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Post Office Box 1147 ●
Marblehead, Massachusetts 01945 ●
(781) 639-9709
“Every Tax is a Pay Cut ... A Tax Cut is a Pay Raise”
45 years as “The Voice of Massachusetts Taxpayers”
— and
their Institutional Memory — |
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CLT UPDATE
Thursday, November
21, 2019
Taxpayers,
voters abused again
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There are no new
revenue sources in the $1.5 billion, seven-year education
funding compromise that's expected to win House and Senate
approval Wednesday, but the group behind the state's
39-year-old property tax limiting law is warning that a
measure in the compromise bill might threaten or circumvent
that law.
A Senate
initiative that survived conference committee talks
requires a Department of Revenue and Department of
Elementary and Secondary Education officials to file a
report by Dec. 1, 2020 containing "an analysis of the
impact of Proposition 2½ on the ability of
municipalities to make their required local
contributions in the short-term and long-term and
recommendations to mitigate the constraints of
Proposition 2½."
In a memo
released overnight as lawmakers are preparing to vote on
the bill (S 2412), Citizens for Limited Taxation
made clear its opposition to the analysis and noted that
the voter-approved law includes a mechanism that allows
local voters to raise their property taxes beyond the
law's limits by voting to do so.
"The potential
further 'mitigation' of a longstanding property tax
limitation statute created and adopted directly by the
people themselves does not belong in this bill," CLT
wrote. "Unfortunately there appears to be no mechanism
to amend a conference committee bill. Instead you are
confronted with an all-or-nothing vote on a bill
determined by a mere six select members among the two
chambers of the Legislature. So we are left with
recognizing that, for whatever reason, a vote for
passage of this bill will be the first step toward a
potential erosion of property tax limitation. Members
voting in the affirmative will be accountable for all
results initiated by their vote on this bill — both good
and bad, intended and unintended."
State House News Service
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
CLT Sees Threat to Prop 2½ in
Education Bill
CONVENES: Sen.
Brownsberger called the Senate to order at 11:05 a.m.
After roughly
five hours of debate, the Senate approved a ban
Wednesday night on flavored tobacco products that
includes menthol and imposes a 75 percent excise tax on
e-cigarettes. Senators then agreed with the House as the
calendar turned to Thursday on a compromise version so
it could go to Gov. Charlie Baker. The branches could
not agree, however, on a spending bill closing the books
on the fiscal year that ended June 30. The Senate
also sent the governor a landmark $1.5 billion education
funding reform bill, an update to the state's
campaign finance reporting system, and a children's
health care bill, while passing a ban on single-use
plastic bags in which the House has not expressed any
interest. Formal sessions are now done for the year, and
the Senate will start a six-week pattern of only holding
informal sessions Thursday.
Sen. Lewis
said: . . . "Finally, the legislation recognizes there
is more work to be done. We direct the Department of
Revenue to look closely at the contribution side of the
formula, at how we determine what is fair for a
municipality to contribute toward its own education
costs, and we expect that analysis to be presented with
recommendations."
Sen. O'Connor
said: "Today we will start keeping our promises."
Question came
on accepting the conference committee's report S 2412
relative to educational opportunity for students. BY
A ROLL CALL VOTE of 39-0 the report was ACCEPTED.
President Spilka voted yes.
ADJOURNS: The
Senate adjourned at 12:49 a.m. to meet again on Thursday
at 11 a.m. without a calendar.
State House News Service
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Senate Session Summary - Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2019
CONVENES: Rep.
Donato gaveled the House into session at 11:01 a.m.
In a session
that extended almost 14 hours, the House took its
final votes on a $1.5 billion school finance overhaul,
a ban on handheld cellphone use while driving,
children's health legislation and a campaign finance
reform bill. Lawmakers in the House and Senate did not
wrap up their work on the overdue fiscal 2019 closeout
budget, despite some signs of progress during the day
including the appointment of a conference committee. The
final House vote of the night, at 12:46 a.m., was to tax
e-cigarettes and ban the sale of all flavored vaping and
tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes. Rep.
Shaunna O'Connell, the Taunton mayor-elect, said goodbye
to her colleagues in the House's final formal session of
2019.
SCHOOL
FUNDING: The House ENACTED S 2412 relative to
educational opportunity for students.
ADJOURNS: The
House adjourned at 12:47 a.m. to meet next on Friday at
12:30 p.m. in an informal session.
State House
News Service
Thursday, November 21, 2019
House Session Summary - Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2019
A $1.5 billion
overhaul of the state's school funding formula was
unanimously approved in the Senate on Wednesday, marking
what one of the negotiators who developed the compromise
bill -- Sen. Patrick O'Connor of Weymouth -- called "the
biggest investment in our youth in modern history." ...
The bill is
expected to be approved in the House on Wednesday as
well, with final votes later in the day to send it to
Gov. Charlie Baker's desk.
State House News Service
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Senate Unanimously Approves
Education Funding Compromise
Both the House
and Senate unanimously adopted a landmark compromise
Wednesday overhauling the state's public education
funding formula with plans for a $1.5 billion infusion
of new dollars over the next seven years....
Rep. Paul
Tucker, one of the three House conferees who worked with
Senate negotiators on the final bill, described it as a
"transformational" piece of legislation that will be "a
legacy for generations to come."
One more
procedural vote is required in both branches to send the
bill on to the governor for his signature.
Rep. Alice
Peisch, who led the House negotiating team, said the
compromise bill closely follows the original version of
the legislation that came out of the Education
Committee....
"As
organizations committed to educational equity, we urge
Governor Baker to swiftly sign the Student Opportunity
Act and lay the groundwork for improvements that will
enhance learning experiences and outcomes for all
students, and especially for students that have been
underserved in our state for too long," the
Massachusetts Education Equity Partnership said in a
statement.
The
Massachusetts Teachers Association called it a "great
day for students and educators in Massachusetts."
State House News Service
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Bill Pledging Ed Funding Increase
Unanimously Approved
Massachusetts
lawmakers wrapped up work Wednesday on bills calling for
long-term K-12 education investments, requiring
motorists to use only hands-free technology while
driving, and banning flavored tobacco products.
Legislators
tried to come up with a late-night deal allocating a
more than $1 billion fiscal 2019 surplus, but House and
Senate Democrats couldn't find common ground even though
tardiness with that bill has cost the state $30,000 a
day in forgone interest since Nov. 1. House Minority
Leader Brad Jones called it a "complete failure of the
House and Senate Democratic leadership to get this
done." ...
The education
bill was years in the making and is designed to boost
student achievement in low-income communities. Lawmakers
anticipate the legislation will help to more fully
account for expenses that school districts are incurring
and settle battles over charter school funding. They
plan to cover the bill's significant costs with existing
revenue sources, which could put pressure on other state
spending priorities, especially if recent tax revenue
growth rates slow down....
While much of
the focus was on getting significant bills to the
governor's desk before the recess, the House and Senate
also took initial steps requiring schools with large
low-income student populations to provide breakfast
during the instructional day and banning single-use
plastic bags, respectively....
The so-called
closeout supplemental budget wrapping up work on fiscal
2019, which ended June 30, remains a work in progress,
pretty much exclusively behind the scenes, even though
state finance officials missed a statutory reporting
deadline and have repeatedly asked over the years for
that bill to be passed earlier....
"There were a
lot of factors in play, but I think it's very
interesting that we took up two pieces of legislation
that really up until quite recently weren't on anybody's
radar screen and we weren't able to accomplish the one
thing we knew we had a mandate to do," he continued,
referring to bans on flavored nicotine products and
single-use plastic bags.
State House News Service
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Education, Flavor Ban, Hands-Free
Bills Sent to Baker
The
Massachusetts Senate approved a statewide ban on retail
businesses offering single-use plastic bags, but the
bill advanced Wednesday night with more dissent than
usual from the Democratic ranks due to the way the bill
surfaced.
Retail
businesses would be prohibited from offering customers
thin, disposable plastic bags at the point of sale in
most cases, and unlike versions of the bill the Senate
backed in previous sessions, they would also need to
charge a minimum of 10 cents for any paper or reusable
bags offered to customers.
The Senate
voted 36-4 to approve the bill, which has failed to gain
traction over the years in the House....
Republican
Sens. Bruce Tarr and Patrick O'Connor backed the ban.
State House News Service
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Mass. Senate Votes to Ban Single-Use
Plastic Bags
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
I suspected
that property taxpayers were in trouble when Sen.
Patrick O'Connor (R-Weymouth) was appointed as one of
the six members of the conference committee. He,
along with Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr
(R-Gloucester), were the two Republicans who
voted for the amendment attacking Proposition 2½
that was included in the initial Senate version of the
bill. Not surprisingly, Sen. O'Connor
and Sen. Tarr also were two of the
three Republicans who voted for
the plastic bag ban and
ten cents charge for replacement paper and reusable
bags. (Sen. Vinny DeMacedo, R-Plymouth, who
resigned after voting yesterday to
take a job
with Bridgewater State University, was the third
Republican who went along and voted for it.)
After unanimous passage of the bill in the Senate, Sen.
O'Connor announced: "Today we will start keeping our
promises." If I could believe him, I'd reply "It's about time,
Senator!" But his lips were moving so I know better.
It
must be concluded that the Republican Party in Massachusetts has a
far bigger problem even than it used to.
Then
the education finance bill went to the House. At 2:38 pm it
too passed unanimously, 156-0.
About the only thing the
Legislature couldn't get thrown in and passed in yesterday's
frenzy was closing out last fiscal year's budget, which ended on
June 30. They're still fighting among themselves over how to
squander more than a billion dollars of "surplus" revenue still
remaining from last year's over-$2 billion in over-taxation surplus.
That astonishing procrastination has cost the state (taxpayers)
$30,000 in foregone interest each day since November 15
— and counting.
PASSED
● The education finance bill;
● The distracted driving bill
requiring motorists to use only hands-free technology while
driving;
● A bill that bans flavored tobacco
and imposes a new tax on vaping products;
● A campaign finance bill creating
a depository system to report campaign finance information;
● A bill to improve access to
behavioral and mental health services for children;
● A bill guaranteeing health
insurance coverage for foster children until they turn 26;
● A bill requiring insurance
companies to offer accurate online care provider directories.
FAILED TO PASS
● Allocating a more than $1 billion
fiscal 2019 revenue surplus.
ADVANCED
● Senate passed a bill banning
single-use plastic bags statewide that would also require stores
to charge a 10-cent fee for recyclable paper or reusable bags;
● House unanimously passed a
"breakfast after the bell" bill.
So what's next for
property taxpayers now that Proposition 2½ has
been weakened?
The
enacted conference committee bill is now on the governor's desk for
his signature, which is all that remains for it to become law.
We can hope that Charlie Baker strikes out Section 21(b)(vi), sends
it back to the Legislature, and tries to save Proposition 2½.
His amendment might well be sustained as this attack was not
included in the House version.
Section 21(b) states:
"Not later than December 1, 2020,
the division of local services within the department of
revenue and the department of elementary and secondary
education shall file a report with the clerks of the
senate and the house of representatives, the chairs of
the joint committee on education and the chairs of the
senate and house committees on ways and means. The
report shall include, but not be limited to: . . .
"(vi) an analysis of the impact of
Proposition 2½ on the ability of municipalities to make
their required local contributions in the short-term and
long-term and recommendations to mitigate the
constraints of Proposition 2½;"
The
Division of Local Services is a creation of Proposition 2½,
within the Department of Revenue. It appears that's where our
next focus must be, "not later than December 1, 2020."
Here's an interesting
anecdote from this battle. I was called yesterday by a CLT
member with a tale of treachery and deception. The member sent
me a copy of the e-mail exchange he had with his state
representative, Rep. Paul Tucker (D-Salem).
The
CLT member wrote to Rep. Tucker:
. . . We will certainly be closely
watching your vote on what will be included in the Education
Finance Reform bill and whether or not it will include an
attempt to override Proposition 2½.
I
am doing my best to alert my neighbors, many are also retired.
Please ... I implore you to do the right thing. Massachusetts
voters had to petition our state government for Proposition 2½
and it was voted into law. The will of the people should not be
undermined in secret meetings.
Rep. Tucker responded:
I am on the Education Conference
Committee that has responsibilities to report out the Ed
Reform Bill. There is no mention anywhere about Prop 2½
in the pending bill, and I know this because I am the House
sponsor of the bill.
As you inform your neighbors please let them know it’s about
education reform and closing the achievement gap among school
districts.
The CLT Member replied to Tucker:
As I see it, the joint committee of
both branches of our state government, of which you are on
the House side, does indeed mention proposition 2½ in bill
No. 2414. I call your attention to lines 610 - 613 " (vi) an
analysis of the impact of Proposition 2½ on the ability of
municipalities to make their required local contributions in
the short-term and long-term and recommendations to mitigate
the constraints of Proposition 2½."
So, as the sponsor of the bill I can only conclude that you are
in favor of any attack on Proposition 2½.
Rep. Tucker replied:
Good afternoon___, we just passed
the Education bill, House and Senate unanimously with
every Democratic and Republican in favor. The lines
you refer to simply look at the effects of two and a
half. Despite what the person who is CLT says it is
no more than that. I would suggest that if it were any
more than that, there would have been strong opposition
to the Ed bill and never would every member,
particularly Republican members ever support it. And I
would add, I do not support any change to two and a
half, not now or in the future. Please don’t take
this disrespectfully, but your final conclusion is
incorrect and the CLT message is speculation on top of
guessing and is simply wrong. I look forward to hearing
from you on any item of interest and please know that
whether we agree or disagree on an issue I will always
return your message.
Is State Representative
Paul Tucker that ignorant, that stupid. that incompetent
— or did he just bold-face lie to his
constituent? You decide.
Here's the
conference conference committee's report/bill. There's
Rep. Paul Tucker, one of the six conferees named right at the top of
it. Go to and read Page 31, lines 610-613:
(vi) an analysis
of the impact of Proposition 2½ on the ability of municipalities
to make their required local contributions in the short-term and
long-term and recommendations to mitigate the constraints of
Proposition 2½;
And I'm frequently asked
how I can possibly be so cynical?
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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State House News Service
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
CLT Sees Threat to Prop 2½ in Education Bill
By Michael P. Norton
There are no new revenue sources in the $1.5
billion, seven-year education funding compromise
that's expected to win House and Senate approval
Wednesday, but the group behind the state's
39-year-old property tax limiting law is warning
that a measure in the compromise bill might
threaten or circumvent that law.
A Senate initiative that survived conference
committee talks requires a Department of Revenue
and Department of Elementary and Secondary
Education officials to file a report by Dec. 1,
2020 containing "an analysis of the impact of
Proposition 2½ on the ability of municipalities
to make their required local contributions in
the short-term and long-term and recommendations
to mitigate the constraints of Proposition 2½."
In a memo released overnight as lawmakers are
preparing to vote on the bill (S 2412),
Citizens for Limited Taxation made clear its
opposition to the analysis and noted that the
voter-approved law includes a mechanism that
allows local voters to raise their property
taxes beyond the law's limits by voting to do
so.
"The potential further 'mitigation' of a
longstanding property tax limitation statute
created and adopted directly by the people
themselves does not belong in this bill," CLT
wrote. "Unfortunately there appears to be no
mechanism to amend a conference committee bill.
Instead you are confronted with an
all-or-nothing vote on a bill determined by a
mere six select members among the two chambers
of the Legislature. So we are left with
recognizing that, for whatever reason, a vote
for passage of this bill will be the first step
toward a potential erosion of property tax
limitation. Members voting in the affirmative
will be accountable for all results initiated by
their vote on this bill — both good and bad,
intended and unintended."
Sen. Jo Comerford of Amherst led the push for
the measure. "For many of our towns in the
Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester District, the
constraints of Prop 2½ make it impossible to
meet the demands for sufficient local school
funding and this is causing real strain and
burden on municipalities," she said.
The education funding overhaul bill will come up
first in the Senate on Wednesday and then later
in the House.
State House News
Service
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Senate Unanimously Approves Education Funding Compromise
By Katie Lannan
A $1.5 billion overhaul of the state's school funding formula was
unanimously approved in the Senate on Wednesday, marking what one of the
negotiators who developed the compromise bill -- Sen. Patrick O'Connor
of Weymouth -- called "the biggest investment in our youth in modern
history."
Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, a Boston Democrat who has long been advocating
for a rewrite of the formula, said the vote marks the seventh time the
Senate has unanimously passed a bill calling for new money to address
expenses associated with special education, teaching English learners
and low-income students, and employee health benefits.
The bill, a compromise agreed to with House leaders, aims to address
persistent achievement gaps, and to support schools educating high
concentrations of students from low-income families.
"Our vote stands as our generation's commitment to deliver on our core
promise in Massachusetts -- that every child will get a quality
education, and that zip code will not be destiny," Chang-Diaz said.
The bill is expected to be approved in the House on Wednesday as well,
with final votes later in the day to send it to Gov. Charlie Baker's
desk.
Education advocates have been prodding Beacon Hill to update the formula
and invest more in education for years, arguments that have been
punctuated by lawsuits.
State House News
Service
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Bill Pledging Ed Funding Increase Unanimously Approved
By Chris Lisinski and Katie Lannan
Both the House and Senate unanimously adopted a landmark compromise
Wednesday overhauling the state's public education funding formula with
plans for a $1.5 billion infusion of new dollars over the next seven
years.
The branches appear poised to send the legislation to the governor later
in the day. Gov. Charlie Baker has not made his views clear on the bill,
which he will review, but the unanimous votes are a sign that major
changes to the bill may not be well received by the Legislature.
Rep. Paul Tucker, one of the three House conferees who worked with
Senate negotiators on the final bill, described it as a
"transformational" piece of legislation that will be "a legacy for
generations to come."
One more procedural vote is required in both branches to send the bill
on to the governor for his signature.
Rep. Alice Peisch, who led the House negotiating team, said the
compromise bill closely follows the original version of the legislation
that came out of the Education Committee.
The legislation, she said, "ensures we always put the students first" by
directing the bulk of the new funding toward districts with the greatest
need to close achievement gaps for low-income and other groups of
students. She said accountability measures in the bill would ensure that
students are the beneficiaries.
Lawmakers plan to work the higher levels of K-12 funding into future
budgets, drawing from existing revenue sources, an approach that could
put a strain on other areas of state spending.
Sen. Patrick O'Connor, a Weymouth Republican, called the bill "the
biggest investment in our youth in modern history."
Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, a Boston Democrat who has long been advocating
for a rewrite of the formula, said the vote marks the seventh time the
Senate has passed a bill calling for new money to address the rising
costs of special education, teaching English learners and low-income
students, and employee health benefits.
"Our vote stands as our generation's commitment to deliver on our core
promise in Massachusetts -- that every child will get a quality
education, and that zip code will not be destiny," Chang-Diaz said.
Education advocates have been prodding Beacon Hill to update the formula
and invest more in education for years, arguments that have been
punctuated by lawsuits.
"As organizations committed to educational equity, we urge Governor
Baker to swiftly sign the Student Opportunity Act and lay the groundwork
for improvements that will enhance learning experiences and outcomes for
all students, and especially for students that have been underserved in
our state for too long," the Massachusetts Education Equity Partnership
said in a statement.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association called it a "great day for
students and educators in Massachusetts."
State House News
Service
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Education, Flavor Ban, Hands-Free Bills Sent to Baker
By Michael P. Norton and Matt Murphy
Massachusetts lawmakers wrapped up work Wednesday on bills calling for
long-term K-12 education investments, requiring motorists to use only
hands-free technology while driving, and banning flavored tobacco
products.
Legislators tried to come up with a late-night deal allocating a more
than $1 billion fiscal 2019 surplus, but House and Senate Democrats
couldn't find common ground even though tardiness with that bill has
cost the state $30,000 a day in forgone interest since Nov. 1. House
Minority Leader Brad Jones called it a "complete failure of the House
and Senate Democratic leadership to get this done."
Gov. Charlie Baker, due back in Massachusetts Wednesday night after
meetings in Florida with Republican governors, also has on his desk a
bill requiring state representatives, senators, mayors and candidates
for those offices to use a depository system to report campaign finance
information, a change proponents said will lead to more frequent and
accurate reporting. If the bill becomes law, Massachusetts will become
the first state to have independent third-party verified disclosure for
all state-level candidates, Rep. John Lawn said.
The education bill was years in the making and is designed to boost
student achievement in low-income communities. Lawmakers anticipate the
legislation will help to more fully account for expenses that school
districts are incurring and settle battles over charter school funding.
They plan to cover the bill's significant costs with existing revenue
sources, which could put pressure on other state spending priorities,
especially if recent tax revenue growth rates slow down.
The distracted driving bill, a version of which was sponsored this year
by Gov. Baker, comes after years of experimentation with a largely
ineffective law banning texting while driving. The bill's supporters
hope it counters public safety hazards on the roads by finally forcing
more drivers to put their devices aside, or face fines and potentially,
insurance surcharges.
The branches also made significant progress in the last week or so on
legislation banning flavored tobacco and imposing a new tax on vaping
products. That legislation cleared the Senate Wednesday and the branches
quickly reconciled differences and sent a bill to Baker, put the current
temporary ban on sales of vaping products in place in response to vape-related
lung injuries and deaths.
The bill would ban flavored e-cigarettes immediately upon the governor's
signing of the legislation, while a proposed ban on menthol cigarettes
would take effect on June 1, 2020.
In their flurry of legislating, lawmakers also sent Baker a bill
designed to improve access to behavioral and mental health services for
children, guaranteeing health insurance coverage for foster children
until they turn 26, and requiring insurance companies to offer customers
accurate online care provider directories.
While much of the focus was on getting significant bills to the
governor's desk before the recess, the House and Senate also took
initial steps requiring schools with large low-income student
populations to provide breakfast during the instructional day and
banning single-use plastic bags, respectively.
The Senate passed a bag ban bill 36-4 that would require stores to
charge a 10-cent fee for recyclable paper or reusable bags, while the
House unanimously passed a "breakfast after the bell" bill, which has
also been a priority of Assistant Senate Majority Leader Sal DiDomenico.
The final week before the mid-session recess was robbed of the some of
the drama that had been expected when House Speaker Robert DeLeo last
week said his promised fall debate over new revenue streams to pay for
transportation infrastructure would be pushed off until January.
The Senate is also signaling a desire to address climate change when the
Legislature returns in 2020 after Sen. Marc Pacheco repeatedly chastised
his colleagues in recent weeks for not acting with more urgency. In
addition to setting more aggressive carbon emission reduction
requirements, the Senate could consider bills passed by the House or
proposed by Gov. Baker to invest over $1 billion in climate adaptation
strategies.
"We talk a lot about climate change and climate resiliency and the like,
but it was the House who put one billion dollars into the Green Works
program," DeLeo said Wednesday, ticking through a list of
accomplishments over the first 11 months of the two year session.
The so-called closeout supplemental budget wrapping up work on fiscal
2019, which ended June 30, remains a work in progress, pretty much
exclusively behind the scenes, even though state finance officials
missed a statutory reporting deadline and have repeatedly asked over the
years for that bill to be passed earlier.
"The House looks forward to working with those willing to compromise in
the days ahead," DeLeo said in a statement released hours after the bill
was assigned to a conference committee for resolution.
"I have no idea what he means," Senate President Karen Spilka said after
the Senate adjourned at about 12:50 a.m. "Clearly we sent over many
versions. We produced a new bill today to try to move things forward so
we will continue to work with the House to try to resolve it."
Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr said he wasn't ready to blame
Democratic leaders, but questioned the priorities of the Senate in the
final day of formal session.
"I think what we had was a systemic failure. I'm not willing to assign
partisan blame but clearly we didn't reach the goal that we should have
and its disappointing," Tarr said.
"There were a lot of factors in play, but I think it's very interesting
that we took up two pieces of legislation that really up until quite
recently weren't on anybody's radar screen and we weren't able to
accomplish the one thing we knew we had a mandate to do," he continued,
referring to bans on flavored nicotine products and single-use plastic
bags.
State House News
Service
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Mass. Senate Votes to Ban Single-Use Plastic Bags
By Chris Lisinski
The Massachusetts Senate approved a statewide ban on retail businesses
offering single-use plastic bags, but the bill advanced Wednesday night
with more dissent than usual from the Democratic ranks due to the way
the bill surfaced.
Retail businesses would be prohibited from offering customers thin,
disposable plastic bags at the point of sale in most cases, and unlike
versions of the bill the Senate backed in previous sessions, they would
also need to charge a minimum of 10 cents for any paper or reusable bags
offered to customers.
The Senate voted 36-4 to approve the bill, which has failed to gain
traction over the years in the House.
"Every day, millions of Massachusetts residents are using plastic bags
as part of their daily routine," said Sen. Jamie Eldridge, the lead
sponsor of the ban. "Whether we're buying groceries, stopping by the
pharmacy or going to the hardware store, too often, we're bringing these
consumer goods home in plastic bags. Despite our best intentions, well
over 90 percent of these plastic bags are being thrown away never to be
used again."
The Senate shot down an amendment from Environment Committee Chair Sen.
Anne Gobi that would have replaced the text of the legislation (S 2410)
with language mirroring a version of the bill the committee advanced
that did not include the mandatory 10-cent fee.
That committee-endorsed bill (H 3945) is pending before the House Ways
and Means Committee.
Senate President Karen Spilka abruptly announced plans to advance the
new bill at the start of the week. In a Monday press release, she said
she was inspired to act after viewing a display at the Vancouver
Aquarium over the summer about the impacts of plastic on marine life.
The Ways and Means Committee then generated the legislation by reporting
it off an unrelated land-use bill (S 459) to the ire of the House's
Environment Committee chair. Gobi echoed similar criticisms during
Wednesday's debate.
"I also share frustrations when bills don't come out of a committee
right away or sit in one chamber or the other, but there is a process,
and those processes should not be circumvented," Gobi said.
Sen. Marc Pacheco, who supported the underlying legislation, said he
believes the Senate "can have a problem in actually getting the bill
done" because it went around the Environment Committee.
Gobi's amendment was rejected 26-13, a narrower margin than most votes
in a chamber where Democrats hold 34 seats. She ultimately voted against
the bill itself as well, while Republican Sens. Bruce Tarr and Patrick
O'Connor backed the ban.
Environmental advocacy groups previously criticized lawmakers for
advancing a ban without a fee, arguing that a charge on consumers was
necessary to ensure the ban is effective. Under the bill, 5 cents out of
every bag purchase will be returned to communities to go toward
recycling and other local efforts.
Qualifying small businesses would be exempt from charging the fee until
2024 under a Tarr amendment the Senate adopted.
Senate Ways and Means Committee Chair Michael Rodrigues said during
Wednesday's session that the new bill had consensus support from
environmental groups and from several business interests, including the
Massachusetts Food Association, which represents grocery stores and
supermarkets.
"There were lots of negotiations with groups on all sides of this
plastic bag ban, from the retailers to the food association to all of
the environmental agencies," he said. "The arrangement that is made with
this 10-cent fee is the result of these negotiations."
The National Federation of Independent Business Massachusetts slammed
the Senate's approval, tweeting just after the vote that the fee is "one
more policy making MA less affordable own & operate a #smallbiz."
The Senate's vote came after 10 p.m. Wednesday in the final formal
session of the year, where lawmakers also wrapped up several
high-profile bills including a major education funding overhaul.
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