| The lead budget negotiator for the House downplayed animosity between his branch and the Senate on Thursday as the Legislature departed Beacon Hill for the weekend without a deal in place to fund state government for the fiscal year that began on Sunday.
Massachusetts is poised to become the only state in the country without a permanent spending plan in place for fiscal year 2019, which in 46 states began on Sunday. The Legislature and Gov. Charlie Baker put in place a temporary budget to keep government open, but the missed deadline triggered some sniping over who is to blame.
House Ways and Means Chairman Jeffrey Sanchez, a Jamaica Plain Democrat, said Thursday that proposals continue to be traded back-and-forth between the House and Senate.
He also said that negotiators are “extremely sensitive” to the need to get a budget to Baker’s desk with enough time left before July 31 so that the governor can take his 10 days to review the final budget without jeopardizing lawmakers’ ability to respond to any vetoes or amendments.
“Budget, budget budget,” Sanchez told the News Service as he left House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s office around noontime. “Like everything, of course we would’ve wanted it done, but we’re working hard and trying to get through it and we’re here today.”
Sanchez brushed off tensions between the House and Senate, including the suggestion from one senior Senate Democrat that Sanchez’s inexperience – this is his first budget as Ways and Means chairman – has contributed to the delay.
“Nah, the issues are too big. It’s a big budget and everybody wants to see us working together and at the end of the day we’re going to get it done and I’d love to see it done as soon as possible,” Sanchez said when asked about the bad blood.
Baker on Monday said the Legislature ought to “deal with the budget as a spending document” and “save it for later” some of the outside policy sections that are potentially contributing to the impasse.
The Senate approved an outside section in its version of the budget that would prohibit local law enforcement from entering collaboration agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and generally prevent police from inquiring into people’s immigration status. DeLeo has said there’s no consensus in the House on that issue, but activists are pressing leaders of the Democrat-controlled House to find common ground with the Senate.
With the House and Senate both planning to meet next on Monday, the fiscal 2019 budget will be the latest of DeLeo’s tenure as the leader of the House, surpassing the summer of 2016 when legislative leaders agreed to a budget on July 8.
