Beacon Hill Update: Friday, July 9th, 2021
July 13, 2021Friday, July 9, 2021:
- As of Thursday night DPH reported a total of 664,406 cases of COVID-19.
- The state reported 99 new confirmed cases and 3 new deaths.
- The state has now confirmed a total of 17,646 deaths from the virus.
- A deal to raise tax collection estimates by more than $4.2 billion and spend nearly $48.1 billion in fiscal year 2022 came together Thursday with House and Senate lawmakers filing a compromise budget that would also make the state’s controversial film tax credit permanent.
- The budget deal, according to House and Senate officials, accounts for surging tax collections over the last six months that have far outpaced the projections agreed to by legislative leaders and the Baker administration at the start of the year.
- The expectation of additional tax revenue was used by budget negotiators, in part, to create a $350 million trust fund that could be tapped in future years to help cover the cost of a $1.5 billion school funding reform law passed in 2019, known as the Student Opportunity Act.
- The budget filed Thursday evening (H 4002) also reflects the decision of negotiators to cancel a planned draw on the state’s reserves of at least $1.5 billion and proposes to make a supplemental deposit of $250 million into the state’s pension system.
- House Ways and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz and Senate Ways and Means Chairman Michael Rodrigues announced the compromise Thursday afternoon, and leaders in both branches hope to pass the budget on Friday and send it to Governor Baker for his review.
- Massachusetts is one of just four states in the country that started its fiscal year on July 1 and does not have an annual budget in place.
- Though the budget is already eight days late, the Legislature and Governor Baker put in place a temporary budget totaling $5.4 billion to keep government operations funded through July.
- The House scheduled a formal session for Friday afternoon to take up and most likely pass the spending accord.
- The branch held open its session for a couple hours Thursday before the email arrived from budget chiefs Rep. Aaron Michlewitz and Sen. Michael Rodrigues.
- Earlier Thursday, the House admitted a bill approved by the Cambridge City Council (HD 4092) to authorize Cambridge to provide emergency services to portions of the Cambridge Crossing development located in Boston and Somerville, along with a new Rep. Sena bill (HD 4305) aimed at “enhancing diversity in the awarding of liquor licenses.”
- The Senate’s main order of business on Thursday was to schedule a rare Friday session to consider the overdue annual budget for fiscal 2022.
- The Senate also referred some bills to committee for consideration.
- The State House will not have a “complete reopening” before the start of October, Speaker Ronald Mariano said Wednesday, adding that he is hopeful that the building will be at least more populated at that point as legislative leaders target some time in autumn to welcome the public back to Beacon Hill.
- Speaker Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka said on June 30 they were developing a “comprehensive and nuanced reopening plan” to bring more employees and outsiders back in the fall, but they did not offer more details on a date.
- While details remain unavailable, House Speaker Ronald Mariano expects legislators to start public hearings this month as they consider the many ways they could spend billions of dollars in federal aid, a timeline that matches expectations of the Baker administration.
- During debate on a House rules package Wednesday, Mariano told reporters legislative leaders will host the first hearings in July about how to carve up the nearly $5 billion in state government remaining from the American Rescue Plan Act.
- A major consideration for them will be Governor Baker’s proposal to spend $2.9 billion of the ARPA money immediately on housing and homeownership support, infrastructure improvements, job training, addiction treatment and more.
- After lawmakers rejected Baker’s initial push to allocate that chunk quickly in favor of depositing the aid into a fund, the administration has ramped up its efforts to secure approval.
- Governor Baker has been ratcheting up the pressure on the Legislature to get around to putting the state’s roughly $5 billion in American Rescue Plan Act money to use and on Thursday called on lawmakers to spend some of the aid on addiction prevention and treatment.
- After holding out for almost two years and securing additional commitments, Attorney General Maura Healey and her counterparts in 14 other states agreed this week to resolve their lawsuits against OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma as part of a deal in which Massachusetts is expected to get $90 million to combat the ongoing opioid crisis.
- Healey, who filed the first state lawsuit against individual members of the OxyContin maker’s controlling Sackler family, said the agreement requires Purdue to be wound down by 2024, bans the Sacklers from the opioid business and orders more than 30 million documents related to opioid sales, marketing and distribution to be made public.
- The attorney general described the document requirement as the “most significant disclosure in any case ever.”
- The Sackler family is also to pay more than $4.3 billion over nine years, including $90 million for Massachusetts and additional compensation for families and victims here.
- Healey said the amount that will be extracted from the Sacklers is “the most that individuals have ever paid for breaking the law” and that all of it will go towards addiction prevention, treatment and education.
- Healey’s office said the resolution was filed in bankruptcy court Wednesday night and is subject to approval.
- A confirmation hearing on the broader Purdue bankruptcy organization plan is scheduled for Aug. 9, and Healey suggested that she and other attorneys general decided it was time to settle rather than risk having a plan that did not address their priorities be approved.
- If the organization plan is certified, it will shield Sackler family members from further opioid-related lawsuits, including the state case Healey filed in Massachusetts, she said, eliminating that avenue as an alternative to a settlement.
- Sen. Joe Boncore expects to become the next leader of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, according to multiple people close to the Winthrop Democrat who confirmed Thursday that the senator has been informing close contacts about his plans to leave the Senate.
- Boncore, who joined the Senate in 2016 after winning a special election, would succeed Robert Coughlin in the high-profile and high-paying lobbying role for one of the state’s most influential business sectors.
- The senator is expected to file an ethics disclosure in the coming days as he enters into salary negotiations for the position, according to multiple people who have spoken with him over the past week.
- A trio of regional business organizations in Massachusetts threw their support behind gig economy giants in the growing debate over pay and benefits for the state’s more than 200,000 app-based drivers.
- The Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce, One SouthCoast Chamber and the Cape Cod Canal Region Chamber of Commerce, together representing more than 2,300 members, on Wednesday joined the Massachusetts Coalition for Independent Work fighting to keep ride-hailing and delivery drivers designated as independent contractors.
- With the addition of the three chambers, the coalition funded by Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart now counts a total of 15 members including other statewide business groups such as the Massachusetts High Technology Council and the Associated Industries of Massachusetts.
by David Gauthier
