20 minute read
Legislative Update
Mark Molloy, Esq.
New Legislative Session Kicks Off; Issues to Watch
After a productive 2021-2022 legislative session, the Massachusetts legislature reconvened for its 193rd session, which spans the next two years. As the new Democratic Governor Maura Healey and Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll begin to get comfortable in the State House’s corner office, the new legislative session will have a decidedly different feel from the previous eight years. No longer able to chalk up policy differences to “Republican v. Democrat,” legislative leaders will be presented with a scenario similar to the early days of when former Democratic Governor Deval Patrick assumed the reins of the executive branch. Add to that the Massachusetts legislature has sworn in at least 25 new members this year and, including last session’s new class, has over 20% new members overall, it should present an interesting policy session.
To that end, as House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka lead their respective branches into the new session, there are a variety of policy matters that may lead the conversation. In particular, expect the Massachusetts legislature to look at some of the following issues: • Tax Relief/Tax Reform. The impact of Mass.
Gen. Laws ch. 62F derailed the legislature’s attempt at tax reform during the previous session.
Look for reforms to the estate tax, childcare tax credit, and a host of other tax relief initiatives to be front and center. As the Commonwealth’s revenues continue to grow and the potential for continued growth due to passage of the so-called millionaire's tax, there is increased pressure on the legislature to provide tax relief. With tax relief on the radar, expect any such discussion to include tax reform, primarily around Mass. Gen.
Laws ch. 62F, which many legislators felt handcuffed any potential tax relief efforts in the last session. • FY24 Budget. Notwithstanding the aforementioned issue of tax relief/tax reform, the budget process is always something to watch. This year will be Governor Healey’s first budget proposal so expect to see her priorities outlined in a little more depth. While campaigning against an opponent who relied on very broad policy strokes,
Governor Healey was able to stick to broader themes as well. Her Administration’s first budget, due in March, will provide some insight into how she will achieve her stated policy goals.
There is a strong chance that the FY24 budget and tax relief/tax reform efforts occur at the same time. • Transportation/Governance. Before the CO-
VID pandemic changed the topic, Beacon Hill was abuzz with efforts to implement transportation reform on a number of fronts. The MBTA, which was a focal point throughout the campaign season, is targeted for governance and finance reform. As well, some municipalities have been making it known that they would like to revisit the road and bridge funding formula contained in Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 90. Expect the legislature to entertain a variety of policy proposals aimed at the state’s transportation system. • Health Care Reform. The Massachusetts legislature passed significant omnibus mental health legislation last session, but left a number of other health care reforms on the table.
While the Senate passed prescription drug reform, the House did not. While the House passed hospital consolidation legislation, the
Senate did not. With health care costs continuing to increase, expect the legislature to revisit health care reform efforts.
continued on page 9
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Legislative Update continued from page 7 • Housing/Environmental Bond Bills. While the legislature tends to pass a variety of bond initiatives, the timing seems to favor an effort to reauthorize the housing and environmental bond bills.
These measures, which often involve significant bonding authority, contain continued on page 11 extensive policy initiatives as well. The identified policy initiatives set the path for the next three to five years of activity in a targeted area. Rising housing costs and infrastructure needed to support the spate of recently passed environmental initiatives should keep these two measures on the legislative radar.
In terms of a timeline, the 2023-2024 legislative session’s bill filing deadline is Friday, January 20th. Leadership appointments will likely be made in late January to mid-February. Legislation will then be assigned to the respective committees by the end of February to mid-March with the Gov-
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ernor’s budget due in early March. The House will consider its budget proposal in April while the Senate does the same for its proposal in May. Final budget deliberations will likely lead to a budget for Governor Healey to act on before July 1. Stay tuned for additional updates in Construction Outlook.
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With the Healey-Driscoll Administration in charge of the executive branch, the first order of business was to appoint key personnel to leadership positions within, and around, the Governor’s Office. As reported by various media outlets, the Healey-Driscoll Administration has initially looked at individuals who have served either in Healey’s Attorney General office, the Patrick-Murray Administration, or the Baker-Polito Administration as well as those with municipal experience. Of particular note, December saw the new administration make the following announcements:
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• Chief of Staff. Leading the Governor’s Office will be new Chief of Staff Kate Cook. A graduate of Harvard University and Brown University, Ms. Cook previously worked for seven years at Sugarman Rogers, chairing its government law and election law practice groups. Previously within the Patrick Administration, she worked as Chief Legal Counsel. Prior to that she was the General Counsel to the Senate Ways and Means Committee and Assistant Corporation Counsel to the City of Boston. • Chief Legal Counsel. Ms. Paige Scott Reed, who previously served as General Counsel to both the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, the MBTA, and Boston 2024 was named the Governor’s Chief Legal Counsel. Currently a partner at Prince Lobel Tye LLP, Ms. Scott Reed earned a degree from Harvard College in 1992 and graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1997. She is a past president of the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association.
• Secretary of Executive Office of Administration and
Finance (ANF). Mr. Matt Gorzkowicz was named the Governor's chief budget operative as Secretary of the ANF. Mr. Gorkowicz worked for more than a decade at UMass as the Associate Vice President for Administration and Finance. He previously worked as Budget Director in the Senate Ways and Means ComPortland mittee, Chief Financial Officer at the Massachusetts School Building Authority, and as Assistant Secretary for Budget at the ANF before. He is a graduate of Northeastern University
• Secretary of Massachusetts
Shrewsbury Department of TransportaChicopee Uxbridge Randolph tion (MassDOT). Ms. Gina Fiandaca, the former CommisPlymouth sioner of the Boston Transportation Department, was named the new Secretary of Masscontinued on page 13
Legislative Update continued from page 11
DOT. Most recently, Ms. Fiandaca was the Assistant City Manager for the City of Austin, Texas.
She received an MBA from Boston University and a bachelor’s degree from Suffolk University. To serve as Undersecretary of MassDOT, Governor
Healey appointed Ms. Monica Tibbits-Nutt, the current Executive Director of 128 Business Council, a transportation management association and regional service provider that plans and executes innovative first-/last-mile service throughout the
Route 128 West Corridor. She recently completed her tenure on the MassDOT Board of Directors and as Vice-Chair of the Fiscal Management and
Control Board that oversaw the MBTA from 20152021. She received a Masters from the Ohio State
University in Columbus and a Bachelor of Science tory teacher, high school principal, and as the superintendent of the Lynn Public Schools. Tutwiler earned a BA in history from The College of the
Holy Cross, a Master’s in education from Harvard
University Graduate School of Education, and a
PhD in curriculum and instruction from the Lynch
School of Education at Boston College.
As with any gubernatorial transition, a series of officials will stay through the beginning of the new administration. There is also a chance that certain officials will carryover with the new administration throughout the first year. At the time of this writing, appointments for high-profile positions such as the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, the Department of Environmental Protection, and the MBTA have not been Bostmade. on Area
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in Political Science and Sociology from the University of
Southern Indiana.
• Secretary of the Executive
Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA). Ms.
Rebecca Tepper serves as Attorney General Healey’s chief advisor on energy and environmental policy as Secretary for
EEA. She’s responsible for the office’s three environmental and energy divisions, including 100 Fremont Street Worcester, MA 01603 431 Second Street Everett, MA 02149 executing the statutory duties of the Commonwealth’s ratepayer advocate. She worked in the Attorney General’s Office since 2015, and previously served as General Counsel for the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities and Director of the Massachusetts
Energy Facilities Siting Board.
Before entering state government in 2009, Tepper worked in the private sector for 15 years as a Partner at Rubin and Rudman LLP. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin/
Madison and Boston University
Law School.
• Secretary of the Executive
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Legislative Update continued from page 13 Baker-Polito Administration Awards $273,165 in
Grants to Help Local Towns Meet Stormwater Permitting Requirements
The end of 2022 saw the Baker-Polito Administration make final announcements about new grants. Among the awards announced were $273,165 in grants to four multi-community stormwater coalitions across Massachusetts to help local cities and towns meet existing and upcoming stormwater management requirements. The projects, selected by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) were awarded to the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, Metropolitan Area Planning Council, Charles River Watershed Association, and the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission.
The grant funding will enable these four Massachusetts municipalities to expand their efforts to meet Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permit requirements and reduce stormwater pollution through coordinated partnerships. According to the MassDEP press release announcing the awards, there are more than 260 Massachusetts municipalities subject to the current MS4 permit, issued jointly by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and MassDEP, which took effect on July 1, 2018. Permit requirements that the MS4 communities must meet include the development and implementation of a public education program, adopting more stringent local development rules, locating and removing pollutants that are illegally entering municipal stormwater systems, and installing stormwater management systems.
The groups receiving funding are:
Pioneer Valley Planning Commission ($83,895).
The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission will host a series of virtual trainings on stormwater management for the developer audience in the Connecticut River Stormwater Committee and Neponset Stormwater Partnership regions and will promote site planning and design that meets new stormwater standards and integrates with climate change considerations. Metropolitan Area Planning Council ($56,800). The Metropolitan Area Planning Council will develop an oncontinued on page 17
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Legislative Update continued from page 15 line, map-based tool to assist municipalities with identifying sites for green infrastructure by evaluating both technical considerations (such as prevalence of impervious surface areas) and equity considerations (such as proximity to environmental justice populations).
Charles River Watershed Association ($61,970).
The Charles River Watershed Association will partner with the University of Vermont Spatial Analysis Land and utilize a very high resolution 2021 aerial imagery available for Massachusetts along with locally available impervious cover data to derive land use and impermeable cover for the entire Charles River watershed.
Merrimack Valley Planning Commission ($70,500).
The Merrimack Valley Planning Commission will develop an interactive web-based toolkit to facilitate the assemblage and dissemination of MS4 relevant model code language specific to community characteristics and needs.
The aforementioned grants are funded through the Commonwealth’s Fiscal Year 2023 capital plan’s MS4 Municipal Assistance Grant Program. To learn more about the stormwater permitting through the MassDEP, please visit: https://www.mass.gov/infodetails/stormwater-permitting.
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Legislative Update continued from page 17 New State Emissions Plan for 2050 Targets Released
Before leaving office, the Baker-Polito Administration, through the EEA, released its “MAClimateChangeAssessment,”thefirst statewide assessment detailing how Massachusetts residents, environments, and infrastructure may be affected by climate change and related hazards through the end of the century. According to a press release from the EEA, the report will directly inform the first five-year update to the State Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation Plan (SHMCAP), that will be released in the Fall of 2023. The assessment evaluates 37 climate impacts across five sectors: human, infrastructure, natural environment, governance, and economy; and seven regions of the Commonwealth.
For each of the 37 climate impacts analyzed within the MA Climate Change Assessment, the report attempts to answer the following questions: • How large of an impact does the Commonwealth expect from projected climate hazards
on communities, the natural environment, and built infrastructure assets? • Does the Commonwealth expect populations living in environmental justice communities to be affected more than the rest of the population? • Is the Commonwealth currently doing enough to adapt to these impacts, and how soon is action needed?
The MA Climate Change Assessment draws on the best available climate and impact assessment science, active stakeholder engagement, and broad state agency perspectives and was developed over the last year with state agency staff, local and federal government partners, an expert climate science panel, non-profit and community group representatives, and the public. The report establishes a priority for 16 climate impacts that were determined to be of the highest urgency in
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the Commonwealth, representing the top three ranked impacts in each of the five sectors and four within the natural environment sector. The project consultant team was led by Industrial Economics and included Eastern Research Group, Consensus Building Institute, and Woods Hole Group, in addition to independent subject matter experts from Massachusetts-based universities.
Despite leaving office, the Baker-Polito Administration hopes this report will guide the 2023 update to the SHMCAP, the Commonwealth’s strategic plan for hazard mitigation and climate risk reduction action. The 2023 update is underway and includes a stakeholder engagement process launching next year to inform the statewide action strategy. Expect to see the Healey-Driscoll Administration put some notable focus points on the upcoming report.
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News in Brief
• Suuberg to Lead Regional Waste
Management Group. Mr. Martin (Marty)
Suuberg, former Commissioner of the
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, will join the Northeast
Waste Management Officials' Association (NEWMOA), as its new executive director in January. The nonprofit serves
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts,
New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York,
Rhode Island, and Vermont. The NEW-
MOA membership “is composed of the state environment agency programs that address pollution prevention, toxics use reduction, sustainability, materials management, hazardous waste, solid waste, emergency response, waste site cleanup, underground storage tanks, and related environmental challenges."
In his new role, Mr. Suuberg will tackle the environmental issues caused by solid waste from a new perspective, as well as working on pollution prevention and issues caused by hazardous waste and mercury. Among other goals, NEW-
MOA aims to develop and enhance the capabilities and knowledge of state officials so that they are well trained, able to adjust to rapid changes in technology, and respond effectively to emerging environmental challenges. Mr. Suuberg was an invaluable partner to UCANE in advancing the Commonwealth’s efforts to address the Commonwealth’s water infrastructure needs.
• Attorney General Names First As-
sistant AG. Attorney General Andrea
Campbell has named Mr. Patrick Moore as her First Assistant Attorney General.
Mr. Moore, who worked as Deputy Counsel to both Governors Patrick and Baker, was also Deputy General Counsel on
President Joe Biden's presidential campaign. Mr. Moore was co-chair of the
Government & Election Law Group and a partner in the Litigation Group at Hemenway & Barnes, where he represented municipalities, public officials, and candidates for office. A graduate of Boston
College and its law school, he previously served as a law clerk to Judge Maryanne
Trump Barry of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and to former Judge
Robert Cordy of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
• AGO Issues Revised Guide for Board
Members of Charitable Organizations.
In December, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) released a revised “Guide for
Board Members of Charitable Organizations” to encourage charitable boards in
Massachusetts to consider best practices that can strengthen their organizations and enhance operations. To help support the work of charitable boards, the AGO is providing recommendations in key areas of responsibility to help board members of charitable nonprofit organizations carry out their important roles. Included in the guide is a call for boards to emphasize the connection between the board, the organization’s leadership, and the communities they serve and to center the charitable missions of their organizations in all of their work. The guide also lays out the AGO’s expectations for best practices regarding board and leadership composition and diversity, financial accountability, and conflicts of interest. It is not intended to prescribe the exact way a Massachusetts public charity board must function, as the size, form, and structure of boards varies greatly. To view the updated guide, please visit: https://www.mass.gov/files/ documents/2022/12/22/2022-12-20%20
CHARITIES-GUIDANCE_PUB_V2.pdf. n
