Chapter 90 Bill Conference Committee Formed

Chapter 90 Bills send to Conference Committee on June 8

(Sources: State House News Service and other sources)

June 8, 2023: Legislators have been unable to reach informal agreement on an annual local road and bridge funding bill for more than two months. On June 8, the House and Senate created a conference committee to iron out a final compromise between two mostly-similar $350 million versions that each branch approved in March. Reps. William Straus of Mattapoisett, Brian Murray of Milford and Steve Howitt of Seekonk will represent the House in the talks opposite Sens. Brendan Crighton of Lynn, Paul Mark of Becket and Patrick O'Connor of Weymouth. Straus and Crighton regularly work together as co-chairs of the Transportation Committee. Both versions of the legislation (H 3547 / S 2375) would allocate $200 million to the Chapter 90 program that reimburses cities and towns for road and bridge maintenance, plus authorize another $150 million for transportation-related infrastructure grants. Most of the spending appeared to be in alignment across the two bills, though the House sought to direct $25 million toward an existing grant program for work on non-federally aided state-numbered routes and municipal roadways while the Senate proposed prioritizing $25 million for use by communities with "low population density." Legislative leaders opted against following Gov. Maura Healey's recommendation to approve multiple years of Chapter 90 funding in a single bill, a step that municipal officials have long requested alongside warnings that $200 million per year is not keeping up with inflation. 

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Senate Passes Chapter 90 Bill on March 30; ; House and Senate to Work out Differences 

On March 30, the Massachusetts Senate unanimously passed their $350 million Chapter 90 bill (S 2375). However, the bill differs a bit from the House bill (H 3547), required further action by the House before the bill goes to Governor Healey for her action. The House version included an additional $25 million for nonfederal aid municipal pavements, a program funded at varying levels over the last several years. The Senate calls for the $25 million to be distributed as additional Chapter 90 funds but those additional funds are to be distributed via a formula that prioritizes low population density municipalities. They did not include $25 million to the specific pavement program. 

The legislature will need to work out the differences between the two bills.
More about the Chapter 90 Program

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Chapter 90 Bill to be Voted In Senate on March 30

(State House News Service and other sources)

On March 27, the Senate issued a redraft of the borrowing bill to finance local road and bridge improvements, placing that matter on the calendar for a March 30 formal session. The House passed its version of the bill (H 3547) last week, blending $200 million in bonds for the Chapter 90 program with $150 million in borrowing for other transportation grant programs. The Senate Ways and Means Committee issued its own version of the bill on March 27 (S 2375)

While a new wrinkle has emerged, House and Senate Democrats appear to heading for a relatively early session agreement on legislation allocating $200 million for local road and bridge work and another $150 million for transportation-related infrastructure grants. On March 27 the Senate Ways and Means Committee released a $350M proposal that closely resembles the bill the House approved last week, while taking one detour in an attempt to make more money available for fixing rural roadways.

Like the House bill (H 3547), the Senate Ways and Means Committee bill (S 2375) authorizes a one-year, $200 million injection for the Chapter 90 program that reimburses cities and towns for road and bridge maintenance, plus another $150 million for other transportation-related infrastructure investments.

The second pot sends $25 million each to six programs, five of which appear effectively identical in both the House and Senate bills: a municipal bridge program, the Complete Streets program, a bus transit infrastructure program, mass transit and commuter rail station grants, and electric vehicle grants.

But the final $25 million allotment reflects a change. The House bill would add that funding into an existing grant program for work on "non-federally aided roadways, including, but not limited to, state numbered routes and municipal roadways," while the Senate Ways and Means Committee version instead calls for that money to be prioritized for use by "municipalities low population density."

Senators plan to take up the bill during a formal session on Thursday, and any adopted amendments would create new areas to reconcile with the House. In 2022, the House approved its Chapter 90 bill on March 30, and the Senate passed its version in June.

Municipal leaders have pushed for an increase to the annual Chapter 90 allotment, arguing that inflation has whittled the purchasing power of the $200 million that has been approved almost every year for a decade-plus down to the equivalent of $68.6 million. They also want a multi-year authorization, which Gov. Maura Healey also favors.

(State House News Service and other sources)

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The House plans to approve the annual road and bridge maintenance funding bill on Thursday March 23. This bill includes $200M for the Chapter 90 program along with another $150M for grant programs that support bridge repairs, pavement, mass transit and electric vehicles. Such grants have become a regular feature of the Chapter 90 bill, winning legislative support and becoming law in each of the past two years. The Bill is now H. 3546

Six programs would each receive injections of $25 million under the bill advanced on Monday: a municipal pavement program for state-numbered routes, the Small Bridge program, Complete Streets, a municipal bus enhancement program, a mass transit access program, and a program helping cities, towns and regional transit authorities purchase electric vehicles or build EV infrastructure.

Massachusetts Municipal Association Executive Director Geoff Beckwith urged the Bonding Committee, which on March 22 pushed the bill to the next step in the process, to support a significant expansion of Chapter 90 from a one-year, $200 million authorization to a two-year, $660 million authorization.

Beckwith said the $150 million the Transportation Committee added to the bill (H 3546) for a variety of grant programs is helpful, though he noted that money would not become available to municipalities in the same way as dollars made available in the annual roadwork reimbursement program.

"The MMA supports and very much appreciates the various grant programs that the Committee has included in the bill. The challenge for communities is that these are project-specific competitive grant programs, and funding is not guaranteed," Beckwith said in a statement to the News Service. "Communities must apply, and then wait for a state decision on whether the funding will materialize, and the funds are not available to support pavement management programs (that's what Chapter 90 mostly does)."

"We support the grant programs, yet note that the prime account to maintain municipal roads would remain at $200 million, which is why we are respectfully asking the state to help restore Chapter 90's buying power," he added.

When lawmakers first dove into the original proposal Gov. Maura Healey filed -- which sought a two-year, $400 million authorization for Chapter 90 with no supplemental grant dollars -- the MMA warned that inflation over the past decade-plus has eaten away more than 70 percent of the purchasing power cities and towns get from the level-funded program.

House Speaker Ron Mariano's office told the News Service the redrafted road and bridge funding bill will emerge for a vote Thursday, after the Transportation Committee advanced it Monday and the Bonding Committee gave its stamp of approval Wednesday. - Chris Lisinski/SHNS | 3/22/23 4:58 PM

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Older news on this bill:

Municipal Officials Call For Big Boost In Road And Bridge Money

Fitchburg Mayor: Chapter 90 Aid "Doesn't Go Far"

Source: State House News Service,  Chris Lisinski, 3/7/23 5:52 PM

STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, MARCH 7, 2023.....Gov. Maura Healey checked off one long-unanswered priority for municipal leaders by proposing two years' worth of road and bridge maintenance funding in a single bill, but after years of inflation, city and town leaders are worried the timeline change alone will not be enough.

A string of local officials and Massachusetts Municipal Association higher-ups urged lawmakers on Tuesday to take the annual Chapter 90 bond authorization bill Healey filed (H 52) and bulk up its bottom line by at least 65 percent.

MMA Legislative Director Dave Koffman said state government has kept Chapter 90, the primary program used to reimburse municipalities for local road and bridge maintenance, at a $200 million-per-year allotment nearly every year since fiscal 2012. In the decade-plus since then, Koffman said, construction and maintenance costs have swelled nearly two-thirds, cutting the purchasing power of $200 million down to the equivalent of $68.6 million.

"I'm sure some of that's not a surprise. We know it's not unique to local government nor unique to transportation funding, but it's an important part of this consideration as we think about trying to increase this to a more adequate level for cities and towns," Koffman told the Transportation Committee. "We're so thankful to the administration for filing this bill, but we at the MMA are going to be requesting to increase this to at least $330 million per year for the two years proposed by Governor Healey. Otherwise, cities and towns will continue to fall further behind each year."

While Healey's bill would authorize two years of bonds for the program, its $400 million in bonds would not change the annual amount from the level where it has sat almost every year since the Patrick administration.

According to data compiled by the MMA, state government tacked on $130 million in supplemental Chapter 90 dollars in fiscal 2015, $40 million in fiscal 2019 and $20 million in fiscal 2020, but otherwise has kept the program at $200 million every other year since fiscal 2012.

Last year, lawmakers and Gov. Charlie Baker supplemented the $200 million for Chapter 90 with an additional $150 million in grants for other transportation-related projects woven into the same bill, a fact Transportation Committee Co-chair Rep. Bill Straus highlighted on Tuesday.

After Athol Town Manager Shaun Suhoski told the panel about how the neighboring community of Orange effectively needed to use four years of its state road and bridge aid to pay for replacement of two bridges, Straus replied that the anecdote is "exactly why Chapter 90 is not your bridge program, or any other municipality's."

"It's not your major project program, and we shouldn't pretend that it can become that," Straus said. "No municipality in my view should be in a position where it's taking four years of its Chapter 90 allocation, for which there are regular day-to-day demands, to fund a bridge repair. That is why, imperfect it may be because of the dollar amounts, that is why you have seen the Legislature move to more project-specific grant programs as build-upon for Chapter 90."

Much of the advocacy municipalities lobbed at lawmakers Tuesday came from people who traded jobs on Beacon Hill for positions in city or town halls.

Melrose Mayor Paul Brodeur, who resigned from the House in 2019, told the committee, "We need more to do more. We need more to do status quo."

Fitchburg Mayor Stephen DiNatale, who served nine years in the House, said his community has 180 miles of roadway and 47 bridges that need maintenance. The amount Fitchburg receives in Chapter 90 funding would "allow the city to pave one mile of road at three-inch grade and no sidewalk improvements," he said.

"It doesn't go far, does it, folks?" DiNatale said. "This is the principal reason our road-paving deficit falls further and further behind."

The latest MMA survey of members found that cities and towns collectively need $715 million to bring all local roads into a state of good repair, Koffman said, noting that the state is not entirely responsible for addressing that gap.

Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver, who represented the Healey administration at the hearing, said the $400 million bond authorization for two years "helps keep us at historical levels of this program."

Municipal leaders frequently pushed then-Gov. Baker and lawmakers to advance multi-year allotments for the program to no success.

"This two-year approach, that is new to Chapter 90 this year proposed by the governor, is the result of many conversations with cities and towns across the commonwealth who have very clearly communicated that a two-year approach gives them more certainty in the program and more flexibility, which enables them to develop longer-term roadway maintenance programs," Gulliver, who also served as highway administrator in the Baker administration, said.

Straus said at one point there is "much interest in the Legislature" in overhauling the formula used to distribute Chapter 90 funds to municipalities, though he did not offer details about what kind of changes lawmakers would pursue. He asked Gulliver if action this year would upend the two-year authorization.

Gulliver replied that the administration is prepared to provide any technical assistance needed to update the formula and that he would need to consult with other administration and finance officials about how to approach a possible "midpoint correction."

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03/07/2023