Rep. Tackey Chan - March 11, 2026

[00:00:00] Speaker A: State Representative Tacky Chan of Quincy is in his State House office for our techie talk today. How are you, Tacky? [00:00:06] Speaker B: Hey, Joe. I think about remainder of the session. You'll probably get me half, at least half the time in the office going forward. [00:00:14] Speaker A: All right, well, we've looked at your dining room long enough, so now look at your family photos in the background there. [00:00:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Another notable, people like Mayor Walsh is somewhere behind me and Mayor Ray Flynn's behind me. Some intern pictures are back there as well. So my, My nephew and my brother's family is behind me, too. So, you know, again, it's how you decorate your offices. You know, it's. It's never easy, believe it or not. It's like, you know, what do you really want it up here? And since all kinds of guests come through here, whether it be diplomats or constituents, you know, how you set your office pretty important. I'll give you. I'll be perfectly frank with you. There are some people much better taste knighting in this place. [00:01:01] Speaker A: All right, so we'll leave interior decorating off your resume. [00:01:04] Speaker B: Absolutely, leave it off the resume. So some folks around here really do good job on. On space usage and trying to get the maximum friendly value in a sense. They want. People want to have friendly offices when people walk in so you don't feel, like, intimidated, anything like that. You want people comfortable when they come see you. [00:01:24] Speaker A: Right, right. Looks like you're dressed for St. Patrick's events, too. [00:01:27] Speaker B: Well, it is St. Patty's Day again. I get to be Irish for a very short period of time. And, you know, there's a lot of guests that he does. Today is also agricultural day at Statehouse, so all the vocational schools, the Aggie schools, come in to talk about what they do and how come they're important and of course, to provide some samples of what they do, whether it be apple cider donuts or small plants, as they kind of explain their role. Today's also plumbing day. There's a whole bunch of plumbers running around talk again, talking about what they've been doing, how they see the economy, some people introducing themselves to elected officials for the first time. So that's going on today as well. So there's also some smaller briefings across this, across the building. It's advocacy time. As we get closer to the budget. Doesn't matter whether you agree or disagree with these causes. They do have a right to lobby us. [00:02:25] Speaker A: Sure, absolutely. So if you need a plumber, go to the State House now. [00:02:29] Speaker B: Actually, right now, you pretty much would trip Over a plumber. Yes. [00:02:33] Speaker A: They're hard to come by. And I know the state's doing a lot to try and incentivize folks to get into the trades. [00:02:39] Speaker B: That is true. It's something been ongoing for over a decade now trying to boost our vocational screws up. Also free community college, for example. It's a two year degrees. It may not be a conventional trade, but you know, it could be nursing or other similar two year degree professions. You know, the governor had made it a priority when she got elected. So yeah, it's really not the lack of resources. It's encouraging folks to want to go into a two year professional degree or go into a trade. [00:03:09] Speaker A: Absolutely. There's opportunities. You mentioned health care. That's probably the biggest one right. In the state. [00:03:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Healthcare hiring in the last job data report has slowed down, but in Massachusetts is still in high demand for things like pharmacists and nurses and technicians and biotechnology companies. It's a very broad range of health care. It's not just strictly being in the medical setting that we're looking for help in. And again, it's a two year degree. You can make some really good money. [00:03:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Earlier this week I had Tim Cahill in from the South Shore Chamber of Commerce. He talked a lot about plans to kind of redevelop those old office parks up and down Route 3 and make that kind of like medical highway, if you will. [00:03:52] Speaker B: No, it's about accessibility issue. I mean, when I talk to a lot of industries, particularly those who can't or won't pay the rent in Cambridge anymore, it's really about two things they're looking for. They're looking for accessibility to Boston because they still have to get to Logan. The money is still in Boston for capital venture, but also amenities. And people don't want to just be in a desert, you know, would have to drive out to get a cup of coffee or get lunch. So people like to be somewhat geographically close to things they can get to in a short car ride with ample parking or it's walkable. And you know, that was a big selling point for Quincy for a very long time. Up to Covid was the, you know, the mayor's office was pushing hard that they provide a train line and amenities that makes your life easier on travel. And of course parking. We always, as Steven lynch likes to joke about and you know that you know people southeast Quincy because there's driveways. [00:04:47] Speaker A: Jokingly, but it's also true. [00:04:49] Speaker B: It's also true. Same thing is true for business. Yeah, you know Businesses want ability for the employees and themselves to be able to get to work and not have to hunt for a parking space. Because Covid's changed a lot of that. Anyone will tell you the three day in office, two day at home or some combination of that is a real thing. But also people also now work on weekends a little more. [00:05:11] Speaker A: Yes. [00:05:12] Speaker B: Because it's over mode. It's a high expectation that, you know, if you don't have to physically come to your office, they're going to demand a little more out of you on what should be your free time. [00:05:21] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, you know, interestingly, yesterday was, it was so warm. It was like 75 degrees and you could really notice it in the traffic. I think a lot of people quote, unquote, worked from home on a beautiful spring day. [00:05:34] Speaker B: Yeah, I did come to the office yesterday, did have a little bit of traffic, largely driven by car accident. It was a slowdown. But the. Yeah, no, you're absolutely correct. Obviously I did not partake. I was in at actually was in the office for a full day of meetings yesterday. But yeah, no, you're right. I mean, you know, a little vitamin D, you know, feeling can get a little better and hopefully you can be a little more productive. Yes, yes, everyone's different. But I mean, I generally do best in person meetings in the office more than virtual meetings. On a personal level, it's just my preference, but you know, it's your own. And like I tell folks, I mean, you know, anything you do at home using your resources saves your employer money. [00:06:18] Speaker A: So the governor wants the federal government to give everybody in Massachusetts a refund from the tariffs. Think that's going to happen? [00:06:25] Speaker B: It's cute. I mean, it was a cute little Instagram post. I mean, it's an election year. No surprise to anyone that's listening. Trump is polling very poorly in Massachusetts. Republicans in the whole. We got some data last week on polling. Republicans in the whole is having a very hard time in the state unless you are a heavily Republican district. And of course she has one very well self financed opponent this year that's basically dropped $6 million of his own money as a loan to his campaign. A luxury that frankly the vast majority of us don't have to run for office. As we talked about in the past, campaign finance law actually really is difficult to raise a lot of money in short periods of time given how difficult it is to do so in campaign finance. Limits of $1,000 per individual, not a lot of money. When you look at the cost of doing business, these Days, Right? [00:07:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Advertising is expensive, postage is expensive, marketing is expensive. Yeah. [00:07:24] Speaker B: Neighbor's expensive right now. [00:07:26] Speaker A: Right? Yeah. [00:07:27] Speaker B: So I mean, you know, we all know, even local news, I mean you could get into easily mid and high six digits on that. And if you try to go, you know, if you feel desperate and you try to get into a sporting commercial during a sporting game that the number can cross seven digits. Yes, easily. And frankly, honestly, you know this too. Advertising in newspapers isn't what it used to be. [00:07:50] Speaker A: Right, yeah, exactly. [00:07:52] Speaker B: We both remember where, you know, you had these giant food page ads in like the Boston Globe, you know, candidates trying to get attention. So obviously social media is a very cheap way to do it. It's pennies on the dollar to do it. Even if you pay for algorithms and paying for direct targeted marketing, it's still pennies on the dollar compared to, compared to TV advertising. But you know, the governor wanted to get some attention and they're very, we're all very aware of the polling regarding Democrats, Republican and state. And like I said at the beginning, [00:08:21] Speaker A: it's cute but you know, yeah, it's, it's unlikely probably. Although it's interesting that we talked about this last week. You know, is our businesses entitled and is the state entitled? [00:08:31] Speaker B: Yeah, this is actually how it was framed. Actually. I was following up on what we talked about last week, did a little more homework on this. It's very hard to do this because both, I want to say about 40ish percent, give or take, had actually passed the cost along to consumers in some format. I mean it isn't 100 passed to consumers. I mean they can, they'll raise prices but you know, they can eat on their own, on their own margins somewhere. The wholesalers. [00:08:58] Speaker A: Right, right. [00:08:59] Speaker B: And then that's passed on to retailers and end users directly from wholesalers who then have to decide how they're going to, you know, eat some of that cost. So it's not as simple as people saying that your end at the retailer or service at the end is the final impact on consumers is actually everything from the manufacturer all the way down to chain before it gets to your hands about who's how much they're going to eat on these tariffs. [00:09:24] Speaker A: Right. And if it's a publicly owned company, it's up to the board of directors. Right. [00:09:29] Speaker B: Or any company actually. [00:09:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:31] Speaker B: One of the interesting things here is the fact that tariffs are a type of tax contra what everyone thinks it is a type of federal tax, but you and I actually never paid the tax correctly. It isn't like you see on your bill when you go out of a retail store that says, you know, paid a tariff number. Remember Amazon attempted to do that and the President went bonkers and decided not to do that after the fact to give you better clarity about what is a tariff and what is not a tariff. God forbid you have transparency. Company wants to save their own butt by putting transparency. God forbid. So you know, you and I are very unclear about how much we contributed to paying that tax because that's not in its words, it's a tax. So since the businesses themselves pay that tax, they actually have staying to sue for recovery. Us at the very end would not. And the thing is that there's been tasks going on forever in this country and you know, first Trump presidency had already put a lot of taps on and this just is adding on top of what already exists. [00:10:40] Speaker A: Yep. [00:10:40] Speaker B: So. [00:10:41] Speaker A: And Biden did too, to be fair. [00:10:42] Speaker B: To be fair, you know, Joe Biden kind of got in a top bandwagon to try to demonstrate, you know, he was also strong on trade as well. So you know, the reality is that. Well, I say it's cute because that's what it is. [00:10:56] Speaker A: Well, right, yeah, it's a good little 30 second TV story. [00:11:01] Speaker B: The practical reality of the issue is that we actually are never directly paid a tariff. We never received the tax bill, so to speak. [00:11:08] Speaker A: Right. [00:11:09] Speaker B: The entities that received the tax bill were the ones that have standing and right to recover and customs. And the customs. What's the second word? Customs and can't remember now. But anyways, it'll come to me later. You know, already told the international Trade Court because the country has its own international credit court, that they couldn't meet the payment of like 160 some odd billion dollars. But now they recently said they probably can't figure it out. They got like 45 days on how to handle those refunds back to entities and you know, there'll be more lawsuits going on. [00:11:45] Speaker A: Oh yeah. [00:11:46] Speaker B: You know, they built their budget on something we don't do at the state level. Federal government built their budget based on the presumption they can win on taxes. [00:11:57] Speaker A: Right. And this is similar to what happened here in Massachusetts with the millionaires tax, right? [00:12:02] Speaker B: Well, actually we don't. We put that as a separate account. It's not baked, it's not based baked in the baseline. [00:12:07] Speaker A: Okay. All right. [00:12:08] Speaker B: Same thing with the gambling taxes from the casinos is not baked in the bank based on. [00:12:12] Speaker A: Interesting. Okay. [00:12:13] Speaker B: Even the state lottery money for cities and towns that we use the conservative end. We don't because it fluctuates. [00:12:20] Speaker A: Right. [00:12:20] Speaker B: It fluctuates. So it's been on the conservative side. So folks that think we have the surplus. Well, if you look at the projections provided to us, you know, there's a range and we tend to lean on the bottom half of the range. Okay. Revenue projections. It's not to make us look good in case we do better. It's in case we do poorly. We're better. Repair demand chain. [00:12:45] Speaker A: Right, Yeah, I understand. Yeah. You don't want to spend what you may or may not have. [00:12:50] Speaker B: We're a balanced budget. State cities and towns in Massachusetts, a balanced budget requirement. But we don't print money like the federal government. Many states are in a similar situation, identical situation. And given, again, the unreliable federal government and unpredictability of the federal government as our partner on a lot of our services. And of course, they impact tax revenue because of infrastructure investments, research grants investments, their impact in foreign trade, the impact of tourism. You know, they created a lot of uncertainty here that we haven't seen since COVID for us to understand what a future economy comes in. I mean, I've been lamenting this forever, as you all know, about the increase on the visas. You know, a family four has from another country, as they pay a thousand dollars more to come be a tourist in Boston, a thousand dollar less. It's going to local businesses. [00:13:40] Speaker A: Right. And maybe they may not come at all. [00:13:44] Speaker B: Absolutely correct. Even though the dollar is weaker, although it's been climbing this week, given the current situation in Iran. Yeah. You know, that's now been offset by increased costs of general inflation in the home countries, but also us. And again, you know, every time the, you know, Trump wants to make money on the back of someone else, it does ripple to someone you may know locally, and it does ripple onto your sales tax. Nothing's better than getting sales taxes from individuals that will not live here. [00:14:13] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. That's ideal because you didn't have to provide any services for that. [00:14:17] Speaker B: It's. Yeah, it's 100%. Great. Right. When visitors come from other countries to pay the sales tax, they pay the extra fees on, on the rental cars, you know, they pay the mbta. [00:14:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Hotel meals. [00:14:29] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And it's, it's good for us. But every dollar you take out of their pocket to come visit us, only for it's a local business, which then becomes a problem for you indirectly because as taxpayers, you know, you're basically being subsidized at some level by, by tourists. [00:14:44] Speaker A: Right, Exactly. Yeah. Are we starting to see in Massachusetts now tacky the impacts of federal cuts on on Medicare. [00:14:53] Speaker B: We'll get a better sense as we get closer release the budget next month on what the actual impacts are. We have not had a briefing for the administration on that yet. One coming soon. As you may be aware particularly on Medicaid, the federal requiring reapplication this year of everybody was a deluge at the beginning of the year and we'll see how that know how to manage their use of your own reapplications and verifications. I'm always under the belief that if you make this onerous for people to be able to apply for something they get frustrated and don't want to do it. And you know, if you look at Florida during COVID you know the unemployment system done there was intentionally designed to be very difficult online which discouraged people to participate which then creates kind of a false narrative regarding you know, benefits provided to people as well as the size of employment rate. So same thing with Mass health or Medicare Medicaid, which is what really is in the federal government could try to make its owner as possible get people off it and claim victory that they save money or you know, ended corruption or whatever they want to say. Yeah, by trying to reduce participation and that's, that's dangerous because reduction participation on connector or Medicaid, Medicare, you know particularly in Massachusetts because we're a non refused state regarding hospitalization and that class is then passed on to the hospital and you as a taxpayer on the unfunded liability care pool that we still retain to help hospitals out. So part of it's chewed and either at a hospital is a loss and part of it's picked up by the taxpayer dollars. It is actually better for everybody to be a participant in Medicaid, Medicare or the kind of connector or don't take the stipend, get your, take your company's health insurance because it actually saves you money on the tax dollar and you know your tax dollars because it's, it's, you know, it's insurance and everyone shares the cost versus the fact that we have to compensate a hospital at some level for your emergency care. [00:16:51] Speaker A: Right, right. Interesting. Yeah. When it comes to unemployment. I know there was a backlog for unemployment claims. Is that being caught up at all? [00:17:01] Speaker B: Well, we're still backlogged as we talk about every week I get unemployment cameras regularly by phone call or by email and you know then there is a lot of frustration. You guys all know, I don't mince word. The frustration level is very High from constituents. I've been in a few staff meetings, try to get caught up on what people need help with and express my dismay to a deployment about why is this taking so long for certain folks where they're just looking for a yes and no answer. [00:17:33] Speaker A: Right. [00:17:35] Speaker B: Sometimes it is employers. I'm not saying it's always, but every so often it can be an employer trying to deny unemployment individual by claiming that the person was not terminated. Was voluntary departure. [00:17:46] Speaker A: Okay. So that makes things longer. [00:17:49] Speaker B: And some employers may not report. [00:17:51] Speaker A: Oh, interesting. [00:17:52] Speaker B: They need confirmation of accommodation for that side. They required by law to actually report when someone makes a claim that person was no longer in the business. So there's all kinds of different reasons. I'm not saying it's always the employer. You know, sometimes state person applying that we deal with has a form error. [00:18:10] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:18:11] Speaker B: Very simple cases. Right. We just let them know, hey, you're missing a page. [00:18:14] Speaker A: Right. [00:18:15] Speaker B: You know, could you do this or you skip something on the website? You know, could you go back and correct it? Something. Something that simple. But you know, in terms of like humans working it. Yeah. We have a shortage. It's not strictly because it's remote. Nobody wants to work with government. We just don't pay well enough. [00:18:31] Speaker A: Is it still all remote? [00:18:34] Speaker B: Yeah, there's a lot of folks still remote. [00:18:35] Speaker A: Really. [00:18:37] Speaker B: Because it's most of the work that's done. Verifications by computer and phone. [00:18:41] Speaker A: Okay. [00:18:43] Speaker B: There is frustration at the UA offices. That is true. Where people come in and they can't, you know, having trouble getting human customers. [00:18:49] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:18:50] Speaker B: That is a real problem still. And the governor really needs to address that problem. [00:18:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Is that a cost issue just because it's cheaper that way? [00:18:57] Speaker B: It's a combination of folks on that one. It's combination of lack of people want to work for us. [00:19:03] Speaker A: Oh. [00:19:04] Speaker B: And also people getting comfortable. Remote. And frankly, management has to put the foot down. And I'm not management. I'm legally. [00:19:12] Speaker A: No, no, I understand. Yeah, yeah. [00:19:13] Speaker B: So the executive branch has to like do it. [00:19:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:18] Speaker B: I wish I had better answer to that. [00:19:20] Speaker A: Yeah. No, yeah. [00:19:21] Speaker B: Just. [00:19:21] Speaker A: Just do it right. That you're the boss. [00:19:23] Speaker B: You know, they're the boss. They're gonna just do it. But we don't pay that. Great. As you all know, and particularly we have a high inflationary period for wages the last three years. Government is not the place people want to be when it comes to making money. [00:19:38] Speaker A: Oh yeah. We've seen people leave public life for private sector or Many, many times. Yeah. [00:19:43] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's kind of where it is during eras where we have higher unemployment rate and wages depressed people all run into government. [00:19:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:50] Speaker B: Because the wages tend to be stable even though it isn't growing rapidly. [00:19:54] Speaker A: Right. [00:19:55] Speaker B: So I've been around long enough watch different economic cycles. I watch public employees come and go. Sure. It's literally based on the economy and you're sitting there going well pay people more. Well that's your tax dollars. That's right. [00:20:08] Speaker A: It's a double edged sword. Yeah. [00:20:10] Speaker B: Then you complain about the fact we're paying people too much because you don't want to pay tax. It does. You can't have it both ways folks. Right. You feel people need to be compensated more so we can have retention. That's your tax dollars complain that well we're paying people too much but you can't get any services and this is capitalism. We have to compete with the private sector for employees. [00:20:34] Speaker A: Yes. It is definitely a catch 22. [00:20:38] Speaker B: Yeah. This is a theme and it's again not all paid equal. We can sit here and limit through the comptroller's website if you care to about certain individual paying getting paid that you're like huh. And some other visuals like that's not enough. I mean I. We could lament this for a whole show. Just go to the comptrollers the website and pay. But you know also I'm also frustrated like many are. I mean you know former Secretary Tibbetts bio was ridiculous. I'm not going to pretend it isn't. That was so stupid the amount of money she was paid out and it was unnecessary. But again I don't make those decisions. That's the governor's decision. Meanwhile, as you may see in the global Secretary Chen who was let go by the administration elder affairs to interfere Secretary who saved a lot of lives during COVID as affairs secretary could she made sure the meltdown ended regarding assisted living in senior care homes after Holyoke you know save hundreds and thousands of people's parents and grandparents. You know with summary let go by the governor you know without real explanation why [00:21:46] Speaker A: the internal work that you don't hear about. [00:21:48] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the. That's in the globe. She finally came forward to glo about you know how she was treated by the administration. [00:21:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I will definitely check that out. Sure. So in the meantime let's talk about international affairs and how the Mideast unrest is impacting us here at home. [00:22:06] Speaker B: Oh, gas prices up the warm weather gave me an excuse to walk in the evening. Those who may not be aware if the Weather's good and there's no mosquitoes in particular. I live by marsh, folks. You know, I do like to take a walk around and as we know, Quincy is very safe and it's actually pleasant. So, you know, I walked onto prime on Hancock Street. I believe it was $3.59. It seemed only a week or two ago it was under $3 a gallon. Yes, it was close to like 258, 265, that zone. And I don't see this changing much. But, you know, the 27 odd countries that have the International Energy alliance, or whatever they call themselves, the IEA has agreed to release 400 million barrels collectively into the market. And I don't know what kind of pace to try to alleviate or try to not have prices go up higher. The Trump administration, as I said last week, is floating marketing after the fact on an action to try to come up what sells with the public after they did something. It's almost like, you know, ask forgiveness after you do it kind of mentality. But thousands of lives have been lost with no clarity of it and intimate age. United States, if you have any kind of common sense, you know, Iran should have struck the United States directly if they had any capacity to do so, and they clearly do not. Instead, you know, hundreds of people are dying that are not US Citizens but are partners in both economy and militarily being injured and killed in our neighbors. And again, this is one of the things about being America. I've said this many times already on the show. When we blow someone else up, extraordinarily difficult for them to come back and retaliate. Drawing me difficult. You may get a terrorist cell, maybe, you know, soft targets in there, which is going to scale the hell. Scale the hell out of all of us. But the reality is that we're not going to see, you know, a hundred drones coming into New York City, for example. [00:24:07] Speaker A: Right. [00:24:07] Speaker B: Unless they have like this hidden ship they had like hiding in New York harbor for like a year. [00:24:13] Speaker A: Right. [00:24:14] Speaker B: Ready to strike. So, you know, the Strait of Hormuz is where they talk about mining. You know, overnight, the US Navy has struck a lot of mining ships, but at launchers and shivers because last time we saw something that was during the Reagan era. [00:24:30] Speaker A: Yes, 40. Over 40 years ago. [00:24:32] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I remember as a kid, I remember watching that on TV and how Reagan had to navigate that crisis. And it was very different than crisis back then because the Gulf states weren't rich. [00:24:44] Speaker A: That's right. [00:24:44] Speaker B: They're not rich like today rich. Right. So Iran had almost no interest in hitting our neighbors because there's nothing to hit. And there was no drones. I mean everything was kind of World War I, World War II, ballistics. And you didn't have spy satellites like you have today. And if you believe the President and Woodcoff saying that the Russians are not helping Iran, well, I got a bridge that can sell you. [00:25:13] Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah, yeah. [00:25:14] Speaker B: The fact they can. Every time Israeli, Israel hits a target like a southeast alienization plant or an oil field, the Iranians are hitting back at a Gulf state with the exact same thing. And there's no way that they have that level of intelligence to hit that actually a target like that, they're getting help from somebody. So, you know, it's a proxy war in some ways with the Russians again, just like Ukraine. On the flip side though, there's no clear objective. It's almost like with a floating out there and whatever the public likes becomes the objective. [00:25:48] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I've heard four different, you know, versions of why this happened. Eliminating their navy, eliminating their nuclear capabilities. It's nothing is clear really. [00:26:03] Speaker B: Yeah, Even regime change doesn't make sense because it's like Venezuela, we got rid of Maduro, but nothing's really changed. People still being oppressed, political prisoners still there. This whole drug thing went away because Venezuela is not a drug running country to the U.S. but you know, clearly that is, it was about drugs. The US military would have gone in and told to Venezuela we're going to go kill some drug dents like they've been doing in Mexico. Right. And the deals they have with Colombia long before Trump, I mean with dealing with Colombia's government trying to reduce the drug trade. So again, I mean if you look at carefully give it a little more thought. You can see there's a bit of a messaging problem here. It's unclear what the objectives are. Meantime the gas price is going up. I didn't realize this but this, that area produces a lot of fertilizer. [00:26:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I read about that. I wasn't aware of that either. [00:26:54] Speaker B: Yeah, and it's springtime in many northern parts of the hemisphere. Planting seasons right around here. So not just uniquely United States problem, this is a global problem. All nations above the equator. That isn't, you know, crop growing season. [00:27:11] Speaker A: Right. Yeah. Which could impact the food supply, also impact cost too. [00:27:14] Speaker B: Yeah, It's a global issue. Which then could trickle down perhaps as we get to the, to the summer and fall into your pocketbook as that long term impact takes, you know, takes longer to get to you because of the growing season. But you may feel it later on. Again, these things like inflationary impacts and these global shocks, this is immediate impact and stuff like gasoline, you can see. But some of the other stuff, the, the pain that's been created will not make an appearance to later on. And then we have to explain you that it happened already. It just is a delayed effect. [00:27:50] Speaker A: Right, right. [00:27:51] Speaker B: Countries like India and China and others that oil producers themselves have stopped export. They now try to conserve their own oil. And many of these companies have a state owned or partially student owned. So the government can say, you know, release, not release. But some places like Korea, Japan are 100% dependent on import, have actually zero fossil fuel capacity in terms of oil and natural gas. And you know, they're at, you know they're at their wit's end because their economies are already being strangled by inflationary costs. And when you import everything, everything that's going to create a huge inflationary cost in those economies. So yeah, we'll see how it plays out. And we all know that he definitely responds to the stock market and the bond market. So we'll see how the stock and bond market goes. And it's going to dictate largely Trump's next statements. [00:28:42] Speaker A: Yeah, it'd be interesting, interesting, interesting if it encourages future interest rate cuts if inflation. Yeah, it goes highly higher. [00:28:50] Speaker B: CPI came out today, but it's obviously not CPI today. A CPI for February. [00:28:54] Speaker A: Right. [00:28:55] Speaker B: 2.4% which came in expect expectations. I would expect PCE will also be coming in expectation. Maybe I will maybe this whole decimal point higher but I think it's going to hit. I think the problem is that the data sets when we get to April for March will be a little bit convoluted as well. And I think once you get the April data sets in May on regarding consumer price index, I think be a little bit more clarity. Consumer surveys are coming out this week. We'll see where consumers are very huge economy. Consumers need to buy stuff, food, gasoline, food, rent. But consumer confidence has been very low and it's and the case economy is real where 60% of the economy on retail level is being driven by basically very high end of the income spectrum. And there's been talk about E shape economy which means that everyone stays in their lane where the super wealthy will eat up more of the shape of the E. Regarding consumption and the bottom of the economy, the low end of the E, the shape will reflect the lower end. So you can picture an E if the middle line moves, you can see how much of Each proportion is eating it. And then you get the line in the middle, which is mostly middle, upper and middle class and how they represent that sides of the economic spectrum. And if that becomes more true, it becomes stagflation. There's more of us that are not uber wealthy. [00:30:21] Speaker A: Right, Okay. A lot of unanswered questions for sure. [00:30:27] Speaker B: And it could be completely changed in another month. That's the problem. It isn't like the Great Recession. Great Recession was clearly a downline and it stayed like a downline. It just hang around. I mean, you know, I came back to the state house as an elected, you know, at the midpoint of the Great Recession in 2010. 11 in 2011. And you know, every economist was showing his this line down and it just moved sideways for years, you know, essentially to 2015 and then it started to become an up because I was hoping for a bounce and V and jump up, but it became a straight down. It's coming sideways, hoping it's going to come up eventually. Yeah, 2015-16 is when the economy started to move upward again. It was slow, but it came up and it was roaring. Going into 2020. Yes, you know, to Covid and then post Covid, you know, we dumped a whole lot of federal money. Not you, not me personally, but the feds put money into everything and it just maintained this high level growth which is artificially driven by the federal government. And then you know, right now we don't know what kind of economy we're in because again, unreal, unreliable federal partner and all these like tax cuts and tax credits and taking some benefits away and putting benefits another and all these moving parts. You know, it does affect you and I regarding how we spend our money out of our own pocket. Then it impacts every state, county, municipal government because it impacts how we're going to provide programs and services of the Fed's withdrawal. For example, Snap, we talked about this before. Snap's 20% of all grocery stores income. [00:32:06] Speaker A: Right? Yeah. So it's making headaches for budget writers, I'm sure. [00:32:11] Speaker B: Yeah, very much so. In some states like Texas and Illinois, do two year budgets. Oh wow. [00:32:16] Speaker A: Okay. [00:32:18] Speaker B: If things were stable, two year budgets are manageable, right? Unstable. There'd be special legislative sessions called those states to try to address it. We're a full time legislature. You guys probably don't believe it's true because the papers will always say it's not true. But you know, we proved during COVID we can come back anytime to address issues that be addressed and you know, special sessions can Be called by the House and Senate provided the House and Senate could actually do something together. The governor can't really recall us in the Constitution. I've never seen it. But again, I mean we are a full time legislature. We're constantly looking at things all the time. And you hear me every week or every two weeks in the call about things I've been doing committee. I'm getting ready to pull out bills this afternoon, try to meet the March 18 deadline under the new rule system we're working under. And those are real decisions. I have to like work my staff in the office and try to figure out where my votes are going to come from to get things out of committee or keep them in committee or move to rules and studies. I mean it isn't like I sit there and just take it for granted that my committee members do what I tell them. [00:33:20] Speaker A: That's right. Everybody is independently thinking. That's right. [00:33:23] Speaker B: They are, they are. And you know, I, I hope and I do believe that my community members appreciate the fact I respect that they are able to make their own decisions. But I'm always very happy to take a phone call if they're looking for some guidance. [00:33:38] Speaker A: Have you read these stories recently about the immigration out of Massachusetts as opposed to people coming into the state? [00:33:47] Speaker B: To me, immigration or migration, people leaving the states driven by housing. When I see large vacancies and apartments and housing stock becomes more available then I believe it. [00:33:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:59] Speaker B: And why do I say that? Well, it's because if you're, you know, if you, if you're leaving the state, then people aren't living here. If you're not living here, then we have vacancies. [00:34:08] Speaker A: Right. [00:34:09] Speaker B: So either people are leaving and pretending they didn't leave to keep their own homes here because that was someplace else or domestic, you know, internally, every time rental becomes available is rapidly filled by someone else. [00:34:23] Speaker A: Right. [00:34:23] Speaker B: So that's why these migration numbers are very confusing for me because migration out of a geographic zone equals depressed rental and housing prices because there's great availability. Detroit's my favorite example. Always be my favorite example. Where half the city got emptied out and pretty much property values outside of downtown is horrific. And they'd never replaced those folks and they normally useless property. Louisiana, another example. Post Katrina New Orleans people just walked away from their useless property to begin with. A very low property value to begin with. They just walked away. And the scene tells how to figure what to do with those, you know, areas. [00:35:00] Speaker A: Because they become derelict. Yeah. [00:35:03] Speaker B: And they're not paying taxes. [00:35:04] Speaker A: Right. [00:35:05] Speaker B: So exactly when When I see a housing stock become very available and housing prices and valuations go down and rental prices go down, I believe this migration thing is real. [00:35:15] Speaker A: Okay. All right. Yeah. It hasn't manifested itself in that. In that way, at least for sure. [00:35:20] Speaker B: Yeah. And then welcome to common sense, folks. Right. People like to lament, oh, it's high, costly people leaving. It's true. I'm not going to disappear with that. But there's a ripple effect in your local economy from migration to people coming in United States. [00:35:31] Speaker A: Yeah. And it'd be more accurate to look at property ownership rather, I guess, than [00:35:36] Speaker B: the addresses and rental valuations. High income areas like Greater Boston has very high rents. The rents are going down by 30% because of vacancy. Clearly something's going on, right? [00:35:46] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And that has not happened. [00:35:50] Speaker B: Oh, it has not. You guys know, so I mean, I love people out there lamenting with how, you know, a crappy state because people leaving. Well, show me the vacancies. [00:35:59] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. That brings up an interesting issue. What about this rent control ballot initiative? [00:36:07] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll see how it goes. I mean, those who are old enough remember that 1994 rent control essentially eliminated. People don't realize that prior to 94 there was, I won't say rent control boards, but there were rental assist the rental associate boards in all cities and towns. Only two communities had rent control left was really Boston and Cambridge. I think the housing crisis is going to exasperate this, but also remind folks there are more homeowners than renters at both. [00:36:37] Speaker A: Interesting. Okay. [00:36:39] Speaker B: And I think that's where it's going to be interesting because it would make more sense that obviously renters are looking for rent control, but it's actually not a great solution. If we talk about the policies of slum lords and lack of infrastructure reinvestment and things like that, and they try to create some CPI type controls on allowing rental increases and so for and so forth. But owners tend to be homeowners who [00:37:06] Speaker A: could own rental properties, right? [00:37:08] Speaker B: Yeah, correct. So I'm not sure how it's going to play out. Polling, obviously is very popular on rent control at the moment. [00:37:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:18] Speaker B: You know, when you look at the demographics of actual voters that come out and vote, they're very concerned about their property taxes more so than anything else. And how does rent control factor in that where if you're a rental property and property taxes go up, I believe there's a provision in there that allows you to adjust for property taxes. But how long can a landlord keep it up? Plus CPI against A market rate against cost of doing business. [00:37:45] Speaker A: Interesting. Yeah. Because a lot of business groups have come out against this. [00:37:48] Speaker B: Well, not all landlords are the same. Some people may have like a two family. [00:37:52] Speaker A: Yep. [00:37:53] Speaker B: Some people may own like a hundred units. [00:37:54] Speaker A: Right? Yes. Yeah. [00:37:57] Speaker B: It's a, it's a different business model for each. So again, it's hard to say for me to claim there's such thing as one client size fit all. Because every business model is different. I'm just pointing out as an elected official and a guy who studied politics is entirely life. You know, homeowners tend to be a higher vote total than renters. [00:38:15] Speaker A: Yeah. And how would it, I mean how would it be implemented actually? Because it couldn't be just a blanket policy. Every market's different. [00:38:22] Speaker B: Well, I mean they would have to reinstate recontrol boards in cities and towns. [00:38:25] Speaker A: I see. Okay. [00:38:26] Speaker B: That's what it does. It has to because it's. But then again it's not that clear. How would, how would even a local level decide re control wasn't. What the penalties are if they're not compliance. [00:38:36] Speaker A: You're right. You're right. That too. Yeah. [00:38:38] Speaker B: For those who are aware, I mean MSRVP and Section 8 vouchers actually tied to real rental prices in the geographic zone. So US HUD sets up geographic zones and look at the total rental prices in the area to do the calculations of the contributions of the section 8 holder and what the recompense will be for the landlord if they're section 8 approved landlord or MSRP, MSRVP approved. So section 8 and RSRP is not a free ticket, but it creates a subsidy for, for a tenant of which the government will pick up a significant portion. Generally 70, 30 split. Sometimes it's a 40, 60 split, but generally I generally say it's about 30, 33% ish split for the tenant against the landlord. But the landlord has to accept a fixed price based on the fair market value what's going around there. And every time US HUD does the recalculation based on geographic zone and it's not just like boss, I mean it's like 100 more than 1 million person geographic zone. They use a big zone, you know, the rent goes up for the section 8 holder and the landlord will get paid a little extra money. So. [00:39:48] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:39:49] Speaker B: That is a variational rent control where the government is a massive subsidizer of the, of the, of the housing. [00:39:57] Speaker A: Well, I, I could see where it might, you know, eliminate rental properties from the market if, if it's not keeping up with. With costs. Why would, why would folks continue to rent? [00:40:08] Speaker B: Well, it really hits the 1, 2, 3 families. Right. Those rental properties will be the most challenging. [00:40:14] Speaker A: Right. Because they're paying residential property taxes. Yeah, yeah. [00:40:18] Speaker B: In certain communities, particularly Boston, if you're a owner occupied. Meaning that you're one of the unit owners. [00:40:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:23] Speaker B: You know, and you live in said unit. You know, you do get a property tax subsidy. [00:40:28] Speaker A: Oh, I see. Okay. [00:40:29] Speaker B: So Boston, let's do that. So but I mean you also encourage not they would not take the property tax subsequent leave that two or four family, try to move to a cheaper area and then need to rent out that other location which opens up stock maybe or the opposite where they decide not to rent those extra units out. [00:40:50] Speaker A: Right. [00:40:50] Speaker B: And you know, bring in like family members or something. I don't, I mean I wish I had an answer, but that's just speculation on my part. How you know somebody that owns like a two family or four family versus somebody owns 100 unit building. [00:41:03] Speaker A: Right, right, right. I don't as the governor taken a position. I don't. I'm not recalling if she did. Okay. [00:41:09] Speaker B: I know polling is strong on that right now, but again, it's only March. [00:41:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Because I know that's one of her. One of her key linchpins in her, in her platform is housing. [00:41:19] Speaker B: Well, she also didn't put into her budget. [00:41:21] Speaker A: Right. [00:41:22] Speaker B: And I don't know what econ dev is looking like yet. So economic development bills in route. [00:41:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:41:28] Speaker B: And I don't. We did a housing bond bill last cycle. [00:41:31] Speaker A: Yep. [00:41:31] Speaker B: We don't need to do a second housing bond. But this cycle because those bond authorizations are still open. [00:41:36] Speaker A: Right, right. [00:41:37] Speaker B: So we'll see how it plays out. But I mean, you know, like I said, I've been wrong before about valid questions. But you guys can agree or disagree about this. But that's kind of my airless on March 11th. Talk to me on June 11th I may have a completely revaluation based on new polling data where the economy is at that time. [00:42:02] Speaker A: Yeah. I'll be interested to look forward to the secretary of state's booklet explaining this particular question because it's going to be a lengthy one, I think. [00:42:11] Speaker B: Well, there's 12 questions this year. Don't even ask me what all 12 of them are. [00:42:15] Speaker A: Oh, even I don't know. [00:42:17] Speaker B: Yeah. It was still not done. I mean the legislature takes no action. Any of those questions have to continue gather more signatures going into August. So just because they've made past the first couple of rounds of signature gather doesn't mean they're done. And some groups maybe would drop out of the ballot rates depending on what they think's going on. Or maybe we do something. I have no idea. There's still plenty of time left to figure out what's going to play out. [00:42:44] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I agree. It's early. Yeah, for sure. What's happening in the district, Jackie? [00:42:54] Speaker B: Not too much, I guess. I mean, you know, I've been tending some fundraisers like it went to, like Bill Driscoll from Milton, the senator there. Friend, you know, dropping his fundraiser yesterday. What am I doing this week? I got the Wong Family Benefit Association. There's a Lunar New Year event on Saturday. Not in Quincy. We had the Democratic caucuses on Saturday. [00:43:17] Speaker A: That's right. About the high school. [00:43:19] Speaker B: Yep. Treasurer Goldberg came, Attorney General Campbell came. Congressman lynch came. All the candidates running for county seats showed up. [00:43:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:28] Speaker B: St. Censure gatherings on. On full gear for right now, including myself, trying to get my nomination papers done, get the signatures done as quickly as possible, get back on the ballot. So no, it was actually very well run. Caucus well, they say it's always chaos at the beginning, but it finishes okay. Every caucus in my life I've done and I've been many caucuses at this point. It's always chaos at the start and somewhere closes just fine. [00:43:55] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:43:57] Speaker B: It was a good time to see some more friends too. Yeah. Very good at a constituent issue. Friend constituent issue. Come up that afternoon, had a meeting with some people have personal problems. They want to talk to me in person. Say I go to coffee shops and whatnot to sit and listen and see if we can try to resolve stuff. I actually had another person call in about a friend of a friend problem that I find an answer for that afternoon on Saturday. [00:44:21] Speaker A: Okay. All right. [00:44:22] Speaker B: Yeah, it never quite. This job never quite ends. I think people don't realize some of these, you know, one on one things that happens on Saturdays and Sundays. [00:44:32] Speaker A: Right. Run into somebody at the grocery store or something. Right. Yeah. [00:44:35] Speaker B: And then also we have day jobs. [00:44:37] Speaker A: Yes. [00:44:37] Speaker B: So I mean, you know, the only time they can see like Saturday at like, you know, one o' clock or something. [00:44:42] Speaker A: Right. [00:44:42] Speaker B: Try my best to make time for folks. I'm not always successful, but you know, me trying to do my best to make time. [00:44:49] Speaker A: Boots on the ground, legislation. Yeah. [00:44:52] Speaker B: You know, it's. I've done this before and I think, you know, most people don't realize, you know, we have to accommodate. We do our best in my life to try to accommodate Other people the best I can. And obviously, I have my own life, such as it is. And, you know, we all, you know, we all know I'm a caretaker. So, you know, it does, you know, try to balance these things out. [00:45:17] Speaker A: Any progress being made at the state level on finding a new Transportation Secretary? [00:45:23] Speaker B: None I can foresee. I mean, the Globe had a pretty damaging article against the governor regarding the high rotation of secretariats that she's had compared to Charlie Baker and Deval Patrick. I don't think it's entirely fair, but, you know, I do think there's proof in the matter as well. You know, people move on for different reasons. The Secretary of Transportation, I think you've all caught more than once me saying I'm very troubled by it and how it's going. And I will be sorely, very sore if Phil Wang doesn't stay at the MBTA where there is actual progress being made, slow progress, but there is progress on improvements. And moving to Secretary of Transportation would just be horrific for MBTA ridership and customers. Regarding continuously improvement and also safety issues, Phil Ng's caught more safety issues as far as I can see, to ensure that you are not injured on the T, despite the fact you're not happy that the T is having a delay. The alternative is that you have a tragedy. And you'll be very impressed by that. I'm aware that he's having a weekend slowdown issue right now. Again, regarding the juncture at jfk where they never actually fixed the derailment damage. [00:46:41] Speaker A: Yes. Seven years ago. [00:46:44] Speaker B: Yeah. Which is during the Baker administration. [00:46:45] Speaker A: Right. [00:46:46] Speaker B: They were like commitment for safety, too. And I do not want a derailment. I don't think anyone here wants to derail. And no one wants to inconvenience of a temporary busing until April. And I get it, but I don't want to see another JFK de Robin. [00:47:04] Speaker A: Right. [00:47:06] Speaker B: You know, this is a. This is a guy that catches those things and, you know, has to put a plan together in short notice because he's been doing it for a long time. And that is. [00:47:16] Speaker A: Well, I mean, you know, good indicator is these past big snowstorms that we had. You did not hear a lot about problems on the T. No, we did not. [00:47:24] Speaker B: I did not get a constituent call about snowstorm issues. I mean, there was inconveniences, but, you know, it was very managed. Well. And we all know there's only so much we can do regarding the bus system associated with the snow. I mean. [00:47:34] Speaker A: Right. [00:47:34] Speaker B: The city is actually responsible for digging up Those locations. Right. But again we all know how it goes. Although this past week makes like a snowstorm. Never happened last week. I know the 2 week ago Blizzard doesn't exist anymore. [00:47:46] Speaker A: It's true. Just a distant memory. [00:47:48] Speaker B: Yeah, it becomes a very distant memory short. But you know, we might see some rain and snow later this week. So we'll see. [00:47:53] Speaker A: Oh it's March. Anything could happen. [00:47:55] Speaker B: Yeah, but I am troubled by that. Right. Troubled by the rotation of folks out of the administration. But I don't think it's also entirely fair either because you know, it's not like you're chained to your desk. People may create decisions on your own. Some were like horrific. Like Secretary Walsh, you know when was revered the Stewart healthcare debacle with Stewart all closed. Plus you know somebody helping somebody on a job with the Globe did that spotlight. I'm like are you kidding me? But no, it was personally speaking for me. I would have fired that person two weeks in. [00:48:25] Speaker A: Right. [00:48:25] Speaker B: You know, when Secretary Tibbetts talk about raising taxes on everybody to pay transportation but without the governor's authorization to make a statement, I would have fired a person right away. She stuck around for another nine plus months. [00:48:36] Speaker A: Right. [00:48:37] Speaker B: What do I know? Right. I mean I don't run the administration. But you know, when you are misrepresenting me then you know, I think that's grounds for termination. [00:48:46] Speaker A: Yeah, lots, lots of unanswered questions this re election year for sure. [00:48:51] Speaker B: No, yeah, absolutely. I think people need to realize that, you know, when you know as an elected official or you know even you run a business, you know, one of your employees misrepresents you to the public that's damaging to you and your business. If you're, you know, if you look at retailers, you know when employee on something terrible that reflects on you and your business. Same thing in government. One of my employees say something terrible or inaccurate, that's a problem. And energy secretary yesterday said that naval ships escorted a tanker through the Strait of Hormuz which is completely false. White House had to retract that whole thing. They claim a staff recording error and all that stuff which then moved markets and thought things would happen. They were not happening. Words matter. And the misrepresentation of your boss is grounds for termination. Should be a ground for termination. [00:49:40] Speaker A: Yeah, we've seen it. Even if it's on like a social media post or something, you know. [00:49:44] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it was absolutely. One of the things I do talk to my staff on hire is that I can't tell you what to do. But you have to be cognizant that we all where would you do it? You're working in office where you're representing somebody else. Not just me as an office holder but my constituency and you know, we look poorly. It makes our constituents look poor too. Right. [00:50:03] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:50:03] Speaker B: My mentality, just my mentality. [00:50:07] Speaker A: Speaking of how does constituents get a [00:50:09] Speaker B: hold of you Tacky well we're as kind of in office. We're 42 at the state House combined visit if you have a chance we 6177-2223-7061-7722-2370. You know give us a call if you got a problem. It is a phone free I got a complaint again about our phone tree. It is a phone tree. It does have to wait if front desk can't pick up in time. Also we've were brought to our attention that the 7222000 number which is the main number to the state House the automated system again if no one's able to pick up in time the automated system is not doing a great job and it's being forwarded to my chief of staff's voicemail recording through the main line but please wait for the phone free and just hit anyone in my office. Doesn't matter who it is. We'll get the Yep. [00:50:56] Speaker A: They'll forward it to you I'm sure. Yep. [00:50:57] Speaker B: Look forward to me and the staff will call you back. I will call you back once of us we'll get back to somehow. You can email me at tacky chanhealous gov T A C K E Y C H A N a house gov you're all aware at this point I look at constituent services before policy issues and I do read them all and we do categorize them. We have a constituent database to log you into so you have been recorded in your position for and against any particular issue. Tanking chat org contact page also another form page you can reach out to me comes directly to my email Tacky Chan Representative Tacky Chan at Facebook So we have representative on Facebook that you can look at what can be going over corresponding Instagram MLA street.gov again you can watch public [email protected] on sessions and all that stuff and of course you know listen to Joe every morning for his 10 minute quick review of today's news and if you want to talk about something different qatvuatv.org qatvatv rg you know and tell Joe what you want to talk about. [00:52:02] Speaker A: Absolutely. I'd love to hear from folks? Absolutely. Thanks so much, Jackie. [00:52:06] Speaker B: Thank you, Joe.