Gov. Charlie Baker told Boston Public Radio Thursday he is still asking the federal government for permission to forgive nearly $2 billion worth unemployment insurance payments that were mistakenly paid to Massachusetts residents.
Last week, the U.S. Labor Department — headed by former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh — denied Baker's blanket request to waive collection of the entire $2 billlion sum. That means the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance must wade through the backlog case by case.
Baker said the Labor Department's decision now means the state needs to figure out how to communicate with the hundreds of thousands who received the benefits during the pandemic and now are being asked to pay that money back.
"I can't promise you it's everyone," said Baker, replying to a question from Jim Braude about the state's efforts to reach recipients, "but I can tell you, yes, there's a pretty broad communication effort here, and again an effort to come up with a cleaner way to deal with these waiver issues generally."
Baker said he's still trying to get a broader waiver standard, but did not go into specifics. According to a recent Boston Globe article, the Department of Unemployment Assistance is reviewing the Labor Department's decision.
On sports betting
Baker reaffirmed his desire to get sports betting legislation signed before he leaves office. The most recent version of the bill has passed the House and is now being taken up in the Senate.
"We just finished March Madness, which came right on the heels of the Super Bowl and the NFL playoffs, and there's no question that an extraordinary amount of tax revenue was lost," he said. "I hope and anticipate between now and the end of the legislative session they'll find a way to get to yes."
On undocumented people obtaining drivers' licenses
Baker also discussed pending legislation to let undocumented immigrants obtain drivers' licenses.
Baker has said previously on Boston Public Radio he was disappointed that Minority Leader Brad Jones' amendment failed, which would have given town clerks the ability to verify the identity of someone using a driver's license to vote.
"I think we have at a minimum an issue here we need to clean up with respect to the relationship between driver's licenses and an eligibility to vote, which is different," he said Thursday, saying that is his "primary objection" to the legislation in its current form.
GBH News reported earlier this week that the vote in the Democrat-dominated House was 120 to 36 suggests the chamber might override a potential veto from Baker. But the Senate needs to pass its own version of the bill.
On the virtues of watching zombie apocalypse films — no, really
Earlier in the show, Baker interviewed national security expert and Boston Public Radio contributor Juliette Kayyem about her book "The Devil Never Sleeps: Learning to Live in an Age of Disasters.”
They discussed the type of personality Kayyem cites in the book as being statistically better at handling and emotionally enduring horrors like the pandemic: People who watch zombie apocalypse films and horror movies.
"These are not the preppers, these are just people who anticipate, like, weird things are going to happen, and their emotional and physical states were statistically better than if you just watched [romantic comedies.] Rom-coms are not going to prepare you for the apocalpyse," Kayyem said.
They are, she posits, better able to process what's happening and then are able to move beyond comprehension of the daily events, and think about potential future outcomes.
"Most of us, when things happen, we kind of never get to part two on this, which is 'What's it mean?' — much less what might happen after that," Baker said. "And that might be where the zombie people have it all over the rest of us."
