BEACON HILL BEAT
APRIL 2007
THERESE MURRAY ELECTED
SENATE PRESIDENT
On Wednesday, March 20th, Therese Murray (D-Plymouth) was elected MA Senate President, replacing Robert Travaglini (D-East Boston), who resigned his post to start his own lobbying firm. Murray, who is serving in her eighth term, the past four years of which she Chaired the Senate Ways & Means Committee, is the first female elected to this leadership position. Prior to her election in 1993, she worked as a Mitigation Manager for the Mass Highway Department and as a Community Relations Manager for South Shore cable companies.
As Senate Ways & Means Chair, Murray fought to increase local aid for communities, a position she will continue to advocate for as Senate President. In the FY 2007 State Budget she successfully worked to uncap lottery funds, returning millions of dollars to communities throughout the state. Murray was also involved in the passage of MA’s historic Health Care Reform Bill to provide affordable health care to all residents in the Commonwealth. In her acceptance speech, she stated that she believes the entire country would follow the lead of MA in providing health care to all its residents. The full text of the Senator’s acceptance speech can be found at: www.theresemurray.com/about/acceptance.html
In addition to Chairing the Ways & Means Committee, Senator Murray also served as Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Services & Elderly Affairs from 1993-1999, Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Insurance from 2001-2002, Senate Vice-Chair on the Joint Committee on Transportation, and a member of the Joint Committee on Health Care, and Committee on Bills in Third Reading.
NEW SENATE WAYS & MEANS TEAM ANNOUNCED
Two weeks after Therese Murray (D-Plymouth) was elected Senate President, she announced her new leadership team. Senator Steven Panagiotakos (D-Lowell), who had previously served as Vice-Chair of Ways & Means, will take over the Chairmanship from Murray, and Senator Steven Tolman (D-Brighton) will take over the post of Vice-Chair. Senator Stephen Brewer (D-Barre) was also tapped to serve as Assistant Vice-Chair of the Ways & Means Committee.
HOUSE RELEASES FY 2008 BUDGET PROPOSAL FUNDING THE COMMONWEALTH SEWER RATE RELIEF FUND AT $20 MILLION
In early May, the House, under the leadership of Speaker Sal DiMasi (D-Boston) and Ways & Means Chairman Bob DeLeo (D-Winthrop) released their FY 2008 budget recommendations totaling $26.7 Billion, roughly the same total funding that Governor Patrick had proposed. The House rejected several of the Governor’s budget proposals including his efforts to raise $300 million by closing business tax loopholes and plans to hire 250 new police officers. Instead, the House focused on municipalities and increased local aid by $235 million, $20 million greater than the Governor’s proposal.
The House funded the Commonwealth Sewer Rate Relief fund at $20 million, $5 million more than the Governor proposed, but still $5 million less than last year’s funding level of $25 million. Municipalities throughout the state, not just the MWRA district, directly benefit from the Commonwealth Rate Relief Fund. This program is a perfect example of local aid and how the state budget can have a direct and significant influence in helping citizens throughout the state address annual rate increases. UCANE will continue to fight for a minimum of $25 million in the Senate budget.
The House took the Governor’s lead on several issues, including combining the line items for Contract Assistance for the Water Pollution Abatement Trust for both the Clean Water and Drinking Water programs and funding it at $64,166,198. The House slightly increased the funding for the DEP’s general account to $33,786,730 compared to the Governor’s $33,493,004. Both levels are decreased from last year.
The full FY 2008 House budget proposal can be viewed on the Internet at:
www.mass.gov/legis/08budget/house/waysmeans.htm
MWRA BEGINS WORK ON CSO
STORAGE TUNNEL IN SOUTH BOSTON
After years of planning and negotiations with state and federal environmental agencies, advocacy groups, and the residents of South Boston, the MWRA has begun the construction of the tunnel shaft for its 17-foot diameter, 2.1-mile long soft ground tunnel in South Boston. When completed, the tunnel will virtually eliminate Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO) and stormwater discharges to the beaches in South Boston. The tunnel contract is the largest construction contract associated with the CSO control plan for South Boston. The contractor, a joint venture of Shank/Balfour Beatty/Barletta, will begin mining the tunnel in soft ground using a tunnel boring machine in the fall. The tunnel boring machine is currently being fabricated in Japan and is expected to be delivered to the site in October 2007.
In March 2006, MWRA successfully completed construction of the Pleasure Bay Storm Drain Improvements. A future contract will include construction of an odor control facility for the tunnel and a pump station and connecting force main that will allow MWRA to dewater the storage tunnel to the local interceptor system after storms. The related Morrissey Boulevard Storm Drain project, which is being designed and constructed by BWSC under agreement with MWRA, is scheduled to commence in 2007.
Since 1987, the MWRA has been at the forefront nationally in the planning, design and implementation of CSO control. By 2015, MWRA is projected to spend over $850 million on CSO control projects, in addition to the $3.8 billion already spent on the Boston Harbor Clean-up that has dramatically improved the health of the harbor and brought people back to Boston’s waterfront.
GOVERNOR PATRICK SIGNS IMMEDIATE NEEDS BOND BILL CONTAINING SRF MATCHING FUNDS
After quick approval from the House and Senate, Governor Deval Patrick signed H. 2915 the Immediate Capital Improvement Needs for the Commonwealth Bond Bill. The $1.47 Billion Bond Bill addresses the Commonwealth’s immediate capital infrastructure needs, including $9.7 Million to match federal grants for the State Revolving Loan Fund (SRF) program, which provides low-interest loans to municipalities for critical water infrastructure projects. The requested capital borrowing authorization is limited in scope to permit the state to proceed with previously planned projects which need to begin in the next few months or which have already been started. By authorizing planned projects to proceed, the bill will also allow the state to avoid significant cost increases that would result from further delay and avoid significant disruptions to standard capital programs. Along with addressing matching funds in order to capture federal SRF grants, the bond bill also addresses funds to support local aid, Chapter 90, transportation, mass transit, state buildings, hospital, and technology projects.
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