Rep. Tackey Chan - May 13, 2026

[00:00:00] Speaker A: State Representative Tacky Chan of Quincy joining us for a weekly Tacky Talk update. Hey, Tacky, how are you today? [00:00:06] Speaker B: Hey, good morning, Joe. On the usual day, we do Wednesday today. A little bit odd. [00:00:12] Speaker A: Yeah, well, you know, we got to keep you on. On your toes. Don't want to fall into a routine. [00:00:17] Speaker B: Well, again, it's hard to try to find a T and a W to go well together. [00:00:22] Speaker A: This is true. So what can we call it? Wednesdays with Tacky? It's now AAAPI Month, right? [00:00:32] Speaker B: It is. We've started our social media as well as the Age House Asian Caucus to challenge our legislative friends to find places they enjoy and post and. And, you know, report or promote businesses they like. And again, since we are in Quincy, I do encourage everybody to try to use a local retailer service or restaurant that you enjoy and maybe, you know, post about it online and hashtag it to the House Asian Caucus. I think when the Mass Asian Caucus. Ma House Asian Caucus, I think, is what we use on the hashtag. And yeah, that's kind of what we promote for the fifth straight year. There's also a number of cultural events. For example, this Sunday, there's an Asian Boston Film Festival at the old Paramount down in Downtown Crossing. And there's a lot of individual events going on around the state. So, yeah, the month's kind of kicking off at this point. Unfortunately, there's no event in the State House as far as I'm aware of currently. And I'm kind of awaiting the proclamation from the governor, which is required by law every year for aipm. [00:01:43] Speaker A: Ah, which is actually legislation you helped create, is that right? [00:01:49] Speaker B: Yeah, back. Back eight years ago now. You know, I helped pass the bill to designate this month. We're actually one of the last states with large Asian population to pass this month, much to my surprise. So, you know, most likely because there's no other Asians elected before me in the House. But again, it reflects kind of the fact that these kind of things, while may not be important to some folks, is important to many others to ensure that we are recognized as part of the state. And it's interesting how certain bills move or don't move because certain demographics are or are not present at sales. [00:02:35] Speaker A: Does may have any significance in the Asian culture, Tacky? Or is it just that that's how it happened? [00:02:41] Speaker B: It's really not about Asian culture. It's really about American history. Okay, so May 10th is when the Continental Railroad was completed. The Internet Continental Railroad. Oh, and it's a recognition of Chinese workers coming from the west coast, who made it, majority of the workforce that, you know, helped build that intercontinental railroad. And interesting enough, in the photograph, when they laid down the gold and silver spikes, there was no Asian, no Chinese. Actually, more accurately, it was really just Chinese at the time. Chinese migrant faces whatsoever in the picture. And when they did the hundredth anniversary of the. Of the laying the final spikes, you know, they had a specific picture which is descendants of Chinese migrants. [00:03:27] Speaker A: Oh, interesting. [00:03:28] Speaker B: Put that railroad together. [00:03:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:31] Speaker B: So, I mean, give you an idea of how history can erase you is that, you know, you had a demographic that was brought in to build the railroads, wouldn't exist without Chinese labor, and a lot of people died building that railroad. It wasn't. [00:03:46] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. [00:03:47] Speaker B: It was not an easy task under terrible conditions and, you know, never got any recognition for it. So the other reason is May actually is also a cherry blossom month. Yes. Yeah. The. In D.C. the cherry blossom trees were donated by that Japanese government, and they blossom in the month of May. So those are just two historical examples of, you know, one is a contribution from a foreign country. The other one is actually one of the most significant pieces of US History, especially in terms of transportation and commerce. [00:04:22] Speaker A: Interesting. I didn't. I never knew that. I'm glad I asked. Thanks for that explanation. Yeah, very good. I don't know that there are a lot of. Or are there a lot of Pacific Islanders in Massachusetts. I know. I know there's a strong Asian presence, but what about PI. [00:04:35] Speaker B: Very small. [00:04:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:36] Speaker B: It's less than half a percentage of people here are Pacific Islander. It's like fighting Alaskan natives locally. This is just not a lot of them in the street traffic zone. You can. Again, most of Asian and Pacific Islanders live on the west coast. Pretty much half of all Asian and Pacific Islanders live on the west coast of the United States. If you count Filipinos as Pacific Islanders. It's Philippines is kind of unique because it's kind of Southeast Asia, not really Pacific Islanders. So it's kind of one of those odd ones. They're actually more considered by the Asian continent. But if you look down towards, like, Samoa and you can. Then we also kind of like Hawaiians in a weird way. It's like Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. [00:05:22] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Okay. [00:05:23] Speaker B: You have a kind of an update calling Asian American Hawaiians Pacific Islanders. [00:05:28] Speaker A: Oh, interesting. Okay. Although they're more Polynesian, I guess they like to be referred to as, you know. [00:05:33] Speaker B: Yeah. That whole kind of ring of islands. [00:05:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:36] Speaker B: Of former or current, depending on the island. We're talking about nation states. [00:05:41] Speaker A: Right. [00:05:41] Speaker B: Form that ring and they actually have sea based commerce between them. And if you ever visit Hawaii, I hope everyone does at some point, you visit Hawaiian museums, learn about the kings and queens of Hawaii. One of the interesting things about Hawaiian royalty was that, you know, they led an effort to try to get other Pacific Islander nations to form a type of confederate coalition or alliance or it's not really a confederacy because it's not creating a new government. It's creating kind of a common cause nations, which was one of the things actually led by the Hawaiian royalty to other Pacific island nations specifically because they have commonality of trade, common of culture, common for a long routed history together. So the Pacific Islanders are actually separate from mainland Asians. Even though there's a lot of, you know, Asians that come off. Obviously they came off the continent to get to the Pacific islands. [00:06:42] Speaker A: Right. [00:06:42] Speaker B: But you know, over tens, thousands of years they form their own unique cultures. [00:06:47] Speaker A: Interesting. Yeah. There's in. I think it's in Honolulu that the palace, the king's palace is. You can still visit, it's still open. [00:06:56] Speaker B: Yeah. I can send you pictures. You want to see them? It's actually kind of fascinating because the palace is actually very European style. [00:07:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:04] Speaker B: One of the things the Hawaiian royalty decided to do consciously is that with the arrival of Americans or European nations seeking to do trade and their unique point in the Pacific on accessing Japan and Korea and China as a waylay point, they decided that if they're going to be royalty, they should look like the rest of the royalty of the world. [00:07:25] Speaker A: Interesting. [00:07:26] Speaker B: So they started adopting a lot of European style royalty clothing, a lot of their silverware, glassware and crystals, a lot of gold and silversmithing similar to European wear as well as woodwork. The building itself in the glass is very reminiscent of of European style, but also retain a unique Hawaiian royalty attached to it. So on the first look you think it's very European, which is true. But they made sure that the Hawaiian mark and seals representing the Hawaiian royalty and the Hawaiian culture is actually embedded inside part of this European style palace. [00:08:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:10] Speaker B: Interesting. Yeah. And the other government buildings also adopted some European style as well in construction during the world, during the rural era. So yeah, I got pictures someplace that you should email over to you. [00:08:23] Speaker A: Yeah, that'd be fun. That'd be fun to see. It's. And you're right, it's. It was years and decades ago that I visited, but it's well worth it for sure. [00:08:31] Speaker B: Yeah. It is a long trip. There is a non stop flight via Hawaiian Air which recently merged with Alaskan Airlines. I think it's all going to be called Alaskan Air. [00:08:40] Speaker A: Okay. [00:08:41] Speaker B: But Hawaiian there has non stop flight there. It's not cheap. Hawaii itself is not cheap, but it is an island. If anyone been to like you know, Bermuda or Aruba, those places, you know, islands can be very expensive because everything's imported. [00:08:54] Speaker A: Right. [00:08:54] Speaker B: But it's actually the only US state that's actually minority majority. [00:09:00] Speaker A: Oh, interesting. Yeah, yeah. [00:09:02] Speaker B: It's a. It's the only states of minority majority state. It is a young state. You guys know it's the 50th state to join the nation and its state house was built in like 1969, which is like a young state. I was compared to Massachusetts. [00:09:15] Speaker A: Oh gosh. Yes. [00:09:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:17] Speaker A: Which is one of the oldest. [00:09:18] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's also unique because it's non contiguous because of nature of an island. Island state. So you notice those five major islands. There's a bunch of small islands actually compose all the Hawaii. Yes. State. So it is kind of a unique state in so many different ways. Ways compared to the other ones. Especially the fact it's non continuous. So for example, when I was in the Hawaiian legislature during my little visit, they didn't have formal tours. We actually had had one of the other legislators take us around the building. Their schedule actually includes fly dates because of legislators actually have to get off their island to get to Ohau, get to Honolulu to hit the capitol to get session. So you can see their calendar travel time specifically for them. Unique travel time because the nature of the flights and they have specific stipends associated with for flight travel. [00:10:16] Speaker A: Yeah, makes sense. I mean, you know here you just the furthest ones come from western Massachusetts to Boston. But there you have to leave an island. [00:10:24] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And it's all small puddle jumpers are the fastest way to get back and forth as opposed to by bus. [00:10:30] Speaker A: So. Yeah. [00:10:30] Speaker B: And of course you're gonna have a different kind of a housing allowance because your puddle jump into. Into Honolulu and you gotta hang, you know, you gotta hang around there obviously for their hearings and sessions. So that different system, even though they're part time legislature, they really operate six months a year. They do have this very funky schedule because the uniqueness of being an island state because the only other state that has non contiguous component, if I remember correctly, is it Michigan. [00:10:58] Speaker A: Oh really? [00:10:59] Speaker B: Is that little piece, is it missing or Wisconsin. It has that little piece that's kind of like sitting in like part of Canada. [00:11:09] Speaker A: Oh, okay. It must be Michigan then. Yeah. [00:11:12] Speaker B: Interesting. I gotta look it up, Let's see. Alaska, Hawaii or the two. One or the two that have some non contiguous to the U. To the mainland. United States. [00:11:30] Speaker A: Okay. Well because Alaska has the Aleutian Islands chain. So there's, there's folks that live there that have to come off that I'm sure. [00:11:35] Speaker B: Yeah. And then. I know, I know we digress here. [00:11:41] Speaker A: It's interesting though when you think about it. [00:11:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I know there's a non tagal state, I think. [00:11:48] Speaker A: Is Puerto Rico considered? No, it's not considered. It's a territory. Right? Yeah. [00:11:52] Speaker B: Yes, it's, it's, yeah, it's Michigan. They have this upper Peninsula, lower Peninsula and there's like one sitting like on the other side of Canada I think. [00:12:03] Speaker A: Okay. [00:12:04] Speaker B: Like this weird. Really like there's like a military airstrip that's like in this weird spot that's sitting actually in Canada technically. [00:12:13] Speaker A: Interesting. [00:12:14] Speaker B: Okay. But it's actually United, it's actually United States territory. [00:12:17] Speaker A: Okay. [00:12:19] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a little, little bit of state trivia. So [00:12:24] Speaker A: let's, let's bring it back home though. What's going on in Massachusetts? [00:12:28] Speaker B: State House, it's been really quiet this week. I think you may have seen in the Boston Globe House Ways and Cheese Chair, House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Mirkowitz and House Majority Leader Mike Moran actually was in the Vatican this week for a climate change conference. [00:12:45] Speaker A: Oh. [00:12:46] Speaker B: So that meant we had no session this week. [00:12:48] Speaker A: Gotcha. Okay. [00:12:49] Speaker B: So it's been very, very quiet actually. [00:12:52] Speaker A: Yes. So. Well, I mean now Senate's working on their version of the budget. That's the big thing. I'm sure when they, once they get back in session. [00:13:00] Speaker B: Yeah. We have an environmental bond bill they got sent over from the Senate I think is also a housing bond bill that's pending somewhere. The Econ Dev Committee heard the Governor's economic development bill on Friday. So that's going to be floating through probably sometime in June. We have some conference committees outstanding, including stuff like climate change and education and cell phone ban in schools and other stuff sitting in conference which hopefully we'll see sometime in July. But there's a lot of stuff pending Ways and Means, some really big bills. Obviously I'm trying to move a lot of little bills. I try to attach some small bills to, to a lip. To a bigger bill. But no, it's honestly, it's just really quiet. You know, we have two members of House leadership out of town right now. [00:13:51] Speaker A: Right. [00:13:52] Speaker B: You know, there's not a lot of activity and there's not, honestly not a lot of rumors going around what's going to happen next. I just know this is stuff that's pending. [00:13:59] Speaker A: Okay. [00:13:59] Speaker B: Make a pop up in the next next couple of weeks. [00:14:02] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:14:03] Speaker B: But yeah, it's amazing how when, you know, some House leadership people away, literally the woman was kind of dead. [00:14:10] Speaker A: When the cat's away. [00:14:12] Speaker B: There's nothing to say. There's nothing to say. [00:14:14] Speaker A: Right. Exactly. Although there is, as you know, some movement this week on the auditor's attempts to audit the legislature. Looks, looks like there's. It's moving forward. At least. [00:14:27] Speaker B: It's kind of punted. Right. The U.S. supreme. I'm sorry, the state Supreme Court. I didn't get to read a whole order. I got the news clips on it and like you did. And it's very strange because they issue a very odd order where the Supreme Court basically says not our problem, for lack of better term. So. [00:14:43] Speaker A: Right. Although nudging the attorney general to. To make or break, you know. [00:14:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Didn't tell it to do anything, frankly. [00:14:49] Speaker A: Right. [00:14:50] Speaker B: You guys figure it out in 30 days. And by the way, if you do something, you know, it must be limited to financials, none of this stuff. So it's basically looking for four years of financials from the legislature, which is what you already. Which is available on our website, which is as boring as you're going to get, by the way. [00:15:08] Speaker A: Okay. [00:15:08] Speaker B: The ones that read audit information regarding financials. It's really not exciting. And really narrow the scope in the order. My understanding is Attorney General Campbell has no interest still, as far as I'm aware of, that could be changing to cut. [00:15:25] Speaker A: No, I think that's right. As. As of the last report. Anyway, she does not want to represent the legislature on this matter. [00:15:32] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think it's just the bottom line. So there isn't much else to do. So let me, you know, I think she, you know, the auditor has released another statement, I think sometime today which I have not had a chance to read regarding this matter. And you know, I do. It's very confusing because the court didn't actually do anything. Indeed. [00:16:01] Speaker A: Just set a deadline for. For them to do something. [00:16:04] Speaker B: Yeah. And with no consequences nor additional follow up. Correct. [00:16:08] Speaker A: Right. [00:16:08] Speaker B: They punted. They essentially what they did. When the court issues an order with no consequences and no further instructions, nor instructions to do or not. It's called political punting. [00:16:22] Speaker A: Well. Right. If Nothing happened in 30 days, then it would have to be reintroduced as a whole new case. [00:16:26] Speaker B: Yeah. They punted. [00:16:28] Speaker A: Yeah. I guess we'll see. I guess the audit the next Step is the auditor is going to seek outside counsel for representation in this matter. [00:16:39] Speaker B: That was rejected already. [00:16:40] Speaker A: Oh was it? [00:16:42] Speaker B: Yeah, that was rejected by a single justice early on. [00:16:44] Speaker A: Oh, okay. All right. [00:16:46] Speaker B: So she would need to find a third party not related to her to try to initiate a case. [00:16:53] Speaker A: Okay. So kind of like a special attorney [00:16:56] Speaker B: general kind of just some citizen. [00:16:59] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:17:01] Speaker B: Which I don't know if there's any standing either. I don't know. I mean in law school they teach you that you have to have subject matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction. Personal jurisdiction is that you have to have some kind of personal connection to the location you're having a case in. You do business there, you're physically there, the car accident happened there. Contract breach. Was there some kind of personal connection? The court would have to have subject matter jurisdiction, meaning that the sufficient rights that the individual has sufficient case facts of the case a sufficient that the person has a right to proceed. The court has oversight over that. Over that fact pattern. [00:17:43] Speaker A: Oh, okay. So could that be like any state taxpayer? [00:17:49] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:17:50] Speaker A: Okay, your. [00:17:51] Speaker B: Your guess is good as mine. This is uncharted territory in the history of the, of the country which is 400 entry under the history of Massachusetts was going to be you know, closing in a 400 years. It's like know 320. What 394 years of history with various forms and courts and government formations. None of us can find a recall where one government entity at the state level sues another government entity at the state level that isn't allowable by law. [00:18:26] Speaker A: Okay, well this will be interesting to see how it plays out then. [00:18:30] Speaker B: Yeah, like I said, the only ones that I know of they can do it is the DPU and the office repair advocacy because I work there. I talked to this about this multiple times that you know because the rate payer pay not taxpayer paid and they represent not all taxpayers. It's rate pairs of commonwealth. They have the ability to appeal DPU decisions to the Supreme Judicial Court. Yeah, that's kind of unique and unique situation. [00:18:55] Speaker A: So although this is a law, technically it was approved by the voters as a law two years ago. [00:19:01] Speaker B: Yeah, but it's not. But it's also not a law. The, the it's. It's also not the same entity when you represent rate payers. [00:19:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:10] Speaker B: Same as the general public or taxpayers. [00:19:14] Speaker A: You can be a ratepayer and not a taxpayer or vice versa. [00:19:17] Speaker B: Yeah, that's correct. [00:19:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:18] Speaker B: So I mean you could be a taxpayer and also can't vote. [00:19:22] Speaker A: True. [00:19:23] Speaker B: So you Know, this is. There's this real kind of like very specific narrow thing. And also it's a very narrow situation regarding DPU rate cases. So if you disagree with the dpu, you can repeal the supreme Court regarding a rate making process. It has nothing to do with the legislature. It's executive branch through the executive branch. [00:19:43] Speaker A: Okay. [00:19:44] Speaker B: And even then, it's a very narrow scope, reflective administrative law associated specifically on rape making. This is executive branch suing legislative branch. [00:19:54] Speaker A: Right. [00:19:56] Speaker B: And I've never seen no one recall anytime executive branch suing the legislative branch. [00:20:03] Speaker A: Well, you have now, Jackie. [00:20:04] Speaker B: Well, again, as soon as you think you've seen it all in politics, something else appears. [00:20:09] Speaker A: See, you thought you'd seen it all. [00:20:11] Speaker B: Yeah. And you know, again, I, you know, as I said, you know, the legislature has stability, has the independent audits available online. You can read them. There's not much to them to. Wicked boring. We give the auditor under the house rules to be able to choose. Our independent auditor will pay for it. You pick it. And you know, it's again, financial audit. So we gave her that option. She rejected that opportunity to pick our own, pick our auditor for us, which she probably have to do an RFP like we do for an independent auditor. [00:20:45] Speaker A: Right. [00:20:46] Speaker B: And you know, she has basically rebuffed the senate special commission of reviewing dotted issue like. Well, let's not use words, but let's just say that this course was not. Was not civil. We'll just leave it at that. [00:21:05] Speaker A: Okay. [00:21:05] Speaker B: So I mean, you know, opportunities for legislation to communicate, you know, was rebuffed by her and opportunities created for her to do a financial audit have also been rebuffed, you know, by creating an independent mechanism for her to participate while not actually doing it herself. [00:21:22] Speaker A: Yeah. So is. Is the legislature audited independently every year? [00:21:27] Speaker B: The financial audits done into every year by an RFP of a third party? It is. [00:21:31] Speaker A: Okay. [00:21:32] Speaker B: Oh, I'm sorry. Outside this, outside the legend, we don't audit ourselves. We hire. [00:21:35] Speaker A: Right, that's. That's what I was asking. Yeah. Okay. [00:21:38] Speaker B: And then you use the standard U.S. you know, the federal government's geo standard government standard on auditing government entities. That's the standard everybody use, including the attorney to. Including the audit. Audit uses the same US Government auditing standards for government agencies. There is by the feds. [00:21:57] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. Interesting. Okay. [00:22:00] Speaker B: Yeah, it's on, it's on. It's on the legislature's website. I believe it's part of the clerk section of the website. It's. It's inside the. It's inside the clerk tab. And then you can see the senate audit in the house audit. And then we put up audits from FY 1617 to FY 23. [00:22:26] Speaker A: Okay. I think she's looking for 21 through 24. [00:22:32] Speaker B: Yeah, well, 24 audit, that's not available online yet. That's probably pending, so. And we also stated pursuant to House Route 85A, you know, the house has asked the state audit to recommend a. Recommend independent buyer firm. Okay, clear that she. The request has been made to her as an opportunity and she said no. She declined. [00:22:54] Speaker A: Okay, well, see where it goes from here, I guess. [00:22:57] Speaker B: Opportunity was given, opportunity was rejected, [00:23:02] Speaker A: period. [00:23:03] Speaker B: I mean, it's her decision. I mean people have been taking. Every so often people ask me this question on the street and this is the answer. You know, you can look online. Not exciting. It's financial audits. And you know, we gave her a chance to do kind of a nonpartisan, non political audit and she said no. [00:23:24] Speaker A: All right, stay tuned I guess and see what comes next. [00:23:27] Speaker B: Well, we'll see. It's going be. Well, I mean the presumptive Republican candidate for governor is. Is making all kinds of fun pharmacists and just TV commercials which would never come to fruition because half of them outside the power of the governor. [00:23:40] Speaker A: But you know, that's politics for you. [00:23:44] Speaker B: I look, he's like, we're going to audit the budget. I'm like, yes, you do. It's called the state auditor and you have the state auditor, the inspector general and then you agencies have their own independent auditors inside state agencies. [00:23:58] Speaker A: Yeah. So if you do independent audits, what's. What's the state auditor do? [00:24:03] Speaker B: State auditor is whatever the legislature says she does. It's actually law. Her powers. If you look in the constitution, the office exists, but doesn't give a job description. Oh, job description set by state law. [00:24:18] Speaker A: I see. [00:24:19] Speaker B: So she's required to audit approximately one third of the state government at a time and she has special powers to also audit the counties. Oh really? She can audit a municipality by request of the municipality can request by vote of its legislative and approved and a legislative improvement by its executive branch. Or in the case of border selectman, just the voice selectman can actually ask her to come down to audit a municipality in. In. You know, it has to be specific request. You can't just roll around. It's like we want you to look at this one thing. And she can also say no, she's not required to do. [00:24:53] Speaker A: I see, okay. [00:24:54] Speaker B: So you can make a request. And she also can just say, no, I'm not interested. It's inside her discretion. So that's basically sums it up. She's responsible, you know, by state law, I believe, regarding these one third of state, state government and that includes some of the counties. So some of you may remember that under Sue Bump, you know, she audited things like dcf. Got a lot of news reporting. She also audited, you know, both, you know, the sheriff's Office and the DA's offices as a part of a regular auditing process. But also individual state agencies has their own auditing systems as well. So you have an inspector general on top of that. [00:25:33] Speaker A: Interesting. Okay, moving on. Can we talk a little bit about is there a bill do you know, pending regarding crypto ATMs in Massachusetts? [00:25:44] Speaker B: No. [00:25:45] Speaker A: No. Okay. [00:25:46] Speaker B: We had like a weird crypto ATM thing going at one time at Substation, if you may recall. Yeah, that's like very strange thing, which I don't know if it's still there. Congress does have more crypto bills trying to move around. Yes. As people may or may not know, cryptocurrency is, is a variable rate. It's, it's treated like commodity. So minute by minute the value of a crypto asset may change. So I'm not sure how you atm. I think it's like I probably have to do like foreign exchange rate. [00:26:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:20] Speaker B: So it's whatever the time is, you get paid out in that time. But crypto is not like for an exchange rates which could, you know, generally 15 minute increments, they rotate. The only reason I notice because I have an ATM card that lets me take money out of machines in other countries ATMs and they have to, in their disclosure, they have to state how they calculate what the foreign exchange rate is at time. So certain ATM machines or certain banks will do it at the end of the day. So whatever the, the day ended at final exchange rate for the next day. Other ones would do like Visa does do it in you know, 15 minute increments, whatever the moving number is at every 15 minutes. So it varies, it varies on different banks and how to do foreign exchange rates when you try to get cash. Same thing with credit cards. When you use a credit card overseas and there's a foreign exchange rate, you know, they, you know the calculation, if you look at your bill, basically show different numbers or slight, probably not big number changes, but during the course of a day, depending on what you charge. I'm not sure how to do that with crypto much because the crypto price can change minute by minute. [00:27:31] Speaker A: Yeah, but I mean there are, There are cryptocurrency ATMs where you can put real money in and get crypto out or. [00:27:38] Speaker B: Yeah. I remember seeing a news story many years ago, something at South Station. [00:27:42] Speaker A: Yes. [00:27:43] Speaker B: It's still there. [00:27:44] Speaker A: I don't either. [00:27:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I remember that. But that's when a bitcoin was closer to like a hundred dollars. 67, 80, you know, big number dollars it is today. So. Right. Pretty confident. You can't. They're not going to let you in the ATM machine take out 65,000 bucks. [00:28:01] Speaker A: Oh no. Right, exactly. No, you can, you can buy the crypto but you can't get the cash. Yeah. [00:28:06] Speaker B: Yeah. So that mean it'll be. If you go to cash or crypto, they have refraction and I don't understand how that works. It's. [00:28:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:28:13] Speaker B: My understanding on. On that type of asset. [00:28:16] Speaker A: Yeah. I just know it's. It's used a lot in. In fraud cases, unfortunately. [00:28:21] Speaker B: Yeah. It's a very much of a doc. Web fraud, trafficking, laundering type thing because it's almost impossible to trace. [00:28:29] Speaker A: Right. [00:28:29] Speaker B: Almost impossible to trace. And it's, you know, it has all these different mechanisms of transfer and a lot of. Actually now I see those fraud cases here, when people try to scam you, cryptocurrency is one of the things they ask for. [00:28:43] Speaker A: That's right. Because it's untraceable virtually. Yeah, yeah. [00:28:46] Speaker B: Once it goes in the system and they cash out the crypto, you have no idea where or when. Once the capital then you know the money lottery through several different types of accounts to make it more difficult for law enforcement to trace. Even once out they can't if they can manage to find a crypto. [00:29:01] Speaker A: Right. [00:29:02] Speaker B: Somehow and even with. With that tracing mechanism which again no. Slips my mind. [00:29:11] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know either. [00:29:12] Speaker B: But I mean once you cash it into electronic bank account, you start moving it through multiple bank accounts. Money laundering, it gets hard and harder for law enforcement to chase it down. [00:29:20] Speaker A: Right. So you're basically. You're out. You're out that money. Yeah. [00:29:24] Speaker B: Especially if you go to a foreign country like Antigua. We just wanted to pop the places because there's no and tradition and a lot of, you know, legal casinos for example on online gaming casinos come out of Tiga does extradition. A lot of criminals actually hang out there as well. Particularly white call of crime. Again, I'm not advocating for you guys to run to a Tiga. [00:29:45] Speaker A: No, no, no, no. [00:29:47] Speaker B: This is just pointing a little bit of a fact that's Right, that's right. [00:29:53] Speaker A: Speaking of online gambling, is that making into headway in Massachusetts? [00:29:58] Speaker B: No, we're done for that. That's not going to be an issue moving forward this year. Neither the House of Senate leadership, including myself, has a taste of trying to move forward. The state treasurer is going to have through the lottery, online lottery coming up fairly soon. [00:30:13] Speaker A: Really? [00:30:14] Speaker B: Yeah, it's going to be, should be by mid summertime. You should see something from the state lottery and we'll see how that rollout implement works. And we'll see, you know, if it cannibalizes the convenience stores and supermarkets and liquor stores and restaurants. We'll see, you know, if it does draw an interest once you get past the novelty stage. So unsurprising. I do fully expect that, you know, online lottery is going to have that one year, like, ooh, let's try this. [00:30:40] Speaker A: Right, A novelty kind of thing. Yeah, yeah. [00:30:42] Speaker B: And then people make a decision after the novelty swear off whether or not they're going to like stick with it or they're just going to give it up. [00:30:49] Speaker A: Right. And how would you, you know, kind of pay for your lottery ticket that way? [00:30:54] Speaker B: Well, you have to do a transfer. It'd be a type of account wagering. [00:30:57] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Okay. [00:30:58] Speaker B: So basically you have to create an account. You have to put money in the account. [00:31:02] Speaker A: Gotcha. [00:31:03] Speaker B: Okay. Remind everybody again if you have money in accounts that are FDIC insured, something happens, that money, you're out of luck. [00:31:10] Speaker A: Okay, good. It's a good, it's a good reminder because, you know, this is brand new, so folks aren't used to it. [00:31:15] Speaker B: Yeah. So yeah, you have to be mindful is anybody participates on any kind of online gambling. Doesn't matter what that online gambling is. Make sure you take that money out and put it back in your bank account. Because if a hacker gets at it or is, or the gaming, online gaming goes bankrupt or whatever, you're out of luck. [00:31:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's like buying a gift card to a retailer that goes out of business. [00:31:38] Speaker B: That's right. [00:31:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:40] Speaker B: Well, I'm not going to tell you to do or not do a land gambling. I'm just advising. You should make sure you don't have a lot of cash there and make sure all your money is in the bank account. That's fd. FDIC insured. [00:31:52] Speaker A: Absolutely. Yep. Very good. All right. What is going on in the world these days, Jackie? The president's in China today actually. [00:32:00] Speaker B: Yeah, It's a two day trip to China that was postponed from March. There's Discussions about whether or not President Xi is going to come to Washington in, in perhaps November. As I said before, the Chinese are very scripted. They do not like surprises. They don't like cutting deals on the fly. They've had foreign affairs of both sides discussing for the past week about this discussions. You know, obviously pomp and circumstance is a big part of these kind of visits. Especially a US President visiting China. And of course I mean there the news has correctly pointed out, I mean the topics are very, very specific in a very short period of time. Conversation. Right. They want you know, China to buy more agricultural goods. China has diversified their agricultural good purchases to other parts of the world in response to U S tariffs and this trade war. So you know, they did the smart thing. They went looking for other buy places to buy and trade with. The U S Trade deficit with China is substantial but also Chinese exports to the US has smaller than it's been in a decade. So it's, you know, they've, they clearly decided to lower the risk regarding trade in the US which adversely affects especially US farmers US Agriculture. That's an issue. [00:33:19] Speaker A: Soybean farmers especially, I heard. [00:33:21] Speaker B: Yeah, especially that. And pork. [00:33:23] Speaker A: Oh pork too. [00:33:24] Speaker B: Yeah, pork and soybeans. So those are two big areas. Not to mention things like complex machinery and other manufacturing goods here that you actually send to China. There are complex goods. So you know, there, there's, you know it's, it's not completely a one way street as people like to think it is. We do ship a lot of raw materials around the world, including China, unprocessed materials and you know, those subject to tariffs as well. And like I said before, we tariff, it goes over there, they do something with it. It's in the back. It's tariffly twice. [00:33:54] Speaker A: Right. [00:33:55] Speaker B: So you got that, that product as well. I mean obviously Taiwan's a constant conversation. [00:34:00] Speaker A: Yep. [00:34:01] Speaker B: You know, strategic ambiguity of the US position is what Chinese want. Iran is also a big issue as well as Ukraine and Russia because as you may be aware, you know, China and Russia has gotten much closer together. And China and Russia, neither one has an interest in meddling of Iranian internal affairs. And it did their major purchase of Iranian oil. 90% of Iran's profit comes from China in terms of purchase oil. And China has, you know, stopped exporting any kind of fossil fuels from the country. And like I said, they're conserving. Jet fuel flights are changing all the time in that country as well. And you know, fuel prices are astronomically rising in the Pacific. That makes here look like A joke in terms of how much they're paying. I mean, they're going well past 10, 11, 12 bucks a gallon. [00:34:49] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. [00:34:50] Speaker B: Wow. Those Southeast Asian and Pacific countries that, you know, that were recreated, so to speak, so you know, what, you know, what they do in foreign affairs or whether they're not getting involved. There's also a North Korea problem because they've got a nuke running around trying to create intercontinental ballistics, North Koreans, which is inside the Chinese sphere of influence. So there's a lot of conversation of like, you know, what would Chinese participate or not participate more on a global stage regarding this stuff and, you know, to build yet another, as we talked about last week, another little mini island off of Vietnam to try and take more control of the South China, south China Sea. 80% of world commerce comes through that one location, the South China Sea, is that right? Yeah, 80% of world commerce. So if the Chinese control the Strait of Taiwan by taking over Taiwan, you know, they would control 80% of all commerce. [00:35:45] Speaker A: Wow. [00:35:46] Speaker B: So it gives you an idea that as much as we like to think we're an isolated economy, really not an isolated economy, we're part of a global economy, as the Iran war has proven. So we'll see what happens. I don't expect a whole lot to come out of this in terms of like, big deals. Don't be surprised if there's another commitment to buy more agricultural goods from Chinese who could buy more agricultural social goods. I would not be surprised, but I would also expect some ambiguity to make a lot of ambiguous statements regarding China's participation in other countries. Domestic issues. Historically, they don't get very involved in other people's countries. China in a direct manner, indirectly through the Bell Road initiative or through other economic means. And they like to use economic stress or economic negotiation with other smaller countries to try to get their way. But you don't see often military interaction with other countries and even countries that are unstable, like Mirror Mir, which is very unstable still next to China, the Chinese have not done a lot to try to stabilize that country right next door to them. So they prefer doing economic crash on countries to get what they want. [00:36:58] Speaker A: Right. [00:36:58] Speaker B: And like I said, they've created very close ties to the Russians and they're very close ties to the Iranians. So, yeah, you know, I'm not sure how it's. How it's going to play out in terms of what kind of deals other than maybe some agricultural, maybe some trade. But very clearly the Chinese are okay with these tariffs. They've definitely Adapted to the U. S Tarps. It doesn't seem to be phasing them whatsoever. [00:37:25] Speaker A: Yeah. And I know that the issue of automobiles is going to be at least one of the areas discussed. [00:37:33] Speaker B: Yeah. The Canadians, the United States in particular, have been really resisting. Actually also all of Europe is resisting the Chinese electric cars and the BYD cars. Everyone seems to get very glowing reviews at the global level. And the state subsidize a business and you know, they can undercut any country's electric cars by over 50% and if you. [00:38:02] Speaker A: Which would effectively wipe out the other. The other manufacturers. [00:38:06] Speaker B: Yeah. And already this is a declining use of electric cars because you no longer have federal electric car tax credit. Right. And the materials, because the tariffs are very high and the consumer's trapped. And loans, you know, over 5%, 6% loans. And cars. So. Well, you know, car sales are slowed. Electric cars in particular have slowed because of combination of all these factors that make it more expensive for an owner. You know, GM is basically cut back. Ford has cut back. All the domestic car manufacturers have cut back on their electric car production because they can't move them off the lot. [00:38:44] Speaker A: Right. Yep, exactly. So that's kind of in a stalemate right now too. [00:38:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Even, you know, conventional gas powered cars aren't exactly flying out of lots either. [00:38:52] Speaker A: No. Because they're so expensive right now. [00:38:54] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, everything's so expensive. So, you know, people under some misconception that, you know, the federal government is trying to encourage more gas car purchases. Not entirely wrong, but you know, who can afford it. And it's also kind of ironic because they peel back the energy efficiency standard for gas vehicles, which has actually now become a selling point for many people. They want, if they're going to buy a gas powered vehicle, they want to get as much they can per mile of gallon. And those standards set up during the, during the last OPEC fuel crisis to create more energy efficient vehicles, which is now basically something buyers want. And the Trump administration peel that stuff back during a time period where they created a gas. A global gas shortage. [00:39:41] Speaker A: Yeah. So yeah, you would use more gas. [00:39:46] Speaker B: Yeah. They want to have more gas guzzlers by repealing efficiency standards, which is a feature consumers like. [00:39:54] Speaker A: Right. [00:39:54] Speaker B: Because we've gotten uses over decades. In that same time you started a gas price hike. [00:40:01] Speaker A: Mm. [00:40:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:04] Speaker A: So it would cost you even more. [00:40:08] Speaker B: Yeah. I can't. Yeah. Again, you can't make this stuff up. [00:40:11] Speaker A: Right. [00:40:11] Speaker B: It's just a total disconnect. We talked about this before. Or how the Trump administration is even more crazy. Compared to any type of government, we have one hand and the other hand doing two different things that are opposite of each other. You know, and you guys all know, I mean, I'm not going to hide this. I mean you guys all know that this does happen in government. It also happens in big corporations. One hand doesn't know what the other hand's doing and they could be doing two different opposite things. But this administration in particular, once you really kind of parse out all these, these details and what's the current events, they really have like one hand going one way and the other hand going the other way that really have no idea what they do, no conversation. [00:40:48] Speaker A: And they're floating an idea of suspending the federal gas tax. [00:40:51] Speaker B: I heard, yeah, I saw this morning. It's getting a very lucre warm reception from everyone. The rough estimate is $21 billion over six months of lost gas tax revenue that goes to the highway, whatever transportation fund they have in D.C. and what that means is very simple, guys. You can suspend federal projects and roadways and all states for now gets federal assistance on local highways and bridges, not just on bonded infrastructure, but also, you know, in cash assistance as well. Very much what we do for C towns in a chapter 90. [00:41:30] Speaker A: Yep. [00:41:30] Speaker B: The federal government has a very similar program as well that's actually part of all state government budgets and actually sort of Native Americans and U.S. territories. So if they suspend the gas tax again, Republicans favorite thing is get less money and spend more. Love. Love. [00:41:49] Speaker A: Well, in fairness, the Democrats proposed that too before the Republicans. [00:41:53] Speaker B: But still it's a Republican administration. Besides, you look, you know, you also want to, according to Steve lynch, they want to kill Title four, which is all the agricultural programs. [00:42:02] Speaker A: Yes, right. [00:42:03] Speaker B: Raging for snap, to wic, to, to assistance for farmers. I mean it's, it's, you know, he wants to get rid of every kind of food process program is what the president's trying to do. So again, I mean it's, it's, again it's spend more, collect less, get less money and spend more money. It's, it's very Republican mantra, you know. So I think there's a lot of resistance idea of suspending road bridge projects. Suspending money to states on road and bridge assistance doesn't seem very appetizing, especially during the election year. [00:42:43] Speaker A: Well, those are, those are jobs, you know. Those are jobs you're talking about with those projects. [00:42:48] Speaker B: Well, yeah, and if we're not getting, as we talked about many times here, the federal government keeps pulling back. The state governments have to make a Decision if we can or cannot fill those holes. [00:42:58] Speaker A: Right. There seems to be no appetite for suspending the state gas tax right now. [00:43:03] Speaker B: No, that goes into the state funds that back our bonds. [00:43:07] Speaker A: Right. [00:43:09] Speaker B: Again, Wall Street's going to see that you don't have to pay your bonds. Big surprise, guys. Bankers don't like it. They can't pay your loans. Wow. [00:43:17] Speaker A: Yeah. You get unfavorable rates if you do get a loan at all. [00:43:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Hedge funds, bankers, you and I, you know, could buy bonds, you know, at the state level, and we can't pay them. We can't demonstrate we have collateral to pay them. Yeah. Higher rates. [00:43:32] Speaker A: Great. [00:43:32] Speaker B: This ain't complicated. I don't know why this is such difficult thing to understand. It's very simple. You can't pay, you get a bad rate. [00:43:42] Speaker A: Yeah. The higher risk you are, the worse rate you get. Exactly. [00:43:46] Speaker B: And the government historically doesn't have great bond ratings, largely because tax revenue is very erratic. So other than the federal government, they can print money. Everyone else, because the nature of taxes, work is, is very erratic. So as a result, you know, we're never going to see a triple A bond rating. [00:44:04] Speaker A: Right. [00:44:05] Speaker B: Single A bond rate. We'll stay inside the B's. And municipalities, some municipalities have very bad bond ratings again because property taxes and inconsistency of revenue, you know, creates a lot of nervousness among bondholders in Wall Street. You know, they're not going to give you super great rates as a result. [00:44:23] Speaker A: Right. Although, I mean, the state and municipalities have to have balanced budgets. Right. The federal government does not. [00:44:29] Speaker B: That is correct. But they don't look at. They look at the balanced budget, which is important. They look at our rainy day fund, which is actually awesome. [00:44:35] Speaker A: Yes, Right. Yep. [00:44:37] Speaker B: They look at as kind of collateral against the bond. And then. But you know, at the same time, they're looking at revenue stream. [00:44:45] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Yep. [00:44:47] Speaker B: And tax revenue stream is very inconsistent. It's not always going to go up. And even sometimes your projections, if we've lived through, both of us have lived through, you know, projections coming short. Wall street doesn't like that. [00:44:59] Speaker A: Right. [00:45:00] Speaker B: Holders don't like that. [00:45:03] Speaker A: You know, these are uncertain times we live in. [00:45:06] Speaker B: Well, it's the cost of doing business going up, the cost of doing business, just like everyone else. I mean, not everything at the state level is electric cars. You know, we do have gas vehicles, trucks, maintenance vehicles, construction. But, you know, heavy machinery vehicles, they eat gas. So those costs have gone up. You know, we pay electric bills, same as you guys. Those costs have gone up as We've done in my office before. We have the energy efficiency, lighting. Yes. [00:45:36] Speaker A: If we, if we stay still for too long, you go in the dark. [00:45:38] Speaker B: Yep. You see me do that. For those who actually watch it on. On YouTube or QATV, the lights go off my office. [00:45:45] Speaker A: So. [00:45:47] Speaker B: So, yeah, I mean, you know, state government, all government will have to factor in the FY27 budgets. A bit of an unknown associated with basic infrastructure costs. Just like every business in every household. [00:45:58] Speaker A: Yes, right, Exactly. Yep. Karis, I read an article this morning about a reduction in Canadian tourists. Big reduction this year, like 42%. I was curious if you'd seen that manifest itself here. [00:46:10] Speaker B: I've not seen that data today. I mean, I was aware that decline started last year. Yeah, it was very significant. And Massachusetts number three tourists is Canadians. I believe it's. [00:46:25] Speaker A: Makes sense. [00:46:26] Speaker B: Chinese, British and Canadians. [00:46:27] Speaker A: Okay. [00:46:29] Speaker B: And that's not surprising. [00:46:30] Speaker A: No. [00:46:31] Speaker B: Have a strong US Dollar still against the Canadian dollar, which does not help. You have a very negative federal government against the Canadian people, which does not help. And you know, the Canadians don't like being insulted by the President. Just saying, folks, I mean, I mean, why would you go spend money someplace that spits at you? I mean, the president has not helped that situation, which only hurts local businesses. We've talked about this many times of how tourism is very important on the Massachusetts economy because you spend your money here and you go home and that means you're spending sales tax, meals tax, you know, if you're renting a car. Local cities and towns get the hotel Motown taxes. We don't see the ultimoto tax at state level. That goes all cities and towns. So, I mean, there's a, you know, there's a lot of economic impact on not just taxes, but also the local economy. So, you know, we have the World cup, we have tall ships, we have the 250th anniversary and July 4th. We have some, you know, big major events coming up in Boston. But, you know, local tourism also, just people just coming in to enjoy Boston and see things is going to hurt us. And the 205th year anniversary in general should attract Canadians and other foreign tourists to come here, just in general, because the whole country is going to have something going on. [00:47:55] Speaker A: Sure. [00:47:56] Speaker B: To attract folks to visit. So tourism is a number two or three economic driver, depending on the year we're talking about. [00:48:05] Speaker A: And it's huge. That's huge. [00:48:06] Speaker B: Yeah, it's going to definitely hurt. Canada's are one of our closer neighbors and it's our second biggest trading Partner, [00:48:14] Speaker A: you know, after China. Yeah. [00:48:18] Speaker B: So, you know, it's. It's an important part of our economy. So, yeah, it's. It's unfortunate. The Canadian Consul General for Boston, you know, had a meeting greet up at the State House a couple weeks back and talked heavily about, you know, how, how much money Canada's invested, private businesses have invested in Massachusetts. It's very substantial. And despite the stuff going on in Washington, the Canadians, you know, are still committed to continue to do business in Massachusetts. But there's a lot of question mark of how much they really want to continue to invest into it. They have some better assurances of what's going on. [00:48:57] Speaker A: Sure. [00:48:58] Speaker B: Same thing with the Korean government. When I talked to him, I think you mentioned this last week. [00:49:01] Speaker A: We did, yes. Yeah. [00:49:03] Speaker B: Private businesses, you know, not the government money that's part of the tariff deal. The private businesses, you know, want some maturity of stability in the federal government, too, and before they put down their dollars in this country. So, you know, I, I think it's not unreasonable. Fairly common sense, you know, businesses, like any business here, want some, some stability, knowing what, what it looks like before they put money down. [00:49:30] Speaker A: Yep. Do you think the, the current state administration tacky is, is done enough to kind of reassure folks? [00:49:39] Speaker B: Well, I, I think, yeah. I think that both the Baker administration and the Healing administration, we're working really hard to reassure a foreign investment that this is still a good place to make investments. We do have a stable government and we do make major investments in infrastructure, but also education, workforce education, to try to, you know, make as friendly as possible for folks to be able to get workers and do things like that. Yeah, but construction is slowing down in general, especially inside the city of Boston, which reasons we can go into a different day and, you know, in foreign investment, you know, somewhat also very heavily tied to new construction. So, you know, I think administrations, both the Baker administration and the Heat administration, been working very hard. Both of them, you know, trying to assure everybody that things are going to be all right. But every time, you know, Washington, D.C. makes another comment, you know, that makes it very unfriendly to do business here. You know, they're going to balk. [00:50:40] Speaker A: We are. We could go on, but we can't because we're all out of time. Right? [00:50:43] Speaker B: Yeah, we're out of time. It's still Gloomy Wednesday. [00:50:51] Speaker A: Spring will spring eventually. [00:50:55] Speaker B: We need some rain. I think some people may be aware we're in near drought conditions. Not quite food drought, but near drought [00:51:01] Speaker A: conditions some parts of the state. Yeah, the Cape and Islands for sure. Yep. [00:51:05] Speaker B: Yeah, dry weather creates, you know, brush fires. [00:51:07] Speaker A: Yes. [00:51:08] Speaker B: So we could use a little bit of rain at this point. Mean although it's going to be downpouring on Thursday and I got to be at the stados tomorrow. Plus traveling around different places in the rain, of course. [00:51:17] Speaker A: It figures. [00:51:18] Speaker B: It figures. The day I have to get out to like multiple occasions. Yeah, I'm going to be all wet. But yeah, all wet it is. We are at the state house from 42. We obviously love visitors and you know, obviously encourage people to tour the state house. Tacky channel statue of e T a c k e [email protected] you can email me and also call our office at 617-7223-706172-23770. And I have no control over the phone tree, folks. I'm getting complaints, especially a certain friend of ours that we know very well gave me 10 minutes of his opinion on the matter. It is not my suite. You actually have to sit and wait through the prompts on the phone and what's happening is people hanging up because they don't hear my name as the first name because I have no control over the street. Oh, with a suite. It's not my office. This ain't congress. I don't have an office that I control. So 6177-2223-7061-7722-2370 we have state representative, state representative Tacky chan Facebook with instagram that follows it at tackychan we have tackychan.org resource page and of course we have ma legislature.gov ma legislature.gov you will be please encourage you guys to go to that website to find anything you want going in the legislature. And of course we're qatv every week or two weeks depending on our schedule. And the qatvatv.org qatvatv.org and of course check with Joel Joel every morning on his 10 minute news updates about what's going locally and around the world. [00:53:04] Speaker A: Always great to talk techie. Stay dry.