Markey thanks ‘Gov. Bacon’ for helping land Hynes coronavirus vaccine pork

For the government pork being funneled into the state, Ed Markey saluted “Gov. Bacon.”

Ouch.

The slip of the tongue by the Bay State senator was a cringe-worthy moment during Tuesday’s celebration of the Hynes Convention Center vaccination pilot site.

About 20 minutes into the press conference, Markey applauded CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, FEMA, his colleagues in Congress and the governor standing right next to him.

“Together with Gov. Bacon, er, Baker, and our congregational delegation, we have worked hard to make this site become a reality,” Markey said pushing past his mistake.

The FEMA-assisted pilot mass vaccination site is expected to last for eight weeks to start, with Pfizer doses on tap for the first six weeks and the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine slated to be doled out over the last two weeks. The hope is to ramp up to 7,000 shots a day.

Fiscal watchdogs did warn there is some truth in Markey’s slip. The state is about $4.7 billion in the red in the state’s unemployment trust fund.

“At some point, there will be a day of reckoning,” said Paul Diego Craney, spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. “The wise thing for the governor to do is replenish the fund.”

The state Senate just sent a $7 billion borrowing bill to stabilize the state’s beleaguered unemployment benefits trust fund to Baker for his approval.

The bill also offers some financial breaks for businesses and employees, including exclusion of Paycheck Protection Program grants from taxation and creation of a COVID-19 emergency paid sick time program, according to the State House News.

But, says Greg Sullivan of the Pioneer Institute, the problem could ultimately land at the doorstep of Bay State businesses forced to pay higher fees to prop up the unemployment insurance.

“One of the best-kept secrets in town is the unemployment fund is going to be billions of dollars in the hole and employers will have to pay for it,” said Sullivan, a former state inspector general.

He added the fiscally conservative Pioneer Institute is urging Baker to make a “targeted contribution” to the unemployment fund.

“The state needs to step it up,” Sullivan added. “Making small and medium-sized businesses pay for it is like throwing an anchor to a drowning person.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/31wSZwG