| State House News Service Articles and Special Offer
Read these hot-off-the-press articles below courtesy of the State House News Service and check out their special offer for BBA Members.
The State House News Service is widely recognized by insiders as the best way to keep informed on the issues, activities and newsmakers of Beacon Hill. With Internet technology, it's become a desktop State House news bureau at an excellent price. Now, through special arrangement, that price is even lower for BBA members.
All members who subscribe to the News Service through the BBA will receive a five percent discount off the weekly rate of $58. Subscribers who pay a full year in advance will see another 10 percent taken off the special BBA rate, making the total discount 15 percent.
Sign up now for a month-long free trial subscription and then continue it with your BBA discount.
The BBA is the only legal association to offer this discount...if you need to follow state government and politics, you need the State House News Service.
REPORT SHEDS LIGHT ON STATE’S JOBLESS BENEFIT SYSTEM
Too many Massachusetts residents “repeatedly and consistently” apply for unemployment insurance benefits, treating the system as a wage supplement, and benefits in Massachusetts are more generous, last longer and are easier to qualify for than in any other state, according to a report released Wednesday.
Click here for the report http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/pdf/08_ui_oleary_poftak.pdf
DiMASI LAYS DOWN THE LAW ON LEADERSHIP JOCKEYING
By Jim O'Sullivan and Michael Norton
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, JAN. 15, 2008…..After responding for months through private comments and media asides, House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi on Tuesday took his handpicked House leaders to task for the aggressive angling to grab the title of his heir apparent, using strong language and threatening retaliation.
An angry DiMasi assembled his leadership team behind closed doors and stopped short of naming names, but was clearly targeting the jockeying back and forth between Majority Leader John Rogers and House Ways and Means chairman Robert DeLeo, both of whom have assembled strong teams of supporters over the last several months, even as DiMasi and those around him have insisted he plans to stay in his top post for years.
DiMasi fielded no questions, unequivocally and repeatedly made his point, then walked out to applause, said several people who attended the meeting in the House Members Lounge, which lasted less than 30 minutes.
"He said very strongly, and rightfully so, that he's the speaker of the Massachusetts House, and he has no designs or plans on [changing jobs]," said Speaker Pro Tempore Thomas Petrolati, a close DiMasi ally who is seen by Rogers supporters as backing DeLeo. "And that these activities will cease and desist or there's going to be consequences relative to it."
One chairman, speaking on condition of anonymity, reported, "He was quite clear that if this activity were to continue, that he would remove leadership people."
The summit came one day before the full House meets for its first roll-call votes of 2008. With high-level meetings between DiMasi and other leaders, and a powwow at the Boston steakhouse Smith and Wollensky's among DeLeo backers earlier this month, speculation has been cresting over how DiMasi would set the tone for this year.
One chairman who attended said DiMasi "pulled no punches" Tuesday.
Rep. Peter Koutoujian (D-Waltham), House chair of the Public Health Committee, said, "It was clear that if this activity continued, that there would be repercussions."
DiMasi said he was irked that the rumors were so widespread that his brother, along with members of the Senate and the Executive Branch, had asked him about their accuracy, according to two people who attended.
There were no noticeable absences from the meeting, which included members of DiMasi's staff. Several attendees declined to speak at all, while others insisted their names not be used.
DiMasi made the case, leaders said, that the restiveness "undermines" both him and the entire House. "It was obvious to everyone there that he had been trying not to, that he had been trying to speak to individuals to stop the activity from happening, but that it had not worked," said one House leader. "He was very frustrated that he had to do this."
One House chairwoman said, "The important thing that he said is that anybody has the right to run for speaker, but what he said was that he doesn't want someone to do that from a position of a member of his own leadership team."
DiMasi was elected speaker in Oct. 2004, capping a House career that began in 1979. He carved out a role as a backroom operator and loyal ally of former Speaker Thomas Finneran, whom he succeeded.
In an interview with a pair of reporters prior to the meeting, DiMasi repeated that he has no plans to leave his post, noting that he's in line to become president in 2010 of a national association of House speakers.
"It appears that I will be elected to that position … I'll have to make a commitment to be here in 2010 to put the conference together," he said.
DiMasi said openings in the House leadership posts would be filled "soon, not immediately." He said he was bothered by continued lines of questioning about his future plans. "I have no plans at all [to leave], and I'm a little irritated with the fact that people ask me that question," he said.
The Senate last week completed reassignments among its ranks, filling open spots created by resignations and special elections at the outset of the new legislative year.
|
