House Reflects on Accomplishments as Session Breaks
Focuses on Job Creation, Economic Development; Passes Major Reforms

(BOSTON) – State Representative Carlo P. Basile joined his colleagues in the Massachusetts House of Representatives today in celebrating recent session accomplishments as the Legislature breaks for elections.
 

As of Tuesday, July 31st, the House passed major legislation pertaining to economic development, health care cost containment, the MBTA, criminal justice, and aid for citizens and municipalities across the Commonwealth.
 

“With a strong focus on creating jobs and improving Massachusetts’ innovation economy by cutting costs and streamlining the state’s higher education system, I am proud to say that the House of Representatives had one of the most productive sessions in recent memory,” said House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo.

“In addition to creating jobs, the House paid due attention to the needs of small businesses, families, and municipalities while also passing several important reforms that will improve the quality of life for everyone in Massachusetts in the future.”
 

“Now that this highly successful session has ended, I commend my colleagues in the Legislature for their hard work in easing the economic burdens of the Commonwealth and its people during this economic slump,” Representative Carlo P. Basile (D – East Boston), Vice Chairman, Financial Services, said.

“By focusing on health care cost reduction, home owners’ rights, job creation, and updating our own infrastructure; Massachusetts continues its pursuit of bettering itself and improving the lives of its citizens.”
With an eye to offsetting the pain of the economic downturn, the House closed the session by passing two major pieces of legislation that create jobs and curb health care costs on patients and business, respectively.

The House placed creating and retaining jobs at the center of its agenda. It sent to the Governor a strong piece of legislation that implements strategically-focused economic development policies to make Massachusetts more competitive.

The bill achieves that by improving the Commonwealth’s innovation economy, promoting economic prosperity through infrastructure investments and streamlined permitting, facilitating the expansion of new and existing businesses, and training our workforce for the future. The bill also places a unique focus on the “innovation economy” as one of the pillars of Massachusetts' economic future.

Few issues burden families and businesses as much as the high cost of health care. Accordingly, the House worked on historic health care cost containment legislation that addresses the unsustainable cost of health care while allowing the health care industry to continue to provide world-class quality care.

The bill aims to empower patients and assist hospitals while streamlining health care in the Commonwealth through the use of electronic health records. Under this law, patients will be provided with more tools to make informed decisions as they pertain to care and cost and struggling hospitals will get assistance from a Distressed Hospital Fund.

Aware of the tough economic circumstance some families find themselves in, the House took action to protect homeowners who have fallen victim to predatory mortgages and unnecessary foreclosures. Under this legislation, lenders and banks will have to offer loan modifications to borrowers in certain circumstances so that foreclosure can be avoided.

Also at the end of session, the House approved a tough sentencing bill that cracks down on habitual offenders and establishes new requirements to improve the functions of the state parole board. After much deliberation, the House approved a bill that requires the habitual offender tag to be placed on anyone convicted of two crimes from a list of the most serious offenses, including murder, rape and kidnapping. It mandates that any habitual offender found guilty of a third offense from the list of most serious crimes would be ineligible for parole. The balanced bill also reduces mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug offenses.
 

These major successes have built upon the successes of last year wherein the House worked to pass myriad legislation pertaining to municipal health care, court reorganization, and expanded gaming.

These major pieces of legislation follow the House’s work on a municipal health insurance reform plan that aimed to help communities save on healthcare costs, while also protecting care quality for retirees and municipal employees. Under this legislation, municipal workers pay no more in co-payments and deductibles than those paid by subscribers to the largest plan offered by the Group Insurance Commission (GIC), which provides health insurance to state workers and legislators.

The municipal healthcare reform legislation was a large part of the year’s budget and just recently, Governor Patrick announced on the one-year anniversary of this legislation that over 127 communities in the Commonwealth have combined to save an estimated $175 million in health insurance premiums, nearly double the predicted savings at the time of House approval.

Another major success of the House over these past two years has been the final passage of landmark expanded gaming legislation. The long-awaited expanding gambling bill that was passed by the House and Senate and later signed by Governor Patrick will allow for three resort casinos in separate regions of the state and one competitively-bid slot facility. These gambling venues are projected to provide 15,000 jobs in the Commonwealth, fuel our growing economy and generate hundreds-of-millions of dollars a year for the state.

Back in January, the House refocused on cost savings, immediately picking up where it left off after the holidays with passage of unemployment insurance rate freeze legislation that would save the average employer $141 per employee. Efforts such as these ease the burden on small businesses during these tough fiscal times.

After approving legislation that improves the governance, financial accountability, and state and local oversight of regional education collaboratives, the House worked a number of other bills that allow landfills to be used for renewable energy, update the state’s current organ donation law, and provide easier access to forensic analysis in court cases to help avoid wrongful convictions.
 

During the budget process, the House renewed its commitment to the Commonwealth’s citizens and municipalities by crafting a budget for fiscal year ‘13 that focuses heavily on local aid and passing legislation that will improve the quality of life here in Massachusetts.
 

The House and Senate agreed upon a $32.5 billion spending plan that prioritizes funding for cities and towns and commitments to reform and job creation. The budget does not contain any new taxes and uses a combination of ongoing revenue initiatives, one-time resources and spending reductions to close a $1.4 billion budget gap, the smallest budget gap the state has had since FY08.
 

The budget increases funding for local aid by $288.9 million over FY12 projected spending, including $899 million for unrestricted local aid, increases Chapter 70 funding to $4.17 billion, ensuring that all school districts receive at least an additional $40 per pupil in aid, and increased Regional School Transportation funding to $45.52 million. Additionally, the budget fully funds the Special Education Circuit Breaker at $242 million for first time since FY08.
 

In addition, the budget calls for increased oversight of community colleges, continues to improve public higher education resources and connects those resources to workforce needs across the state, adds to the state’s community preservation trust fund, and increases funding for elder protective services, substance abuse services, independent living centers, and the department of veterans services. The budget also worked to reform the state’s EBT system in an attempt to weed out any fraudulent use of the state’s resources.

In a year where we’ve seen a lot of fiscal improvement with a steady decline in the unemployment rate and an increase in our state’s bond rating, Chairman Dempsey of the House Committee on Ways and Means announced that Massachusetts finished FY ’12 at $107 million above benchmark with a balance of $1.34 billion in the state’s stabilization fund.

The House finished of the year working on a number of other bills that aimed to improve the quality of life for servicemen and women, those in need of housing, and commuters. With passage of the VALOR Act, the House expands the services offered through the Massachusetts Military Family Relief Fund, assists military families in transitioning in and out of Massachusetts, and increases the efficiency of veterans’ service officers in our communities. The House later worked to add a level of job security for call and volunteer firefighters and, through passage of supportive housing legislation, the House created easier access to supportive housing for those who need it most.

Throughout the session, the House has remained committed to improving the state’s transportation system and supporting the MBTA. The House approved funding to improve transportation infrastructure in municipalities across the state through a Chapter 90 allocation and also passed legislation that closes the MBTA’s gap for the upcoming fiscal year and provides vital assistance to the regional transit authorities.
 

Other session accomplishments include:


* Passage of a groundbreaking court reorganization and probation reform legislation in accordance with Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Roderick L. Ireland. Following the recommendation of the Monan Commission Report, the bill created an Office of Court Management and a Chief Justice of the Trial Court to divide the responsibilities currently held by the Chief Justice for Administration and Management.
* Approval of a strong and fair casino compact between the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, and
* Creation of another sales tax holiday on August 11th-12th as part of the economic development legislation in an effort to boost sales for local businesses, and
* Passage of another round of pension reform legislation that is projected to save the Commonwealth more than $5 billion over 30 years, and
* Passage of legislation that created 160 new Representative Districts and 9 new Congressional Districts through an open, transparent process, and
* A crackdown on human trafficking by approving legislation that ensured that anyone involved in the organization of forced labor and sexual servitude would face tough criminal penalties. The bill also established important protections for victims and children that help them access necessary services, and
* Approval of the transgender equal rights bill that provides fundamental protections for the Commonwealth’s approximately 33,000 transgender residents, and
* Implementation of an emergency medical response system in Massachusetts public and charter schools as a requirement for school committees and trustees, and
* Improvement of accessibility and transparency in the state’s election system by promoting civic awareness, streamlining the process by which citizens may register to vote, and calling for election audits in certain circumstances. This legislation also allows 16-year-olds to pre-register to vote, and
* Improvement of the quality of child care services across the Commonwealth, and
* Reformation of guidelines for determining the form, amount and duration of alimony payments, and
* Approval of Evergreen legislation that includes language in collective bargaining agreements stating that employer contracts will remain valid beyond the agreement’s terms until a new agreement is reached.