With legislation moving forward in the state Senate to help businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, state Sen. Diana DiZoglio says she and other legislators felt cut out of Gov. Charlie Baker’s recovery program.
DiZoglio made the revelation Thursday when she appeared as a guest on WHAV’s morning program.
“It’s not a situation where we have been able to participate in those discussions, necessarily, you know. When this thing is planned, which is rolled out by the lieutenant governor and the secretary of economic development, alongside the governor, those conversations on the advisory board were being had with not one legislative representative being able to speak during those meetings. We were able to listen, but we were not allowed to speak, and give input,” she explains.
The senator says the situation especially concerns her since the legislature represents the public at the local level.
“And I’m going to be pushing for the legislature to be able to have more of a voice moving forward. We know that emergency situations do call for occasions where executive orders are necessary, but if we’re going to continue with this months’ long process and be getting into potentially the half a year mark of legislation to be worked on and passed—certainly if the administration can be working on a proposal for several weeks and take that time to form an advisory board and a task force to be able to analyze policy and come up with a plan—certainly the legislature, who was elected by the local communities, all of you, should be able to participate in that discussion. That’s not something that’s being done overnight, in some sort of an emergency order that’s being done. That’s something that’s being worked on for several weeks and the legislature does need to have a seat on these boards moving forward,” DiZoglio adds.
In the meantime, DiZoglio says legislators are working within the guidelines of Baker’s executive authority and doing what it can under the governor’s emergency order. She said members continue to fight for local businesses, based on what decisions the governor makes.
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