Massachusetts House Republican feud bursts to surface during state budget debate

A push from a right-wing Billerica lawmaker to lower a series of taxes in Massachusetts spotlighted a contentious feud between a contingent of rank-and-file members of the House Republican caucus and conservative leadership in the chamber Rep Marc Lombardo who unsuccessfully challenged House Minority Leader Brad Jones earlier this year for the top post in the caucus tried Monday to reduce the sales tax exempt taxes on tips and overtime and lower the income tax during the first day of the House s debate on its billion fiscal year budget plan But Lombardo s efforts to force lawmakers to take a recorded vote on his five unsuccessful tax-related amendments faced resistance from conservative colleagues a notable moment for a Republican caucus that generally backs any request for a roll call vote In an interview with reporters outside the House Chamber Lombardo announced the pushback he encountered was payback for his failed attempt to oust Jones as minority leader This is another example of Brad Jones utter failed leadership and it demonstrated that he is part of the machine here on Beacon Hill Lombardo explained This was coordinated with the Democratic leadership and certainly I knew this was coming because word had got back to me that Leader Jones had orchestrated this Jones won reelection as House minority leader in January after securing of the prospective conservative votes Lombardo who only pulled in five votes repeatedly criticized Jones as not mounting a strong enough challenge to the Democratic Party Jones a North Reading Republican stated opposition to Lombardo s repeated requests for recorded votes was not payback for the House minority leader fight but instead a impact of Lombardo not showing up to internal meetings or communicating with other lawmakers He also fired back at Lombardo for making citizens swipes at his time in office I m not going to go waste my time working with people who just want to kick me It s kind of human nature It s not Republican not Democrat it s just human nature Jones recounted reporters He s obviously still hurting over the fact that he got smoked Rep Joe McKenna a Sutton Republican who supported Lombardo s calls for recorded votes but backed Jones in the leadership battle commented it was unfortunate that the conservative caucus was divided on Lombardo s amendments I thought they were good amendments that I would have appreciated seeing a roll call on those It s unfortunate he explained I believe that we re there to vote on these issues and I certainly aid the principle of having roll call votes Lombardo mentioned his five tax-related amendments sought to make Massachusetts more affordable and competitive compared to neighboring states like New Hampshire He declared one proposal to lower the sales tax from to would help residents who are feeling squeezed at the grocery stores when purchasing basic household goods for their families Every time they go out to provide for their families they feel the impact of living in an unaffordable state like Massachusetts he commented For too long the cost of living in Massachusetts has risen and for too long we have failed to provide meaningful action Rep Adrian Madaro an East Boston Democrat who co-chairs the Revenue Committee opposed the sales tax amendment and argued that a billion-a-year tax relief bill signed into law in has already provided relief to residents A proposal like this one deserves robust deliberation through the legislative and committee process not rushed consideration on the floor Madaro mentioned The gentleman from Billerica has an identical piece of bill before the Revenue Committee which has yet to have a hearing and we look forward to him coming down and testifying and engaging in that committee process Jones mentioned he appointed Lombardo and Rep Nick Boldyga a Southwick Republican and Lombardo ally to the Revenue Committee because he knew taxes were an significant issue to them as evidenced by the amendments that they filed They ve never shown up to the Revenue Committee as has been stated to me by both my staff as well as others Jones mentioned I think there s also an element within the caucus that I will say includes me that you ve seen particular of the tweets and X comments both during the leadership fight and since then that I think frankly people are tired of and don t think it s particularly productive and constructive Lombardo has consistently targeted Jones on the social media site X formerly known as Twitter including during a series of posts Monday after Lombardo s amendments failed during the House floor debate Rep Paul Frost an Auburn Republican and one of Jones top lieutenants mentioned Lombardo s critiques of Jones on social media have tired other members of the Republican caucus Maybe he s just turned off enough people in his own caucus that they don t feel conducive to supporting him if all he wants to do is cause problems between Republicans Frost informed the Herald There s gonna be chosen responsibility put on him