Massachusetts Senate President Spilka: “Trump and the Congressional Republicans are working against us.”

BY MICHAEL NORTON

The state can’t make up for all of the federal government spending cuts that are occurring, according to Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka, who also said she’s not looking to raise taxes as part of any response.

During an interview televised Sunday morning, Spilka echoed comments made earlier in the year by House Speaker Ron Mariano, who said Massachusetts had “lost our federal partner.”

“I believe that Trump and the Congressional Republicans are working against us and the Legislature and the residents of Massachusetts,” Spilka said. 

While Republicans believe the One Big Beautiful Bill that was passed in July will unleash economic growth and responsibly rein in government spending, many Democrats say that less support from the federal level for social safety net programs will just push inevitable costs and responsibilities down to the states. 

The Ashland Democrat said Beacon Hill had mobilized quickly and “gotten some great bills done to protect Massachusetts residents, defend Massachusetts values,” but two of the three actions she cited — a student cellphone ban and data privacy legislation — have only cleared the Senate and await action in the House.

She said “we will continue doing bills” and predicted action on legislation to help veterans. She also pointed to a major new law this session to further protect access to reproductive health care and gender identity care.

The Democrats who run the Legislature have been steadily criticizing the across-the-board shifts in federal policies since Trump took office, but have had less to say about how the state plans to respond to forecasts that the ranks of the insured here are about to surge and that families will lose access to food benefits.

“I’m not talking about new taxes right now,” Spilka told Jon Keller of WBZ-TV, who asked if new taxes may be part of the response to threatened public programs and services. “We are not going to have enough funding. We have a good rainy day fund, we’re not going to have enough to cover everything.”

Asked about recent chatter about altering the limit on local property tax increases, Spilka said, “Nobody has spoken to me directly about that as a possibility. For right now, I am not looking at tax increases.”

Bills that provide local “residential assistance to our elders, our vulnerable residents” are a focus, she said. 

The Senate on Sept. 25 passed legislation (S 2619) featuring right-to-know provisions about personal data that is being collected and the ability for people to opt out of having their data used for targeted advertising or being sold to other companies. In addition to enhanced protections for data belonging to minors, the bill give the attorney general enforcement powers and features data protections around health care information, face scans and fingerprints, geolocation, and information about a person’s religion, ethnicity or immigration status.

“I think they need some guidance by the state,” Spilka said, referring to technology companies that she said “are mining tons and tons of your personal information.” 

The state last week released the latest round of MCAS scores and the lackluster standardized test results show students have not rebounded from pandemic-related learning loss. Spilka said Massachusetts is “number one in education in the country” and while she said the results illustrate that enhanced efforts are required, she didn’t offer specifics other than to recommend “what is evidence-based, what works with our kids.”

“We still have some work to do, clearly,” Spilka said. “I think we need to really focus, zone in on the different grades and where the kids are at, starting early, not waiting until high school. I think literacy is a big thing, mathematics.”