"House panel may rebuke member from Worcester" by Jim O’Sullivan | Globe Staff, May 21, 2013
A House panel is poised to act against state Representative John P. Fresolo, Democrat of Worcester, with the possibility of disciplinary measures being taken by the full body within days, said an official briefed on the investigation.
The Ethics Committee is expected to recommend that the House move against Fresolo, the official said, though the severity of its recommendation was unknown Tuesday. Also unclear, because committee members are sworn to secrecy, are the charges against Fresolo....
The committee has been meeting quietly in the State House, holding one session Monday after a handful last week. Several members of the committee contacted for information said they were constrained by committee rules from discussing the matter, even with other lawmakers....
Members are leery of taking such drastic action [as expulsion], fearful of setting precedent indicating that the will of the voters could be overturned by legislative leadership. Other Democratic lawmakers facing ethics investigations have resigned rather than endure what amounts to a trial by peers....
The last time a member of the Legislature was expelled was in 1977....
Then names like Wilkerson, Marzilli, and Galluccio are dropped.
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Also see:
The Perils of One-Party Politics: The Ruling Party
Massachusetts "democracy" at work.
UPDATE:
"House approves $34 billion spending plan" by Jim O’Sullivan | Globe Staff, April 25, 2013
The House passed its fiscal 2014 budget late Wednesday, a $34 billion document balanced with new taxes and withdrawals from state reserves, on a party-line 127 to 29 vote.
The House vote was the most recent iteration in a game of fiscal chess between Governor Deval Patrick and legislative leaders.
Gue$$ who are the pawns, taxpayers.
After Patrick stumped for a $1.9 billion tax increase for transportation and education spending, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray responded with a $500 million tax hike, much narrower in scope than Patrick’s.
Patrick quickly issued a veto threat, and, with ill feelings running high on Beacon Hill, the Senate passed a compromise measure. That bill, though, still rejects Patrick’s early education proposal.
After the budget deliberations were shelved last week by the terrorist attacks, this week’s House budget debate became the next theater.
House members this week were combing line items for evidence that any colleagues who voted against DeLeo’s original transportation bill had faced retribution in the form of reduced appropriations.
Yeah, the speaker here is pretty much a dictator.
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NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"The secrecy surrounding the investigation continued Wednesday. A spokesman for House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo said Fresolo, 48, has come under scrutiny for being one of the members who filed the greatest number of requests for per diem reimbursements, state payments that legislators may collect for commuting to and from the State House. DeLeo’s office also said in March that a House employee had made allegations against a legislator."
