Beacon Hill wraps up business before its break, although bar advocates are less than pleased

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For all the ink spilled about reforms to the legislative process and calendar, it seems it will be difficult for Beacon Hill to shake the habit of the July 31 frenzy.

Odd-year July 31s don't have the same reputation as their even-numbered, end-of-formal-sessions-for-the-year counterparts. And even on the heels of rules reforms meant to avoid the kind of overload-induced legislative paralysis that embarrassed Democratic leaders the last two terms, lawmakers just couldn't help themselves this year but to try to settle as much business as possible before a traditional -- but not mandatory -- August vacation.

The House and Senate worked together to send Gov. Maura Healey bills putting up new legal shields to protect reproductive and gender identity care, funding $259 million in spending including for legal representation for indigent defendants, and investing heavily in local road repairs.

Senate budget chief Michael Rodrigues said from the chamber floor Thursday that it was "our last day of formal session before we take a much-needed recess in August."

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But as lawmakers flipped their office calendars from July to September, there was a group of about 30 bar advocates on the Grand Staircase making clear they didn't think the Legislature did much to deserve a break.

Sean Delaney, a de facto leader for frustrated bar advocates who have refused to take cases since May, said the agitated bar advocates are "going nowhere" and will continue to push for a $60-an-hour raise over two years. The spending bill sent to Healey on Thursday included a $20-an-hour raise over two years.

"Your ridiculous proposal that you put forward yesterday has only strengthened our resolve. You must understand that before you go off on your monthly sojourn in August and disappear from these halls," Delaney said. "You're strengthening our cause and our resolve."

The bar advocates, private attorneys who agree to represent indigent defendants and have accounted for as much as 80% of the public defense work in Massachusetts courts, say they cannot keep taking cases at the current rates ($65 per hour in District Court, $85 for most Appeals and Superior Court work, and up to $120 per hour on murder cases) in a high-cost state like Massachusetts, especially when neighboring states pay far more.

Legislative leaders, though, say the bar advocates are "holding people's constitutional rights to counsel hostage," as Rep. Aaron Michlewitz put it, and presented the $20 raise as a take-it-or-leave-it offer. If bar advocates leave it, as many said this week they plan to, it could result in even more criminal defendants being released or having charges dropped for lack of representation.

The spending plan on Healey's desk also begins to move Massachusetts away from such a great reliance on bar advocates. The package includes $40 million for the Committee for Public Counsel Services to hire about 320 additional public defenders, eliminating the need for as many independent contractor bar advocates.

The bar advocate funding was added to the larger bill during extensive House-Senate conference talks, but the other two major bills that were shuttled to the Corner Office this week were resolved more informally.

The Senate just went along with the House's approach to a $1.185 billion local road and infrastructure bond bill, and an update to a 2022 state law intended to protect providers and patients of reproductive care, including abortions, and transgender care was announced as an agreement between committee chairs.

Each branch this week also passed legislation that the other side of the State House hasn't -- perhaps a preview of how things could play out a year from now on July 31, 2026.

Before the rule changes that passed this year, July 31 in even-numbered years was the final day for formal legislative business for the year and usually saw a handful of bills ping-pong between branches. But under the new rules, next July 31 will be the deadline to just get things into conference committee negotiations.

So rather than the House and Senate both working on the economic development bill, next year's deadline could see the House take up things that have already passed the Senate (like Thursday's bill to ban student cellphone use during the school day) while the Senate takes its turn with things that have cleared the House (like human trafficking training and teacher pension system bills that passed this week).

It's not out of the question that the long-running drama involving Treasurer Deborah Goldberg and former Cannabis Control Commission chair Shannon O'Brien is still going a year from now (it's already been more than two years since O'Brien declared the CCC in "crisis").

Recently-unsealed court documents were full of revelations about the CCC, state government more generally and the people who run both. Out of more than 3,000 pages, one stood out as a good summary of the whole mess.

Less than two months into O'Brien's tenure as chairwoman of the CCC, a longtime communications pro she described as "an old Beacon Hill insider" emailed her husband (former Rep. Emmet Hayes) out of the blue to pass along some intel, and a perfect tongue-in-cheek nickname for the CCC.

"[S]ome staffers at the Cannibals Commission already have their knifes out for Shannon," the source emailed.

The CCC's new executive director, Travis Ahern, told the Boston Globe's editorial board that coverage of the newly-public court documents would be focused on "years-old interpersonal conflicts that have not distracted us from the very significant regulatory matters affecting the Commonwealth’s consumers, patients, and licensees right now."

Indeed, the CCC reached a milestone this week when commissioners voted to advance rules to allow adults to purchase a marijuana product and use it in the same location, like you already can with alcohol or cigars.

WEEKEND PLANNER

SATURDAY

➼ WORRELLS CANVASS FOR WU: Brothers Rep. Chris Worrell and Boston City Councilor Brian Worrell launch a campaign canvass for Boston Mayor Michelle Wu in Dorchester. "Hundreds of campaign volunteers and supporters" will knock on doors across Boston over the weekend, according to Wu's office. (11 a.m., Elmhurst Street Park)

SUNDAY

➼ LYNCH ON KELLER: Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Chrissy Lynch joins MASSterList columnist Jon Keller's weekly "Keller at Large" segment. Lynch will discuss the impact of Trump administration policy on labor, teacher strikes, and her thoughts on the need for new taxes on corporations. (8:30 a.m., WBZ-TV)

➼ DOLAN ON NBC: Governor's Councilor and public defender Mara Dolan sits down with political reporter Matt Prichard to discuss Dolan's first eight months on the Governor's Council and the bar advocate work stoppage. (9:30 a.m., NBC10 Boston)

➼ FLYNN ON OTR: Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn joins "On the Record," WCVB's weekly political talk show. (11 a.m., WCVB)

➼ ADMIN TOURS SOWA: Department of Agricultural Resources Commissioner Ashley Randle and staff from MDAR tour the SoWA Open Market, kicking off the Healey administration's celebration of Massachusetts Farmers Market Week. (12 p.m., SoWa Open Market, 500 Harrison Ave., Boston)

➼ JEWISH COMMUNITY AT ICE: Hundreds of Jewish community members plan to gather at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's local field office in Burlington as part of an action coinciding with Tisha B'Av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. Amid escalating federal immigration enforcement actions, organizers say participants will "call out the harm being done by ICE." The event is organized by T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, and Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism - Massachusetts. "Tisha B'Av is a somber holiday, commemorating the destruction of ancient Jewish temples," organizers say. "To rebuild sanctuary in the Commonwealth, participants will demand that our Massachusetts elected officials do everything in their power to protect immigrants and build a Commonwealth that upholds the dignity and safety of all people." (4:30 p.m., 1000 District Ave., Burlington)

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