Governor Baker’s Fall 2020 Update
Read Governor Baker’s message to Executive Branch employees from October 21, 2020
Dear Fellow State Employees,
Just ten months ago, I stood behind the rostrum in a very crowded, not socially distanced House Chamber and delivered our 2020 State of the State Address. It was filled with hope and possibility. We had exploding job growth, a balanced budget, a big Rainy Day Fund and a long list of bipartisan accomplishments to discuss. We offered up proposals to strengthen our health care system and skill building programs, and offered new ideas on housing development, transportation and climate change.
Less than two months later, a lot of that positive momentum was upended by a global pandemic that continues to wreak havoc here and across the globe. So far, 40 million people around the world have tested positive for COVID, millions have been hospitalized, and over 1 million people have died. There have been 8 million confirmed cases of COVID in the U.S. and over 200,000 deaths. In Massachusetts, over 140,000 people have tested positive, and over 9,000 people have died.
Led by the Command Center we stood up back in March, the Commonwealth has made tremendous progress since we declared a public health emergency to fight this virus. Hospitals and other health care providers are far more prepared to serve those who get sick. Our long-term care, congregate care and senior care facilities are much better equipped to manage infections and prevent outbreaks. Many of our special education and childcare providers worked with their teachers, staff and students throughout the summer and into the fall with minimal disruption.
We have developed guidance that has been universally adopted by the employer and higher education communities to keep staff, customers, students and teachers safe. We are testing as many as 80,000 people a day — up from 2–3,000 a day last March — making us one of the largest per capita testing operations in the world, and we were one of the first states to stand up a comprehensive contact tracing program, which at this point has connected with and supported more than 200,000 residents of the Commonwealth who tested positive or were close contacts of people who did.
But still, nothing is quite like it was back in early 2020. Before the pandemic.
As we head into the final two months of 2020, I thought I should take a minute and speak to you about the various goings on around state government — cuz there are a lot of them.
Despite the pandemic.
Let’s start with state finances. They are complicated, but thanks to the team at A&F and every executive branch agency, not a full-on disaster. Everyone did a very good job of keeping track of the dollars we spent on federally reimbursable COVID expenses during the emergency, and the legislature appropriated almost $1 billion in state spending that we are using to chase FEMA for reimbursement. We have also been strategic with federal CARES Act funds and have managed to disperse over $1 billion to cities and towns to spend on their COVID expenses. In addition, Boston received $121 million directly from the federal government and Plymouth County received $91 million from the feds as well.
We submitted a revised Fiscal Year 2021 budget last week — once the dust settled a bit on state finances. Our proposal keeps our commitments to our cities and towns, schools, the higher education system, and state government operations. It does draw up to $1.3 billion from our Rainy Day Fund — but that is why we have a Rainy Day Fund. There will still be north of $2 billion in the Rainy Day Fund to support FY 2022 expenses, if we should need it.
The economy here has gotten better since May and June, but still has a long way to go to get close to where we were in March when this all began. You may recall we had an unemployment rate of around 2–3% back in February, with the highest number of people employed at any one time in state history. That came crashing down with the arrival of the pandemic, the emergency declaration, the essential business orders, the school closings, and the stay at home advisories.
Since then, the folks at LWD and DUA managed to enroll hundreds of thousands of people onto our Unemployment Insurance system in a very short period of time, which made it possible for many of them to go back to work as our economy gradually, safely reopened. Kudos to Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito, HED Secretary Mike Kennealy and the Reopening Advisory Board for the job they did giving us a structured, careful, rule-based approach to reopening that worked. Back in May, our unemployment rate was in the mid-teens. Today, it is around 9.6%, which is still too high, but hundreds of thousands of people have been able to return to work, and the national average of 7.9% is within our reach.
There is much left to do to continue to help our residents find a path back to employment, and we must do so while continuing to keep people safe and battle the virus. Neither task is easily done.
The folks at Public Safety and Security have had their hands full for the past 8 months — keeping staff and inmates healthy and working with local communities to keep people safe throughout the pandemic. Outside of outbreaks at Bridgewater, Shirley and MASAC, inmates and corrections officers — with regular testing — have shown very low rates of COVID positivity. There have been weeks that have produced no new cases. DOC and the Parole Board have also done a solid job of finding community placements for eligible inmates during this difficult time, and as a result, the DOC inmate population is down to around 6,800 inmates — its lowest total in decades.
MEMA has been up to its eyeballs in securing, storing & then distributing PPE, the Medical Examiner’s Office has done great work under extraordinary circumstances, the National Guard has been called up to perform a variety of tasks and done them all superbly, and Public Safety has played a big role in battling drought-driven fires in Western MA.
Our Housing & Economic Development team has worked hard for months to make it possible for many businesses to open safely and bring back their workers. They also worked with LWD and our office to develop two economic development and recovery packages, and have begun implementing a $200 million program put together with state and federal resources for small businesses, job training and downtown preservation.
The DHCD team has also done great work with the courts putting together a $171 million program to help tenants and small landlords deal with the calamity inflicted on both by the pandemic, and help people stay in their homes. This one will play out for months and involves a number of state and local agencies to make it work.
The Energy and Environmental Affairs folks put the finishing touches on the Columbia Gas sale to Eversource, which included significant payments to the communities most affected by the natural gas explosions in the fall of 2018. We have also implemented the recommendations made by federal regulators and our own independent review of our current natural gas network. We continue to move forward with our deep-water wind projects, our hydro project with Hydro Quebec and Central Maine Power, and our SMART program for solar installations, despite the pandemic, and will announce our 2050 carbon net neutral program later this fall.
Our parks, rivers, playgrounds, forests, streams, trails and other natural assets have never gotten the kind of play they got this past spring, summer and fall — and required far more TLC from our teams across EEA than ever before. Literally millions of people across the Commonwealth discovered the great outdoors in the midst of the pandemic, representing one of the very few “good things” that’s come out of all this. Huge shoutouts to all the folks throughout EEA that worked to keep our natural resources safe, accessible and available to a public hungry for outdoor adventure.
On the education front, I have written before about the work that was done by the team at EOE and DESE to prepare for the return to school this fall. I also mentioned the time the folks at EEC and EOE put in with the early education and special education teachers to support their work with students and their families throughout the summer and into the fall — with only minor bouts with COVID. It is one of the many untold, incredibly positive stories of people going above and beyond for young children and kids with special needs, and their families throughout this very difficult time.
The testing program our Command Center put together with the Broad Institute and the folks in higher education has been delivering roughly 25,000 tests a day to our colleges and universities since mid-August at a price that is significantly below what colleges are paying in other states. Combined with college-based tracing programs and the work of our own Contact Tracing Collaborative, we have one of the lowest positive test rates for higher education in the country.
The folks at DOT and the MBTA have used the slowdown in traffic and passenger volume to plow through a ton of work that under normal circumstances would have taken years to get done — and getting it done in weeks and months. The T’s biggest challenge right now is the drop in ridership — which has fallen by astronomical numbers since the beginning of the pandemic. Buses are at about 40% of traditional volume, rapid transit at around 25% and commuter rail at 10%. The protocols are all in place to provide a safe ride for people, and obviously distancing is not a problem — but here and elsewhere in the US, riders have not yet returned.
The RMV has operated throughout the pandemic, and while they have managed to move many transactions to online platforms, many services still require in person processing. Using appointments and lots of safety protocols, the Registry has done a very good job of serving the public and keeping its employees and its customers safe. And the over-75 crowd loves their special, once a week, “Over 75-Only” service days.
The team at HHS continues to successfully operate what is the largest hands on operation in state government. Between services for people with developmental disabilities, mental and behavioral health issues, medical and physical mobility concerns, and its ongoing work with at-risk children and families, HHS has had to balance in person care with virtual services like no other Secretariat. All in, the team continues to take care of and support thousands and thousands of vulnerable populations throughout this pandemic with imagination, skill and compassion.
And finally, the team at EOTSS, which did not even exist as an agency five years ago, has worked quickly and collaboratively with the folks at HRD and everyone else across the executive branch to make it possible for us to continue to serve the people of the Commonwealth under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. This is mostly behind the curtain work — but its importance throughout this pandemic has been critical to the work and success of everyone else.
I have said since the summer that the fall would be difficult. There is, and will be, more COVID cases as the weather gets cold and people spend more time inside. This is no time for complacency. I urge all of you to stick with the protocols — masks, distancing & hygiene. They work — and have worked for months for people who stick with the program.
Younger people now make up the majority of new cases, because they are less likely to wear masks or distance when they get together with one another. They are less likely to get horribly sick or die, but less likely is not the same as immune. They can also pass it along to their parents, grandparents, and older family members and neighbors, who are more vulnerable. If you have 20 somethings or 30 somethings in your family, please encourage them to be safe and follow the protocols.
Practically everything about the way we work has been challenged by COVID, and continuing to operate and serve has been more difficult than at any time I can recall. Lieutenant Governor Polito and I — along with the rest of the team in the Governor’s Office — remain deeply grateful for all you do for each other, and for the people of the Commonwealth.
All the best,
Charlie Baker
