Massachusetts Politics

The Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts, named in honor of the late Maurice A. Donahue of Holyoke, who served as president of the Massachusetts Senate (1964-71) and ran unsuccessfully for governor in the 1970 Democratic primary, issues a quarterly report on the state of our economy called MassBenchmarks. The latest one came out this past Friday, July 27, describing, in unequivocal detail, a Massachusetts economy that had expanded at a “torrid pace” in April, May and June. “The Massachusetts economy accelerated sharply in the second quarter,” the report states, “bucking the expectation of slower growth due to low unemployment and demographic constraints.”   Here are some highlights: -The state’s gross domestic product grew at a 7.3% annualized rate while, nationally, it increased by 4.1%.   -The number of payroll jobs expanded at a rate of 2.9%, compared to a 1.7% rate for the rest of the U.S. -Wage and salary income, as measured by state tax collecti...

Tip O’Neill’s dictum notwithstanding, national issues sometimes shape local politics in significant ways.   Now is such a time in Massachusetts. The legislature is quite late in producing a state budget for Fiscal Year 2019, which began July 1.   A big reason for the hold-up is the inability of the branches to agree on what if anything should be stated in the budget document regarding federal immigration practices. In late April, the House produced its version of the FY 19 budget; a month later, the Senate produced its version.   The House’s contained nothing about immigration while the Senate’s had a section that would prohibit state and local police from asking a person about his immigration status.   It would also prohibit agreements under which state and county officials essentially become deputies of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. In early June, a six-member House-Senate budget conference committee began working on a compromise, un...