‘I can’t tell you how frustrated I am.’ Baker criticizes lawmakers for failing to pass pandemic stimulus bill
Matt Stout | The Boston Globe | November 18, 2021
Governor Charlie Baker rebuked state lawmakers a day after they went on recess without a deal on how to spend billions in federal stimulus and state funds, arguing it leaves Massachusetts “stuck in neutral” in its circuitous climb out of the COVID-19pandemic.
Baker’s pointed criticisms on Thursday reignited his months-long dispute with Democratic leaders over how quickly the state should be spending the nearly $5 billion it still has in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Lawmakers have long rejected the second-term Republican’s calls to move with alacrity in allocating the money, instead holding a half-dozen hearings to take public feedback while arguing that deliberation — not speed — was most important in dividing up a “once-in-a-lifetime” pot of money.
But legislative leaders failed to reach a compromise on a nearly $4 billion spending package before formal sessions ended for the year on Wednesday, and in the process, blew past their own self-identified deadline to send Baker a bill built using a portion of the federal aid as well as state surplus cash.
Senate and House leaders have said they are still negotiating, and they raised the possibility a deal could emerge in the informal sessions slated for the coming weeks during which bills can be approved as long as not even one lawmaker objects. But the uncertain timing prompted a rare escalation of Baker’s criticism of Democrats, with whom he’s often sought compromise.
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