FEVER PITCH

By State Representative Don Humason, Jr.

April 29, 2006

The Massachusetts House of Representatives debated, if you can call it that, 1600 amendments to the House Ways and Means version of the state budget for Fiscal Year 2007 beginning July 1, 2006.

Members filed their amendments as proposed changes to the document the Ways and Means Committee put out.  Let me be clear: The W&M Committee generally is ill disposed to allow amendments.

Instead of debating each amendment individually like they used to do when I first started working in the Legislature in 1991, the leadership now bundles amendments together by category.  Higher education, for example.  The consolidated amendment is usually spoken for by the Chairman of the committee that handles the subject matter before a vote is taken.  Others may rise to debate, but there usually isn’t much of a point. 

The title of my column this week does not refer to the rapid pace with which the House dispatched amendments.  On the contrary, by Wednesday night at 9 PM we had only taken up the fourth consolidated amendment group: EOHHS and Public Health.

For the past couple of the days I felt like I was coming down with something.  On Thursday morning I had a 102-degree fever.  I thought it was allergies at first but it got progressively worse.  Well, I began feeling really terrible Thursday afternoon and ended up going to the emergency room of Mass General Hospital.  It turned I had contracted pneumonia! 

After four and a half hours in the Mass General Hospital ER I made it back to the State House to continue the budget debate and maintain my 100% voting record this year.

Personally, I don’t think it helped that I marched in the Little League Parade last Saturday morning and participated in the opening ceremony with all the ballplayers, parents, coaches, and city officials.  It was great…except for the rain, sleet, and hail!  On April 22, can you believe it?  The ice pellets actually hurt my little bald head!

Getting back to the debate…at the time I’m writing this column we have not completed the week’s work yet.  But by the time you read this we may be done.  There is a possibility that we may go into next week.  We’ll see.

If you would like to go online to check what amendments were consolidated and passed or rejected, you can go to http://www.mass.gov/legis/07budget/house/.  This is the House W&M budget homepage.

I can’t wait to get home to Westfield this weekend.  I’m going to eat some of Janice’s chicken soup and go to sleep in my own bed.

Don’t forget Sunday is the free youth Fishing Derby at the Westfield Sportsman’s Club.  It’s a great event.  Jan and I had planned to go to the derby and then a Bridal Expo at Westfield State College, but I don’t know if I’ll be up to it now.  Nevertheless, I hope you have a great weekend.

Representative Don Humason and his aide Joe Wynn may be reached at their Westfield District office, 64 Noble Street, Westfield, MA 01085,