House and Senate Budget Watch, Part 2: The Procedural Debates

The state legislature remains in the “Conference Committee” stage of its annual budget process. Fiscal Year 2016 (FY16) begins tomorrow (July, 1) and the committee needs to agree on a budget compromise that the full legislature will approve and send to Governor Charlie Baker. As if hammering out a budget compromise wasn’t enough of a challenge, this year the Conference Committee is working amidst fierce procedural debates between the two chambers of our “bicameral” legislature: the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The Joint Committee System

The controversy kicked off earlier this year as the new legislative session got underway. Senate President Stanley Rosenberg put something on the table that has long troubled his fellow senators: the legislature’s Joint Committee System. Joint committees (those comprised of both representatives and senators) are crucial to the current legislative process. It is the committees that review all proposed legislation and must vote favorably upon a bill before it can make its way to the floors of the full House and Senate.

Since there are 160 representatives and only 40 senators. the Senate is literally outnumbered on every committee. Many senators believe this unfairly disadvantages Senate bills and places too much legislative power within the House.  In April, Senate President Stanley Rosenberg took to social media to lay out the case for reform of the Joint Committee System. He even included a graphic flow chart of the current system.

Representatives believe the House should rightfully have more influence as its members are closer to the local politics of the communities they represent due to the simple fact that their districts are 25% the size of senate districts. Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo defended the current legislative system in a recent editorial within the Boston Globe.

The Senate initially tried working with the House to revamp the system and the House refused. In April, the Senate voted unanimously to develop a plan forstand-alone Senate committees to review legislation. In the meantime, the Senate chose to work within the Joint Committee system, releasing its members bills into the appropriate Joint Committees.

The Tax Issue

in addition to the fight over Joint Committees, the House has brought concerns over the Senate’s budget before the State Supreme Court. Within its budget proposal, the Senate approved freezing the current income tax rate at 5.15 percent, increasing the earned income tax credit, raising the tax on flavored cigars.

According to the Massachusetts Constitution, only the House can originate a bill that imposes a tax. This is known as a “Money Bill.”  Once the House originates such a bill, the Senate can make changes to it.

The Senate claims the House Budget constitutes a money bill. The House says it doesn’t. Earlier this month, lawyers for each branch laid out their positions before the State Supreme Court. The House can block the Senate’s taxes, even if the Supreme Court sides with the Senate. By simply filing the lawsuit, however, the House certainly sent a clear message to the Senate.

The Conference Committee continues its work and MALC will continue to monitor the state’s budget process. Stay tuned for more!