What's the hurry? Senate takes on public records and loads up economic development bill

Beacon Hill's biennial sprint to its old July 31 deadline has always been a race against a firm legislative calendar. This year, lawmakers are walking up to a new, more forgiving deadline while voters and interest groups are racing towards the ballot.

As lawmakers barrel toward the end of scheduled formal sessions next week, they're not scrambling to wrap up major bills since they agreed to a major internal rule changes that pushes back their deadline and lets policymaking bleed into election season. 

They're trying to settle some of the questions Massachusetts voters are poised to weigh in on this fall — proposing their own, more limited version of legislative public records access as supporters of a broader ballot initiative push to simply apply existing law to Beacon Hill, and reviving a debate over a voter-approved tax cap before voters decide to adjust it themselves. 

The topics emerged in a week when the House also tackled abortion policy and the Senate packed other major issues into a sprawling economic development bill that served as a vehicle for everything from housing reforms to happy hour. 

Senate Democrats are expected next week to approve their version of a legislative public records bill after the House acted last month, setting up negotiations over mostly similar approaches. The Senate proposal would establish a statutory process for requesting legislative records, define nearly 20 categories of documents subject to "disclosure," create records access officers and an appeals process, and establish separate public records provisions for the Legislature and governor's office. 

Unlike the Nov. 3 ballot question, it would not simply apply the existing public records law to those branches, instead creating a new framework with branch-specific procedures and exemptions. Most of the listed records are already publicly available but that has not stopped legislative leaders from branding their effort as a transparency offensive.

The Senate's proposal also omits the House-approved language that would narrow the scope of the voter-approved legislative audit, but that debate is far from over. 

If lawmakers move the bill into conference committee by July 31, negotiators could work on an agreement to be released at an unknown date before the end of the session in early January. That gives lawmakers the option of delaying a final vote until after November's election, avoiding pre-election blowback over limiting the reach of the audit law that has proved politically popular.

The timing could also matter beyond the audit debate. 

If lawmakers approve their own public records framework before November and voters also endorse the broader ballot question, the state could face new legal questions about how the two laws interact. Alternatively, legislative leaders could wait to finalize a compromise until after the election, allowing conference negotiations to take into account whatever voters decide. Either way, lawyers could find themselves busy trying to work out the legal technicalities.

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Tax policy also surfaced in the Senate via way of the economic development bill. 

During a two-day debate on nearly 600 amendments to the underlying $325 million bill, senators considered an amendment that would repeal Chapter 62F, the voter law that caps state tax collections and triggered nearly $3 billion in taxpayer rebates in 2022. 

The initial proposal had the support of at least half the Senate, but was met with fierce opposition from the business groups backing this fall's ballot initiative designed to make rebates more likely. 

The version senators ended up approving on Thursday revised the law to limit how often the rebates are triggered. If the House and governor sign on, Chapter 62F rebates would now only be triggered if state tax revenue in a given fiscal year is equal to 7.5% or more of the total statewide personal income reported for that year.

We know Speaker Ron Mariano's posture: he told reporters this week he'd "love" to repeal the tax cap law. As for the rest of his membership and Gov. Maura Healey as they're running for reelection? It remains to be seen. 

Senators worked through the amendments over more than 20 hours of debate before approving a $575.4 million package that will next week be assigned to a conference with the House. 

They signed off on a pilot Tenant Opportunity to Purchase program for five communities, debated sweeping duplex zoning reforms, seeded a Seasonal Communities Housing Fund with $10 million, mandated police training on staged suicides in instances of domestic violence, and required frontier AI companies to file risk reports, in addition to a host of other provisions both directly and sometimes indirectly related to economic development. 

The bill also became home to the Senate's so-called "fun agenda," a collection of proposals designed to capitalize on the momentum of a summer filled with FIFA World Cup matches, Tall Ships and 250th anniversary celebrations. Senators embraced local-option happy hour, permanent public drinking districts, changes to ticket resale laws and a proposal allowing Logan Airport bars to remain open whenever flights are arriving or departing. 

One "fun" idea left on the cutting room floor: allowing bars and clubs to extend their last call by one hour, as they have been allowed to temporarily this summer. 

The outcome presents an open question: How many new ways to have fun will Beacon Hill Democrats agree to. 

Mariano joked to reporters this week that his own "fun agenda" consists of "a lot of bingo, and fortune telling," while making the House's appetite for happy hour seem small. Massachusetts banned set times for discount alcohol in 1984 over concerns of drunk driving, and Mariano said he still remembers the environment in which they banned it. Plus, another powerful House Democrat, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Aaron Michlewitz, represents the restaurant-heavy district of Boston's North End, and says restaurants dislike the idea.

The House also reopened what's a contentious policy debate not just in Massachusetts, but nationwide. 

Representatives approved legislation that would loosen restrictions on abortions performed after 24 weeks of pregnancy by replacing specific statutory exemptions with physicians' medical judgement. Supporters say the bill would allow patients facing serious medical complications to receive care in Massachusetts without leaving the state, while opponents said it removes longstanding safeguards surrounding later-term abortions. 

The topic has been debated on Beacon Hill for years, and all Republicans who voted casted their votes in opposition, joined by Democratic Reps. Brian Ashe, Lisa Field, Michael Finn, Dennis Gallagher, Russell Holmes, Christopher Markey, Francisco Paulino, Alan Silvia and Jeffrey Turco. Rep. Susannah Whipps, the chamber's only Independent member, voted yes. 

The bill passed 119-33. It was a win for two reproductive rights advocates in the House, Rep. Marjorie Decker and Rep. Christine Barber, both of whom spoke about the bill from the chamber floor, and both of whom are in competitive races this fall. 

While new rules give conference committees more room to continue negotiating after July 31 than in past sessions, next week's deadline remains an important waypoint. Measures moved into conference can continue advancing later this year, giving legislative leaders more flexibility over when — or whether — to take politically important votes relative to Election Day.

The new thing: an end-of-session scramble unfolding against the backdrop of the unfolding primary and general elections and decisions on a raft of ballot questions.

Sam Drysdale is a reporter at the State House News Service. She can be reached at [email protected].

KELLER AT LARGE: 8:30 a.m., WBZ-TV. Political analyst Jon Keller's guest is Mass. Municipal Association CEO Adam Chapdelaine, for a discussion of fiscal pressures on cities and towns, Beacon Hill's response and efforts to change Proposition 2 1/2.

@ ISSUE: 9:30 a.m., NBC 10. Reporter Matt Prichard interviews District 5 Boston City Councilor Enrique Pepén.

ON THE RECORD: 11 a.m., WCVB. Anchor Ed Harding and political reporter Sharman Sacchetti talk with U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Leah Foley. Democratic political analyst Mary Anne Marsh and Republican political analyst Ginny Buckingham join for a roundtable discussion.

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