News

Wednesday night and into Thursday morning (finally wrapped up at 9:00 am!), the legislature completed its last day of formal session. This marks the end of my first formal session, and I now share with you an update on some of the important laws that passed during the 193rd meeting of the General Court of Massachusetts. LEGISLATION SALARY TRANSPARENCY This legislation requires employers with 25 or more employees to disclose a salary range when posting a position and protects an employee’s right to ask their employer for the salary range for their position when applying for a job or seeking a promotion. It also requires employers with more than 100 employees to share their federal wage and workforce data reports with the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD), which would then be responsible for compiling and publishing aggregated wage and workforce date to help identify gender and racial wage gaps by industry. VETERANS BENEFITS REFORM The HERO Act expands and reforms veteran benefits in Massachusetts by better aligning the definition of “veteran” with federal guidelines, expanding medical, dental, and vision benefits, increasing the annuity for veterans with disabilities, and waiving the EMT training requirements for certain veterans. It also reinstates benefits lost to those who were dishonorably discharged due to sex, race, color, religion, or another protected status. Finally, the HERO Act allows a new local-option veteran property tax exemption, increases the employer tax credit for hiring veterans, and expands the Motor Vehicle Sales Tax exemption. AFFORDABLE HOMES ACT This legislation represents a historic $5.16 billion in bond authorizations, tax credits, and policy initiatives that promote housing production, facilitate the development of affordable housing, and preserve public housing in Massachusetts. Key authorized spending items include $2 billion towards the repair, modernization, and decarbonization of Massachusetts’ 43,000 public housing units and $800 million for new affordable housing. This legislation also allows accessory dwelling units (ADUs) by right in single-family zones across the state. COERCIVE CONTROL & REVENGE PORN This legislation updates our public safety laws by criminalizing the non-consensual sharing of explicit images, also known as “revenge porn”. It also creates a diversion program for teens who share explicit images, statutorily defines coercive control as an element of domestic abuse, and extends the statute of limitations to pursue criminal charges for certain domestic violence offenses from six years to 15 years. HOME EQUITY PROTECTION Incorporated as a policy item in the FY25 budget, this bill bans municipalities from selling a foreclosed home and keeping the former homeowner's equity (except for taxes owed to the town) as profit. FIREARM SAFETY REFORM Our Commonwealth has always been a leader in gun violence prevention. And yet, as James learned from "Mom's Demand Action", gun violence continues to tragically tear communities apart. In order to keep our public safety laws up to date with emerging technology and recent Supreme Court rulings, the legislature passed a comprehensive firearm safety law that gives law enforcement the tools they need to make our communities safer. This legislation cracks down on the sale of ghost guns, strengthens the Commonwealth’s red flag laws, updates the definition of assault-style firearms, and limits the carrying of guns into polling places and government buildings while updating our current prohibition of guns in schools to include school transport. Key Provisions: -Criminalizes discharging firearms at or near dwellings. -Prohibits the carrying of firearms on school busses, polling places, and government buildings with an exemption for law enforcement. -Standardizes training requirements for individuals seeking a license to carry and will now require live firearm training. -Expands the list of who may petition a court for an extreme risk protection order (ERPO)against a person who poses a risk of causing bodily injury to themselves or others beyond just household members and law enforcement, to include school administrators and medical professionals. -Closes loopholes that allow the modification of legal firearms into illegal automatic weapons and provides a legacy clause so all firearms legally owned and registered in Massachusetts as of the effective date of the bill will continue to be legal and may be bought and sold within the state -Requires the registration and serialization of frames and receivers and updates our definition of firearm to include unfinished frames and receivers in order to crack down on ghost guns. James met with several responsible gun owners, hunters, and sportsmen to ameliorate some parts of the earlier bill that seemed overly bureaucratic and did not enhance citizen safety. PARENTAGE ACT Many parents without legally recognized parentage face barriers in raising their children. This may include difficulties making medical appointments, managing a child’s finances, participating in educational decisions, or providing authorization for a child’s travel. This important legislation extends the full rights of legal parentage to LGBTQ+ families and families created via assisted reproduction, such as surrogacy or in-vitro fertilization. It also establishes clear paths to parentage for individuals or couples utilizing assisted reproduction and surrogacy in order to provide legal recognition and status prior to the child’s birth. IT BOND BILL The FutureTech Act provides $1.66 billion in digital infrastructure investments which will make it easier for people to interact with government services, including applying for unemployment insurance, completing college financial aid forms, seeking childcare financial assistance and accessing health records. The FutureTech Act also adds $25 million for AI projects within state agencies. CIRCUS ANIMAL PROTECTION This legislation prohibits event organizers from using elephants, big cats, primates, bears and giraffes in shows, in order to protect these animals from often inhumane living conditions. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT This legislation authorizes $3.96 billion in capital programs and a sweeping set of policy changes to support businesses and communities alike. Major investments include $400 million for MassCEC to support clean energy technology innovations in Massachusetts, and $500 million for the Life Sciences Breakthrough Fund. This legislation is also packed with policy priorities, including authorizing the construction of a professional soccer stadium in Everett, allowing locally produced craft beer to be sold at farmers' markets, requiring ticket sellers to clearly disclose true online ticket prices, banning automated ticket purchasing software, launching a new live-theater tax credit, admitting Massachusetts into the National Nurse Licensure Compact, allowing campaign funding to include childcare expenses, and much more. CLEAN ENERGY BILL This legislation contains critical energy reforms aimed at increasing the Commonwealth’s supply of clean energy by setting new renewable energy generation storage procurement targets, and by streamlining the state and local permitting process. The bill streamlines the permitting process for certain clean energy projects and certain clean energy storage systems while allowing municipalities to retain authority over these projects, requires DOER to forecast future electric vehicle needs so the state’s EV infrastructure can keep up with future demand, and allows DOER to create a moderate-income based utility rates in addition to current low-income rates. FY25 BUDGET Signed into law on July 19th, 2024, the FY25 budget is a fiscally responsible approach to investing in key areas such as food security, education, healthcare, childcare, and transportation, while funding programs that will reduce costs for Massachusetts families and our workforce. Key provisions of the budget include the renewal of universal school meals and Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) grants, and a historic investment to make community college and Regional Transit Authority bus rides free for all Bay-Staters. As a life-long advocate for food security, I was particularly excited to see $500,000 for the Hunger-Free Campus initiative and the $15 million for the Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program included in the budget. These vital programs target high-need populations that suffer from food insecurity across the state. Many local earmarks I championed made it into the budget, including $50,000 for the study of options for a new Senior Center in Millis, and $25,000 for updates to the lighting and security features of the Woodhaven Elderly Housing in Sherborn. Many other earmarks for our towns made it into the budget, such as $75,000 Project Just Because, thanks to the efforts of my colleagues in the House and Senate that represent the towns of the 8th Middlesex District. Local school districts benefitted greatly from the increased Chapter 70 funding in this budget, with the minimum per pupil aid increasing from $30 to $104. In total over $28 million in Chapter 70 funding was secured for schools in the 8th Middlesex District and $4.4 million in unrestricted general government aid was secured for local town services.