WHO’S THE COVID RELIEF PITCHER?
Dems may delay plan to release funds to undermine Baker
Massachusetts is sitting on more than $9.1 billion in combined federal aid and excess tax revenue and one local pundit says “the big issue” of the upcoming governor’s race will be how best to spend the cash as the state plots its coronavirus recovery course.
“The question of what to do with the budget surplus and the federal money should be the big issue of the 2022 governor’s race,” UMass Lowell pollster John Cluverius, adding it “makes sense” for incumbent Gov. Charlie Baker to be looking to make quick use of the cash.
A battle over how to spend the remaining $5.1 billion in unrestricted funds to the state from President Biden’s American Rescue Plan has been brewing between the Republican governor who has a plan to “immediately” spend the bulk of it and the Democrat-led Legislature, which wants to wait.
Baker has twice now submitted a proposal to spend $2.9 billion of the ARPA funds by investing in housing, economic development, workforce development, health care and addiction, and infrastructure.
Lawmakers rejected an initial, slightly smaller version of his plan when they pushed the federal aid dollars into a separate account requiring a public process for disbursement.
“Any time government talks about process and listening, it means they want to slow something down,” Cluverius said. “I absolutely could see the Legislature delaying this until there is potentially a Democratic governor to spend money.”
“For Baker to sit idle would be to invite political ruin,” Cluverius added.
Baker has yet to say whether he’ll run for a third term and, with no clear Democratic frontrunner at present, Cluverius said the more likely Democratic strategy may be “frustrating him to the point he doesn’t run again” by taking away the control of the purse strings to the state’s excess cash.
“Frustrating Baker out of office is much more likely at this point in the process than defeating him at the ballot box,” Cluverius said.
Another estimated $4 billion in excess tax revenue will also soon be at play as well after collections consistently came in well above benchmark for much of the last fiscal year that ended on June 30, according to state Department of Revenue data.
The Legislature has yet to lay out a formal plan for disbursing any of the cash, but Baker’s plan for immediate investment has gained traction among some Democrats, including Attorney General Maura Healey, who is widely believed to be considering a run for governor in 2022.
“I agree with the governor’s call for support and release of funding for behavioral health services here in the state, in terms of what we receive from the federal government,” Healey said last Thursday during a press conference on the Purdue Pharma case. “We see the need for behavioral health services play out in so many different ways. It fundamentally affects the life force and direction of so many families in this state. So we need that.”
State Rep. Bud Williams of Springfield last Wednesday urged his colleagues “let’s get behind this man” during a joint appearance with the Republican governor in his home district. Williams praised Baker’s plan to pump $1 billion into housing access and expanding homeownership opportunities which he says will create wealth for historically oppressed communities.
“If we create wealth we can solve some of our own problems, with the money to repair our communities,” Williams added.