State Senator Patrick O’Connor has earned a reputation on Beacon Hill for doing things a little differently. Rated one of the most independent legislators by the Beacon Hill Roll Call, the Weymouth Republican has spent nearly a decade representing South Shore communities with a focus on pragmatic policymaking, local priorities, and bipartisan cooperation. In a wide-ranging conversation with the South Shore Times, O’Connor reflected on the slow pace of lawmaking, the financial pressure facing cities and towns, and the legislative goals driving his work this session.
You've been a state senator for a number of years now, representing communities across the South Shore. Tell us about your path to office.
2016 is like a blur. I say it jokingly, but it really kind of is too. Sen. Hedlund left and became mayor that year, and it sparked a special election. We had a Republican primary in April, then in May we had our special general election. We then had a challenge primary in September and then a challenge for the general in November as well. So, it was four elections in 2016 to actually take the seat.
I did 12 years in the city council in Weymouth before getting on, so I came with a really, I'd say, detailed background on municipal finance and what it takes to do constituent services, and I did eight years of Hedlund’s office as his legislative director, so kind of knew the inner workings of the State House.
But it's the focus on helping communities that really drove me. We've really had a keen focus on listening to constituents and seeing how government is impacting them. And if there's a negative way or if there's something a government's not doing, we try and figure out what the solution to that would be.
We hear a lot about progress on Beacon Hill being slow, with bills getting stalled in committees and policies taking a long time to get enacted. What do you think causes these delays?
My biggest complaint about government is how slow it is. Bills that we know would make a direct immediate positive impact on people's lives are now being refiled for the sixth year or seventh year. Often times, these have been kind of just sitting there.
I think the legislative process we have now is designed for an era of time that's no longer with us. It's designed in more of a way that doesn't account for the tools that we have nowadays to figure out solutions a lot quicker than they used to be able to do. I feel like the legislative process - and a lot of things in government - needs to be modernized. I think we really need to change because we're falling behind in a lot of areas, areas in which other states have already figured things out.
This budget cycle, a lot of cities and towns struggled with passing balanced budgets. Some turned to overrides, others to cuts. What are your thoughts on the state of municipal funding and how can the state help?
We're in a municipal funding crisis in Massachusetts. There are a lot of cost pressures, but the biggest budget driver right now is health insurance, and it's going through the roof everywhere. So, when you look at the structure of how communities can raise and appropriate funds, you have the two and a half percent levy limit, and a lot of times health insurance eats away at a good portion of that. And that leaves not enough resources to provide the investments that you need inside of public safety and education and public works. The state needs to identify and recognize that every community is experiencing a municipal funding crisis. But, at the state level, we're not going to be the 100% solution here because we're facing the same things. Health insurance is eating up state revenue growth too. And that's really a problem that needs to be fixed at the federal leve.
What's it like being an elected Republican in Massachusetts?
It's interesting. I'm a Baker Republican, and I'm proud of it. We try and show that there is a use for a two-party system, that we’re not just super focused on really controversial powder keg issues. I think, in a period of time when in which the middle is wildly underrepresented, the Massachusetts Republican Party has the ability to do that. Most people are most comfortable with something more towards the center. And I think that people see that Republicans can be very effective and really speak a lot to the middle.
What are some of your priorities this legislative session?
One of my biggest priorities is, and has always been, disability policy. I think that we have the best disability laws in the entire nation and the best services for individuals with disabilities in the entire nation. But there's always work that we can improve upon.
During one of the office hours that I had a number of years ago now, a mom from Duxbury, talked about her son who had a seizure disorder and intellectual developmental disabilities. He had been living in a residential home but needed to be admitted to the hospital. Wehn he was released from the hospital, went back to his residential group home. That eveninh he had a seizure in his sleep and passed away.
The reason was because the individuals that worked at the group home didn’t check his seizure monitor, the batteries no longer worked. But there wasn't coordination with the hospital to understand why that equipment was needed.
When I first hear the story, I basically said to myself, there's no reason why the state can't add an extra layer of protection and insurance to make sure that this doesn't happen again. And that's the family's charge—is to make sure that it doesn't happen again.
So, we filed a bill to make sure that when an individual with intellectual developmental disability relies on lifesaving equipment and are discharged from a hospital, a conversation takes place between the hospital and every residential service provider.