From the State House..

From Bob Katzen’s Beacon Hill Roll Call published in the Sommerville Journal (a publication of TownOnline.com) we saw some great summaries of events that happened at the State House in the last few weeks.

(Note to Lowell Sun… why aren’t we doing this as well?)

POST COMMITTEE ROLL CALLS ON WEBSITE (H 3746) House 20-127, rejected a new rule requiring that committee votes cast by legislators on bills heard by their committees be posted on the Legislature’s website. Current rules require committee votes to be kept in the offices of the committee and be available for public inspection upon reasonable notice and during regular office hours. Supporters of the new rule said this would simply give people quick and easy access to the committee votes of their legislators. They noted that under current rules, a person has to drive to Boston during regular business hours in order to obtain this information. Opponents of the new rule said that the current system has worked well for years and should not be changed. (A “Yes” vote is for the new rule requiring that committee votes be posted on the Legislature’s website. A “No” vote is against the requirement).

This is a big one. They decided not to post the results of how they vote within committees onto the web.

In this world of high tech transfer of information and what should be easy and open access to how our government is operating, the state legislature is voting to close the curtains and keep us from easily finding out how our reps vote on issues that may concern us.

Does this bother anyone other than me?

LEGISLATORS’ TESTIMONY (H 3746) House 19-128, rejected a new rule taking away some of the preferential treatment that legislators receive at committee hearings. The new rule would designate a 30-minute period during which legislators are allowed to testify on legislation. Legislators who want to testify before or after that period would be treated by the committee chair the same way that other people who testify are treated. Supporters of the new rule said that currently legislators are often allowed to testify shortly after they arrive at a hearing – ahead of citizens who have taken the day off from work to testify and have been waiting for hours. Opponents of the new rule said that committee chairs should have the power to adapt to individual circumstances and not have their hands tied. They noted that legislators are often going from hearing to hearing to testify on several bills and cannot wait for hours at each hearing. (A “Yes” vote is for the new rule designating a 30-minute period during which legislators are allowed to testify on legislation. A “No” vote is against the new rule).

Have a citizen take a day out of work to go down their and give their input, and we often have to wait hours for our turn.

But the “beautiful” people feel that they should have the right to jump ahead and testify immediatly.

“They may have to rush off to testify at another hearing” we are told.

You know what, I may too.

(self appointed gods.. once again).

RAINY DAY FUND (H 3746) House 19-126, rejected a new rule requiring a two-thirds instead of a majority vote of the Legislature in order to spend money from the state’s Rainy Day Fund. The fund is a stabilization fund established by the Legislature to ensure that money is put aside in case of an economic downturn. The money can only be spent to make up for revenue shortfalls or federal funding reductions and when events threaten the health, safety or welfare of citizens. Supporters of the new rule said that the two-thirds requirement would ensure that the money is used only when absolutely necessary. They noted that the higher hurdle would make it difficult to “raid” the fund unless there is a real emergency and overwhelming legislative support. Opponents of the new rule said a two-thirds requirement is too strict and nearly impossible to obtain. They noted that it only takes a majority vote to place money into the fund and argued that it should take the same vote to spend it. (A “Yes” vote is for the two-thirds requirement. A “No” vote is against the two-thirds requirement).

Ask them to control themselves when it comes to spending, and their quick to say no to that one.

Spending of emergency funds SHOULD be difficult. That’s the point.

GOV REFUSES TO RELEASE BUDGET SAVINGS RECORDS Barbara Anderson, executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation (CLT), has filed an appeal in response to Gov. Deval Patrick’s refusal to release to CLT the reports that he received from his department heads on how each department could save money. CLT on January 30 filed the request and the governor’s office on February 6 turned it down. The Patrick administration cited the Supreme Judicial Court ruling in Lambert v. Executive Director of the Judicial Nominating Council and argued that it exempts the governor’s office from the public records law. CLT in a written statement said, “It is true that things relating to the judiciary are not subject to the public records law. The governor’s office seems to be extending that decision to apply to all activities of the governor’s office. Nice try.”

“Together, we can” do whatever we please, I guess, and not be reportable back to the citizens and taxpayers.

Open government, freedom of information.

Patrick has decided that these concepts do not apply to him.

SCHOOL DRESS CODE Rep. Demetrius Atsalis (D-Barnstable) proposed a bill giving local school committees the option of establishing dress codes for their public schools. The measure requires that the committees consult with local school councils and that any adopted dress codes be published in student handbooks or handed out to each student and parent. Current law prohibits schools from abridging the rights of students’ dress and appearance unless school officials determine that they violate reasonable standards of health, safety and cleanliness.

This is a good one. I wonder whether DJ knew this before he pushed through a dress code in Dracut.

Current law “prohibits” except in the case of health, safety and cleanliness. So, how does the purpose explained in our student handbook meet that: “School Committee, in recognizing its obligation to minimize opportunities for student distraction and/or disruption within the Dracut Public Schools, has established and adopted the following rules of dress for its Elementary and Secondary Schools”

CPR AS HIGH SCHOOL REQUIREMENT A measure filed by Rep. Patricia Haddad (D-Somerset) would require all public high school students to study and demonstrate a general knowledge of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the use of automatic external defibrillators as a prerequisite for graduation. The state would pay the cost of the instruction.

The legislature should not be designing school curriculum via law. Even though they propose to pay for it today.. next year they’ll leave the requirement in without the appropriations to pay for it (never mind telling us who is getting the defibrillator contract, or the CPR equipment contracts..).

Let the DOE do its job.

ATTEMPT TO HIKE LEGISLATORS’ PENSIONS The State Retirement Board voted unanimously to reject the request of three former legislators to increase their retirement pensions by an estimated $5,000 to $6,000 annually. The three former House members are Republicans Thomas George of Yarmouth and Susan Pope of Wayland and Democrat Marie Parente of Milford. The trio had requested that their pensions be calculated based not only on their salaries but on their $7,200 annual expense allowance, the market cost of their free parking space on Beacon Hill and their per diem travel expenses that they collected for each day of round trip travel from his or her home to the Statehouse. The former lawmakers are expected to appeal the decision. They based their case on a recent Supreme Judicial Court ruling that boosted former University of Massachusetts president William M. Bulger’s retirement pension by $17,000 by allowing him to include his housing allowance in the calculation of his pension. Meanwhile, the board is expected to soon hear a plea from former House Speaker Thomas Finneran that he be allowed to collect his $31,000 annual pension despite being convicted of a felony.

Bad form.

The attempt to start adding every little perk onto their pension calculation was insulting to all of us. Before you know it they would be adding on the costs of pencils, notepads and toilet paper

And Tommy Taxes made his choice when he plead guilty. He deserves nothing from us. Give him back his money and tell him to go live off someone else. If you abuse your position, you lose all rights and priveledges that go with it.

NEW SENATE COMMITTEE ON GLOBAL WARMING The Senate created a new six-member Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change. Sen. Marc Pacheco (D-Taunton) will be the committee chair. Senate President Robert Travaglini proposed the idea of this committee that will work on legislation and policies to reduce greenhouse gases and promote clean technologies.

Lets just let AlGore’s science fiction movie start creating new committees and boards all over the country. This is just another waste of taxpayers money. This committee will just start creating a bunch of costly regulations and laws that will do nothing to significantly improve the state of global warming, but will cater to the moonbats and the rest of the left wing.

How about a committee on reviewing all state regulation and sunsetting old laws??? Maybe we could make this state more accepting of businesses rather than driving them away.

TAX CREDIT FOR CAR SHARING Rep. Carl Sciortino (D-Medford) proposed legislation providing up to a $150 annual tax credit to drivers who pay money for car rentals to car sharing companies like Zipcar.

I’m for any tax credit.. its even better than a deduction.

TEACH AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY IN SCHOOLS A bill requiring all public elementary and secondary schools to include African-American history as part of their history curriculum is sponsored by Rep. Gloria Fox (D-Boston).TEACH ISLAMIC HISTORY IN SCHOOLS Rep. Tom Sannicandro (D-Ashland) filed legislation requiring the State Board of Education to enact a policy that will “facilitate school districts to teach Islamic and Middle Eastern history at the middle and high school levels.”

Get rid of these. Until we can get the schools teaching kids basic reading, writing and math skills, I don’t think we need to be slipping in special interest curriculum. Even moreso.. we have an education department in the executive branch. Let them do their job and stop having the legislature trying to micromanage their efforts (especially if they are not funding their additions).

PRIVATIZE STATE-OWNED GOLF COURSES Republican House Minority Leader Bradley Jones (R-North Reading) proposed a measure that would privatize the operation and maintenance of the state-owned Ponkapoag Golf Course in Canton and the Leo J. Martin Memorial Golf Course in Weston.

Good move.. the better move would have been to sell the things off completely. At least this way we can have someone run it and hold them accountable (lose the contract if they screw up). Of course, this could just be a setup for another set of hack jobs.