would update a 2022 state law intended to protect providers and patients of reproductive care, including abortions, and transgender care in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Supporters have cautioned that additional action is needed to plug gaps in the existing law.
It would limit the release of sensitive data, allow prescription labels to display a practice name instead of an individual physician's name, and codify a state requirement for abortion care to be provided in emergencies when medically necessary.
"The urgency behind this effort has been dictated by the wild rhetoric as well as the acts taken by both this presidential administration as well as several of our sister states in the field that this bill covers: the right for a woman to control her body and the right for transgender individuals to be treated as equals here in the commonwealth," said Judiciary Committee Co-chair Rep. Michael Day.
The House approved the final compromise 132-24. Democrat Reps. Colleen Garry of Dracut, Francisco Paulino of Lawrence, Alan Silvia of Fall River and Jeffrey Turco of Winthrop joined most Republicans to vote no. Jones voted yes, as did fellow Republican Reps. David Vieira of Falmouth, Hannah Kane of Shrewsbury and Donald Wong of Saugus.
Senators followed suit with a 37-3 vote to pass the bill to Healey. Republican Sens. Kelly Dooner of Taunton, Ryan Fattman of Sutton and Peter Durant of Spencer voted no.
Lawmakers found easy agreement on the latest iteration of a road funding bill that typically passes in one form or another every year.
The Senate on Thursday approved the same $1.185 billion proposal (H 4307) that cleared the House last week, making no changes along the way, and both branches soon took the final votes to send the measure to the governor.
The bond package combines $300 million for one year of the Chapter 90 program with an additional $885 million for a road and bridge lifecycle asset management program, culverts, small bridges and congestion hotspots. Lawmakers carved out $100 million of the Chapter 90 funds to be distributed solely based on road mileage, pitching it as a boost to rural communities.
Like the supplemental spending bill and the updated legal shield law, the road funding bill landed on Healey's desk Thursday afternoon. She'll get 10 days to review each proposal.
The Senate also voted 38-2 on a bill (S 2561) largely prohibiting cellphones in public K-12 classrooms, taking aim at an issue that has frustrated educators, parents and some students for years.
Dooner and Fattman voted against the cellphone ban.
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