MA: Massachusetts Legislature okays bill updating municipal laws, without liquor license reforms

MassLive

By Shira Schoenberg

July 31, 2016

When Gov. Charlie Baker introduced a bill in December aimed at updating municipal-related laws, he referred to it as “200 pages of total weed whacking.”

More than seven months later, on the last day of the 2015-2016 legislative session, lawmakers sent the now-125-page bill back to Baker’s desk for his signature.

“There’s 125 pages of really straightforward and helpful changes to update obsolete statutes and practices that have been imposed on cities and towns for years,” said Geoff Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. “The legislation will help communities in a wide range of activities.”

The House and Senate both passed the bill unanimously on Sunday, with a 158-0 vote in the House and a 39-0 vote in the Senate.

The Legislature stripped out one of Baker’s most controversial provisions, which would have let city and town officials rather than the state Legislature decide how many liquor licenses to approve. Lawmakers also eliminated a provision to let municipal officials decide when to exempt positions from civil service requirements related to hiring and promotions.

The final bill, H.4565, contains around 250 sections, related to a host of interactions between state and local governments. Some of the bill’s provisions update obsolete laws – for example, allowing transactions, such as police ticketing, to be done electronically and increasing outdated income thresholds or fines. Other provisions give cities and towns more flexibility or authority. The goal of the bill is to make it easier for local officials to run their cities and towns.

“It’s something that had to be looked at as technology changes and the way we do business changed significantly,” said House Majority Leader Ronald Mariano, D-Quincy, who led the committee that negotiated the final version of the bill. “We need to update our municipal regulations and laws and make sure we’re using the most efficient methods possible.”

For example, the bill reforms the process for procuring construction contracts to make it easier to select companies for small projects. It lets municipalities create new funds to set aside money to pay for future retiree health insurance benefits. The bill also makes it easier for cities and towns to pool resources and work together and it sets up a mechanism for the state to bulk buy school textbooks.

Beckwith said the bill addresses what city and town officials view as inefficiencies. For example, a town that gets an insurance settlement to pay for a damaged fire truck must wait until the next town meeting to appropriate the money to replace the fire truck. The bill would let the town use that insurance money to replace the truck without a vote.

Today, a town hall with a damaged bathroom might have to undergo a complex bidding process before hiring a plumber to fix it. Under the bill, the hiring process would be simplified.

“The bill removes a lot of the obsolete statutes and practices that are in place that micromanage communities, and it will allow communities to take care of routine manners and transactions more effectively in a more timely manner,” Beckwith said. “There are a lot of provisions that will just make it easier for town managers, boards of selectman, city managers, mayors and department heads to just fulfill their functions without having unnecessary paperwork or asking permission from the state.”

The bill also authorizes municipalities to create various funds and commissions, such as a commission to develop agricultural resources or a trust fund to cover unexpected special education costs. It sets time frames for municipalities to borrow money for certain purposes, such as allowing five-year bonds to cover energy audits or 20-year bonds to build public golf courses.

The bill lets cities and towns set their own speed limits at 20 or 25 miles per hour in certain areas, such as business districts.

The bill includes some zoning changes, such as setting up a framework for cities and towns to use tax incentives to develop workforce housing or affordable housing. A more comprehensive zoning reform bill never made it through the Legislature this session.

The bill clarifies the process for accurately accounting for state-owned land. It makes changes to taxes and assessments, such as exempting former prisoners of war from having to pay the vehicle excise tax.

State Rep. David Vieira, R-East Falmouth, a member of the conference committee that negotiated the bill, said, “This bill allows more flexibility to local officials to manage their affairs at the local level.”

State Sen. Patrick O’Connor, a Republican who is also a city councilor in Weymouth, added, “We’re cutting a lot of the fat that restricts municipalities from growing.”