Sarah Peake Archives - The Provincetown Independent

Sarah Peake

INTERGOVERNMENTAL

Peake Resigns as State Rep. to Advise Gov. Healey

Her staff will continue to serve constituents through the end of the year

By Paul Benson Sep 25, 2024

PROVINCETOWN — Sarah Peake is one week away from turning 67, but it turns out she’s not retiring after all. After announcing in January that her current, ninth term representing the 4th Barnstable district in the Mass. House would be her last, she wound up resigning her seat on Sept. 22, three months before her term ends, to take a position as senior adviser for intergovernmental affairs in Gov. Maura Healey’s office.

Then-state Rep. Sarah Peake at the dedication of Provincetown’s new police station in March 2024. (Photo by Nancy Bloom)

“In this role, Peake will serve as a liaison to state and local officials, with a focus on the Cape and Islands communities and regional issues, such as seasonal communities, housing, and economic development,” said a Sept. 20 announcement from the governor’s office. “She will also advise the Governor on legislative and local matters.”

The position was created specifically for Peake, according to reporting by the State House News Service.

A spokesperson for House Speaker Ron Mariano told the Independent that Peake’s office, which serves the four Outer Cape towns plus Harwich, Orleans, and Chatham, “will continue to be staffed and provide constituent services to the district” in her absence. Three staffers currently work in her office; Sarah Ferrara is the chief of staff.

The state election is on Nov. 5, and newly elected legislators will be sworn in on Jan. 1, 2025. The legislature’s “formal session” ended on July 31, and during “informal session,” legislation can pass only with the unanimous consent of all legislators on the floor.

Vacancies in the legislature are not that uncommon, according to the State House News Service; Peake is the fourth Democrat to resign for a job in Gov. Healey’s administration since January 2023. It is routine for staff to continue providing constituent services when seats are vacant, state Sen. Julian Cyr told the Independent.

Peake did not respond directly to questions from the Independent about her new job. A spokesperson from the governor’s office offered to answer questions for her.

Peake’s salary in the House, where she was the second assistant majority leader, came to $148,500 last year, including travel and leadership stipends. Her job in Healey’s office will pay $150,000, the spokesperson said.

Peake’s new job “will position a voice for Cape Cod in the senior reaches of state government,” said Cyr.

“No one has done more for Cape Cod on Beacon Hill than Sarah Peake,” he said. “I’ve been mindful about what her departure from the House would mean for the Cape and Islands’ clout on Beacon Hill, and having her serve in this new capacity means we can maintain some of that influence to advocate for the unique needs and interests of Cape Codders.

“Sarah Peake clearly has strong relationships in the House, and she’s well liked in the Senate,” Cyr said. “I think she’ll be an extraordinary advocate for the governor.”

STATE POLITICS

House Drops Transfer Fee in Housing Bill

Real estate lobby prevails; Cyr and Healey say they’ll keep trying

By Paul Benson Jun 12, 2024

PROVINCETOWN — A years-long push for legislation that would allow towns to impose a real estate transfer fee of 0.5 to 2 percent on residential and commercial real estate sales and use the money for housing was dealt a setback last week when the Mass. House of Representatives passed a housing bond bill that did not include the measure.

The state Senate could still include a local option transfer fee in its version of the legislation — but the measure would then have to survive a six-person conference committee in which leaders from the two chambers hash out their differences to create a final bill, said state Rep. Sarah Peake of Provincetown.

In October, Peake seemed optimistic about getting the transfer fee, which Gov. Maura Healey had endorsed and which Provincetown, Truro, and Wellfleet had all requested, into the House bill.

“The Speaker telegraphed a couple of weeks ago that he was having second thoughts about the transfer fee, even though he had announced at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce that we were going to do a transfer fee,” said Peake, referring to a speech that House Speaker Ron Mariano of Quincy gave to that group in March.

After Mariano’s statements in Boston, “the statewide Realtors association came out pretty hard” against the policy, Peake said. Members argued that the transfer fee “would have a chilling effect on real estate, and maybe increase the cost for people to get into a home.”

The House introduced its $6.5-billion housing bond bill on June 3, and five amendments to put a transfer fee back into the bill were withdrawn without a vote, Peake said. The bill passed without the transfer fee on June 5. Peake will retire at the end of this legislative session.

“Maybe Julian Cyr can work his magic in the Senate,” said Peake, who is second assistant majority leader in the House. “I know him, and I know he has a plan.”

Provincetown’s voters first endorsed a real estate transfer fee in 2010 and have sent a home-rule petition requesting one to every legislative session since then. Truro’s voters first endorsed a transfer fee in 2019, while Wellfleet and Chatham did so in 2021.

Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard have used real estate transfer fee revenue for decades to fund their extensive land conservation efforts. The six towns on Martha’s Vineyard began asking for the right to impose a transfer fee dedicated to housing in 2004, said Philippe Jordi, founder of the Island Housing Trust.

Under the state’s unique “home rule” system, however, towns cannot impose such revenue measures without permission from the state legislature, Jordi said.

“If you look at towns in Colorado, they don’t have to go to the state and ask to raise their fees,” said Jordi. “Aspen has had a real estate transfer fee for more than three decades, and they have more than 30 percent of their housing stock deed-restricted in some form.”

Thirty-nine percent of the 5,872 housing units in Aspen are deed-restricted to full-time occupancy, according to the Aspen Times, accounting for 70 percent of all the occupied homes there.

Those 2,303 deed-restricted units, along with 900 more in the surrounding county, make up “the largest system of affordable housing per capita in the nation,” according to the Aspen-Pitken County Housing Authority.

The Island Housing Trust has created 150 deed-restricted units on Martha’s Vineyard over the last 19 years using donations and Community Preservation Act funds, Jordi said, with 150 more units under development.

“It’s nothing compared to what we could have done if we had the transfer fee 20 years ago,” Jordi said. “It’s unfathomable to me that we’re not treating this like a public safety crisis when our hospital is full of unfilled positions, and our sheriff says he cannot retain staff.”

The Road Ahead

On June 6, the day after the House passed its housing bill, Gov. Healey came to Martha’s Vineyard and told housing advocates there that she was still committed to the transfer fee.

“Her position was enthusiastic and very clear,” said Arielle Faria, co-chair of the Coalition to Create the Martha’s Vineyard Housing Bank. Faria is also running for the state House seat being vacated by Rep. Dylan Fernandes, who is running for state Senate.

“Gov. Healey was vocal about the need for a transfer fee and said she would keep pushing for it,” Faria said. “We are hopeful and confident that it will be in the Senate’s legislation, and when it goes to conference committee, the governor will be pulling for us.”

The conference committee consists of six legislators, Peake said: the chair, vice chair, and ranking Republican member of the House Ways and Means committee and the corresponding officers of the Senate Ways and Means committee.

Peake said that advocates should consider settling on a single model for the transfer fee rather than a range of possibilities that towns could adopt.

“Somerville has a model in their home-rule petition where it’s one percent paid by the seller, one percent paid by the buyer, and if for either party it’s their primary residence, that side doesn’t have to pay,” Peake said. “That might not work in central Massachusetts, where there’s fewer second and third homes, but when it comes down to the wire people really start to focus on these nitty-gritty details.”

The opposition to the fee, according to Peake, Faria, Jordi, and reporting in the Boston Globe, has been organized by the Mass. Association of Realtors.

Ryan Castle, CEO of the Cape Cod and Islands Association of Realtors, said that his organization “follows the Mass. Association of Realtors on all state legislative issues, including real estate transfer taxes.

“Our policy is not up to me, it’s up to our governing organizations, but I will say this: I’ve never seen a real estate transfer tax proposal that actually works,” Castle added. “We have underbuilt on the Cape for 20 to 30 years, and we need to reform our building processes so more market-rate housing that is attainable for people can be built — not just fund standard affordable housing programs for people who earn less than our low-median income numbers.”

State Sen. Julian Cyr of Truro also pointed out that median incomes on Cape Cod are low.

“Too often, people perceive the Cape and Islands through the lens of our summer visitors, many of whom have quite a bit of wealth,” said Cyr. “But the reality is that median incomes in most of Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard are below the state average, and we need to subsidize housing for almost all working year-round residents who don’t already own a home or stand to inherit one.

“The governor has said this remains a top priority for her,” Cyr continued. “This is the most intractable problem facing Cape Cod and Islanders, and I’m not going to let this opportunity go by.”

ELECTION

Peake Defeats Stanton in Democratic State Rep Primary

Lauzon will be Republican candidate for Cyr's state Senate seat

By Paul Benson Sep 7, 2022

This story was updated on Thursday, Sept. 8.

PROVINCETOWN — By a margin of eight to one, eight-term incumbent state Rep. Sarah Peake defeated Jack Stanton, her first challenger for the Democratic Party nomination in 16 years, in Tuesday’s primary election.

State Rep. Sarah Peake, D-Provincetown. (Photo courtesy Sarah Peake)

The final tally was 7,991 votes for Peake, almost 89 percent of the total, and 1,028 for Stanton in the seven towns of the 4th Barnstable District: Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, Eastham, Orleans, Harwich, and Chatham. Peake’s best showing was in Orleans, where she won 93 percent of the vote, while Stanton’s best was in Harwich, where he carried 14 percent.

Peake campaigned on her understanding of the district’s complex needs and the relationships she has built on Beacon Hill. She is the second assistant majority leader in the House, which means she ranks fourth in the Democratic leadership there.

Stanton campaigned as an outsider who understood real life on Cape Cod and who would push for much more sweeping legislation than Peake was willing to support. Stanton had carried 43 percent of the vote in a 2018 general election campaign against Republican state Rep. Randy Hunt in a seat that includes his hometown of Sandwich. He won about 10 percent of the votes in his campaign against Peake.

Peake will be running unopposed in the general election this November, as no Republican has filed to run in the 4th Barnstable District since 2010.

“I am incredibly grateful to the people of the 4th Barnstable District for this resounding win,” said Peake on Tuesday night. “I’m excited to know that tomorrow when I wake up I can continue to work hard on their behalf.”

“I got into this race to make sure the issues plaguing our community, especially housing and climate change, were at the center of the conversation, and I feel that’s what I’ve done,” said Stanton. “It is my hope that Sarah will carry this urgency back with her to the state house.”

In the Republican primary for the Cape and Islands state Senate seat, Chris Lauzon defeated Daralyn Heywood by a margin of 60 to 40 percent. The vote totals were 7,332 for Lauzon and 4,940 for Heywood.

Chris Lauzon is the likely Republican nominee for state senator from the Cape and Islands district. (Photo courtesy Chris Lauzon)

Lauzon told the Independent in the spring that he wanted to lower taxes and eliminate regulations he deemed harmful, but that he could work with Democrats on certain issues. He identified himself as neither a “Baker Republican” nor a “Trump Republican” but as a “Cape Cod Republican.”

Heywood told the Independent that Democrats were “going towards communism” and that her experience as a barracks commander in the state police showed her leadership ability and her commitment to protecting people’s rights. She identified herself with Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton.

Although Heywood narrowly carried the primary vote on Nantucket, which was one of the first towns to report on Tuesday night, she began falling behind as the larger towns of the mid-Cape posted their results. Lauzon carried Yarmouth with 61 percent of the vote and Dennis with 66 percent.

Lauzon will face Democratic state Sen. Julian Cyr, who was first elected to the seat in 2016. Cyr won 57 percent of the vote in that year’s general election and 62 percent in the 2018 general election, and was unopposed in the 2020 general election.

STATE HOUSE RACE

Peake and Stanton Face Off in Sept. 6 Democratic Primary

Their only in-person debate is Sept. 1 at 9 a.m. on public radio

By K.C. Myers Aug 17, 2022

PROVINCETOWN — Democrats Jack Stanton and state Rep. Sarah Peake both entered politics to take on Republican incumbents.

Sarah Peake (Photo courtesy Sarah Peake)

Peake ran her first race for state representative for the seven Lower Cape towns 18 years ago, when she unsuccessfully challenged longtime incumbent Rep. Shirley Gomes (R-Harwich) in 2004.

Stanton began his quest for state office in 2018 by running against former state Rep. Randy Hunt (R-Sandwich). He lost to Hunt but set his sights on the Democratic primary the next year for the state Senate seat left vacant by the early retirement of Sen. Viriato deMacedo (R-Plymouth). Stanton dropped out of that primary, which was won by Susan Moran of Falmouth, who is now the senator for Plymouth and the Upper Cape.

Since then, Stanton moved from his hometown of Sandwich to Provincetown, where he lives on his sailboat and waits tables at the Lobster Pot restaurant. He previously worked with the World Bank, for Forcier Consulting in Africa, and as a lobsterman.

Peake, 64, has a law degree from Pace University and was a Provincetown Select Board member from 2002 to 2007. She was motivated to run against Gomes by Gomes’s vote to reverse the state’s legalization of gay marriage. Peake lost that 2004 race, but Gomes did not run for re-election in 2006, and Peake defeated two Democrats and a Republican to take the seat.

Peake has served as the representative for the Outer and Lower Cape ever since and is now second assistant majority leader in the House.

“I am part of the leadership and I am very proud of that,” Peake said in an Aug. 12 interview. “The relationships I have here in the Fourth Barnstable District I treasure and prize and find as valuable as the relationships that I have built inside that building on Beacon Street.”

Stanton, 31, was president of the Sandwich High School class of 2010. He has not served in public office. But, he argued in an Aug. 12 interview, he understands the real lives of Cape Codders. He is frustrated by the established political machine, which he said has been unable to pass important legislation even though the Democrats have a “veto-proof supermajority.”

“Mitch McConnell is not a problem in Massachusetts,” Stanton said. “Joe Manchin is not a problem in Massachusetts. We have all the power to enact the things that we should be able to enact in this deeply progressive state. And yet session after session, very popular pieces of legislation just go to die.”

The Safe Communities Act hasn’t made it out of committee to support members of the immigrant community, Stanton said. Same with LGBTQ-friendly sex education in schools, and the single-payer health care act.

“I think that we get complacent because we’re a one-party state, and we do not deliver on what we’ve promised voters that we’re going to do,” Stanton said.

Peake argued that it takes someone who knows the system to get results from the system.

Jack Stanton (Photo courtesy Jack Stanton)

The single-payer health care act “is not ready for prime time yet,” she said. “We need Medicare waivers. That bill has been filed and refiled for something like 18 years now; not one word of it has changed. You have to be willing to not just work outside the building and scream at legislators to pass something. You have to be willing to come into the building and sharpen your pencil and go to work.”

Stanton criticized Peake for standing against legislation to improve transparency in the state’s lower chamber.

“We’re the only state in the country where the state legislature is not subject to public records law,” Stanton said. “You have more scrutiny as a planning board member.”

Peake said committee hearings are now recorded and can be viewed remotely. Also, “yes” votes in committee are now recorded for the public to see. The nays and blank votes, however, are not.

Stanton called Peake’s response “such a bunch of bull. It is not that complicated.”

Transparency is high on the agenda for the nonprofit Act on Mass, which Stanton volunteered for and which has endorsed Stanton in this race. The group has argued that the public should have 72 hours to review bills before the House votes rather than the current 24 hours.

These reforms, said Peake, will help the Republicans.

“The Republicans have pressed for all of those issues every session that I have been in there,” she said. “And I am always joined with the majority of Democrats, including this time 135 Democrats, voting no. Five voted in the affirmative, and all the Republicans. I am a proud Democrat, and I will continue to vote as a Democrat against things that will give more power to Republicans, especially now.”

The Independent asked both candidates how to alleviate the Cape’s critical lack of affordable year-round housing.

Stanton said the state should itself build affordable housing. He also wants renters to have a right of first refusal when landlords puts their properties on the market.

Of Stanton’s advocating state-constructed housing, Peake said, “I don’t even know how to begin to unpack that. I would be afraid of some bureaucrat in Boston making a decision about what housing Truro needs.”

The renters’ right of first refusal could work, she said, if there was a way to keep the price within reach for a year-rounder. Peake also said she has worked for years to advance a zoning reform bill.

Peake said she and state Sen. Julian Cyr — who has endorsed her — successfully transferred the Cloverleaf parcel in North Truro from state to town ownership for affordable housing. Peake was a leader in pushing the short-term rental tax law, which is now adding millions of dollars to town coffers that can be used to buy land and construct housing. She argued that towns should use all their short-term rental tax revenue for housing.

She and Cyr also wrangled an additional 2.75-percent excise tax on traditional lodging and short-term rentals for the Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund for improvements to wastewater treatment.

Better wastewater treatment allows denser development. “If we are going to build our way out of this, we need to be thinking big: 30, 40 units at a time,” Peake said. “Wastewater will allow us to do that.”

The Harwich Democratic Town Committee and 350 Cape Cod invited Peake and Stanton to debate on Aug. 24 or 25, and both candidates were invited to speak during a Cape Cod Sierra Club meeting on Aug. 16. Peake turned down both requests. The two candidates will debate live at 9 a.m. on Sept. 1 at WCAI, public radio for the Cape & Islands.

OP-ED

A Time for Safe Communities

Raising voices to stop the heartless war on immigrants

By L. Michael Hager and Mark Gabriele May 28, 2020

Both the federal government and the state of Massachusetts are waging a heartless war on immigrants. While the Trump administration actively blocks asylum seekers, imprisons families, deports unaccompanied children, and withholds Covid-19 protections and CARES Act benefits, our state legislature has dragged its feet in allowing undocumented resident immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. A safe communities bill that would respect the human rights of migrants and ensure due process for all immigrants has languished in the State House. Yet now, more than ever, is a time for action.

Federal. Repeating last year’s family separations at the border by another means, a new Trump policy presents detained families with a Hobson’s choice: surrender your child by signing an English language-only form or subject him or her to continued incarceration while the lethal virus runs rampant. If the parent consents, the child will be sent alone to another location for caretaking. Such a separation would again likely cause toxic stress and severe trauma. Not consenting condemns the child (along with the parents) to continued incarceration in unsanitary prisons, many operated by for-profit corporations that fail to provide adequate blankets and hygienic supplies.

Violating both national and international law, the CDC has indefinitely extended (on the pretext of the pandemic) its order to expel migrants at the border — increasing the numbers of those mired in squalid conditions on the Mexico side. Now, as reported by the New York Times, unaccompanied children as young as 10 are being deported alone “without the opportunity to speak to a social worker or plea for asylum from the violence in their home countries.”

State. While federal policymakers condone immoral attacks on immigrants, Massachusetts continues to practice harmful inaction. After failing to give the bill a favorable report last session, the Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security is stalled in considering the Safe Community Act (S.1401/H.3573), which was re-introduced in the current session. Notwithstanding several public hearings, the support of many state law enforcement officials, and the negotiation of amendments, it has been delayed twice — first, awaiting amendments, and now because the coronavirus has disrupted State House operations.

The Safe Community Act would protect due process, limit notifications to ICE, and outlaw 287(g) agreements, which allow state and county personnel to act as federal immigration agents at taxpayers’ expense. It needs a favorable report from the committee by June 1 to get to the next step. The problem: the House, where the Outer Cape’s own Sarah Peake holds a leadership position, is apparently reluctant to see this bill get out of committee.

Ironically, it is the virus that makes passage of this bill more pressing than ever. First, as the committee heard from immigrant survivors, abusers use the threat of deportation to oppress their victims. Under Covid-19 stay-at-home orders, domestic violence has spiked, and a study from Utah State University shows that so-called sanctuary policies are effective at reducing domestic homicide. Second, the risks of packing people into detention centers are clear. Our own sheriff’s referrals to ICE were up 30 percent in 2019, according to his website. And most people taken into detention of late are arrested for traffic infractions like driving without a license. Now’s the time to release people who pose no threat to public safety, not send them to prison.

The Work and Family Mobility Act (H.3012/S.2061) is another case of State House inaction — this one dating back over a decade. Resident immigrants who lack the required documentation cannot obtain a driver’s license. For most of the undocumented, this means no grocery shopping and no transport to job or school or the doctor.

Without legal access to a motor vehicle, many of the 255,000 undocumented residents in the state must rely on inadequate or nonexistent public transportation or risk driving without a license (which usually means without passing driving and rules-of-the-road tests). Or it means driving in fear that an accident, a minor infraction, or nothing more than having dark skin will prompt a traffic officer to report the unlicensed driver to ICE, possibly resulting in deportation and family separation.

The driving law would benefit all state residents during the current pandemic, since private car transport limits exposure to the virus. And when immigrants are properly licensed and insured, they make the roads safer for everyone. Sixteen U.S. states have already enacted work and mobility laws. Now it’s time for Massachusetts to follow suit.

After years of public hearings and committee debate, and the endorsement of a coalition of more than 300 mostly nonprofit organizations (including the Cape Cod Coalition for Safe Communities), several district attorneys, chiefs of police, and legislators, the bill has finally cleared the Senate Transportation Committee and now awaits Ways and Means action.

We cannot expect action without raising our voices. With strong voter advocacy, Congress can impose limits on federal immigrant abuses and Beacon Hill can pass the SCA and driver’s license bills.
Michael Hager of Eastham is cofounder and former director general of the International Development Law Organization in Rome. Mark Gabriele leads the Cape Cod Coalition for Safe Communities.

climate crisis

Citizens Push for Climate Crisis Legislation

A meeting in Wellfleet with Peake to discuss carbon tax and other bills

By Sophie Ruehr Nov 21, 2019

WELLFLEET — Fifteen concerned citizens gathered at the Flying Fish Café in Wellfleet on Nov. 15 to discuss bills now in play at the State House that aim to curb greenhouse gas emissions. They then met with state Rep. Sarah Peake at town hall to seek her support.

Peake at Wellfleet climate meeting — Sarah Peake (right foreground) lends an ear to citizens looking for legislative action on climate change. (Photo Sophie Ruehr)

Volunteer organizer Tony Rogers from the Mass. Campaign for a Clean Energy Future led the informal gathering at the Flying Fish. He outlined a bill, an Act to Promote Green Infrastructure and Reduce Carbon Emissions (H. 2810), which he hoped Peake would agree to help pass.

The bill, introduced by state Rep. Jennifer Benson (D-Lunenburg), would implement a statewide carbon tax of $20 per ton of carbon — translating to 19 cents per gallon at the gas pump — to encourage consumers to switch to more eco-friendly alternatives for heating and transport. The tax would increase each year.

The funds generated by the tax would total an estimated $2 billion annually. Of that, $400 million to $600 million would be used to construct green energy and infrastructure projects such as public transit improvements. The remaining funds would be returned to Massachusetts residents and businesses as a rebate.

Because the tax would have a greater impact on poorer families, Benson’s bill would skew rebates so that lower-income consumers would receive proportionally larger sums. Businesses facing out-of-state competition would also receive rebates.

Rogers said that Benson’s bill would cut the most emissions in the least amount of time, and that other climate-related legislation up for debate is more lenient and less specific.

Some at the meeting were skeptical about aspects of Benson’s bill. Wellfleet select board member Kathleen Bacon questioned the political feasibility of passing a carbon tax and expressed concern that local fishermen would suffer.

The group then moved to town hall to meet with Peake.

Peake noted that Benson’s bill is still in committee and is scheduled for a hearing in January. She encouraged those assembled to go to the State House to express their opinions and write letters in support of the bill.

But Peake said she thought Benson’s bill has little chance of passing in the House, since a previous tax on gasoline was partially repealed.

She then turned her attention to an Act to Create a 2050 Roadmap to a Clean and Thriving Commonwealth (H. 3983), which, she said, would set declining annual emissions goals to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Peake felt that Roadmap 2050 has a better chance of getting passed than Benson’s bill.

“Let’s look at this in a broader way: there’s a lot of pieces of legislation that are trying to get at climate,” Peake said. “Don’t take your eyes off of the Benson bill, but maybe [Roadmap 2050] is something that can get done.”

Rogers pushed back, arguing that Benson’s bill would create meaningful change immediately, while Roadmap 2050 is still in its initial stages and would take some time to implement.

In response, Peake said that goals-oriented legislation has led to concrete action in the past, pointing to the Global Warming Solutions Act, passed in 2008.

“If you set an overarching policy, you need to take action in order to meet those goals,” she said. “I think it’s an effective way to govern and will lead to specific carbon-reduction actions.”

Peake also said she supports other bills that open up funding for municipalities around the state to build climate-resilient infrastructure and plan for the future.

Bob Higgins of Truro was enthusiastic about both the Benson bill and Roadmap 2050, which he felt would be compatible if implemented simultaneously. Paying to adapt to climate change now will cost much less than paying for it later, he said.

“Everybody is concerned about climate change, but nobody wants to pay for it,” Higgins said. “I think it’s incumbent on me and everyone else in this room to say, ‘We have to pay.’ ”