STATE CAPITOL BRIEFS
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
BAKER: UMASS FEE HIKES “NOT SUPPORTABLE”
Gov. Charlie Baker, who supports expanding online higher education and expediting degree programs, said his administration opposed the University of Massachusetts decision to hike student costs. The governor said the university system would be receiving about a 3 percent increase in its state funding next year during lean budget times and said the additional up to 5 percent hike in tuition and fees is “not supportable.” The UMass Board of Trustees voted Wednesday to raise tuition and the mandatory curriculum fee up to 5 percent for in-state undergraduates after freezing student costs for two years in exchange for an increase in state funding. “My view on that is, what’s the limit on enough?” Baker said on Boston Public Radio on Thursday. “I mean every year are we going to play this game where people just sort of say, ‘Unless you give us’ – I don’t know. Pick a number: 7, 8, 10, 12 percent increase – ‘we’re going to raise tuition?’ I mean that’s not the right way to think about this.” Baker said higher education can be delivered more efficiently. “There’s only one thing that’s gone up faster than the cost of health care over the course of the past 30 years, and that’s the cost of higher education. Think about that for a minute,” Baker said. – Andy Metzger/SHNS
HOUSE ADVANCES BOSTON POLICE DETAIL BILL
The Massachusetts House on Thursday gave initial approval to legislation authorizing Boston Police Commissioner William Evans to appoint retired department officials to work on details. The bill (H 2339) limits the detail work to retired officers who have been off the force for less than four and a half years and who are under 68 years old. It also requires retired officers to pass a medical exam to be designated special officers. In January, bill sponsor Rep. Dan Hunt (D-Dorchester) told the Dorchester Reporter the bill would help staff details. “Now, tens of thousands of details go unfilled, especially in the summer,” he said. “With major events like the 4th of July, the Marathon, playoff game baseball, we get a lot of police responding to that, but they don’t have the staff for a police detail to the NSTAR truck on Dot Ave. This will help ensure public safety.” – Michael Norton/SHNS
CORNERSTONE LOWERED BACK IN WALL THURSDAY MORNING
The cornerstone carrying coins from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was deposited back in the State House Thursday morning with coins and a plaque from the twenty first century. Returning the stone into the side of the State House involved none of the pomp and circumstance that accompanied the reinsertion of a time capsule into it, though Assistant Secretary of the Commonwealth Michael Maresco was on-hand to see the work. A hook and chain was used to lower the stone into place around 7:30 a.m. and the stone was in place minutes afterwards. – Andy Metzger/SHNS
