On Beacon Hill: Vienna sausage making, the State House way

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A budget document unveiled when President Trump’s approval rating exceeded his disapproval rating sauntered through its eighth month, still not truly final, as the House replaced $275 million of the $360 million in vetoes Gov. Baker made in July. The next step in the saga must be taken by the Senate — whenever it decides to reconvene formal sessions, that is. Plus McGovern, Warren, Polito and Worcester Airport.

On Beacon Hill: Mr. Baker goes to Washington

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“I think it would be a bad idea,” Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker told U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren about President Trump’s threat to cut key health funding, responding to a softball lobbed across the plate by the state’s senior senator in what sounded like a coordinated back-and-forth designed to bloody the president. Baker sat in the middle of five governors as the de facto leader of the pack. Also, McGovern, Chandler, Markey and Grabauskas.

On Beacon Hill: No detour for sales tax on Holiday Road

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The governor filed a bill to make the weekend of Aug. 19-20 a sales tax holiday. Sure, he could have just issued a statement calling on the Legislature to return from its recess and pass one of the several tax holiday bills already filed this session, but he didn’t. He filed his own, and it was just about dead on arrival. Plus, McGovern, Warren, Moore and a moment of marijuana clarity.

On Beacon Hill: Someone has to be the thimble

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The Democratic leadership decided reform can wait, but the revenues cannot. And so both branches voted overwhelmingly, and for the second time, to send Baker new employer assessments, deemed taxes by many critics, to pay for MassHealth without the administration and business community’s desired cost-saving measures. A monopoly on drama at the State House? Plus, Warren, Healey, Markey, Frates and LGBTQ budget vetoes.

On Beacon Hill: Signed, sealed and delivered

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House Speaker Robert DeLeo opened the floodgates early last week with his House shakeup, and Gov. Charlie Baker came storming through with $320 million in budget vetoes. Plus, McGovern, Healey, Chang-Diaz and “The Case of the Missing $431 Million.”