Spilka Knocks Media Coverage But Promises Reforms

Senate President Karen Spilka addresses her colleagues on Jan. 1, 2025 after winning reelection to the chamber's top post.

Chris Lisinski/SHNS

Senate President Karen Spilka, who represents Medway and formerly represented part of Franklin, won another term leading the chamber with no speedbumps Wednesday and quickly set her sights on a combination of new and old priorities.

During her inaugural speech, a newly reelected Spilka previewed some of her legislative priorities for the 2025-2026 session: reexamining the state's education funding formula, pressing for primary health care delivery reform, and pushing again to expand juvenile court jurisdiction to include young adults ages 18 to 20.

Also on her agenda, after a session that she called "historically productive" but was criticized in the press and public for missing deadlines and leaving important work until the last minute, Spilka proposed a number of rules changes to make the flow of legislative work more efficient and "transparent."

Following the swearing-in of members -- including three new senators -- Spilka gave a speech that backed rules changes to allow lawmakers to continue work on unfinished, controversial bills during election season. Existing legislative rules for decades have called for formal sessions to end July 31 in election years.

After receiving criticism for leaving nine major bills related to health care, climate change, substance use, economic development and more on the table after July 31, lawmakers swore to continue working -- and circumvented their own rules to do so -- into the fall and winter. Spilka proposed Wednesday to make the change permanent to allow votes on conference committee reports to continue through the full two-year session, including during and after election season.

Spilka said that practice last year "allowed us to complete vital work."

"The bills that emerge from conference committees contain provisions that have been vetted by one or both branches and have been reported upon -- sometimes extensively," Spilka said during her inaugural speech from the Senate podium on New Year's Day, after senators were sworn in for the 194th legislative session.

She suggested other rules changes as well, including bringing forward the date on which legislative committees have to give their final recommendations on bills.

The biennial legislative deadline known around Beacon Hill as Joint Rule 10 day currently comes around on the first Wednesday in February of the second year of the legislative session. That means lobbyists and activists have 13 months to make their cases to committees as to why certain bills should advance to the floors of the House and Senate.

Spilka on Wednesday proposed bringing the deadline, into the first year of the legislative session.

"The reasoning behind some of the rules changes is to move things along faster, such as changing the day of reporting bills out of committee," Spilka said in an interview with the News Service. "What can we do to move bills along faster? Get them out of committee... If we can move that along a little bit faster to report them out sooner in the first [year], say, the fall of the first year of the session, then the second year can be held for sooner deliberation, debate and vetting if needed."

Asked why she felt now was the right time to make these rules changes, Spilka said she wants to "get the word out" about the work happening in the Senate.

"Trying to get people the information of what we're accomplishing as a Senate, as a Legislature -- that is not getting out as well as we all want it to in the Senate. So we're trying to think of ways to get things done a little bit sooner, to get the word out," Spilka told the News Service.

Referencing to the large omnibus bills the Legislature has taken to passing in recent years when standalone policy bills have become increasingly rare, Spilka said, "If we have the bills let out a little bit earlier, there could be more work on them and get them done, so they're not lumped in as much together."

During her speech from the rostrum, the Senate president criticized the "fractured and distorted" media landscape, saying that the Legislature's "accomplishments are consistently overshadowed by a persistent negative media narrative."

She pledged a number of "transparency"-minded reforms, including posting all summaries of bills that come out of the Senate Ways and Means Committee online, and saying she'd "ask negotiators" on conference committees "to work towards more openness in committee meetings, starting with working to ensure the first meeting is open."

The Legislature is not subject to the public records law and the top Democrats in the House and Senate have not been able to agree on transparency-minded rules changes since 2019, with conference committees failing to produce accords in each of the last two sessions.

The first meetings of conference committees are typically open to the press and public for a few short minutes, but Spilka told the News Service that practice is up to the discretion of the committee. Negotiators usually hold the meeting open for fewer than five minutes, sometimes making introductory remarks, before voting to close the meeting to the public and asking the press to leave.

"It would be good to have at least the first meeting, to work towards being more open to the public and start -- we'll work towards being more [transparent], and letting the conference committee decide for itself -- but at least the first need[s] to be fully open to the public," Spilka said.

As for policy, Spilka highlighted a few topics she plans to bring before the Senate over the next two years.

She plans to reboot attempts to "Raise the Age," which would gradually expand juvenile jurisdiction to include young adults ages up to age 18, meaning people ages 19 and older would be subject to the adult criminal justice system. The Senate has pushed for this reform in the past but met resistance in the House.

Spilka also the Senate would again try to shift the burden of broker's fees from renters onto the party who contracted with the real estate broker, typically a building's landlord.

"It's an important consumer protection and making housing more affordable for our residents here," Spilka told the News Service about the policy.

Asked if she would pursue that as a standalone policy bill or part of a larger omnibus housing package -- after the Legislature passed a large housing bill last year -- Spilka said, "It could be, or it could be a bill onto itself."

She would not commit to whether Senate Democrats would again support transfer fees on high-dollar property transactions to raise money for affordable housing -- a controversial policy that got support in that chamber last year, but never made it to conference committee.

"It will probably come up in one form or another," she said, when asked about it. Pressed on whether Senate Democrats would support the policy, Spilka said, "I don't know, we'll have to see what the session brings.

Spilka said the Senate would look at primary health care delivery reform; investing $100 million into career and technical education; and closely examining K-12 funding and policy, as the so-called Student Opportunity Act enters its final year of scheduled aid increases.

The hospital oversight bill (H 5159) currently on Gov. Maura Healey's desk would create a 23-member task force focused on improving primary care access, delivery and financial stability. The group is charged with recommending ways to develop standardized data reporting requirements, establish primary care spending targets, propose payment models to increase primary care reimbursement, and create workforce development plans, among other objectives.

Spilka said there is more to do, however.

"I do feel that we are at a really important inflection point in health care in the commonwealth," Spilka told the News Service. "I think that providers are having trouble and concerns insurance companies, formerly known as the carriers, are having trouble. Patients, clearly, are having concerns and trouble getting the care that they need."

As for education funding, Spilka said she's heard from a lot of senators that their districts are having issues with education funding, even as the Student Opportunity Act has ramped up investments.

"So I think every 10 years or so, it should be re-evaluated and looked at... Things are changing so rapidly in schools and in education, so it's time to take a look at at the formula," she said.

Spilka was re-elected to lead the Senate on a 34-5-1 vote during Monday's inaugural session of the 194th General Court. All five Republicans voted for Sen. Bruce Tarr, and Sen. John Keenan voted present.

The Senate president turns 72 on Jan. 11 and has served in the chamber's leadership role since July 26, 2018.