| | | | |  | | By Lisa Kashinsky | Presented by Save Our Benefits Massachusetts | RUNNING UP BEACON HILL — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu just notched significant victories on two of her signature policies. She won’t have long to celebrate. Wu’s home-rule petitions on rent control and restructuring the Boston Planning & Development Agency are heading up to Beacon Hill after sailing through the City Council yesterday in twin 11-2 votes. But the lopsided tally on Wu’s hotly debated rent-control plan was less of a rubber stamp and more of a strategic ceasefire by progressives and a couple of centrists. Councilors wanted to show strong support for bringing back long-banned rent control, rather than tinkering with a petition many already viewed as a compromise — and that can get rewritten by state lawmakers, if they even take it up. “We cannot be a place where people get pushed out from the communities that they want to continue contributing to,” Wu told reporters after the vote. “We’ll make that case up at the State House, and we are going to go up strong with a big voice from city government in doing so.”
|  Boston Mayor Michelle Wu addresses a gathering at City Hall, Tuesday, April 5, 2022. | AP | The math is not in the mayor’s favor. Instead of wrangling 13 city councilors, she’ll be contending with the competing interests of 200 legislators. And she starts at a significant disadvantage in the House: the last time some form of rent control emerged for a vote, as an amendment to an economic development bill back in 2020, it won just 23 votes. Wu's team has already talked to some members of the Boston delegation about her plan, which would cap rent increases at 6 percent plus inflation — and at 10 percent in high-inflation years — with exemptions for new construction and small landlords. She could also team up with the progressive lawmakers behind other rent-stabilization bills to try and move things along. But on Beacon Hill, where power is more centralized and more centrist, she really needs to win over leadership. Even with well-placed allies — Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz and Majority Leader Mike Moran in the House, and Housing Committee co-chair Lydia Edwards in the Senate — that could be tough. Michlewitz voted against the rent-control amendment in 2020. So did House Speaker Ron Mariano, who's raised “serious questions” about rent control’s effectiveness in the past. Senate President Karen Spilka has been noncommittal. So has the governor, beyond saying communities should be able to make their own decisions on the matter. And Wu will continue to face resistance from the real-estate industry. The Greater Boston Real Estate Board, which launched a nearly $400,000 ad campaign against rent control ahead of the council vote, is already turning its attention to the State House. “We’re willing to be very zealous advocates on this issue,” Greg Vasil, the group’s president and CEO, told reporters yesterday. Wu’s rent-control quest will have ramifications far beyond Boston. Her next steps on Beacon Hill will serve as a template for other municipalities eyeing their own rent-control revivals. Somerville City Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen told Playbook he’s looking at Boston’s proposal as a starting point for the home-rule petition he hopes to bring forward this fall. New Bedford councilors are considering putting a non-binding question on rent stabilization on the November ballot that, depending on the result, could lead to a home-rule petition of their own. Petitioning the state isn't the only way forward. Proponents could turn to a ballot-question campaign, but that's a costly venture that, again, offers no guarantee for success. GOOD THURSDAY MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. Tips? Scoops? Birthdays? Email me: lkashinsky@politico.com. TODAY — Gov. Maura Healey attends the annual “Saving by Shaving” event at 9:30 a.m in Quincy, visits small businesses in East Somerville at 11:30 a.m. and attends the JCRC legislative reception at 5:30 p.m. at the UMass Club. Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll attends a Haverhill small business roundtable at 12:30 p.m. Wu speaks at Age Strong’s Senior Black History Month celebration at 10:30 a.m. in Roxbury, addresses the Boston Municipal Research Bureau at 12:45 p.m. in the Seaport and speaks at state Sen. Sal DiDomenico’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration at 6:45 p.m. in Charlestown.
| | | | A message from Save Our Benefits Massachusetts: In a time when there is so much that is driving up the price of health care - Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) create competition to bring prescription drug costs down.
Find out how PBMs are advocating to lower drug costs on behalf of employers and unions. | | | |  | DATELINE BEACON HILL | | — “Emergency migrant center in Devens might close next week. What happens next?” by Alison Kuznitz, MassLive: “The emergency shelter and intake center in Devens that former Gov. Charlie Baker launched in December to handle the influx of migrants in Massachusetts is tentatively slated to close on Monday, a spokesperson for the Department of Housing and Community Development told MassLive. But the operation at the Bob Eisengrein Community Center, which was designed to house up to 60 families or 125 individuals for several days while providing support services, will be replaced by a hotel in Concord to continue delivering emergency assistance, the spokesperson said.” — “AG Campbell Sounds Alarm On Sports Betting Ads,” by Colin A. Young and Sam Drysdale, State House News Service (paywall): “One day before mobile sports betting is set to launch, Attorney General Andrea Campbell's office will sit down with the Gaming Commission to go over the concerns that it has with ways in which operators are advertising their sportsbooks and the possibility that young people in Massachusetts could be ‘unduly exposed to potentially addicting products.’ The scrutiny from the state's top law enforcement office stands in contrast to a presentation at Wednesday's Public Health Council by the Office of Problem Gambling Services during which sports betting, which is about to explode across Massachusetts with the onset of mobile wagering, was barely mentioned.” — More: “Gaming Commission raises concerns over betting companies' 'obvious error' rule,” by David Bienick, WCVB. — “8 pieces of Massachusetts education legislation to watch this year,” by Sten Spinella, Berkshire Eagle.
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | FROM THE HUB | | — “North End restaurant owners add a new claim to outdoor dining lawsuit: anti-Italian discrimination,” by Diti Kohli, Boston Globe: “When North End restaurateurs sued Mayor Michelle Wu last year, they took issue with outdoor dining rules that required businesses in the Italian enclave — but no other neighborhood in Boston — to pay a $7,500 fee to set up tables outside. Now an amended version of the lawsuit makes a new claim: She’s biased against white men and Italian Americans. Five business owners cited Wu’s comments at the 2022 St. Patrick’s Day breakfast as evidence she is treating North End restaurants unfairly. At the function, [which is like a comedy roast for politicians] the suit reads, ‘she made a speech and specifically stated ‘I’m getting used to dealing with problems that are expensive, disruptive, and WHITE.’” — “New candidate jumps into District 3 Council race,” by Gintautas Dumcius, Dorchester Reporter: “Jennifer Johnson, who has served as president of the Meetinghouse Hill Civic Association and on the board of Bowdoin Geneva Main Streets, plans to run for the City Council’s Dorchester-based District 3 seat. Incumbent Frank Baker has not formally said whether he’s running for another two-year term as a member of the 13-person body. … Joel Richards, a Boston Public Schools teacher who ran for the District 4 seat in 2021, announced his run in District 3 in December.”
| | | | A message from Save Our Benefits Massachusetts:   | | | | | DAY IN COURT | | — “As legal challenge lingers, Mass. AG announces enforcement of auto right-to-repair law,” by Hiawatha Bray, Boston Globe: “Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell says she will begin enforcing the state’s automotive right-to-repair law on June 1, even though a federal court has yet to rule on the legality of the measure, which was passed overwhelmingly by voter referendum in 2020.” — “Mass. AG, other attorneys general, seeks TikTok data on youth mental health impact,” by Travis Andersen, Boston Globe.
| | FROM THE DELEGATION | | — “Democratic senators, led by Elizabeth Warren, are demanding answers from Walgreens on abortion pills,” by Alice Miranda Ollstein, POLITICO: “Six Democratic senators, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), wrote to Walgreens late Tuesday requesting answers on whether and where the company will dispense abortion pills. The letter, first shared with POLITICO, references POLITICO’s report that the nation's second-biggest pharmacy chain will not sell the pills in any of the 20-plus states where Republican attorneys general have threatened them with legal action, including some states with no bans on the pills currently in effect.” — “With voluntary recognition, Ed Markey’s staff will be the first in the Senate to unionize,” by Jim Saksa, Roll Call: “The rest of ‘the world’s most exclusive club’ may feel compelled to start treating the help a little nicer, as staffers in Sen. Edward J. Markey’s office are set to form the Senate’s first labor union. Aides formally requested that the Massachusetts Democrat voluntarily recognize their bargaining unit in a staff meeting Wednesday morning. Markey happily complied.”
| | | | DOWNLOAD THE POLITICO MOBILE APP: Stay up to speed with the newly updated POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. The sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don’t miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need, reimagined. DOWNLOAD FOR iOS– DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID. | | | | | | | MAHTY MONITOR | | — “‘This is a new chapter for me’: As the puck drops on Martin Walsh’s new job, he talks about leaving Biden’s Cabinet and standing up for workers,” by Jim Puzzanghera, Boston Globe: “Martin J. Walsh dreaded the phone call to President Biden. Walsh had decided to accept a plum job as head of the union for National Hockey League players last month, allowing him to return to the ranks of organized labor. But that meant resigning as labor secretary after just under two years, an early departure from a Cabinet post that his good friend Biden had tapped him for ― despite strong pressure for a more diverse nominee — to help fulfill a pledge to be ‘the most pro-union president’ ever. … But Walsh said Biden, whom he’s known since 1997, told him that the job was ‘an incredible opportunity’ and that he understood the decision.”
| | CHARLIE ON THE NCAA | | — SPOTTED ON CAPITOL HILL: Charlie Baker made his first trip to Capitol Hill as NCAA president yesterday, capping off his day of lawmaker meetings at Rep. Lori Trahan’s office. Trahan, a former D1 volleyball player who is a leading advocate for college athletes in Congress, said the two discussed players’ “name, image and likeness” rights and Title IX issues. “We have a lot of work ahead to make the system of college athletics work for the athletes that power it,” Trahan told Playbook in a statement. “I believe our discussion yesterday will serve as a solid foundation for ways we can work together to achieve that goal.”
| | MEANWHILE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE | | — “Biden beats Trump in New Hampshire poll but most Dems want someone else,” by Matthew Medsger, Boston Herald: “Most Democratic voters in New Hampshire want someone other than President Biden to run despite the fact he would beat former President Donald Trump in a second head-to-head presidential matchup, according to new polling [from Emerson College and 7News].”
| | | | A message from Save Our Benefits Massachusetts: For nearly 50 years, federal law and legal precedent has prevented state legislators from preempting federal laws governing self-funded ERISA plans. Health plans are offered by employers, labor-management trusts as well as local, state and federal governments. With roughly 60 percent or more of the health plans offered by ERISA protected entities, these protected plans could expect consistency across state lines and a fair regulatory climate.
Now, lobbyists for Big Pharma and independent pharmacists are looking to increase their profits by ignoring federal law and undermining the cost-savings in self-funded plans. Save Our Benefits Massachusetts is ready to help you fight back against rising costs. Please, Join our coalition today and help us keep health benefits affordable and accessible for employers, employees and unions. | | | | | HEARD ‘ROUND THE BUBBLAH | | SPOTTED — speaking with me at Sam Gebru's class at Tufts last night: Jesse Mermell and James "Jimmy" Hills. Tweet. HAPPY BIRTHDAY — to Stefani Jones. NEW HORSE RACE ALERT: YOU GET AN AUDIT AND YOU GET AN AUDIT — The Boston Globe’s Julian E.J. Sorapuru joins host Steve Koczela to talk about the challenges Black business owners face after landing big contracts. The Supreme Judicial Court wrestles with wrongful-death restrictions in cigarette suits. Koczela and hosts Jennifer Smith and Lisa Kashinsky parse Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s new probes. Subscribe and listen on iTunes and Sound Cloud. Want to make an impact? POLITICO Massachusetts has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Bay State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness among this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: jshapiro@politico.com. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our politics and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
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