BOSTON -- After they emerged from an hourlong meeting together, the governor and the state's top legislative leaders on Beacon Hill had very little to say about the latest grand plans rolled out by their counterparts.
Last week, House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Karen Spilka unveiled a long-awaited education funding overhaul bill, proposing to direct $1.5 billion in new money into the Massachusetts public school system over seven years without requiring new taxes. If he shared his opinion of the legislation with DeLeo and Spilka during their private leadership meeting Monday, Baker was not ready to share it with the public.
"We've talked briefly about it. We're still doing our own homework on it," the governor told reporters Monday when asked if he had discussed the bill with DeLeo and Spilka and what he thought of it. "I think the work that was done by both branches to try and find a path forward on this is a really good thing, but until we have a chance to do a little more homework ... we'll have more to say about it later."
A few minutes later, the legislative leaders returned the favor when they were asked for their thoughts on the big proposal Baker's office rolled out a week ago: the plan, already approved by the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, to sell the Hynes Convention Center to help finance a $500 million expansion of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
"I believe that I need to first discuss this with some of my colleagues, particularly those that represent these areas and to hear the pros and the cons," Spilka said. "But I understand what the proposal is, so in the future I will have more to say as to whether I can fully support this or not."
DeLeo, who said he has supported the general idea of expanding the BCEC "for a period of time," said it is too soon to say whether he supports the governor's plan or not. He said Baker's proposal is good "fodder" for the Legislature to think about.
"I think it's early in the game right now to be saying whether we can support all aspects of that or not, but I think it's good that we have something on the board now to discuss in terms of expansion of the convention center while at the same time financing it," the speaker said.
The legislative leaders' take-it-slow approach to the BCEC expansion issue runs counter to the Baker administration's apparent desire to put its plan in motion rather quickly. The plan was announced publicly last Monday and by Thursday afternoon the MCCA's board had approved it.
Because the sale of the Hynes, the lynchpin of the governor's plan, requires approval from the Legislature, the BCEC expansion would likely not be able to advance without lawmakers weighing in favorably. The executive director of the MCCA said last week he would like to have a request for proposals to find the teams that will design and construct the expansion at the BCEC out within the next 60 days.
After DeLeo and Spilka broke off from the post-meeting scrum with reporters, Baker talked up his BCEC expansion plan and said it does not bother him that the speaker and Senate president did not give much indication of their thoughts on the plan.
"You asked me about education reform, I said we need to chew on that one a little, it's big and complicated," Baker said. "They said the same thing about what we proposed, which I completely respect and understand."
The governor, who during his first term put the brakes on a previously approved legislative plan to expand the BCEC, said the Hynes is "empty more than half the time" and losing money. Meanwhile, there is "a tremendous amount of interest amongst the developer community for that site," he said.
"In this particular case, you have a facility in the Back Bay that is underperforming, that loses money, that requires an enormous investment to just continue to underperform and lose money; and you have a facility in South Boston that is performing well, that makes money, that could be expanded with the proceeds associated with the sale of the other facility," Baker said. "I think this is a win-win-win."