Roll Call: How Legislators measure up for students and public education

The MTA has compiled a record of roll call votes taken by members of the House and Senate from January 2007 until formal sessions ended on July 31, 2008. The MTA included all of the votes cast by legislators that affected public education. The fact that all votes are not of equal importance has been reflected. Although the MTA recognizes that the record is but one measure of a legislator’s support for public education, examining these votes is a concrete way to measure that support.

In November 2006, the state elected its first Democratic governor in 16 years — Deval Patrick.

Patrick had campaigned on a platform of increasing investment in education and opening a dialogue with educators on how best to ensure that all students were given the chance to succeed. As governor, he proposed an ambitious education agenda — one that would require raising a significant amount of new state revenue.

Many other funding demands were in competition with public education, however, in large measure because of cuts made to programs at the start of the decade. Corporate tax breaks given during the 1990s further complicated the fiscal picture, as did the fact that the state had never fully recovered from the last economic downturn.

Then the Commonwealth was hit by a new set of economic problems as the result of a weakening dollar and a decline in the stock market. This has resulted in anemic increases in state revenues.

During the session, the governor filed a number of proposals to increase revenues. He rolled out legislation to close corporate tax loopholes, increase the cigarette tax and allow municipalities to collect taxes on meals and hotel stays. He also proposed licensing casinos.

The MTA strongly supported these measures as approaches that would generate needed state funds. But they met with major opposition in the Legislature, particularly in the House. Some of the proposals never made it to the floor for votes.

In the end, the House and Senate passed legislation to close some corporate tax loopholes and raise the cigarette tax, and the governor signed these measures. The importance of legislators’ votes on key revenue proposals is reflected in the roll
calls.

Despite the failure to significantly raise revenues, public education did receive increases in funding over the last two years that were above the average of other program areas, with the exception of health care.

During the session, the Legislature and the governor agreed to increase funding by 14 percent for preK-12, including school building assistance. Funding for public higher education rose by 9 percent.

Despite the increases, preK-12 is still more than $455 million — or 8 percent — below FY02, when inflation is taken into account. Higher education is more than $440 million — or 28 percent — below FY01 after inflation.

In other important developments:

• The governor proposed, and the Legislature passed, a bond bill to provide $2 billion for infrastructure improvements at higher education institutions during the next five years.
• The governor filed legislation that the Legislature passed to restructure the administration of education. A secretary of education now coordinates the goals and direction of early education, elementary and secondary education and higher education. The legislation also increased the number of seats on key governing boards, which will affect policies that have a direct impact on educators in the classroom.
• There were fewer attempts than under previous Republican administrations to enact anti-union measures. There was, however, a proposal to increase the cost of health insurance premiums for state employees; that measure was defeated.
• The governor proposed legislation that the MTA had been involved in for several years prior to Patrick’s election to allow communities the option to join the Group Insurance Commission and reduce health insurance costs through coalition bargaining.

One of the MTA’s major goals during this session was to increase the base on which the COLA is calculated. The MTA succeeded in having the increase included in the FY09 budget. Unfortunately, the governor vetoed it. The Legislature overrode the veto, only to have the increase vetoed again by the governor. Increasing the COLA base remains a major priority for the MTA in the next session.

Also in 2007-2008, the Senate passed MTA-backed legislation to fund a long overdue review of the Chapter 70 formula to determine what updates must be made to ensure that each community has adequate resources to help all students achieve. But the association could not overcome resistance to this proposal in the House, and it died during the session.

Roll Call 2007-2008: How do they measure up for public education?

House Roll Call

Senate Roll Call