Keller @ Large: Why can't Massachusetts legislators get the budget done on time?
BOSTON - The $54 billion state budget is on Governor Healey's desk.
But, as usual, it's weeks overdue. Why can't state lawmakers meet their deadlines?
"To quote the Grateful Dead, 'What a long strange trip this has been,'" said House Ways and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz as voting on the budget plan unfolded Monday night.
With the emphasis on long. When legislators finally approved the new budget - a full month into the new fiscal year - it marked the 13th straight year of tardiness, a record unmatched by any other state.
Why does this happen?
"There is no good excuse for it," says former State Rep. Jay Kaufman, of Lexington, who served nine terms in the House before leaving in 2019 to found the Beacon Leadership Collaborative. "As a citizen, it's just profoundly embarrassing, and it just contributes to a lot of public cynicism about how government works or fails to work."
Kaufman offers a few explanations. The Legislature puts the budgeting burden on young, underpaid staffers who sometimes lack experience. And the delays enhance the power of top legislative leaders to micromanage the process.
Who cares?
Confronted about the blown deadlines by a reporter last week, Senate Ways and Means Chairman Mike Rodrigues suggested the public doesn't.
But local officials do.
"Not having a budget for an extra month - and a fairly critical month in terms of planning at the municipal level - is at the very least crazy-making," notes Kaufman. And with only nine other states meeting year-round like we do, drawing salaries and benefits, you wonder: Is it possible there's a don't-kill-the-job mentality that prolongs the agony here?
"Yes there is," says Kaufman. "We also have the distinction of having one of the lowest percentages of legislators challenged."
How would more competition at the polls prompt more on-time budgets?
Simple. Consider what would happen to you if you consistently blew off your deadlines at work, wreaking havoc on others at your company. Unless you're the boss's close relative, you'd be looking for another job - maybe even if you were related to him or her.
But when legislators can be pretty sure there are no such consequences for late budgets, they have little or no incentive to get them done on time.
So the solution to Beacon Hill's chronic lateness sits in your hands - unless, that is, you're one of those who insist your vote doesn't matter.