| With the state’s annual budget now nine days late, House Speaker Robert DeLeo on Monday floated the idea of separating the policy proposals in the spending bill from the dollars and cents needed to fund the government in an effort to reach a compromise.
Massachusetts is the last state in the country without an annual budget in place for fiscal 2019, and it is the latest the Legislature has ever produced a final budget in DeLeo’s 10-year tenure as speaker.
A conference committee featuring four Democrats and two Republicans was charged June 4 with coming up with a consensus budget for the start of the fiscal year on July 1. There were no indications Monday that a compromise between House and Senate negotiators may be imminent.
“That’s one of the things that, quite frankly, I’m very concerned about,” DeLeo said.
DeLeo’s comments came after he met for more than an hour with Gov. Charlie Baker and Senate President Harriette Chandler. Asked what was causing the delay, DeLeo did not cite any specific roadblocks, but seemed to embrace an approach that Gov. Baker floated last week.
“One of the ideas which I had expressed today was the fact I’m looking possibly to dividing the budget, if you will, in terms of taking the so-called budget end of it, the policy end of it, dividing the two and trying to get the budget component of it done. I’m of the opinion that we owe it to our constituents. It’s getting later and later. It’s imperative that we do a budget and we do a budget immediately,” DeLeo said.
Formal sessions end in three weeks on July 31. The competing House and Senate budget bills propose to spend roughly $41.5 billion over the next 12 months.
In addition to funding state agencies and programs, the budgets also include numerous policy riders touching on everything from oversight of the State Police in the wake of an overtime abuse scandal to limits on local and state police interactions with federal immigration agents.
The House has been particularly reticent to tackle the immigration issue this session, but DeLeo would not say whether the Senate’s budget amendment on Immigration and Customs Enforcement cooperation was the cause of the impasse between the branches.
The Senate arguably would have more to lose by the abandonment of all policy proposals in the budget after using the required legislation as a vehicle in May to advance some major initiatives. The House also tacked on policy riders, but to a lesser extent.
“What I’m saying is right now we do a budget. We do it as fast as we can. We try to come up with a figure that I think is a lot easier than trying to resolve policy matters,” the speaker said.
