2021 marks a year of political changes across the United States, from the inauguration of the Biden-Harris administration to a new House Speaker in the Democrat-controlled Massachusetts statehouse after a historic, 11-year run by Robert DeLeo.
Democratic 2nd Berkshire District State Representative Paul Mark, who took office ten years ago, spoke with WAMC about his reactions to the incoming leadership on the national and state level, the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Western Massachusetts, and his thoughts on Republican Governor Charlie Baker’s decision to veto a wide-ranging climate bill.
MARK: I was disappointed in his veto of the climate bill, but I wasn't really surprised. Now, he had indicated that the fact that it was sent to him as the session was ending, and so while he had the 10 days to review the bill, I think he felt that he couldn't offer amendments because the previous legislative session had ended. And so we wouldn't have the opportunity to take an amendment and review it and either send it back to him or accept what he was proposing. You know, he's using that as a reason why he didn't want to sign the bill the way it looks. So okay, that's his right. I, again, I wish he had signed it. I think there's enough good stuff in there to justify signing it. But what I've been hearing is from the new speaker, and from the senate president as well, is that we're going to send back the bill in its entirety as it was passed at the end of the previous session, and put it on his desk. And now that's going to give him another 10 days to review it and to, if he actually wanted to offer some amendments to it on specific areas, send it back to the legislature, we can work out some kind of a compromise. I also heard that he said that he felt he wasn't included enough in the conference committee deliberations. And so you know, here's an opportunity to get more involved and to deliberate. And so if we follow through with this, which I hope we're going to do probably this week, I think he has another chance and I'd like to see him sign at this time. But I'd be happy to work with the rest of my colleagues to you know, get somewhere where we either end up overriding him o working on an amendment that's acceptable to everybody.
WAMC: How's House life under a new speaker for the first time in over a decade and the first time in your time in office?
It's interesting so far. I'm going to say I really liked when the governor mentioned he was going to veto this bill, the climate bill, that Speaker Mariano was out there right away in the news saying, well, we're going to send it right back to your desk. I don't think that is something that speaker DeLeo would have said. And, you know, he, again, consensus builder, he liked to work behind the scenes and not publicly put Governor Baker or the senate president on the spot, that kind of thing. And so, yeah, it feels good to have a speaker that, you know, really wants to assert our legislative authority because as, as legislators, we work together with our colleagues, and we work together with together with the governor, of course, but it's important to me that the voice of my district is being heard. And obviously, as a member of the House of Representatives representing 42,000 people, I have a very different perspective than the governor does. And so just leaving things to the governor, you know, doesn't work for me, because we get so often overlooked out here in Berkshire County and in Western Massachusetts. So yeah, I'd say so far, so good. I like comments he made, the speaker, in his introductory speech, both when we voted for him a couple of weeks ago, and then again, when we voted for him to start this new session. You know, he talked about broadband infrastructure, he talked about making sure that the entire state is getting its fair share, he talked about reducing travel times commuting times, and that included the possibility of telecommuting. He talked about healthcare and he talked about renewable energy and environment. So you know, all things I want to hear.
Speaking of rolling out new agendas, President Joe Biden has put together a long list of day one executive orders. What are your thoughts on this very ambitious agenda put out by our new president?
Well, I like it. I really like thre refocusing on getting vaccines distributed, getting COVID relief packages out there, getting stimuluses out there, talking about both reopening and keeping businesses open as we go through what is now hopefully the last and maybe the worst of this pandemic. And then, you know, trying to get us to that light at the end of the tunnel as fast as possible. You know, President Trump, he talked a good game. And I know that- I think he sincerely wanted to get vaccines out there. But then you hear recently that actually, there's no stores in the stockpile. There's no reserves. And so the distribution has been slow. Secretary Sutters here in Massachusetts, she told us on a call that we're getting about 82,000 vaccines a week. So at that pace, we'll vaccinate everyone in Massachusetts in 87 and a half weeks, and that's just not acceptable. So I'm hoping that the new president is going to stay true to his word, really get this thing done, really make a national strategy on how we get through this pandemic together and how we minimize the damage in what I hope, again, are the waning days of it. And then, you know, I've been looking at just things as simple as the Cabinet picks, and I'm excited that the team is putting together is just so much more in line with what I think I represent, the people I represent feel and definitely the people of Massachusetts are looking for in a national policy and from the president.
Now, we're almost a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, and the access for Western Massachusetts residents to state sponsored testing sites is still disproportionate to the number of testing sites available to Eastern Mass residents. What are your thoughts on that disparity and at this point, can we expect there to be more state sponsored In Western Mass? We're, again, approaching the one year anniversary of the crisis.
Yeah, it's been disappointing. But I hate to repeat myself, but It's disappointing,but not surprising whenever Western Massachusetts doesn't really get its fair share of attention from the powers that be down in Boston. And so, yeah, we keep putting pressure on Secretary Sutters and the governor's administration to get more of these testing sites out here. But now, we're also putting a lot of pressure on the idea of getting these vaccine clinics up and running and making max mass vaccinations available the second that more people become eligible as we go through the stages of the rollout. Right now we're in group one, and then another list of people will become eligible in group two, and then the masses, myself included, will become eligible in group three. We're looking at more towards April. And so I heard that they're planning on setting up a mass vaccination site at Gillette Stadium, which is that's great if you live anywhere near that. But I think it's important- and we've been expressing the sentiment, again, to the governor- that we have these mass vaccination sites ready to go as soon as vaccines are available out here in Western Massachusetts. And, you know, you think of maybe putting something at a place like UMass is, is wonderful. But in the Berkshires, we're still just that extra hour away from there. And so it's important that the governor, when he's looking, makes sure that people in Berkshire County have the same access and for that matter, people on Cape Cod and in different regions of the state where traditionally it's kind of overlooked. And then you have to also consider public transportation is much more of a hassle out this way, especially if you haven't been vaccinated yet. And so getting availability in as many neighborhoods as possible. I've been seeing in West Virginia that their state is going through a lot of the more local drugstores and local pharmacies, and so if we're able to replicate that thing, where it's available here in Massachusetts, I think would be very helpful.
We've gotten through the census. You're on the state's redistricting committee. What is the update from the statehouse on the efforts to carry out the census in Massachusetts, and are there any indicators of what it might mean for the state?
So a lot has actually happened over the last couple of weeks starting with the census has officially- the numbers were supposed to initially be reported to the President of the United States by December 31. The census put off that deadline, and now officially is saying it's going to be still a couple of weeks. So it might not be until February until the apportionment numbers are sent to the President. Those are the numbers that reallocate the seats in Congress that the house clerk, the US house clerk needs to see so that they can decide if states gain seats or lose seats, that kind of thing. But just recently, the director of the US Census Bureau announced he was going to resign, because obviously, he felt that there were a lot of problems. And I guess there was a feeling that the job wasn't being done properly and he was taking the responsibility, which is admirable, for problems that happened over the last year. And so what we're seeing is under the Biden administration, we're expecting that there's going to be a delay in some of the release of numbers to the states. We were supposed to get at the state level, the numbers, the population numbers we need to rebuild these districts by April 1st, and now we're hearing that number might be July 1st. So what we have to do in the meantime, what we've been doing for the last couple of years, we've been following the population estimates, we've been trying to have as much information as much good data at our fingertips as possible so that we can start preparing for this process. And we've been doing that. And then in addition to encouraging the census- encouraging the census was a good way, a test run to make sure that the public was engaged in the process. And so even without the numbers, the hard numbers that we have to use to build the districts, we're going to be in a good position over the coming months to have public hearings to get public input on what people think these districts should be looking like. And we're going to have some sense based on final estimates we're seeing on how many people will be in the House districts or Senate districts, the Governor's Council districts, and even the US House of Representatives. And so then when we get the hard data in July, it's going to be a quick turnaround, because we have to have the new districts into law under our constitution by about November 1st. But again, with all the prep work we've been doing, and the opportunity to have even more hearings than we were planning- we were planning on having at least 14,15 public hearings in person. With the pandemic, the bright side of that is we're going to have opportunity to have virtual hearings. And so, you know, 15 hearings could turn into 30, 40. It could turn into a lot of localized hearings, and a lot of people that maybe wouldn't have had a chance to show up at a public hearing might have the opportunity to take advantage of a virtual hearing. And then as technology has changed over the last 10 years, there's going to be opportunities to email in what people think maps should look like, send in testimonies. There's going to be a robust social media presence. So we've been preparing for this. I think we're going to be in really good shape, I think we're going to be in better shape than almost any other state in the country. The only problem I see again is we’re going to have a really quick turnaround time. But with good preparation work and with good input from the public, I think we're going to be in a great shape that when the districts are redrawn and sent to the governor and signed into the law, that people are going to say yeah, this was this was as good a process if not better than 2011, 2012 and that this was open fair, honest and transparent and that's the best we can ask for. That's all we want to make sure that happens.
