Final Debate Opens in Senate on Bill to Restructure Boatline

By JULIA WELLS

State Senate action on a hostile bill to restructure the Steamship
Authority was delayed in eleventh-hour maneuvering by Cape and Islands
Sen. Robert O'Leary yesterday, and with just two days left in
formal session at the state legislature, the bill will be taken up again
by the Senate today.

"There is a lot of tension over this bill, and we need to get
it off Beacon Hill, but we're now getting what I consider to be a
bad bill, and I am going to fight it," Mr. O'Leary declared
after the Senate had ended its formal session for the day just after 8
p.m. last night.

The Senate adjourns formal session for the year on Wednesday.

The boat line bill began to clear the final hurdles of the state
Senate yesterday. Early in the day the bill was reported favorably out
of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, in the same form as was
approved by the House last month.

Among other things, the bill will expand the board of governors from
three to five members and give immediate voting seats to Barnstable and
New Bedford. The bill will also require New Bedford to pay for half of
any operating deficit on New Bedford ferry service for three years
- although the obligation is capped at $650,000 and does not apply
to any losses on the passenger ferry Schamonchi. After three years, the
city would be required to pay 25 per cent of any deficit for two years.

Forged behind closed doors last month, the House bill was a
drastically altered version of a bill authored by the Joint Committee on
Transportation earlier this year. The new bill concludes a a four-year
hostile campaign by New Bedford to take over the 42-year-old public boat
line that is the lifeline to the two Islands.

The SSA legislation has been the subject of heated debate for months
in the state legislature, nearly all of it centering on the long list of
demands from New Bedford.

This week New Bedford Sen. Mark Montigny, who is chairman of the
Ways and Means Committee, began to lean heavily on his colleagues as he
looked for support on the boat line bill.

When the bill came out of Mr. Montigny's committee with a
favorable report yesterday, there was a move on the Senate floor to
suspend the rules and approve the bill. But a motion to suspend the
rules requires unanimous approval, and Mr. O'Leary objected,
buying one more day in the last three days of formal session before the
boat line bill comes up for a vote.

Senate President Thomas Birmingham made it clear yesterday that he
will allow no more delays, and the Senate is expected to do business for
the next two days with no calendar and no rules.

Once the Senate gets to the substance of the bill, Mr. O'Leary
plans to introduce nine amendments, including one that would force New
Bedford to pay for half of any operating deficit forever, and another
that would allow the boat line board to vote New Bedford off the board
if there is not "substantial" ferry service between the
Whaling City and the two Islands. Mr. O'Leary will try to
introduce an amendment replacing the entire bill with the earlier bill
authored by the transportation committee. He also will try to strike
from the current bill a provision that requires a binding vote on the
Vineyard in November to decide whether to change the way the Vineyard
SSA governor is appointed. The Vineyard boat line member has been
appointed by the Dukes County Commission since 1960.

"I consider that to be the most onerous part of the House
bill, and I will pin my hopes on that one," said Mr.
O'Leary, who plans to ask for a roll call vote on the amendment.

Any change to the bill would force it into joint conference
committee unless the House agrees to the change. If the bill goes into
conference there is a chance that the clock will run out on the
legislative session before the bill is voted, but Mr. O'Leary said
that scenario now appears extremely unlikely.

"The Senate president made it clear yesterday that he intends
to put this behind the Massachusetts legislature," Mr.
O'Leary said.

If it is approved by the state Senate and signed by acting Gov. Jane
Swift with 10 days after the end of the legislative session, the bill
will usher in a distinct new era of change for the boat line. The August
monthly meeting of the SSA board of governors in Hyannis could
conceivably take place with an expanded board.

The bill would allow the two Islands to retain control of the board
through a weighted vote. The bill approved by the transportation
committee three months ago would have given a voting seat to Barnstable
and a provisional nonvoting seat to New Bedford. But the bill was
derailed by the powerful House delegation in New Bedford.

Mr. O'Leary said yesterday he expects many senators will argue
that it is too late in the session to discuss amendments to the bill,
but he said the responsibility for the delay rests squarely with the
Senate leadership. But with literally only hours remaining in formal
session, Mr. O'Leary also said the debate about the boat line bill
is no longer centered on the merits.

"In the end it all comes down to obligations [between
senators]. The merits? The substance of this gets lost," he said.