Governor Deval Patrick's Budget Recommendation - House 2 Fiscal Year 2009

Governor's Budget Recommendation FY 2009

Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs


Online Advertising of State Procurements

SECTION 4.   Chapter 7 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 22 the following section:-
Section 22 1/2. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, whenever a law requires a state agency, department, office, commission or authority to publish in a newspaper a notice of a public procurement or solicitation, it shall be sufficient instead to post that notice on a public government internet website, including the commonwealth's electronic bidding website.

 

Consolidated Net Surplus Distribution

SECTION 5.   (A) Section 35FF of chapter 10 of the General Laws, inserted by section 10 of chapter 140 of the acts of 2007, is hereby amended by adding the following 3 sentences:- The secretary of energy and environmental affairs, in this section called the secretary, shall be the trustee of the fund. The secretary shall expend monies in the fund, without further appropriation but subject to approval of an annual spending plan by the secretary of administration and finance, to promote alternative and clean energy investments. The secretary shall adopt regulations, after a public hearing, governing these expenditures.

(B) Said chapter 10 is hereby further amended by inserting after section 69 the following 3 sections:-

Section 69A. (a) There shall be established and set up on the books of the commonwealth a separate fund to be known as the Bay State Competitiveness Investment Trust Fund, in this section called the fund. The comptroller shall administer the fund and shall be its trustee. There shall be credited to the fund amounts transferred under clause (b) of section 5C of chapter 29 and amounts deposited from other sources by law.

(b) At the end of each fiscal year, the comptroller shall transfer from the fund, without further appropriation, the following amounts:
(1) not more than $25,000,000 to the Massachusetts Life Sciences Investment Fund established by section 5 of chapter 23I; and
(2) after making the transfer required by clause (1), the balance as follows, but if the balance in the fund is insufficient the following transfers shall be proportionately reduced accordingly:
(i) $15,000,000 to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, established by section 2 of chapter 121D;
(ii) $7,000,000 to the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund, established by section 42 of chapter 23G;
(iii) $15,000,000 to the Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund, established by section 2WWW of chapter 29;
(iv) $15,000,000 to the Heating Assistance Trust Fund, established by section 69B;
(v) $3,000,000 to the Regional Efficiency Assistance Grants Trust Fund, established by section 69C; and
(vi) $20,000,000 to the Massachusetts Alternative and Clean Energy Investment Trust Fund, established by section 35FF of chapter 10.

Section 69B. (a) There shall be established and set up on the books of the commonwealth a separate fund, to be known as the Heating Assistance Trust Fund, in this section called the fund. The fund shall consist of the monies transferred under subclause (iv) of clause (2) of subsection (b) of section 69A, and all other monies credited or transferred to the fund from any other fund or source pursuant to law.
(b) The director of housing and community development shall be the trustee of the fund and shall expend monies in the fund, without further appropriation but subject to approval of an annual spending plan by the secretary of administration and finance, to supplement funds from the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, 42 U.S.C. sections 8621 et seq., for the purpose of assisting low-income elders, working families and other households with the purchase of heating oil, propane and natural gas, electricity and other primary or secondary heating sources. The director shall adopt regulations, after a public hearing, governing these expenditures.

Section 69C. (a) There shall be established and set up on the books of the commonwealth a separate fund, to be known as the Regional Efficiency Assistance Grants Trust Fund, in this section called the fund. The fund shall consist of the monies transferred under subclause (v) of clause (2) of subsection (b) of section 69A, and all other monies credited or transferred to the fund from any other fund or source pursuant to law.
(b) The deputy commissioner of revenue for local services shall be the trustee of the fund. The deputy commissioner shall expend monies in the fund, without further appropriation but subject to approval of an annual spending plan by the secretary of administration and finance, and in consultation with the department of housing and community development and other relevant agencies, to provide competitive grants to municipalities, regional planning agencies and councils of government, to encourage regional cooperation and efficiency. The deputy commissioner shall adopt regulations, after a public hearing, governing these expenditures.

(C) Chapter 29 of the General Laws is hereby amended by striking out section 5C and inserting in place thereof the following section:-

Section 5C. The comptroller shall annually, on or before October 31, certify to the secretary of administration and finance the amount of the consolidated net surplus in the budgetary funds at the close of the preceding fiscal year. The amounts so certified shall be disposed as follows:

(a) an amount equal to 1/2 of 1 per cent of the total revenue from taxes in the preceding fiscal year shall be available to be used as revenue for the current fiscal year and 1/2 of 1 per cent of the total revenue from taxes in the preceding fiscal year, less the interest received during the preceding fiscal year on amounts in the Commonwealth Stabilization Fund, shall be transferred to the Commonwealth Stabilization Fund;

(b) an amount of not more than $100,000,000 shall be transferred to the Bay State Competitiveness Investment Trust Fund established by section 69A of chapter 10; and

(c) any remaining amount of the consolidated net surplus after amounts made available in clauses (a) and (b) shall be transferred to the Commonwealth Stabilization Fund.

All transfers specified in this section shall be made from the undesignated fund balances in the budgetary funds proportionally from those undesignated fund balances, but no such transfer shall cause a deficit in any of those funds. Before certifying the consolidated net surplus in accordance with this section, the comptroller shall, to the extent possible, eliminate deficits in any fund contributing to the surplus by transferring positive fund balances from any other fund contributing to the surplus.

(D) This section shall take effect as of June 30, 2008.

 

Railroad Bridge Safety

SECTION 9.   Section 12F of chapter 25, as appearing in the 2006 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the second paragraph the following paragraph:-
The commission may make an assessment against each railroad corporation or railway company, based upon the intrastate operating revenues, as shown in the annual report of each of those companies to the transportation division. Each railroad corporation and railway company shall annually report by March 31 its intrastate operating revenues for the previous calendar year to the transportation division. The assessments shall be apportioned according to railroad corporation intrastate operating revenues, to produce an annual amount of not more than $500,000, as the commission shall annually determine and certify as sufficient to reimburse the commonwealth for funds appropriated by the general court for the operation of the transportation division related to railroad bridge inspections under section 83 of chapter 159, including the costs of fringe benefits and indirect costs as established by the commission. The funds may be used to compensate consultants for the purpose of railroad bridge inspections. Each company shall pay the amount assessed against it within 30 days after the date of the notice of assessment from the department. Such assessments shall be collected by the department and credited to the General Fund. Any funds unexpended in any fiscal year for the purposes for which such assessments were made shall be credited against the assessment to be made in the following fiscal year and the assessment in the following fiscal year shall be reduced by any such unexpended amount.

 

Repeal Sales Tax Exemptions for Aircraft, Parts and Certain Pesticides

SECTION 17.   (A) The definition of "tangible personal property" in section 1 of chapter 64H of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2006 Official Edition, is hereby amended by adding the following sentence:- A transfer of an interest in an aircraft may be considered a transfer of tangible personal property under rules determined by the commissioner.

(B) Subsection (p) of section 6 of chapter 64H of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended by striking out clause (3) and inserting in place thereof the following clause:-
(3) sales of fertilizer, including ground limestone, hydrated lime, seed inoculants and plant hormones, as well as other substances commonly regarded in the same category and for the same use, but not including any sales of pesticides, including insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, miticides and all materials registered with the Environmental Protection Agency as pesticides under Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act as well as other pesticides commonly regarded in the same category and for the same purpose except when purchased by a person licensed under chapter 132B or otherwise exempt under paragraph (r).

(C) Said section 6 of chapter 64H of the General Laws, as amended by section 12 of chapter 63 of the acts of 2007, is hereby further amended by striking out paragraphs (uu) and (vv).

(D) Section 7 of chapter 64I of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2006 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out paragraphs (d) and (e).

 

Transfers Between Operating and Capital Funds

SECTION 28.   (a) Whenever the commonwealth has borrowed funds as authorized by law to fund the acquisition of equipment that would have otherwise been funded under an item of appropriation in section 2, the secretary of administration and finance may authorize the transfer of funds from the item of appropriation in section 2 from which the equipment acquisition would have been funded to any other item of appropriation for the purpose of funding personnel or other operating-related expenses that would have otherwise been funded in the fiscal year 2009 capital budget from the proceeds of bonds. The secretary may establish an appropriation account to receive this transfer if none exists under section 2. Any amount transferred under this section shall not exceed the cost of the related equipment acquisition, and the aggregate amount of all such transfers shall not exceed $50,000,000.
          (b) Before making any transfer authorized by this section, the secretary of administration and finance shall submit a transfer report and certification to the house and senate committees on ways and means. The report and certification shall include the following: (1) a schedule showing the cost of equipment acquisition that would have been funded from an item of appropriation in section 2, the item of appropriation from which the equipment would have been funded and the bond authorization against which bonds may be issued to fund the acquisition of the equipment; (2) a schedule showing the cost of all personnel and other operating expenses that would have been funded from the fiscal year 2009 capital budget, identification of each of the agencies that pay the related expenses, the item in the capital budget and the bond authorization from which the personnel or operating expenses would have been funded, and the item of appropriation in section 2 from which the personnel or operating expenses will be funded; (3) a schedule of each amount that will be transferred from one item of appropriation in section 2 to another under subsection (a) in order to effectuate the transactions described in clauses (1) and (2); and (4) a certification of the secretary confirming that the equipment will be acquired in fiscal year 2009 with bond proceeds pursuant to the fiscal year 2009 capital budget and the bond authorization identified in clause (1).

 

Ponkapoag Golf Course Long-Term Leasing Authority

SECTION 32.   Notwithstanding sections 40E to 40K and 52 to 55, inclusive, of chapter 7 of the General Laws, the division of capital asset management and maintenance, in consultation with the department of conservation and recreation, may, using competitive proposal processes that the division considers necessary or appropriate, lease and enter into other agreements, for terms not to exceed 25 years, to 1 or more proponents, so as to provide for the continued use, operation, maintenance, repair and improvement of all or a portion of the golf courses, practice greens, driving ranges, restaurant or any other structure and associated lands that comprise the facilities of the Ponkapoag Golf Course of the department.
          These leases and other agreements shall be on terms acceptable to the commissioner of capital asset management and maintenance, after consultation with the commissioner of department of conservation and recreation, and, notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, shall provide for the lessees to operate, manage, improve, repair and maintain the facilities, and may provide for the department to make initial capital improvements or direct grant funds to the lessee to undertake initial capital improvements as the commissioner of the department determines is necessary due to the condition of the facilities. Any such leases or other arrangements requiring improvements to be made to any portion of the facilities may include a description of the initially required improvements and, at minimum, performance specifications. Such leases and other agreements may provide that any benefits to the communities and the costs of improvements and repairs made to the facilities provided by the lessees or the recipients of the properties shall be taken into account as part of the consideration for such leases or other agreements. All consideration received from the leases or other agreements shall be payable to the department of conservation and recreation for deposit into the Urban Parks Trust Fund in accordance with section 34 of chapter 92 of the General Laws. The lessees or the recipients of these facilities shall bear all costs found necessary or appropriate by the commissioner of conservation and recreation for the transactions, including without limitation, all costs for legal work, survey, title and the preparation of plans and specifications.

 
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