Bug befalls Beacon Hill budget update
Glitchy tech postpones remote House session
A livestream glitch under the Golden Dome sent red-faced Massachusetts lawmakers scrambling Tuesday, forcing them to reschedule a budget update as IT officials tried to track down the problem.
Pols held the meeting in a room recently equipped with livestream-ready cameras as part of a $2 million renovation, but it wasn’t broadcasting and legislators finally canceled the budget discussion after frustrated IT officials failed to fix the problem.
“I really, really apologize,” said state Sen. Michael Rodrigues, D-Westport, who cochairs the legislative budget writing committee. “Such is it with technology, sometimes. We’re trying.”
The snafu is the latest technology issue in the 233-year-old State House, which has struggled to modernize and faces additional pressure during the coronavirus crisis. Strong broadband and livestream services have become vital as legislators attempt to craft a state budget based on fluid projections and plummeting revenues.
Rodrigues and his cochairman, Rep. Aaron Michelwitz, D-Boston, were physically at the State House Tuesday while Treasurer Deb Goldberg, Administration and Finance Secretary Michael Heffernan and several economic experts were meant to dial in remotely in compliance with social distancing guidelines.
“We’d just rather get it done right,” Michelwitz said of postponing the meeting until next Tuesday. “We want to provide as much access as we can to ensure we’re transparent and that everyone can see what we’re doing.”
Beacon Hill Institute Executive Director David Tuerck, one of many economic experts meant to remotely join the meeting, laughed off the glitch.
“I felt bad for them. I figured someone’s going to get in trouble,” he said.
The roundtable was meant to discuss the upcoming budget in light of plummeting state revenues. House members would normally release their own version of Gov. Charlie Baker’s $44.6 billion budget. Yesterday’s meeting was to discuss budget planning during a virus outbreak that’s shut down much of the economy.
Tuerck said his outlook, although based on constantly evolving data, is pretty grim.
“I hope it’s received as a cautionary tale,” said Tuerk, who predicts a 20 percent decline in state revenues and a 14.7 percent increase in the state’s unemployment this fiscal year.
“The economy is getting crushed on both supply and demand sides,” he said. “We’re so fixated on the health consequences of this that we’re not working on the financial consequences,” he said.