Wrapping up a $58 billion state budget, passing major housing legislation and ironing out a deal on a gun-reform package are among the marquee items on state lawmakers’ to-do list as their formal session winds down for the year. This week, the House and Senate are tacking on a few more topics.
Both chambers of the Legislature plan to vote on significant bills Thursday. While the Senate is zeroing in on climate and energy issues, the House has maternal health in its sights.
“We are in a climate crisis, and we need to do more to ensure that we meet our net-zero goals for 2050,” Senate President Karen Spilka said after meeting privately with House Speaker Ron Mariano, Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll.
The Senate has two bills on its agenda. One aims to cut back on plastic waste by prohibiting carry-out plastic bags at stores across the state. Shops that provide recycled plastic bags would be required to charge a 10-cent fee for them, 5 cents of which would go toward environmental protection measures.
Many towns have already adopted local-level bag bans and restrictions, creating a patchwork of regulations throughout the state. According to the Sierra Club, 162 cities and towns in Massachusetts — home to 70% of the state’s population — regulate single-use plastic bags.
The Senate’s other bill seeks to speed up the siting and permitting of clean energy infrastructure projects and expand access to electric vehicle charging equipment, among other measures aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
Massachusetts has committed in state law to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
In the House, Mariano said state representatives will take up “a bill that will strengthen the ability for us to care for mothers from the beginning of pregnancy right through postpartum.”
Monday’s huddle marked the first time in nearly three months that the State House’s top officials had publicly disclosed a meeting. It comes as the Legislature is entering its biennial crunch time: A finalized state budget is supposed to be in place each year by July 1, and formal lawmaking ends for the two-year term on July 31.
The budget is one of four bills tied up in private talks between the House and the Senate, along with legislation on gun law reforms, wage transparency and the state’s efforts to attract federal funding.
Several other bills have passed one chamber and are awaiting action in the other, like a multibillion dollar housing bond that Healey has talked up as one of her priorities. That bill passed the House on June 5, and Spilka said the Senate plans to take up its own version “before the month is over.”
Massachusetts is often the last state to adopt a full annual budget, and relies on one-month interim budgets to keep state government running when negotiations drag past the July 1 start of the fiscal year.
Mariano said that, this year, the budget talks led by Ways and Means Chairmen Rep. Aaron Michlewitz and Sen. Michael Rodrigues “seem to be very advanced.” He said the two were exchanging proposals last Saturday.
“Usually they’re a little bit more under the gun before they start working Saturdays, so they started a little earlier this year,” the speaker said. “I think it’s in good shape.”
