August 2024 Legislative Update

Formal Sessions End; Housing Bond Bill Reaches Governor’s Desk

The Massachusetts legislature ended its formal sessions for the 2023-2024 legislative session with progress achieved on a host of conference committees, but with homework to be done for getting some of others, including ones addressing economic development, health care and federal funding interest planning, to the Governor’s desk. One matter that made it all the way to the Governor’s desk was the much-anticipated housing bond bill. The $5.16 billion bond bill, which was lower than the original House appropriation of $6.5 billion and the $5.4 billion Senate appropriation, was still higher than Governor Maura Healey’s original $4.2 billion initiative. 

A number of policies sponsored by both branches were left out of the final Conference Committee report, including the House proposal to authorize $1 billion for the expansion of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA). The compromise does not include a Senate proposal to make landlords pay for broker's fees, instead of tenants, nor does it feature Senate-backed grants: $50 million for rural and small-town housing, $50 million for mid-sized suburban town housing for communities with under 40,000 residents, and another $50 million for seasonal communities, which face unique housing challenges from the second home market that inflates housing prices. In addition to the MWRA expansion, a number of House-backed ideas were not included in the bill, including an idea to steer $150 million towards converting unused commercial spaces into residential properties and $50 million for a so-called Healthy Homes program to provide grants to address lead paint and other housing health issues, and a veteran's program. As widely reported, since neither the House nor Senate proposals contained an authorization for a real estate transaction surcharge, it was not part of the final package.

Of particular interest to UCANE members, the Conference Committee report funded the HousingWorks program at a record $175 million; however, it did not adopt the Senate’s proposal to include $100 million of the HousingWorks funding for water infrastructure improvements as part of an overall funding scheme of $350 million. The Conference Committee report also did not include a Commission to study the current impacts of the Interbasin Transfer Act on creating new housing or addressing the mitigation and removal of PFAS, despite forty years having passed since the law was originally enacted. The Commission’s creation was supported by the American Council of Engineering Companies, Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Water Works Association, and UCANE.

According to the State House News Service, despite the final bill featuring a high bottom line not all of that borrowing capacity will actually get used. The state's plan for actual capital spending released last month dedicates $2 billion for housing over the next five years, and $400 million in fiscal 2025, a 30 percent increase over fiscal 2024.

To review the Conference Committee report, which is expected to be signed by the Governor within the early part of August, please visit: https://malegislature.gov/Bills/193/H4977.

Wage Transparency Bill Signed Into Law

On July 24, 2024, the Massachusetts House and Senate passed the wage transparency bill, “An Act Relative to Salary Range Transparency.” The legislation, which was signed by Governor Healey shortly after it reached her desk, requires covered employers to disclose pay range information to current and prospective employees under certain circumstances. It also requires covered employers to report wage data to the state.

Specifically, covered employers (i.e., employers with 25 or more employees in Massachusetts) are required to: include a pay range in all job postings; provide the pay range when a current employee is offered a promotion or transfer to a new position with different job responsibilities; and provide the pay range for a particular position to an employee that currently holds the position, or to an applicant for the position, upon request.

The term “pay range” is defined as “the annual salary range or hourly wage range that the covered employer reasonably and in good faith expects to pay for such a position at that time.” For purposes of the new law, “posting” is defined as “any advertisement or job posting intended to recruit job applicants for a particular and specific employment position, including, but not limited to, recruitment done directly by a covered employer or indirectly through a third party.”

Further, certain employers (i.e., employers with 100 or more employees in Massachusetts at any time during the prior calendar year that are subject to federal wage data report filing requirements) must file a wage data report with the Secretary of State, which includes workforce demographic and pay data, categorized by race, ethnicity, sex, and job category. Fortunately for employers, submission of a federal EEO Employer Information Report will meet these state reporting requirements. Private employers are required to submit wage data reports annually, whereas unions, state and local government, and school systems, will need to submit reports every two years. The individual reports will not be considered a public record, but the aggregate data will be published by the Massachusetts Department of Labor. Covered employers must submit their EEO-1, EEO-3, or EEO-5 reports by February 1, 2025.

As the Massachusetts Attorney General has exclusive jurisdiction to enforce the law, there is no private right of action for employees or applicants. Any covered employer who violates the law will be issued a warning for the first violation. After a first offense, the punishment escalates with a fine of up to $500 for the second offense, a fine of up to $1,000 for the third offense, and fines between $7,500-$25,000 for fourth or subsequent offenses. A single offense of the pay disclosure provision encompasses all job postings made by an employer in a 48-hour period. Per the recent norm of wage and benefit laws, employers cannot retaliate against employees for exercising their rights under this new statute.

Finally, the law requires the Attorney General to conduct a public awareness campaign, including publishing information on their website, to educate employers regarding the requirements of the new law. To view a copy of the new Wage Transparency Law, please visit: https://malegislature.gov/Bills/193/H4890.pdf.

Administration Awards Grants to Aid Small and Disadvantaged Public Water Suppliers to Address Emerging Contaminants

According to a press release from the Healey-Driscoll Administration, more than $17.4 million in grant awards to 21 public water suppliers were made in July to assist with long-term solutions that address and mitigate emerging contaminants in drinking water. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) selected the 21 projects to help remove PFAS and manganese.

Launched in 2023 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities (EC-SDC) Grant Program provides states with funds to assist small and disadvantaged communities in improving their drinking water through projects and activities that address emerging contaminants that are registered on EPA’s Contaminant Candidate Lists (CCL). Water contaminants that are known or anticipated to occur in public water systems and are not currently subject to federal drinking water regulations are added to the list and prioritized for further information collection and action. The grant program is made possible through funding from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).

PFAS and manganese are among the list of contaminants that are increasingly impacting water resources. Exposure to sufficiently elevated levels of PFAS compounds may cause a variety of health effects, including developmental effects in infants, impacts to certain organ functions and the immune system, and an elevated cancer risk. Manganese is a naturally occurring element that's present in water, soil, air, and food. While a small amount of manganese is necessary for good health, long-term exposure to high levels in drinking water may have adverse impacts to the nervous system.

Some of the first round of projects selected by the DEP include, but are not limited to, the following public water suppliers: 

 

§  Town of Ayer ($135,000). The town will fund a pilot study to evaluate alternative PFAS removal process options at the Grove Pond Water Treatment Facility.

§  Tewksbury Water Department ($1,936,000). The town will utilize these funds for a three-phase project for engineering design and construction to connect the Tewksbury State Hospital to the Town of Tewksbury's water distribution system.

§  Town of Westport ($4,000,000). The Town of Westport provides drinking water to a small portion of town with water piped in from the City of Fall River’s water system. The proposed project will extend the water main further east along Route 6, provide a loop at Gifford Road to service an elementary school, extend along Route 6 to provide service to some businesses and residents impacted by PFAS.

§  Pepperell Water Department ($5,175,000). The town will use the funding for a project to extend a water main from the Dunstable Water Department distribution system to the Pepperell Water Department system at Jersey Street in Pepperell.

§  Barnstable Fire District ($2,388,000). The public water supplier will use the funds to construct a new 2.16-million-gallons-per-day drinking water treatment facility with Granulated Activated Carbon to remove PFAS at wells #2 and #5.

§  West Brookfield Water Department ($113,900). The Town of West Brookfield plans to use this grant to design a treatment facility to treat manganese, and the town plans to eventually construct a new Leland Road water treatment facility.

§  North Raynham Water District ($150,000). The public water supplier plans to rehabilitate an existing carbon vessel treatment to reduce PFAS to the lowest possible levels in their water system.

§  Lanesborough Fire and Water District ($1,000,000). The Lanesborough Fire and Water District will develop another groundwater supply well off Bull Hill Road in Lanesborough.

§  Pine Tree Village ($1,335,000). The public water supplier will use the grant funds to design and construct a new water treatment plant to remove manganese and PFAS from the source water.

To learn more about the Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities Grant program, please visit: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/emerging-contaminants-in-small-or-disadvantaged-communities-grant. To learn more about all of the communities that have received these grants, please visit: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/624cd8279bd8492f85f83e6f33892b4e/.

Healey Signs FY25 Budget; Few Vetoes Offered

Towards the end of July, Governor Healey signed the $58.1 bill on general appropriations bill for fiscal year 2025 (FY25) with minimal vetoes and amendments. The FY25 budget enacted by the Legislature included $58.1 billion in total line-item spending, including $1.3 billion in surtax investments and $682.2 million for a transfer to the Medical Assistance Trust Fund. This total represented a $2 billion (3.6 percent) increase over the fiscal year 2024 (FY24) appropriation, a $25.7 million increase over the House budget, and a $16.5 million increase over the Senate.

Governor Healey vetoed $316.8 million in gross spending ($248 million net) from the FY25 budget across 59 separate line items. The single largest veto cuts $192.3 million in funding from the MassHealth Managed Care account. This one veto comprised more than 60 percent of the spending cuts proposed by the Governor, but should be viewed within the context of the total $20 billion MassHealth funding level.

Legislators included policy provisions within the budget, including but not limited to, authorizing free community college, free rides on regional transit services, and legal online Lottery sales to fund a permanent Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) grant program that launched during the pandemic with federal dollars. The Governor also touted the budget's investment in her "Literacy Launch" program, which aims to connect all children from three years old to third grade with high-quality and evidence-based reading instruction, as well as its dedication of 1 percent of total spending to environment and energy initiatives.

The Senate initiative to make community college permanently free for all will cost $117.5 million, covering tuition and fees for students. And the House-backed idea of authorizing online Lottery sales is projected to raise $100 million for the popular C3 early education grant program. Another section of the budget aims to prevent so-called home equity theft, which refers to a municipality taking more of a property owner's earned equity than is owed in unpaid taxes and other expenses.

Of particular note to UCANE members, the FY25 budget saw Governor Healey veto the $1.5 million normally allocated for the Commonwealth Sewer Rate Relief program. While the House of Representatives overturned the Governor’s veto, formal sessions ended without the Senate taking up the same. While funding for the DEP was slightly higher ($54.3 million) than last year, the funding for the underground storage tank program was reduced to $6.99 million by the Governor’s veto pen.

To view the FY25 budget, please visit: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/SessionLaws/Acts/2024/Chapter140.

MassDOT Holds Public Hearing on Vulnerable User Law

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) held a public hearing on 540 CMR 4.00 et. seq. in mid-July. The proposed regulations are based on Chapter 358 of the Acts of 2022, which proposed a series of safety measures designed to protect vulnerable users of the Commonwealth’s roads and bridges. In enacting these safety measures, the Massachusetts legislature worked to establish a balance between the needs of all stakeholders who use the Commonwealth’s roads on a daily basis, including vulnerable users and general contractors. As explained to stakeholders throughout the legislative process, the requirement to install convex and concave mirrors, lateral protective devices (i.e. sideguards) and back-up cameras were to be balanced with mechanisms to ensure those entities contracting with the Commonwealth had reasonable means to comply with the new law.

Under the proposed regulations, a registered motor vehicle, trailer, semi-trailer or semi-trailer unit classified as a class 3 or above by the Federal Highway Administration, with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,001 pounds or more, that is leased or purchased by the Commonwealth on or after January 1, 2023, or operated under a contract with the Commonwealth on or after January 1, 2025, must be equipped with truck safety devices including a lateral protective device, convex mirrors, crossover mirrors and back up camera. Owners of a motor vehicle that is subject to the law and regulations must certify that the motor vehicle is equipped with lateral protective devices, convex mirrors, cross over mirrors, and back up cameras. The certification and required documentation will be submitted online to RMV.

Owners of motor vehicles that are subject to the truck safety devices may apply for a waiver from any or all of the requirements listed above. Waivers may be granted if: (a) a vehicle cannot comply with the requirements in this section due to the design, operation or other safety considerations relating to the vehicle; or (b) a vehicle is designed such that its shape, characteristics or component parts can be regarded as an adequate replacement or a functional equivalent substitute for the requirements herein.

A variety of organizations submitted testimony to MassDOT relative to their support for or specific concerns about the proposed regulations. To the aforementioned point, UCANE submitted written testimony acknowledging the importance of the regulation’s efforts to promote public safety, but also requesting clarifications on a variety of inconsistencies between the law and proposed regulations. Specifically, UCANE noted that the regulations impermissibly try to extend the responsibility to equip subject vehicles to municipal contracts which is not supported under the law. Further, UCANE sought clarification that delivery persons, who have no privity of contract with a general contractor in the same manner a subcontractor does, are not subject to this new regulatory scheme. Finally, in addition to a variety of more technical observations and suggestions, UCANE asked that MassDOT create an “exempted vehicle list” or “waiver list” for certain types of motor vehicles to prevent the potential for creating an administrative logjam within MassDOT.

Regardless of the potential changes to the regulations, every contractor with a state contract should be planning for this law to take effect on January 1, 2025. To review relevant information about the same, please visit MassDOT’s information page at: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/truck-safety-devices.