Bid to Eliminate Suffolk County Holidays is ended

Hacks to the wall, pols vote to keep extra Suffolk holidays

By Hillary Chabot | Thursday, June 4, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Politics

Backed to the wall by an angry electorate demanding change, the scandal-pocked House last night nevertheless narrowly voted to preserve a pair of controversial state holidays designed to give pols and public employees two extra Mondays off.

Before a nail-biting tie vote on the day after former House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi was indicted for contract-rigging, angry pols blamed the Hub’s two newspapers for scrutiny of Evacuation Day and Bunker Hill Day - and declared they would not be pushed around.

“I’m not going to be backed up by the newspapers, not backed up by the cynics, not backed up by the haters,” bellowed Rep. James Fagan (D-Taunton). “I hope these holidays are around and with us a long time after the Globe is gone.”

Lawmakers voted 78 to 78 on the amendment, dooming it despite growing unease with the Suffolk County-only holidays in the Legislature. A similar amendment in the Senate failed by a 21-17 vote despite mounting support there.

Republicans, who added the amendment eliminating the holidays to a $30-million supplemental budget last night, said axing the days off would help disperse the ethical black cloud looming over the State House.

“We have never been under the scrutiny that we are under right now,” said Tom Calter (R-Kingston). “My suggestion is that we . . . make the decisions the people of the Commonwealth expect us to make.”

All schools, city and state offices are closed in Suffolk County for Bunker Hill Day on June 7 and Evacuation Day on March 17, which also happens to fall on St. Patrick’s Day. State employees also are allowed to take the days off or use them as floating holidays, which costs the state roughly $5 million, according to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.

Suffolk County politicians spent three hours pacing the House floor last night in an effort to shore up dwindling support for the obscure holidays. House Speaker Robert DeLeo (D-Winthrop) didn’t use leadership muscle to support the holidays even though the Suffolk County pol supports them.

Outraged Southie pols blamed Boston’s two newspapers, the Boston Herald and The Boston Globe, for whipping up public sentiment against the holidays. Rep. Brian Wallace (D-South Boston) focused his ire on Herald Columnist Howie Carr, whom he said first dubbed the days “hack holidays.”

“I’m sick and tired of the people in this chamber coming in and bowing to the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe,” Wallace said.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1176706