It's the start of a new year and the beginning of the second half of the Massachusetts legislature's current two-year session. WGBH News State House reporter Mike Deehan spoke with WGBH All Things Considered anchor Arun Rath about what we might expect from Beacon Hill this year. This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Arun Rath: 2020 is an election year. I would expect that politicians would be more distracted and get less done, but you've said you think that it's more likely the legislature will get things done. Could you explain why that is?
Mike Deehan: Yeah, because the legislature really doesn't do much without a deadline, a very firm deadline. And that's what you get in the election years. Basically, all legislation that's filed here is going to drop dead July 31. That is the hard deadline to get basically all the priorities that they want to do. And it's something that's kind of shaping up to be another year where a lot of things happen at that 11th hour. They have some priorities that they got done during the first year of the two-year session, but a lot of those things were kind of held over from 2018, things that didn't get done at the 11th hour that probably should have been finished at the end of last session. And now they're really kind of circling around and getting those things done.
Rath: Give us an example of some of those. What are some of the things that didn't get done? What are we most likely to see up first?
Deehan: Well, I think right off the bat we're going to see transportation funding dealt with, at least in the House. That's something that's a long time coming. A lot of Democrats have said the T needs more money every year in its budget. The Baker administration has said that they already have enough money, they just need to spend it more wisely. Speaker Robert DeLeo is basically saying now is the time to give the T revenue. That means that they're going to have debate on where that revenue is going to come from. That could be the gas tax. It's very likely that they'll increase fees on things like Uber and Lyft. It could be maybe an idea to look at something like a price per mile, something like that, a more modern kind of gas tax. This is the No. 1 thing that we're going to see this year in the winter, and then over the spring and summer, we'll kind of see the culmination of a lot of other debates.
Rath: It certainly seems the T is the thing that we hear talked about the most. Second-most might be health care, which is hugely expensive. Is that something we might see the leaders take on this year?
Deehan: Yeah, this is another great example of a bill that was supposed to pass in 2018, but the House and Senate just did not come to a compromise at the end of that session. Last year, not much progress was made. This year, they say that they're going to get back to the table and take on some kind of cost control bill for health care. The Senate has a plan that controls prescription costs. The governor has a plan to kind of shift spending into more behavioral health care methods. The House hasn't really shown their hand just yet. It remains to be seen whether or not they're going to be able to cram all of those ideas or select one of those ideas and make it into law by the end of the summer.
Rath: Looking beyond spending to getting spending under control, the other area you think about with that is something we've heard about a lot more at the local level: housing and housing costs. Is that something that the legislature might be taking on at the statewide level?
Deehan: Right. Housing's really kind of tied at the hip with transportation in a lot of ways. You know, if you can't afford a house in the city, then you have to get somewhere and then you have to drive. So the more affordable housing stock in the suburban areas that might be stressing our highway systems all kind of factors into the commuter rail system and whether or not that needs more money and more trains. The governor's bill, though — he wants to just build more in these cities and towns. This bill would lower the threshold that will allow towns to authorize the zoning to create more and denser construction.
When it comes to housing, though, a lot of Democrats say that Baker's bill doesn't go far enough to ensure that the housing that's created is affordable for people. This is something that the city of Boston is really interested in. And a lot of the more progressive Democrats in the House and the Senate want to see a more comprehensive housing bill that addresses things like rent control, more mandates for affordable units in larger buildings, and really keep it equitable instead of just building more deluxe housing, which is what developers in the market will kind of put out there right now.
Arun: Are you expecting any surprises that might come out of the legislature this year? Anything that's not on our radar right now?
Deehan: There's always a political dynamic here on Beacon Hill, especially when it comes to the House, which is the more moderate chamber. And you're seeing a lot of movement on the left, perhaps some primary challengers to moderate Democrats. There are some primary challenges to very progressive Democrats from even more progressive Democrats. So you could see something like an abortion bill, the Roe bill, potentially something like the Safe Communities Act, that would be kind of ensuring that the state is a sanctuary state, so to speak. That's kind of a big ask for a lot of these moderate Democrats to vote for. But there are other things, like maybe driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants. There may be something on the socially liberal, socially progressive end of things that squeaks through to appease some of the progressives who are running or gunning for some of these more moderate representatives.
