Keller: Why can’t the Massachusetts Legislature pass important bills?

BOSTON – A two-year legislative session overseen by an overwhelming Democratic majority collapses in acrimony at the end, taking major bills down with it, including an economic development bill that included funding for clean energy, allowed for the return of happy hour and approval for the building of a new stadium in Everett for New England Revolution.

Welcome to Massachusetts, home to one of the most uni-partisan and progressive legislatures in the country but also one of the most dysfunctional.

“There are going to be differences of opinion,” said Doug Howgate, president of the fiscal watchdog group the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. “And truth be told, over a two-year period, those differences of opinion, especially when time gets tight, I think, can become more exacerbated.”

That phenomenon was illustrated by a remarkable moment as the session wound down when Senate President Karen Spilka (D-Ashland) mimicked almost word for word criticisms aimed at her chamber by House Speaker Ron Mariano (D-Quincy). The two legislative leaders have had a famously awkward relationship; is that a source of the gridlock? 

“I really see that more as a result of the frustration of some of these big bills not getting done as opposed to the root cause of it,” said Howgate.

Howgate correctly predicted that Gov. Maura Healey would try to prod the lawmakers into returning to Beacon Hill for a special session to at least pass provisions of a major economic development bill, approving bond issues and another measure clearing the way for more federal funding of state initiatives. Even that unusual event would likely leave many other issues unaddressed, including a bill championed by the governor that would give cities and towns more flexibility to raise local-option taxes.

“There was always going to be pieces of the administration’s legislative agenda that don’t make it,” says Howgate. “But I think the focus right now is probably gonna be on that economic development bill.”