12/13/21 from State House News Service: Gov. Charlie Baker signed the great majority of the Legislature's $4 billion American Rescue Plan Act and surplus tax revenue spending bill Monday, but vetoed one policy section and sent back another with proposed amendments to trim what he previously said was "red tape" in the bill.

"The pandemic has had a significant impact on Massachusetts workers, families, communities, and businesses for nearly two years, and today's signing directs billions of dollars in relief toward those hardest hit across the Commonwealth," Baker said. "While this package falls far short of the investment I called for to address the housing shortage, the important investments included in this bill will help to accelerate Massachusetts' economic recovery and provide long-lasting benefits to infrastructure, healthcare, education systems, and small businesses."

The bill (H 4269) deploys $2.55 billion in ARPA money and $1.45 billion in fiscal 2021 surplus state tax revenue while preserving a little more than $2.3 billion in federal ARPA funds for future use. ARPA money must be committed by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2026.

The spending itself is mostly concentrated on health care ($964 million), housing ($624 million), infrastructure ($414 million), education ($389 million) and economic development ($267 million), as well as on specific workforce issues ($500 million allotments for both premium pay awards and the state's unemployment insurance system), according to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation's analysis.

Last week, Baker said that "red tape" was his administration's biggest concern, pointing to a large commission created under the bill to make recommendations to the administration on how to divvy up bonuses of between $500 and $2,000 for essential, lower-income employees who worked in-person during the COVID-19 state of emergency. "We would rather just put a premium pay program together and get the dollars out the door to people," he said.

On Monday, Baker vetoed the section of the bill that required consultation with the commission to "allow the administration to immediately get to work on the process to distribute these funds."

He also sent the Legislature amendments that would diminish the influence of a 22-member Behavioral Health Trust Fund and Advisory Committee that was intended to make recommendations to the Legislature on the disbursement of funds aimed at addressing barriers to behavioral health care. - Colin A. Young/SHNS | 12/13/21 4:13 PM

The Legislature took final votes on 12/3/21 on a $4 billion American Rescue Plan Act spending package (H 4629) that grew beyond the governor's original $2.8 billion proposal he filed in June. Baker had originally separated federal relief funding and surplus tax revenue spending into two bills that collectively added up to roughly $4.1 billion, according to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.

The Governor now has ten days to review the bill, which he is expected to sign although people will be on the lookout for any amendments he files or spending he vetoes.

The bill before Baker uses $2.55 billion in ARPA funds, $1.45 billion in fiscal 2021 surplus tax revenue, and leaves about $2.3 billion in federal funds remaining.

Legislative leaders announced a compromise earlier this week that included about $180 million more in spending than either of the House and Senate's original proposals.

The legislation allocates $500 million for up to $2,000 in premium bonus pay for essential workers, $500 million for the Unemployment Insurance Trust fund, $150 million for supportive housing, and $400 million for mental and behavioral health programs. Lawmakers also included $90 million for marine port infrastructure investments focused on offshore wind development.

Prior to the Senate's vote on 12/3/21 to approve the bill, Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Michael Rodrigues said state budget writers will turn to the fiscal 2023 budget process in less than three weeks, with a hearing on revenue projections planned for Tuesday, Dec. 21. - Source: Chris Van Buskirk/SHNS

Votes to Finalize ARPA and Surplus Votes to Finalize Spending Planned This Week

H.4269: Conference Committee Report

Housing, Health and Worker Relief Featured in Compromise

From State House News: DEC. 1, 2021.....Legislative leaders hope to get a $4B spending package to Gov. Charlie Baker's desk this week, after a conference committee on Wednesday night filed a compromise bill spending American Rescue Plan Act money and surplus state tax revenues.

In a joint statement, Speaker Ronald Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka said the House will take up the bill Thursday, with the Senate planning to follow suit Friday.

Until January, the Legislature is meeting only in informal sessions, where bills need unanimous support to advance and can be halted by any one lawmakers' objections. The House and Senate each passed their original $3.82 billion ARPA spending bills unanimously, and leaders had originally hoped to strike a deal before Thanksgiving.

In keeping with a House-Senate agreement announced before either branch voted on the legislation, the final bill (H 4269) allocates $500 million toward payments, in an amount ranging from $500 to $2,000, for lower-income essential workers who stayed on the job in-person during the COVID-19 state of emergency, and another $500 million to shore up the unemployment insurance trust fund.

The 163-page bill, packed with local earmarks, also features major health-related investments, including $400 million "to enhance and expand access to mental and behavioral health supports and services and community-based primary care," a $300 million reserve "to enhance, expand and strengthen Medicaid home and community-based services," $260 million to support financially strained hospitals in communities hit hard by COVID-19, and more than $200 million for local and regional public health systems.

It directs $100 million each to water and sewer infrastructure, to environmental infrastructure, to addressing air quality and ventilation needs in schools with "high concentrations of economically disadvantaged students, English language learners and communities disproportionately impacted by the 2019 novel coronavirus pandemic," and to capital improvement grants for vocational schools and career technical education programs at public schools. More than $107 million is allocated "to enhance workforce opportunities through workforce and career technical skills training," along with other workforce-development initiatives in the bill, and there is $75 million for small business grants.

Housing-related spending includes $115 million toward the production of for-sale, below-market housing to expand homeownership opportunities, $115 million to produce and preserve affordable rental housing, $150 million for permanent supportive housing, and $150 million to "rehabilitate and modernize state-aided public housing developments."

Spilka and Mariano said the bill "will provide hundreds of millions of dollars to build housing that is affordable, transform our public and behavioral health systems, prepare us for the impacts of climate change, strengthen our education system, assist struggling hospitals, and support our frontline workers by providing half-a-billion dollars in direct payments."

“While negotiations between the House and Senate played out behind the scenes Wednesday on a nearly $4 billion spending bill that remains unresolved “ – from State House News Service.

I.e., the House and Senate versions of the ARPA bill are still in conference committee at the State House as of 11/19/21 at noon.
  It is unclear whether the conference report (agreement on a final bill) will come out next week or after Thanksgiving.  But formal sessions of the legislature were announced to be done for this calendar year until Jan. 3, so the final bill would need to passed during informal sessions, which will still occur in November and December.  One legislator who disagrees with something in the final conferenced bill could hold up the entire bill during informal, so it is not clear when this bill will be finalized and sent to Governor’s desk for his signature. (and potential vetoes of some line items, but that’s another story)

House conference committee members are: Reps. Aaron Michlewitz, Dan Hunt and Todd Smola. Senate conferees are Sens. Michael Rodrigues, Cindy Friedman and Patrick O'Connor.

The spending bills are H 4234, which passed the House on Nov. 2, and S 2580, which passed the Senate on November 10. After naming its conferees, the Senate and the House plan to meet in formal sessions on Wednesday, November 17 and may have the conference report on the ARPA spending package they plan to send to Governor Baker.

Senate Approves $3.82B Investment Package.

House and Senate to form conference committee to work out differences next week.

Excerpts from State House News Service and other sources:

(SHNS source is: Chris Lisinski article 11/11/21 7:55 AM)

Late on the night of November 10, the Massachusetts unanimously approved a $3.82 billion package to steer special federal relief funds and surplus state budget revenues into virtually every corner of the state.

All three Senate Republicans, who unsuccessfully sought to double the amount of unemployment relief for businesses and implement a two-week state sales tax holiday in the bill, joined Democrats to vote 38-0 in favor of the massive spending proposal (S 2564) that carves up about half of the state's American Rescue Plan Act relief funding.

The House and Senate agreed to two cornerstones of the bill, a $500M payment toward the state's unemployment insurance trust fund and a $500M program to offer one-time bonuses to low-income essential workers who continued to provide in-person services during the COVID-19 crisis, before rolling out the House and Senate proposals.

There are more than $2.6B in allocations, and scores of earmarked spending projects, not yet negotiated. Although both branches approved roughly similar bottom lines and spending strategies, the House and Senate each took different approaches to areas such as public health infrastructure, water and sewer infrastructure, mental health investments, youth jobs, and higher education capital projects. 

Legislators have a publicly stated goal of getting the legislation on Gov. Charlie Baker's desk before Thanksgiving. The next step could be to appoint a six-member conference committee on  November 15. That would leave only about 60 hours for its members to find agreement on the bulk of the spending bill, bring a consensus to the floor, and advance it through both chambers before formal lawmaking business for the year ends Nov. 17.

Alternatively, House and Senate leaders could deliberate informally without appointing negotiators. Also, with roughly $2.5B in funds left untouched by the original proposals, they may view increasing the bill's bottom line as a path of least resistance. The eventual compromise bill, whenever it is reached, is unlikely to draw opposition since both branches adopted their bills unanimously. The House approved its version of a $3.82B bill on Oct. 29.

One of the most sizable changes senators rejected would have doubled a payment into the state's unemployment insurance trust fund from $500M to $1B.

A wave of pandemic-era joblessness drained the account, which Bay State businesses fund via taxes, and Baker and the Legislature approved up to $7B  in borrowing to replenish it. Employers remain on the hook to pay back that borrowing over 20 years.

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, who filed the amendment, said businesses may find it difficult to bring on new employees while coping with the added costs of repaying trust fund bonds.

In a separate closeout budget bill he filed in August, Baker proposed a $1 billion transfer into the UI trust fund to help reduce the burden on businesses and keep the system stable.

The Baker administration has not published a monthly summary of the unemployment fund's status since June, but Rep. Jehlen said data the state reported to the U.S. Treasury indicate the account has a balance of about $3B. She described that figure as "the highest balance that we can find on record for the trust fund" and sufficient to pay back about $2B in federal loans that floated the state's unemployment system amid pandemic strain.

"We should not add more at least until we have more information from the administration," Jehlen said, adding that a commission she co-chairs hopes to hear more about the issue from Baker's team before a Friday meeting. "All of us have identified immediate needs we won't be able to fund even with the $5B in surplus and ARPA funds. If the administration thinks this is a top priority, they should tell us."

However, a Baker administration official, who agreed to communicate on background only, said that it was "not accurate" to state that the fund is in a position to pay back federal advances while continuing to pay benefits without additional stabilization funding. The official estimated COVID-19-related claims have been responsible for $24B in benefits being paid out since March 2020.

The Treasury report, the official said, does not factor in over $2B the state borrowed from the federal government in order to pay benefits last year, which is currently outstanding, and also does not account for credits owed back to employers who overpaid their UI rates during the first quarter of 2021 before the passage of a law reducing UI payments for many employers.

Most changes to the Senate bill came in the form of bundles of mega-amendments. The Senate passed three bundles and rejected three others, and a smaller number of individual changes also received debate and votes.

Before the addition of amendments, the Senate's spending bill proposed spending on mental and behavioral health supports, $250.9M on local and regional public health infrastructure, $200M on acute hospitals serving communities hit hard by COVID-19, $600M for housing initiatives such as homeownership support and workforce rental housing production and $450M on combating climate change

The base version of the bill the Senate Ways and Means Committee brought forward called for $3.67 B in spending. It was not immediately clear exactly how much senators added to its bottom line, though Chair Rodrigues in his closing remarks said the legislation totaled about $3.8B. A Senate press release issued after the session ended estimated the bill's total outlay at $3.82B.

Rodrigues previously said his panel proposed spending $2.5B in American Rescue Plan Act funds, slightly more than half of the pot state government still has, and up to $1.45B in surplus state tax revenue from fiscal year 2021, when taxpayers delivered far more in revenue than state officials had projected.

[Michael P. Norton contributed reporting]

The Massachusetts Senate began debate on  S. 2564  on 11/10 at 10 AM. As of 10 PM on 11/10, debate was still underway on more than 300 remaining amendments.

As of 9 PM, here is the status of ACEC/MA-backed amendments:

• Not adopted: Amendment #343 filed by Senator Eldridge, increases the water infrastructure line item 1599-2032, by $50 million to $225 million.
• Not adopted: Amendment #396 filed by Senator Hinds, increases the land conservation and park and trail creation and improvement item 1599-2030 by $20 million to $35 million.
• Adopted: Amendment #368 filed by Senator Creem, which increases funding for tree planting in item 1599-2033 by $5 million to $25 million.
• Adopted: Amendment #452 filed by Senator Chang-Diaz which would increase funding in the infrastructure line item by $20 million to $145 million providing training to underserved populations for green jobs, as defined by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics as: jobs in businesses that produce goods or provide services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources; and, jobs in which workers' duties involve making their establishment's production processes more environmentally friendly or use fewer natural resources.

• Adopted: Amendment #17 filed by Senator Gomez and Amendment #340 filed by Senator Cyr which would amend the water infrastructure line item to expend eligibility to “entities” beyond municipalities to water districts.
• Adopted: Amendment #340 filed by Senator Tarr which would add projects to the line item on lands that increase carbon sequestration.
• Adopted Amendment #341 filed by Senator Comerford which would add projects to the line item on water infrastructure that would support promoting soil health practices that improve water quality or otherwise mitigate threats from climate change.
• Not Adopted: Amendment #374 filed by Senator Creem, Ensuring a Green Recovery

ACEC/MA's Legislative Alert to Membership

ACEC/MA shared this Legislative Alert with our Government Affairs Committee (GAC), Water, Energy and Environment Committee (WEEC) and Board on November 9 urging support for these amendments:

Amendments that Increase Line-Item Funding:

• Amendment #343 filed by Senator Eldridge, increases the water infrastructure line item 1599-2032, by $50 million to $225 million. Massachusetts’ antiquated water infrastructure lacks climate resilience, threatens public health, and harms the quality of our drinking water and freshwater resources. Inadequate water infrastructure poses many challenges, such as contaminants in drinking water like lead and PFAS, the discharge of three billion gallons of untreated sewage into the state's waterways each year, and occasional catastrophic water main failures creating flood hazards and service interruptions. In 2012, a bipartisan legislative commission calculated the estimated cost of capital investment, operation and maintenance, repair and replacement, and debt service for the state's water infrastructure against anticipated revenues, over 20 years at $40 billion.
• Amendment #396 filed by Senator Hinds, increases the land conservation and park and trail creation and improvement item 1599-2030 by $20 million to $35 million. This funding is essential to conserve and protect parks to absorb and store carbon emissions and climate smart parks to absorb stormwater, rainwater, and curb the heat island effect.  Massachusetts needs increased funding now to protect communities and habitats from climate change impacts including increased flooding, drought, and storm damage. The benefits of outdoor recreation to boost physical, mental, and emotional health has become increasingly clear during the COVID-19 crisis, as visitation to state, local and nonprofit parks more than doubled. However, most state parks, beaches, and trails are in disrepair. The state should ensure that those disproportionally impacted by Covid, can access safe, outdoor recreational spaces to exercise, gather and improve public health and emotional wellbeing.
• Amendment #368 filed by Senator Creem, which increases funding for tree planting in item 1599-2033 by $5 million to $25 million. Trees and forests in cities reduce urban flooding, improve the quality of our air and water, and make neighborhoods more livable. Urban trees provide measurable public health benefits, including asthma reduction and lower energy demand, thereby saving households an average $230 per year in energy costs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to cities, there is an opportunity to increase active reforestation of streambanks and floodplains to sequester carbon, improve water quality, and decrease streambank erosion.
• Amendment #452 filed by Senator Chang-Diaz which would increase funding in the infrastructure line item by $20 million to $145 million providing training to underserved populations for green jobs, as defined by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics as: jobs in businesses that produce goods or provide services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources; and, jobs in which workers' duties involve making their establishment's production processes more environmentally friendly or use fewer natural resources.

Amendments that Add Text to Line-Item Language or Statute

• Amendment #17 filed by Senator Gomez and Amendment #340 filed by Senator Cyr which would amend the water infrastructure line item to expend eligibility to “entities” beyond municipalities to water districts.
• Amendment #340 filed by Senator Tarr which would add projects to the line item on lands that increase carbon sequestration. Only by harnessing the power of natural climate solutions to remove and store carbon can Massachusetts reach Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions goals. Natural climate solutions (NCS) are actions to protect, restore, and better manage natural and working lands, such as forests, farms, and wetlands to reduce and sequester carbon emissions.
• Amendment #341 filed by Senator Comerford which would add projects to the line item on water infrastructure that would support promoting soil health practices that improve water quality or otherwise mitigate threats from climate change. Preventing nutrient pollution at the source is the most economical way to help us achieve water quality goals and ensure a healthy ecosystem and economy estuaries, coastal regions, and inland rivers and watersheds are valuable for their economic, cultural, and environmental benefits to people and nature. ​ 
• Amendment #374 filed by Senator Creem, Ensuring a Green Recovery, would require that all expenditures under An Act Relative to Immediate COVID-19 Funding Needs prioritize the decarbonization of transportation and buildings, be consistent with the Commonwealth’s climate change adaptation goals and mitigation goals, under statutes related to the Next Generation Road Map Climate Policy for Massachusetts and the Global Warming Solutions Act.

On 11/10/21, the Senate plans to debate and pass an investment package worth more than $3.65B, leaving top House and Senate Democrats with just a few days to pick and choose from competing proposals (H 4234 / S 2564) and decide which ones will be funded with American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds from by the federal government and surplus tax revenues.

Similarities, But Big Differences In House, Senate ARPA Bills
Conference Committee Likely To Decide Major Outlays This Month

Senate bill (S 2564) 

Summary of this bill

Amendments due 3 PM 11/5, but this may be extended until Monday.

State House News Service: Matt Murphy, 11/3/21, 5:28 PM

NOV. 3, 2021.....House and Senate Democrats have exactly two weeks to meet their goal of finalizing a massive COVID-19 relief and stimulus package before the mid-session recess, and Senate leaders on Wednesday took a step in that process by releasing a $3.67 billion bill that would build on the House plan by bulking up spending on public and behavioral health and investing more in climate infrastructure.

The bill, in both its bottom line and general investment strategy, looks much like the $3.82 billion bill that passed the House last week with American Rescue Plan Act and surplus tax revenues being directed toward health care, housing, economic development and climate change mitigation.

The two plans, however, diverge in key areas, including support for local boards of health and behavioral health, and those differences could either drive up the price tag of the final bill or force Democrats to strike quick compromise over how to direct tens of millions of dollars, knowing that they will have another "bite at the apple."

For example, the Senate bill proposes to spend $250.9 million on public health infrastructure, which is $100 million more than the House, and it would also increase investments in water and sewer infrastructure by $75 million over the $100 million in the House bill and boost mental health spending by $150 million to $400 million.

Meanwhile, the House proposed $40 million for youth summer and school-year jobs, $75 million for capital projects on public college and university campuses, and $20 million for special education. The Senate proposal funds none of those priorities.

Senate Ways and Means Chairman Michael Rodrigues said Wednesday there were "little differences around the edges," but that leadership of the two branches were largely in agreement on the framework of the spending package as they work to get a bill through the Senate and wrap up conference negotiations with the House before the Legislature recesses on Nov. 17.

Both House and Senate leaders have proposed to hold back more than $2 billion in federal relief money rather than allocate it now, waiting to see the outcome of infrastructure talks in Washington and if additional state needs emerge.

Rodrigues, however, said he was prepared to see the size of the Senate bill (S 2564) climb as high as $3.95 billion through the amendment process, which would leave about $2.35 billion to be authorized at a later date. Gov. Charlie Baker has urged Democrats to act quickly to put the federal relief money to use, arguing that investments in areas like housing will take time to bear fruit. Congress, however, gave states until the end of 2024 to decide how to spend their ARPA resources, and the Legislature gave itself until the end of the fiscal year next June to spend the full fiscal 2021 surplus.

The Senate debate is slated to kick off (11/10) next Wednesday, but preparations hit a snag when Sen. Diana DiZoglio, of Methuen, objected to consideration of an order that would have given senators until 3 pm on Friday to offer amendments.

DiZoglio argued that the amendment process felt rushed and said senators needed until at least Monday to consult with local leaders, some of whom just held municipal elections on Tuesday.

The Senate will try again on Thursday to adopt the order scheduling debate and a deadline for amendments, with branch leaders hoping to set a timeline during a formal session.

The bill, which was released Wednesday afternoon (11/3/21) by Senate Ways and Means, proposes to put about $1 billion into health care, $1.7 billion into economic and workforce development, $600 million into housing and $450 million to combat climate change.

"We're heavier on behavioral health and mental health. We're heavier on the production side of housing, but we're not far off from one another," Rodrigues told the News Service in a phone interview, comparing his plan with the one that passed the House.

"We share similar values and similar interests in where we're going to invest this money," the Westport Democrat added.

Before either branch released full spending plans, leadership of the two branches agreed to invest $500 million in unemployment insurance relief for businesses and $500 million in premium pay for essential workers who remained on the job throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Both bills would also make $200 million in tax relief available to small business owners who had to pay personal income taxes on previous state and federal relief grants.

Rodrigues said the committee considered the requests of business groups to match Gov. Charlie Baker's proposal to put $1 billion into the unemployment insurance trust fund, but shared a view with the House that resources should be "split evenly between employer and employee supports."

The Senate proposal would also establish oversight commissions to work to ensure that funds get distributed equitably and reach communities, organizations and people most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

One commission would work with the Inspector General's office to provide broad oversight of the spending program, while additional oversight committees would review behavioral and mental health spending, the premium pay program for essential workers and deployment of $75 million for broadband infrastructure.

Other differences between the two bills show up in the area of health care. The Senate Ways and Means bill proposes $400 million for behavioral health, exceeding the $250 million set aside by the House, and includes $122 million for loan repayments to help recruit and retain 2,000 workers.

The Senate also proposed to put $450 million into climate change mitigation and the environment, with $175 million for water and sewer infrastructure, as opposed to $100 million in the initial House bill.

To balance out the higher investments in some areas, Rodrigues noted that the $200 million in assistance for acute care hospitals strained by the pandemic was about $50 million less than in the House bill and the committee also recommended less than the House in homeownership assistance.

"There are always tradeoffs when we've committed to trying to arrive at more or less the same bottom line," Rodrigues said.

The House added about $170 million through amendments to the bottom line of its bill over the course of two days of debate, and Rodrigues said the Senate Ways and Means bill has built in a cushion of about $280 million to accommodate increases through the floor debate.

The bill proposes to spend up to $2.5 billion in American Rescue Plan Act funds and up to $1.45 billion in fiscal 2021 surplus revenue, which would push the bottom line to $3.95 billion and still leave about $2.35 billion for the Legislature to spend at a later date.

"We don't have to spend all the way up. Our goal would be to spend about what the House spent and to give us some room for conference," Rodrigues said.

Rodrigues said there was no timeline for "bite number two of the apple," except for the June 30, 2022 deadline to allocate the state surplus and the Dec. 31, 2024 deadline to authorize ARPA spending.

Democrats caucused Wednesday morning where leadership briefed senators remotely on the substance of the bill. Rodrigues was in Florida where he and Senate President Karen Spilka are among the state officials taking part in meetings of the National Conference of State Legislatures. They later released a video in which they described the investments included in the bill.

Another factor that could complicate negotiations between the branches will be how heavily the Senate chooses to earmark its bill. The House included 466 earmarks to its bill, according to an analysis by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundations, including 410 earmarks that added $154 million to its original bill.

Sen. Jo Comerford earlier this week also described this as a "moment to seize" as she previewed the Senate's push to spend at least $250 million on local public health infrastructure, including improved data collection systems, workforce training and financial support for communities with fewer resources to devote to public health than wealthier communities.

The final proposal carves out $118.4 million from the $250 million for public health infrastructure and data sharing and $95 million for direct grants to local board of health to be prepared for future public health threats."

While the final bill is light on policy, Democratic leaders are proposing to eliminate a twice-per-year evaluation requirement for civil service employees, and an old restriction on lobster traps set in the waters off the town of Gosnold.

-End-
11/03/2021

House Files and Debates ARPA Spending Bill (source Rasky Partners)

Bill Published As Amended as H4234

10/29/31: This week, House lawmakers spent large portions of their time filing, amending, and debating a spending package that would use up surplus tax revenue from Fiscal Year 2021 and portions of the state’s ARPA funds.

On Monday (10/25), Speaker Ronald Mariano, House Ways and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz, and House Committee on Federal Stimulus and Census Oversight Chairman Dan Hunt unveiled a $3.65 billion package to spend the state’s ARPA funds and surplus FY21 tax revenue. The package would allocate the relief money into areas like housing, schools, and workforce development, while also reserving about $2.75 billion to be allocated at a later date. Two of the cornerstones of the proposal were a $500 million investment in the state's unemployment insurance system and $500 million for bonus pay for low-income workers who could not stay home during the pandemic.

Following the filing of the spending package, and despite being given just a day to file amendments on Tuesday (10/26), House lawmakers managed to file 1,126 amendments, proposing to spend an additional $5.8 billion.

The House then took up debate on the bill Thursday afternoon, with plans to work throughout the day on Friday and are expected to finish debate before the end of today. Chairman Michlewitz said that a "consistent theme" lawmakers heard across the six public hearings, which they will be following as they debate amendments, "was the need for this one-time revenue to go toward areas and communities that have been disproportionately impacted by this pandemic.”

ARPA Bill Grew to $3.82 Bil Before House Passage
Leaderships Sees Issues 'To Work Out' With Senate

State House News Service

Bill Published As Amended as H4234

House and Senate leaders have already agreed on two key features of the bill -- a $500 million deposit into the state's unemployment trust fund and another $500 million for one-time bonus payments to low-income essential workers who remained on the job in-person throughout the COVID-19 state of emergency.

Otherwise, it's unclear how closely aligned the spending will be between the House plan and the proposal that Senate Democrats are expected to soon put forward, and how much negotiating will need to take place before lawmakers can ship a final version to Gov. Charlie Baker.

Baker had prodded lawmakers to quickly put the state's billions of dollars in American Rescue Plan Act money to work, but the Legislature opted to gather public input at a series of hearings before crafting a bill.

With formal sessions for the year set to end Nov. 17 under joint legislative rules, House and Senate leaders have not indicated if they aim to get a final bill on Baker's desk or into private conference committee negotiations before the winter recess.

"We have been continuing to talk with our Senate counterparts and I think that there are some things we will have to work out and we'll see what proposals they put to the floor maybe next week or whatnot," House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz told the News Service. "I think that after they get done we're going to try as hard as we can to get it to the governor's desk as quickly as we can."

Michlewitz said lawmakers received feedback and testimony from nearly 400 people and organizations, including the governor. Rep. Dan Hunt, who chairs the House Committee on Federal Stimulus and Census Oversight, cited more than 300 meetings with advocates.

Michlewitz, a Democrat from Boston's North End, called the resulting bill "a truly equitable spending package."

"A consistent theme we heard from these hearings was the need for this one-time revenue to go toward areas and communities that have been disproportionately impacted by this pandemic," he said. "These communities that were hardest hit by COVID, and it is only appropriate that the lens with which we view these funds be toward filling the needs of these communities."

Before amendments were tacked on, the bill contained $777 million in economic development spending, $765 million for health and human services, $750 million towards workforce development, $600 million for housing and homeownership, $350 million toward environmental and climate change mitigation, and $265 million for education.

Rep. Kate Lipper-Garbedian, a Melrose Democrat, addressed her colleagues for the first time to highlight a provision, backed by $10 million, that will expand eligibility for special education services to students who turned 22 during the pandemic. She said students with disabilities are eligible for K-12 services until they turn 22, but the disruption and suspension of those services left some young adults cut off from programs like vocational and life-skills training.

Elected last year in a special election, Lipper-Garabedian was sworn in during a socially distanced State House ceremony on March 25, 2020.

"Many of us in this chamber have had COVID babies. Some of us have had COVID puppies," she said Thursday. "I'm pleased to have been your first COVID rep."

The House Ways and Means Committee's bill features $200 million in tax relief for small-business owners who paid personal income taxes on state or federal relief money, $12 million to aid the resettling of Afghan refugees, and $5 million for Inspector General Glen Cunha's office to create a public website and database tracking the number of contracts awarded to minority-owned businesses and the flow of funding to disproportionately impacted communities.

The bill included $20 million to improve technical infrastructure at community health centers, and through the amendment process representatives added $15 million for "programs that promote primary care workforce development, recruitment and retention at community health centers." Other health investments lawmakers noted included $250 million for financially strapped hospitals and $70 million for nursing homes.

Environment and climate spending represents another sizable chunk of the bill with more than $400 million total following the adoption of a mega-amendment. Rep. Carolyn Dykema said areas that will see new investments include combined sewer overflow issues, climate resiliency, offshore wind development and PFAS mitigation.

"Water infrastructure upgrades and the mitigation of contaminants like PFAS can be extremely costly for our municipalities, and providing this relief to cities and towns who are already facing challenging financial times is badly needed," Dykema, who co-chairs the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture, said Friday.

The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance criticized what it called a "closed doors" negotiating process on the four mega-amendments that House lawmakers added to the spending bill. Spokesman Paul Craney said the branch "once again proved to the rest of the world why they maintain the top spot as the most secretive and opaque legislative body in America."

"Regular people have no way of knowing the deliberations behind how their tax dollars are spent in the Massachusetts House of Representatives," Craney said in the statement released Friday afternoon.

Lawmakers held six public hearings ahead of crafting the $3.82 billion proposal where hundreds of people and organizations, including Baker, testified on areas where the funds should be spent.

House leaders left themselves a sizable pot of money to be spent at a future date. The base bill left unallocated about $2.4 billion in ARPA money and roughly $350 million of the state's fiscal year 2021 surplus.

With nearly $174 million added to the bill, Michlewitz said "most of the work that was done" via the amendment process did not touch the additional ARPA funds the House had left aside and primarily drew from the fiscal 2021 surplus revenue.

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10/29/2021

The House on Tuesday rejected Gov. Charlie Baker's request to immediately spend $2.8 billion in federal COVID-19 relief money, choosing to follow through with the plan of Democratic leaders to sweep most of the $5.3 billion the state received into a separate fund as they consider how to deploy the money. The House voted unanimously, 160-0 in its acceptance of Democratic leadership's revised plan for the state's federal American Rescue Plan Act funds, sweeping most of the money into the Legislature's COVID-19 Relief Fund while giving Baker "some latitude around $200 million" and "a lot of latitude in things that need immediate need." 

In an attempt to end the battle over who gets to spend nearly $5.2 billion in federal relief money, Gov. Charlie Baker pitched a plan that would see him cede much of his control over the aid to the Legislature, as long as lawmakers agree quickly to spend more than half on priorities such as home ownership assistance, substance abuse treatment and job training.

The governor made his pitch on the same day he faced a deadline to act on a bill passed by the Legislature that would sweep nearly $5.18 billion in American Rescue Plan Act funding into the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund. That fund is subject to appropriation by lawmakers, meaning the APRA relief funding would go through a more traditional budgeting process.

H 3827, An Act relative to transferring federal funds to the federal COVID-19 response fund

The governor has until June 17 to act on H 3827, a bill  that would steer $5.3B in federal aid into a new Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund. Last week the Legislature passed the bill to move the state's lump sum of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) federal assistance into a "segregated fund" to be appropriated separately from the state budget process. The Governor’s office has suggested it is not on board with the Legislature's plan, maintaining that the discretionary funding does not require legislative appropriation.