#2021-9 March 19, 2021

State Moving to Phase IV of Reopening, Easing Travel Rules and Gathering Limits

On Thursday, Governor Baker’s announced that the Commonwealth will move into the fourth and final phase of the reopening plan on March 22.  The move, which was announced as tentative several weeks ago, allows more businesses to open and revises the rules around out-of-state travel and gathering sizes in communities throughout the state.

According to the announcement, the travel order, which was implemented in July 2020, is being replaced with a travel advisory that encourages people to quarantine upon arrival in Massachusetts if they have been away for 24 hours or more.  The advisory does not apply to those returning after trips shorter than 24 hours, those who tested negative for COVID-19 up to 72 hours before arriving in Massachusetts, or those who are fully vaccinated.

In addition to the travel advisory, the move loosens the gathering-size restrictions while allowing stadiums, arenas, and ballparks to operate at 12 percent capacity after submitting plans to the Department of Public Health.  Effective Monday, gathering limits for event venues and public settings will rise to 100 people indoors and 150 outside.  For private residences, the limit will remain at 25 people outside and 10 people inside.  Businesses like bars and nightclubs will remain closed until a later point in Phase 4, for which a date has not been announced.

To read more, click here.

Climate Bill Heading Back to Baker’s Desk

This week, the House and Senate approved several changes to the climate change legislation that was sent back with several proposed amendments by Governor Charlie Baker at the end of the last legislative session.  According to published reports, the Administration is supportive of the revisions but did not indicate whether the Governor will sign the bill into law.

While Baker and the Legislature share a goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, enshrining into law that shared priority and the details about how to get there has been complicated.  The Senate approved the revised measure, now S.13, on Monday on a 39-1 vote while the House followed on Thursday with a 146-13 vote.  While the bill includes many of the Governor’s proposed amendments, the Legislature did reject a requirement that emissions in 2030 be at least 45-50 percent lower than 1990 levels instead of 50 percent as well as an amendment to remove language from a proposed new municipal building code that promotes net-zero construction, though lawmakers agreed to some tweaks to that provision.

Governor Baker and the home construction industry had expressed concerns that the original climate bill would make building new housing cost-prohibitive and had proposed letting the Department of Energy Resources develop a new stretch energy code that included a municipal option for “high-performing, energy-efficient new construction.”  Though the Legislature did not adopt all the building code amendments, the latest version of the bill adopted six changes including one that effectively downplays the term “net-zero” in the code.

Now that the bill is back on the Governor’s desk, he has 10 days to review it before either signing or vetoing the legislation.  If he decides to veto the measure, the Legislature is expected to have the votes to override it.

To review the revised climate bill, click here.

Legislature Plans Tax-Deadline Delay, Mirroring IRS

With the Internal Revenue Service moving the federal tax filing deadline to May 17, the Legislature is poised to enact a similar delay for state taxpayers as part of the unemployment insurance, paid leave and tax relief bill that is expected to be sent to the Governor in the coming days.  Last year, the state tax filing deadline was moved from April to July, meaning that some fiscal year 2020 revenue was not collected until the early months of fiscal year 2021, a shift that required legislation to authorize bridge borrowing.  It is unclear whether the same will be true this year given that the deadline would not be pushed into next fiscal year.