Freshmen legislators descend upon UMass: DiMasi upbeat about state's welfare, not so on local aid

By Mary Carey
Staff Writer

Published on December 05, 2008

House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi expects the current downturn to have less of an effect on Massachusetts than on the rest of the country, thanks to the state's relatively diverse economic base.

That was the good news he delivered in an interview at the conclusion of the eighth Academy for New Legislators, co-sponsored by the Legislature and the University of Massachusetts Donohue Institute and held on the UMass-Amherst campus since 1994.

The bad news: State government can't guarantee that aid to cities and towns won't be reduced in January. Revenue from capital gains taxes alone is down $1 billion, amid other decreases in revenue and rising unemployment.

"We're cautious about what we should be doing," the speaker said.

Not unexpectedly, "The State of the State: Fiscal Affairs of the Commonwealth and the Budget Process" was the topic of one of the nine sessions attended by 28 of the 30 new state senators and representatives - all Democrats - elected since 2006.

Other topics included how to work with the media, health care, ethics and campaign finance, working with the legislative leadership and life as a freshman lawmaker.

DiMasi and state Senate President Therese Murray, as well as Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, and Reps. Ellen Story, D-Amherst, and Stephen Kulik, D-Worthington, were among the presenters.

New legislators say the academy is the best opportunity they have to get to know House and Senate leaders and each other before the new legislative session begins Jan. 7. It's something of no small importance, DiMasi said. "This business is all about relationships."

"We were all comfortable enough to ask questions," said Timothy Madden, a new representative from Nantucket, where he had been a selectman and county commissioner before his election to the House of Representatives.

The academy also gives lawmakers from different regions of the state a chance to compare notes, Madden said. As a proponent of the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, he was interested in the Life Sciences Center at UMass, both of which are recipients of state grants approved by the Legislature.

State Rep. James Cantwell, of Marshfield, said he was impressed by the wealth of expertise available to the legislators while they were at UMass on subjects ranging from health care to journalism.

The new legislators benefited from the tips they got about how to deal with the media, they said. For instance, state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz said, "Do you make eye contact with the camera or the reporter?"

"The reporter," Chang-Diaz confirmed.

Although she enjoyed the presentation on media relations, Chang-Diaz, who was formerly the outreach director for the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, said she found "digging into health care and what to expect of the budget process," the most helpful. "I think that's heavy on everyone's minds," she said of the latter.

Even so, legislators are optimistic about the coming year, said state Rep. James Arciero, a student trustee on the UMass board in 1997 and former legislative director for the chairman of the state Senate Ways and Means Committee.

"Everybody's got to tighten their belts; we know that," Arciero said. "It's going to be great."

Mary Carey can be reached at mary.carey@att.net.