Before I get into the column this week I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family and co-workers of Officer Jose Torres who was accidentally struck and killed while working on a construction detail Thursday morning. Jose was a good cop and a friend. He leaves his family behind. He was far too young to die. He will be sadly missed. God bless him, his family, and his brother and sister Westfield Police Officers.
This week, as the clock was ticking down toward the end of formal sessions, I had the rare pleasure of visitors from Western Mass come to see me and Senator Knapik at the State House. Jim McKeever, Director of Content, and Hope Murray Tremblay, reporter, from the Westfield News came to Boston to cover a story and then stopped by the capitol to see the House and Senate while the legislature was in action.
It was great to have real news people from The Westfield News walking the halls with me and Mike and I was happy that we could show Hope and Jim the House and Senate while both branches were in formal session.
Most of you who know me or who read my column regularly know that I am a Republican State Representative who represents the city of Westfield. I am a member of the Republican Party in Massachusetts. I am one of only 33 Republican legislators in the House of Representatives out of 160 members total. The other 127 are Democrats.
I have been an elected official in my city for nearly 10 years, and I chose to run, in 2002, as a Republican despite the odds and knowing full well I would be in the minority on Beacon Hill.
Although I pride myself on my ability to get along with everyone and work well across party lines, I do, from time to time, express my frustration with the overwhelming Democrat majority and especially their party leadership at the State House.
With only 2 days of formal sessions left in the 187th session of the Great and General Court, I have sat in my seat in the House chamber and watched the frenzy of activity on the Speaker’s rostrum at the front of the House.
I see beleaguered legislators approaching House leaders to plead for the release of their bills from committee or to argue for last minute passage before the session ends. I see committee staffers hovering close,+ in case their bosses need up to date facts and figures on budgets or bills. I see confusion on the face of freshman representatives, Democrats and Republicans alike, as they try to make sense of the swirl of activity and the “hurry up and wait” way of things in the final days of session.
Like my colleagues, I answer the calls and read the letters and emails from my constituents who are desperate to see some piece of legislation or other pass in the waning days before it, in effect, dies for yet another legislative year and must be re-filed and make its way through the long and uncertain process another time.
I’ve never claimed to be the sharpest tool or the brightest bulb, but even I can see this is not the best way to run a government. I don’t understand why the leaders of the Majority Party, just because they can, and even playing politics, insist on keeping so many matters bottled up for the nearly 2 years of a legislative session only to release them in a frenzy of activity at the last minute then claim they didn’t have time to get the issue passed through the House and Senate before the clock runs out.
A perfect example is the annual Sales Tax Free Holiday Weekend legislation. It is going to be Saturday and Sunday, August 11 and 12. Yet the bill remains bottled up in a conference committee. We have to give stores the time to prepare their advertising and hire extra staff. Why the delay for something we know is going to pass easily?
People who contact me about getting their bills or amendments passed are disgusted with the process; with how arbitrary and political it all seems to be, and how inefficient and slow and unending it is.
My caucus has offered suggestions and reforms to the House rules on ways to make the process work better, from regularly scheduled committee hearings and House sessions to increased transparency and timelines for moving items along the path towards passage. Always we are outvoted along party lines. Always the rank and file Democrat members follow their leaders and vote seemingly against their own districts’ best interests. Power remains consolidated in the hands of a few who make most of the decisions and tightly control the flow of information and legislation. There’s got to be a better way to run a railroad.
Call me cynical, but instead of working up to midnight on Thursday, the House recessed around 6 pm. I’m sure the fact that there were 2 fundraisers scheduled that night for Democrat members of the House that the Speaker was planning on attending is just coincidence. What do we tell constituents who ask why their bills weren’t passed? We ran out of time? The clock was against us? Not true. The Leadership waited, as they always do, until the last minute.
I’m tempted to point my finger and say to my irate constituents, “It’s not my fault, I’m not the Speaker or the Chairman of Ways and Means, I didn’t bury your bill in committee or let it die between the Senate and the House.” I want to resort to the partisan line and say, “If the legislature were more balanced and had more Republicans things would be better…”
But in reality, the people don’t care. They don’t care whose fault it is or who is to blame. They don’t want to hear about lopsided majorities and an imbalance of power. They just want to believe what they learned so long ago in civics class or history: that their government is working for the good of all the people the way it was intended.
Despite the odds, I remain optimistic. I believe in the people of Massachusetts and their ultimate power at the ballot box on Election Day. And I remain committed to doing everything I can do as an elected representative of the people to make our government more efficient, more effective, more honest, and more responsive to the citizens of this state. I’m fired up. That’s a promise.
Have a good week.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not the staff, editor, or publisher of the Westfield News.
Representative Don Humason and his Chief of Staff Maura Cassin may be reached at their Westfield District Office, 64 Noble Street, Westfield, MA 01085, (413) 568-1366.
Representative Don Humason may be reached at his Boston office, State House Room 542, Boston, MA 02133, (617) 722-2803.
Email address: [email protected]
Website: www.DonHumason.org
