Massachusetts
Procedural war over controversial budget bill continues Friday on Beacon Hill
A procedural war over a budget bill that includes critical funding for union contracts and the state’s ability to respond to an influx of migrants continued Friday as Massachusetts Republicans pledged to keep up their blockade.
Democratic leadership in the House and Senate released a compromise version of a nearly $3.1 billion supplemental budget Thursday that included $250 million for Massachusetts’ struggling shelter system and nearly $400 million for 95 union contracts.
But Republicans, who had voiced concerns with the shelter aid for weeks, blocked the advancing agreement after attempting to move consideration of the bill from an informal session — where any one lawmaker can object to a proposal — to a formal session, where legislators can debate and take recorded votes.
After a private meeting Friday afternoon with other House Republicans, House Minority Leader Brad Jones said he believed minority party members would continue to object to the supplemental budget if Democrats attempted to push the full proposal through.
“We’re having continuing conversations with the caucus about all the different considerations, the contracts that have been, were held captive by this ridiculous process as well as having a discussion with the comptroller, and realizing what’s the fine point of, as I billed it, responsible opposition versus irresponsible obstructionism. I don’t know that we’re at that point yet,” he said. “I’m sure the speaker would say we’re past that point.”
House Speaker Ronald Mariano criticized Republicans Thursday night after they blocked the supplemental budget from advancing.
“It’s incredibly disappointing that House Republicans are blocking the passage of the supplemental budget,” he said in a statement. “This bill includes $3 billion worth of critical funding for state employee raises and for a number of other pressing issues. Despite that, House Republicans are willing to jeopardize the entire package over $250 million that will be used to provide shelter for all vulnerable families in Massachusetts.”
The budget agreement hashed out by Ways and Means Chairs Rep. Aaron Michlewitz and Sen. Michael Rodrigues includes a provision requiring the Healey administration to use $50 million of the migrant aid to set up an overflow site for families placed on a waitlist for shelter placement.
The union contract funding affects pay raises for tens of thousands of public sector workers just as the winter holidays are approaching. Union members pushed Beacon Hill lawmakers late last month to advance those dollars quickly.
The budget bill also features $15 million in disaster relief for communities hit hard by extreme weather events, $10 million for resettlement agencies to support immigrants and refugees, and $60 million to support caseworkers and staff at the Department of Transitional Assistance dealing with an increased volume of people looking for benefits.
If the supplemental budget manages to make it through the House, it still will need to clear the Senate, where Republicans have also expressed discontent with the proposal.
Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr said GOP members of both branches offered a “very clear” path forward by pushing to move consideration of the budget into formal sessions.
“I think you have to ask yourself the question, you should be asking others the question, these are priorities, to be able to advance some of these things, the union contracts, certainly the disaster relief,” he told the Herald Thursday night as he left the State House. “And if they’re a priority for all of us, then why would we not agree to have debate and take roll calls? What is the reason we wouldn’t do that?”
Both the House and Senate gaveled in around 11 a.m. Friday and quickly moved into extended recesses, where they remained just after 1 p.m. Senate Republicans huddled privately at 11 a.m. to discuss strategy and suggested they might do so again later in the day if necessary.
This is a developing story…
Massachusetts
Boston given green light by Massachusetts Legislature to slap ‘scofflaw’ landlords with $2,000 fines, up from $300
Boston could soon be empowered to raise the maximum fines for “scofflaw” landlords who flout local laws around property upkeep for the first time in more than three decades, from $300 to $2,000 for each violation.
Originally Published:
Massachusetts
Power outage threat Thursday: Wind advisory issued for Massachusetts with gusts to 55 mph
The National Weather Service has issued a wind advisory in Massachusetts due to the threat of gusty winds that could knock out power to homes and businesses on Thursday.
Parts of Franklin, Worcester, Middlesex, Essex, Hampshire, Hampden, Worcester, Norfolk, Suffolk, Bristol, Plymouth, Dukes, Nantucket, and Berkshire counties are under the advisory through 10 p.m.
Wind gusts of 45-55 mph, isolated up to 60 mph in some parts of the state, could blow around unsecured objects like holiday decorations, topple tree limbs, and cause power outages, Boston 25 Meteorologist Shiri Spear said in her latest forecast.
The NWS warned that winds this strong can make driving difficult, especially for high-profile vehicles.
Highs will land near 40 degrees, but the wind chill run about 10 degrees below that, according to Spear. The strong wind gusts could also carry lake effect snow from Lake Ontario into western and central Massachusetts this afternoon and evening.
“There is a slight chance for a dusting of snow in a few communities west of I-495 as a result with the highest chance for some minor accumulation in the Berkshires and western New England,” Spear wrote in her latest weather blog.
As of 8 a.m. Thursday, there were less than 1,000 power outages across the state, but that number is expected to climb as the day progresses.
For more on the forecast, visit the Boston 25 Weather page.
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Massachusetts
Jewish communities in Mass. concerned as antisemitic hate crimes increase for third straight year – The Boston Globe
Physical violence against Jews in Massachusetts was rare, but vandalism, destruction, or intimidation accounted for 88 percent of the antisemitic bias incidents reported in 2023. About 72 percent took place in the eastern counties of Middlesex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, where the Jewish population is more concentrated.
“We don’t have massive organized violence against Jews, but there’s the prospect of it,” said Robert Leikind, regional director of the New England chapter of the American Jewish Committee. “When I go to synagogue, the doors are locked now.”
The state report tallies all types of hate crimes in the state, offenses in which bias, including bigotry toward religion, race, or gender, could be charged as a motivation for the crime. The most common target was the state’s Black population, with 149 incidences of bias, though the number decreased by almost 6 percent compared with the year before.
Another group increasingly targeted was the trans community. Antitransgender incidents increased from 14 in 2022 to 36 in 2023, a 157 percent increase.
The report “highlights a concerning increase in bias-motivated incidents, underscoring the need for continued vigilance and action,” said Elaine Driscoll, a spokesperson for the state’s Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. The 2023 data wasn’t released by the state until the end of December.
The data in the report comes from voluntary reporting from local police departments and campus police, as well as the Massachusetts Environmental Police. Boston, Somerville, Cambridge, Medford, Arlington, Newton, and Brookline all reported more than 10 hate crime incidents.
Overall, state law enforcement identified 557 hate crime reports, the most in nine years of reporting, some of which involved multiple incidents of bias. An example, Driscoll said, could be a single report that documented both an antireligion and an antirace bias.
Efforts to counter hate crimes in 2024 included $16.4 million in state and federal grant money for security at nonprofits, health care providers, and cultural centers that might be targeted. Additional money to protect nonprofits is expected in the spring.
Though hate crimes reported against Arabs, many of whom are Muslim, were not as common as those targeting Jews, they too became more common in 2023, nearly tripling to 20 reported incidents. For Muslims overall, the state report identified a decrease in hate crimes in 2023.
Massachusetts is home to about 318,000 Jews, according to the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, a nonprofit focused on boosting ties between those two countries. Massachusetts has the nation’s 10th largest Muslim population, with more than 131,000, according to the World Population Review.
Barbara Dougan, legal director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Massachusetts, an antidiscrimination organization based in Arlington, said she suspected that the state report undercounted the number of incidents directed at Muslims. She noted her organization conducted a 2023 study of discrimination against Muslims, a population that includes many Arabs, and found a 40 percent increase in incidents of hate crimes compared with 2022.
“The majority of our clients are immigrants,” she said. “There is a hesitance to come forward if you’re not sure how one even does that, or if you’re not sure what kind of reception you’re going to get.”
She also had concerns that police departments aren’t always filing hate crime charges. She noted that 314 police agencies identified no bias incidents, and 41didn’t respond to the survey at all.
Last year, the Anti-Defamation League reported a 40-year high in antisemitic incidents in 2023 in New England. The organization identified 623 incidents of assault, harassment, and vandalism in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont, a 205 percent increase over 2022. About 44 percent of those incidents happened after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the organization reported.
The local increase in antisemitism mirrors national trends. The Anti-Defamation League identified a 140 percent increase in antisemitic activity nationally in 2023 over the prior year.
“There’s a great fear anecdotally, many more experiences of being harassed just on the street for being Jewish,” said Peggy Shukur, deputy regional director of the Anti-Defamation League’s New England office. “This is something that’s happening and it is spreading fear.”
Advocates for both Jewish and Muslim populations agreed the Hamas attack, and the subsequent war in Gaza, caused both groups to experience more discrimination, an increase likely not fully captured in the 2023 data.
“We’ve been watching this trend gathering momentum for a long time,” Leikind said. “There’s no question that the events of Oct. 7, 2023, turbocharged what was already happening.”
Jason Laughlin can be reached at jason.laughlin@globe.com. Follow him @jasmlaughlin.
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