Beacon Hill Update from Mass Access – June 1, 2020
June 2, 2020Monday, June 1, 2020
David Gauthier
WinCam
As of Sunday night, DPH reported a total of 96,965 cases of COVID-19. The state has now confirmed a total of 6,846 deaths from the virus.
Protests continued over the weekend across America, including Boston, over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody.
Violence broke out in downtown Boston last night, following a day of peaceful protest throughout the city.
Governor Baker called in the Massachusetts National Guard late Sunday night to help restore order.
Governor Baker and Lt. Governor Polito outlined near-term changes Friday that the restaurant and lodging industries will need to make as they chart a path forward to find a new normal while abiding by mandatory safety requirements.
When they begin offering dine-in meals, restaurants will need to screen employees for COVID-19 symptoms, space out customers, prevent seating at bars and cap party sizes.
Hotels and motels will not be allowed to open up function spaces once they start accepting guests, and will also need to keep people as far apart as possible.
On Monday, Baker will issue an executive order enabling businesses covered by the second phase of the administration’s reopening plan to bring employees back to workplaces for preparation and training.
Governor Baker said he will announce on Saturday, June 6, when phase two will begin, the earliest that phase two could start is June 8.
Industry specific guidance documents are available.
The ban on the sale of all flavored tobacco products in Massachusetts goes into effect today. The ban includes mint and menthol cigarettes.
The House and Senate will both have informal sessions on Monday at 11am.
The Joint Committee on Housing has endorsed two bills that would clear the way for rent control to return to Massachusetts more than two and a half decades after voters narrowly banned the practice statewide.
The committee favorably recommended the legislation, advancing it with support from three-quarters of its members as it faces certain opposition from Governor Baker.
One bill (H 1316), filed by Rep. David Rogers (D-Cambridge), would allow any Massachusetts municipality to impose a limit on how much landlords can increase rent each year.
The cap would only apply to tenants who earn 80 percent or less of the area median income.
The other bill (H 3924), co-authored by Reps. Mike Connolly (D-Cambridge) and Nika Elugardo (D-Boston), includes rent control as one option among several tenant protection policies that cities and towns could choose to implement.
Neither proposal requires local officials to adopt rent control.
If the bills are approved, communities could opt in with a local vote, but those that do not support it could maintain the status quo.
If lawmakers want to advance the proposals further, they will need to decide whether the local approval would occur through a vote of the local governing or legislative body or a community-wide referendum.
Every registered voter in Massachusetts would receive an application by mid-July to request a ballot to vote by mail in the 2020 elections under a plan released Friday by the Joint Committee on Election Laws.
The proposal for expanded voting-by-mail would be coupled with in-person early voting before both the primary and general elections in September and November, and traditional voting at a local polling station during both elections.
With the bill, Massachusetts state lawmakers are inserting themselves directly into a fiery national debate over the integrity of mail-in voting, with President Donald Trump at the center of the controversy.
The co-chairs of the Election Laws Committee Rep. John Lawn (D-Watertown) and Sen. Barry Finegold (D-Andover) released a bill on Friday night, giving members of their committee 48 hours to review and vote on whether to recommend the bill to the full House and Senate.
Representative Lawn said the plan is for House Democrats to caucus on Tuesday, and to take up the legislation on Wednesday when they meet, remotely, in a full formal session.
Incumbent US Senator Ed Markey and challenger US Representative Joe Kennedy will have their first face to face debate since February this Monday at 7 p.m., in a live televised broadcast from Western Mass News in Springfield.
