Beacon Hill Update as of Monday, April 11, 2022
April 11, 2022Provided through David Gauthier
Thank you O’Neill and Associates
MASS Access
Monday, April 11, 2022:
• As of Friday night, DPH reported a total of 1,574,533 cases of COVID-19.
• The state reported 1,637 new confirmed cases and 2 new deaths.
• The state now has 19,030 deaths from the virus.
• The future of Gov. Charlie Baker’s $700 million package of tax reductions and incentives becomes clearer Wednesday when the House Ways and Means Committee releases its version of his $48.5 billion fiscal 2023 budget proposal.
• After Baker in January surprised many on Beacon Hill with his tax relief plans, House Democrats said they had already been looking into the topic, but still have not outlined a counterproposal or even said if they intend to advance tax relief as part of the annual budget bill.
• The release of the House budget, which will sit over school vacation week and hit the floor for deliberations during the last week in April.
• Senators plan on Thursday to tackle a clean energy bill (S 2819) featuring some of the specific proposal’s senators believe are necessary to ramp up progress in carbon emissions reduction.
• The bill, unveiled this week, is designed in particular to clean up the transportation and construction sectors, two big sources of emissions where reliance on fossil fuels has become the norm.
• Also, on the agenda in the Senate on Thursday are bills dealing with open space (S 2820) and home heating oil leaks (S 2821).
• Advocates were on hand Thursday to greet lawmakers as they filed into a State House hearing room for the kickoff of formal negotiations on a permanent mail-in voting bill.
• Leaders from MassVOTE, MASSPIRG, ACLU of Massachusetts, Environmental League of Massachusetts, and Common Cause MA sat in the audience, along with two members of Secretary of State William Galvin’s staff, during brief opening statements from the lead conferees, Rep. Michael Moran and Sen. Barry Finegold.
• House and Senate versions of the bill (S 2554 / H 4367) would both make mail-in voting a permanent feature of Massachusetts elections along with expansion of early voting. One of the key differences is whether to allow same-day voter registration, which the Senate included in its proposal but the House opted to commission a study on rather than legalize.
• It’s been one week since organized labor representatives delivered a letter to Senate President Karen Spilka seeking voluntary recognition of a Senate staffers’ union, and Spilka still will not say how she plans to respond.
• The unfolding situation puts legislators, who frequently promote collective bargaining rights, squarely in the center of a union push occurring in their own workplace. Several Senate Democrats have voiced strong support for the union push among staff.
• Senate aides announced their intention to unionize with IBEW Local 2222 on Monday, a step that would make Massachusetts just the second state in the country with a unionized legislative staff.
• A majority of House and Senate aides do not feel fairly compensated for their work.
• Gov. Charlie Baker has signed legislation clearing the way for adults to adopt their siblings and younger aunts or uncles, a bill that the state’s official Child Advocate says will create more stability in the lives of the state’s most vulnerable children.
• bill S261 will give these children an increased opportunity for a permanent stability and safety through kinship adoption.
• The bill enacts a simple procedural fix to allow a child to be adopted by any appropriate kin, when it is in the child’s best interest.
