Local legislators move into key positions

[ Originally published on: Saturday, February 14, 2009 ]

Often overlooked, the Franklin County region will have four seats at the table when top state officials draft the state's next budget.

Five area legislators were named this week to the state House and Senate Ways and Means panels, which play a key role in drafting bills that involve state spending. Two of those leadership positions giving additional clout to the region: Sen. Stephen Brewer, D-Barre, as vice chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, and Rep. Stephen Kulik, D-Worthington, who was named assistant vice chairman in the House.

''It's significant: the region is extremely well represented,'' said Kulik, who served as the only representative from the region when he served as a panel member earlier in the decade. ''It's been a long time since western Mass. has been in this position, and we haven't had this many seats at the table for a while.''

As assistant vice chair, he said, ''This gives me a tremendous opportunity to be very intimately involved in the budget and in other sending bills and capital bond bills,'' particularly at a time when state spending is being squeezed. ''It's really quite an opportunity to make an impact on lots of different things in many policy areas.''

Reps. Christopher Donelan, D-Orange, and Denis Guyer, D-Dalton, were also appointed to the House Ways and Means Committee by newly elected House Speaker Robert DeLeo as part of a long list of committee assignments that also included dropping Rep. Daniel Bosley, D-North Adams, as chair of the powerful Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technolo-gies.

Several members of the seven-member Franklin County delegation pointed to the unusually high representation of western Massachusetts legislators on the Ways and Means committees. Before the new assignments, Rep. Christopher N. Speranzo, D-Pittsfield, was the only western Massachusetts member of House Ways and Means, which now includes five members and has Kulik as the third in command.

Kulik's post also automatically makes him one of four legislators who, along with Patrick administration officials, will have oversight on spending of an expected $2 billion of federal economic stimulus money that will flow into Massachusetts.

The last time the region had a legislator in a Ways and Means post was in 1998, when Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, served as chairman on the Senate panel. Brewer, who has been a member of Ways and Means, was named by Senate President Therese Murray to be vice chairman.

Rosenberg, who retains his Senate Pro Tem leadership post as well as his membership on the Committee on Higher Education, was also reappointed Senate chairman of the influential Committee on Redistricting.

''This will be an enormous challenge, because Massachusetts is very, very, very likely to lose a Congressional seat'' as a result of declining population, Rosenberg said.

''It will mean pressure on every district, but it will be particularly severe in western Massachusetts because you have two huge, sprawling districts, and the most significant loss of population is in western Massachusetts.''

In addition to Brewer as Senate Ways and Means vice chair, Sen. Benjamin B. Downing, D-Pittsfield, was named to the powerful committee. Downing was also appointed Senate chair of the Joint Committee on Revenue, while retaining his vice chairmanship of the Joint Committee on Higher Education and a set on the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies.

In addition to serving on the House Ways and Means committee, Guyer was named to chair the House Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture, on which he's served for four years.

Guyer said he expects that committee will play an important role, given the state's interest in developing wind and wood-fired generators, and the potential conflict that could pose for state forests.

''It means balancing protecting open space and renewable energy,'' he said.

Donelan was named vice chair of the public safety committee, on which he's served for the past six years. That committee is poised to deal with a comprehensive anti-crime bill that Patrick is scheduled to file.

Bosley was named vice chair of the House Bonding, Capital and State Assets Committee, which fellow legislators said will play a key role in seeing the state through its fiscal crisis and is an indication that his expertise is recognized by DeLeo despite losing the chairmanship of the economic development committee.

Bosley acknowledged that as an outspoken opponent of casino gambling, and someone who was not an early supporter of the new speaker, he was an obvious target for replacement. But he believes his new assignment puts him in a key role as a host of western Massachusetts capital projects are tied to state bonds approved and scheduled by the Bonding, Capital and State Assets Committee.

You can reach Richie Davis at: rdavis@recorder.com or (413) 772-0261 Ext. 269

 

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