Good Luck, You'll Need a Lot of It.

A. I appreciated your comments about being “patient” with our new supposed-to-be liberal Speaker, (July 15,2005), but our organization has been working our butts off to get 100 House members committed to vote yes on legislation permitting a limited number of undocumented young people to pay in state tuition rates at our local state colleges and university. We know we need 109 to override the Governor’s expected veto in the House, and we know the Speaker is supportive (he’s one of the 100.) We have seen a lot of evidence that the Speaker can push through stuff that he cares about in a couple of days – like a $60 million subsidy to the film business. Why can’t we get him to look at our list of leaning yeses and “convince” 10 or so to commit and we can get this passed and over ridden before the summer recess so these kids can go school this fall? The Senate president has said publicly he has the two thirds vote necessary to override in the Senate.

B. The answer is yes of course it can be done, but there are a lot of “ifs” to think about. If you can convince your Speaker to personally look at your vote count and confirm that all of your 100 commitments are securely committed (in other words make sure you and your supporters have not interpreted a leaning yes or a maybe as a committed yes); and if he is able to identify 10 leaning yeses (a reasonable number) who will commit to him on this vote in return for some reasonable favor or consideration from him, (everything from appreciative personal attention to a commitment to help with another piece of pending legislation to a commitment to visit the district for a local event) he would probably be willing to let the vote come up before the summer recess. Then all you have to worry about is if the Senate President can take it up before the summer recess and if the Governor would veto it before the summer recess (and not fool around with a delaying amendment) and if the vetoes can be taken up in both chambers before the summer recess. That's a lot to do in 7 days. Good luck , you’ll need a lot of it.

Manufacturing Your Own Crisis

Q. It isn’t only Governors who wait until there is a crisis to finally move on fixing a problem, Legislators do too!! (Hecate July 19, 2005) I’m a business man, and I make the “policy decisions” here every day that determine what hours people work, how much they pay for their health care, how many sick days they have etc etc. My people are paid to spot potential problems and give me some possible solutions that include cost and benefits before the problem turns into a crisis. What is wrong with these fellows? My wife is involved in a statewide organization that has been trying to pass a law that would forbid public schools from using toxic cleaning fluids—the ones with warning labels all over them. In our children’s school an untrained janitor spilled a pail of undiluted poisonous stuff on the gym floor and they closed the gym for a day. Later my wife found out that they brought in a special company to clean it up – complete with people with white jumpsuits and gasmasks. The committee chair responded told the group testifying that “these things happen” and they can’t legislate on one incident. What do we have to do, drag some asthmatic kids and have them drop their used inhalers in a pile outside the state capital?

A. Good idea!! Unlike the private sector, public policy makers do not have the luxury of having enough paid staff to spot every potential problem in their bailiwick, whether it’s the environment or transportation or foster care. They depend on large part on organized neighborhood volunteers, statewide special interest groups and paid lobbyists from various business interests to bring them problems and suggest effective affordable solutions. Documenting the statewide impact of a potential problem is always an important first step. So, organizing some parents of asthmatic kids from across the state to bring some used inhalers into the state house is a good way to spread your personal outrage around a little and create your own little crisis that might just prompt some movement from the legislature. By the way what happened to the janitor? Does s/he belong to a union? Was there some violation of occupational health and safety laws and regulations?

On Making Decisions

Q. Why is it that politicians (especially Governors) only respond to crisis? We've been collecting data and suggesting specific solutions to the problems in foster care for years especially about the lack of training and support for foster parents, and the only time our Governor pays attention is right after a scandal that involves a poorly trained, poorly supported and poorly supervised foster parent? And then he's only in the blame game.

A. I watched a Governor last year who ran for office promising to pursue her own aggressive agenda to reform this and reorganize that and to develop new ways to respond to old problems, and foster care was high on the list because she was a trained social worker. Within 3 months she was moaning and groaning that all she could do was respond to real and manufactured "crisis" created by people outside her office: other constitutional offices, the legislature, special interest groups and the media. "Why can't I just do the stuff I want to do?" Her chief of staff suggested that she might think about calling up the Commissioner and asking if he could find a crisis or two, and that was pretty good advice. Your job is to be there prepared to offer your specific, doable and timely solutions.

An observation on Indecision

Q. In Massachusetts we finally have a new Speaker, with a history of being supportive of more and better services for the poor the elderly and the disabled. (A nice change) He has also promised an open process where every question, no matter how controversial will have a full and fair debate. (That's even nicer.) However, the House Budget did not increase many of our programs and did not include any new outside sections that created "new policy" (our only vehicle for creating new programs for the past 15 years). Meanwhile the Senate President is out there promoting a new policy a month and the Governor comes up with an idea every couple of days. What's going on?

A. Hecate will make one observation and give you one piece of advice. Advice first: be patient. Your new Speaker has just gotten his new team in place and most of them have never served a Speaker who asked them to exercise their own judgement about anything, and they have to practice a little bit. (Committee hearings and deliberations are, after all the first step in a full and fair debate.) Observation: proposing a specific new policy implies an informed and fact based decision, and maybe he wants to be in consultation with his leadership team a little longer, maybe he's just waiting for more information, maybe he's just watching what everyone else does first. Indecision is, after all, the backbone of flexibility.

The Value of a Diverse Local Coalition

Q. I’m a member of a state association of parents of profoundly disabled children. We’re building a local coalition of people to support our bill to create a parent support network linked to the local Departments of Public Health. I’m supposed to reach out to the local chapter of social workers, the teachers union, the nurses association, the medical society, the local hospital and health center and local churches and synagogues. I’m really nervous that the parents’ voices will get drowned in a coalition with all these smart professionals who are used to telling us what we should do and how we should think.

A. You’re right to be protective of the parents’ role. However, organizing and running a diverse local coalition is a great opportunity for parents like you to develop leadership skills and confidence. It will be easier than you think because the professional groups you have listed are already quite used to being solicited to join a coalition to support another group’s policy campaign. If you can persuade them to get involved, and they determine that your campaign is in their direct self interest, they will be happy to yield the leadership of your campaign to you. They are already involved in their own priority policy campaigns and are pretty busy pushing their own stuff.