Government Affairs Update - January 2019

MALSCE Government Affairs Update - January 2019

by Abbie Goodman, MALSCE Chief of External Affairs

Save the Date: May 22, 2019 - Engineers & Land Surveyors Day at the State House

2019-2020 Legislative Session Began on January 2, 2019

MALSCE, ACEC/MA, and UCANE are working  to have the Dig-Safe billed (version that was in House Committee on Ways & Means at the end of 2018) refiled in both the House and Senate for this legislative session. The Bill filing deadline is 1/18/19. Several thousand bills will be filed by close of business on January 18, 2019. Other bills can be filed later, but other than bills filed by the Governor, such as the budget, most bills are filed by this deadline for the new legislative session.

On January 2, 2019, the 2019-2020 Session of the Massachusetts legislature began with these steps:

• State Senator Karen Spilka (D-Ashland) was elected to her first full-term as Senate President. On a roll call vote, Senator Spilka received 33 votes to six votes for Republican Sen. Bruce Tarr. After the balloting was complete, Tarr moved that it be the "sense of the Senate" that Spilka's election as Senate president be declared unanimous. Senator John Keenan, who is traveling out of the country, is the only senator who did not vote, but indicated his support for Senator Spilka. 
• State Representative Robert DeLeo (D-Winthrop), was reelected speaker of the Massachusetts House for a sixth time. DeLeo received 119 votes in the 160-member House, with Republican Minority Leader Brad Jones earning 31 votes from members of his GOP caucus. Eight Democrats, including 4 freshmen, broke with their colleagues and voted "present" -- Reps. Nika Elugardo of Boston, Tami Gouveia of Acton, Jonathan Hecht of Watertown, Russell Holmes of Boston, Patrick Kearney of Scituate, Maria Robinson of Framingham, John Rogers of Norwood and Angelo Scaccia of Boston.
• Both the Senate President and the Speaker of the House are expected to name their leadership teams, including Committee Chairs, in the next few days.
• New House members: 25 freshman legislators were sworn into the 160-seat House of Representatives on Jan. 2. Democrats begin the 191th General Court with 127 seats to the Republicans' 32 -- with one seat being held by Independent Rep. Susannah Whipps of Athol. The new House members are: David Biele of South Boston (Collins), Natalie Blais of Sunderland (Kulik), Peter Capano of Lynn (Crighton), Daniel Carey of Easthampton (Scibak), Michelle Ciccolo of Lexington (Kaufman), Marcos Devers of Lawrence (Matias), Mindy Domb of Amherst (Goldstein-Rose), Nika Elugardo of Jamaica Plain (Sanchez), Tami Gouveia of Acton (Atkins), Richard Haggerty of Woburn (Dwyer), Christopher Hendricks of New Bedford (Koczera), Patrick Kearney of Scituate (Cantwell), Kathleen LaNatra of Kingston (Calter), David LeBoeuf of Worcester (Campanale), Christina Minicucci of North Andover (DiZoglio), Liz Miranda of Roxbury (Carvalho), Tram Nguyen of Andover (Lyons), Norman Orrall of Lakeville (Keiko Orrall), David Robertson of Tewksbury (Miceli), Maria Robinson of Framingham (Walsh), Lindsay Sabadosa of Northampton (Kocot), Jon Santiago of Boston's South End (Rushing), Michael Soter of Bellingham (Kuros), Alyson Sullivan of Abington (Diehl) and Tommy Vitolo of Brookline (Smizik).
• New Senate members: Five new senators took the oath of office on Jan. 2. Democrats have 34 seats; Republicans have 6. The 5 new Senate members are: Jo Comerford of Northampton (Rosenberg), Diana DiZoglio of Methuen (O'Connor Ives), Barry Finegold of Andover (L'Italien), Edward Kennedy of Lowell (Donoghue) and Becca Rausch of Needham (Ross).

Actions at the End of the 2017-2018 Legislative Session

Massachusetts Passes Law Requiring Professional Engineers on Natural Gas Projects

On Monday, December 31, 2018, the Senate passed An Act ensuring the safety and soundness of the commonwealth’s natural gas infrastructure, previously passed by the House, and Governor Baker signed it into law as Chapter 339 of the Acts of 2018..

This new law includes an emergency preamble and takes effect immediately. 

• Utilities operating in Massachusetts will face new oversight on natural gas work. The bill implements a recommendation the National Transportation Safety Board made in its ongoing review of the September 13, 2018 natural gas fires and explosions that killed one person and damaged homes and businesses throughout Andover, North Andover and Lawrence. 
• The new law requires that all natural gas work that might pose a material risk to the public be reviewed and approved by a certified professional engineer. The bill, as signed into law, is the original language as filed by the Governor on November 20, 2018. It is very unusual for a bill to sail through informal session so quickly.  ACEC/MA was the only association to testify on the bill during its public hearing before the Joint Committee on Telecommunication, Utilities and Energy on December 11, 2018.
• The Department of Public Utilities will be issuing draft regulations that clarify how Professional Engineers are to be in responsible charge of these projects. More on this process soon.

State Budget Writers Agree on 2.7% Growth in State Tax Revenues: On December 31, 2018, state budget writers agreed to build their fiscal year 2020 budget plans on the assumption that state tax revenues will grow by 2.7% over FY2019, the current fiscal year. Governor Charlie Baker's budget chief and the leaders of the House and Senate Ways and Means Committees detailed a finalized accord on how much tax revenue the state expects to collect in fiscal year 2020, which begins on July 1. 2019, Budget watchers also upgraded their expectations for tax revenue in FY2019, upping the projected total revenue by $200M, to $28.529B. The estimate of $29.299B in tax revenues for FY2020 amounts to $770M more in revenue than the updated projection for FY2019. The projected growth rate will serve as the basis for Governor Baker's budget, which will by issued on January 23, starting the FY2020 budget process that will continue this spring and summer in the House and Senate.

Legislature Passes Short-term Rental Bill;  Includes Water Protection Fund for Cape & Islands; Governor Signs It Into Law on 12/28/18: The new law is Chapter 337 of the Acts of 2018. This includes a 2.75% excise for the Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund.

• The new law will apply the 5.7% hotel room tax to short term rentals, with an exemption for those who rent out their rooms for 14 days or less.
• Cities and towns can choose to add an additional 6% local excise tax (6.5% in Boston) and a 3% community impact fee, with an additional 2.75% fee levied on Cape Cod*.
  • *Establishes a Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund and establishes a 2.75% excise to be imposed on all accommodations (hotels/motels/bed & breakfast establishments/and short-term rentals) in Cape Cod municipalities subject to the Fund.
• There will be a public registry of all short-term rentals, however, municipalities will be allowed to place their own restrictions on short-term rentals, capping the total number of rentals, restricting the location of rentals or limiting for how many days rooms can be rented. Rentals will have to comply with local health and safety codes.
• Rental unit operators will have to maintain $1M in liability insurance coverage.
• The law will go into effect July 1, 2019.

State Plans Rule-making for New Clean Peak Energy Standard: On December 31, 2018, state energy officials announced that zero megawatt hours are being served by clean peak resources during peak load hours in Massachusetts, and outlined plans for a rule-making process to set the parameters of a new Clean Peak Energy Standard. To establish a baseline and facilitate new clean peak certificates in the new year, an energy law signed by Gov. Charlie Baker in August required the Department of Energy Resources, by Dec. 31, 2018, to determine the current percentage of kilowatt-hour sales to end-use customers from existing clean peak resources during peak load hours. The department also established the minimum standard percentage requirement for retail electricity suppliers in the 2019 compliance year at 0%. However, any clean peak resources with a commercial operation date on or after Jan. 1, 2019 that meets clean peak regulatory standards may be permitted to generate clean peak certificates that can be purchased in compliance year 2019 by retail electricity suppliers for use towards compliance requirements in 2020 or 2021, The department plans an informal stakeholder process to design the Clean Peak Energy Standard, with some early draft proposals preceding the filing of a draft regulation

- - - - - - 

The Commission on the Future of Transportation was established almost a year ago by Governor Baker’s Executive Order No. 579.

The Commission developed 18 recommendations to guide Commonwealth transportation policy “so that Massachusetts can benefit from coming changes – including in demographics, technology, and mobility preferences – and build a future for all of us that is healthy, sustainable, and prosperous.”

Link to report of the Commission – Choices for Stewardship: Recommendations to Meet the Transportation Future:   https://www.mass.gov/orgs/commission-on-the-future-of-transportation. A second volume containing extensive background materials, supporting data, and valuable sources of information accompanies the report.

- - - - - 

9 States and D.C. to Design Regional Approach to Cap Greenhouse Gas Pollution from Transportation

Transportation and Climate Initiative aims to complete design process before end of 2019.

On 12/18, a coalition of nine Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, including Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia announced their intent to design a new regional low-carbon transportation policy proposal that would cap and reduce carbon emissions from the combustion of transportation fuels, and invest proceeds from the program into low-carbon and more resilient transportation infrastructure.

Link to more: http://bit.ly/CapGG-Transpo

Massachusetts Board of Registration of Professional Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors:

Abbie Goodman attended the December meeting of the Board of Registration of Professional Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors and briefed Board members about the natural gas bill (see above).

The next Board of Registration meeting will be on January 24, 2019. Issues will probably include:

• Continuing Education: The draft proposed regulations on Continuing Professional Competency are still being reviewed within the Division of Professional Licensure, before they receive additional review outside the agency (not expected before November election)
• Draft Policy on the Use of the Title Engineer: not yet finalized.
• Another issue under review: M G.L. c. 112, s. 81R(a) Exemption regarding practice of trades

As a reminder, these are additional steps on continuing professional competency regulations:

• Legal review by Board’s Legal Counsel, Sheila York – small business impacts – done
• Review by DPL General Counsel - underway
• Review by DPL Director Chuck Borstel
• Review by office of John Chapman, Undersecretary, Consumer Protection & Business Regulation
• Review by office of Jay Ash, Sec, Exec Office of Housing & Economic Development 
• Review by office of Michael Heffernan, Sec, Exec Office of Administration & Finance – review of small business impacts 
• Review by the office of Secretary of State Bill Galvin for technical and formatting issues – including DPL filed review on small business impacts
• Return to Board of Registration, which would then hold a public hearing and accept public written comments on the regulations after 30 days’ notice.  
• The Board of Registration considers comments received and votes to modify or adopt.
• Then, if no issues, Regulations would be promulgated by the Secretary of State’s office - usually within 3 months. 

Gubernatorial appointment requests:

• New: Public Member for Designer Selection Board (not engineer, architect or contractor)
• Previously reported:
  • Architect for ARB (from an A/E Firm)
  • Electrical Engineer, Chemical Engineer, Fire Protection Engineer
  • Diversity in candidates

Additional resource links:

Opportunities to Serve on Boards and Commissions

Professional Engineers, Professional Land Surveyors, Registered Architects and other Design Professionals living in and licensed in Massachusetts are sought after to serve on certain public boards and commissions created under state law or by regulations. This is an opportunity to participate directly in government, by providing your professional expertise to help shape public policy for the benefit of residents. For more on serving and how to apply, see this link: https://www.engineers.org/get-involved/public-boards-commissions

--posted by Abbie Goodman, MALSCE External Affairs Chief