Mr. Brewer moved that the bill be amended by inserting after section 110 the following section:-
“SECTION 110A. Notwithstanding any special or general law to the contrary, the state treasurer shall report back to the clerks of the senate and the house of representatives, the senate and house committees on ways and means and the senate and house committees on bonding, capital expenditures and state assets, not later than October 31, 2010, on the potential cost savings to municipalities and other efficiencies of a municipal infrastructure bond bank. Such report shall include an analysis of the municipal infrastructure bond banks utilized in other states, and recommendations, if any, for legislative amendments to state finance law in order to permit such a bond bank to be established in the commonwealth.”
ADOPTED
Redraft LOC 69
Messrs. Brewer, Richard T. Moore, Timilty, Michael O. Moore and Ms. Chandler moved that the bill be amended by inserting, after Section 143, the following new section:-
“SECTION 143A. Chapter 28 of the acts of 2009 is hereby amended by striking out section 106 and inserting in place thereof the following 3 sections:-
“Section 106. Sections 17, 19 and 20 shall take effect on November 1, 2010.
Section 106A. Proposed sections 20 to 24, inclusive, of chapter 30A of the General Laws, as inserted by Section 18, shall take effect on November 1, 2010.
Sections 106B. Proposed sections 18, 19 and 25 of chapter 30A of the General Laws, as inserted by Section 18, shall take effect on July 1, 2010.”
Rejected
RC 256 [16 to 22]
LOC 70
MINIMUM TARGETED CHAPTER 70 AID
Mr. McGee moved that the bill be amended by inserting, after Section 141, the following new Section:-
“Section ___. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, any school district below the minimum target aid share of 17.5 percent established by section 3 of chapter 61 of the acts of 2007 shall be brought up to said minimum level.”
Rejected
RC 257 [5 to 33]
LOC 71
ADMINISTRATIVE EFFICIENCY FOR LOCAL AID SUPPORT
Messrs. Tisei, Tarr, Knapik, Hedlund and Ross moved that the bill be amended, in section 2, in item 1100-1100, by inserting at the end thereof the following:-“provided further, that the secretary shall direct all executive offices to reduce by not less than 4% of the amounts appropriated in this act expenditures in the AA and CC object classes for the current fiscal year; provided further, that the secretary shall, in consultation with the comptroller, transfer on or by May 30, 2011 the resulting savings from said executive office items reductions to item 1233-2350; provided further, that said transferred funds shall be disbursed to cities and towns as unrestricted general government aid on or by June 30, 2011 in amounts determined by the secretary of administration, in consultation with the commissioner of revenue and with the advice and consent of the local government advisory committee operating pursuant to section sixty-two of chapter three of the General Laws; provided further, that said funds are to be in addition to the funds provided for in section 3 of this act ; and provided further, that the secretary shall notify the house and senate committees on ways and means fifteen days prior to distribution the amounts of funds to be transferred and the intended distribution of said funds”.
ADOPTED
LOC 72
REGIONAL LIBRARIES
Messrs. Brewer, Downing, Knapik and Rosenberg moved that the bill be amended, in section 2, in item 7000-9401, by inserting at the end thereof the following words:- “provided further, that the board of library commissioners shall provide funds for the continued operation of a single regional library system to serve the different geographic regions of the Commonwealth, and requiring that physical locations be maintained in both eastern and western Massachusetts to serve the residents of said regions.”
ADOPTED
RC 258 [21 to 17]
LOC 73
CIGAR BARS
Messrs. Tisei, Tarr, Knapik, Hedlund and Ross moved that the bill be amended by inserting, after Section ___, the following new Section:-
“SECTION __. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, no municipality, through act of its board of public health or municipal health department, may unreasonably restrict, nor prohibit the operation of a smoking bar, as defined by section 5 of chapter 270, so long as such smoking bar complies with the provisions of this chapter. Such reasonable restrictions and requirements for the licensed operation of a smoking bar, as provided under this chapter shall, shall be permitted.”
Rejected
LOC 74
SURPLUS FUNDS AS LOCAL AID
Messrs. Tisei, Tarr, Knapik, Hedlund and Ross moved that the bill be amended by inserting, after Section ____, the following new Section:-
“SECTION XX. Chapter 29 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2008 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after section 5G the following section:
Section 5H. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the comptroller shall, on or before July 31st, transfer 50 per cent of the tax revenue amount that exceeds the latest revenue estimate made by the commissioner for the preceding fiscal year, as promulgated by the sixth paragraph of section 5B, to the General Fund; provided, the amount of the transfer shall be distributed to cities and towns in accordance with clause (c) of the second paragraph of section 35 of chapter 10; provided, the distribution shall be reported in a conspicuous manner on the official website of the division of local services.”.
LOC 75
PREVAILING WAGE
Messrs. Tisei, Tarr, Knapik, Hedlund and Ross moved that the bill be amended by inserting, after Section ___, the following new Section:-
“SECTION __. Notwithstanding sections 26 through 27H of chapter 149, or any general or special law to the contrary, the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage determinations of the United States Department of Labor shall be applied to all public construction projects in the Commonwealth funded in whole or in part by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009, provided that such rates shall apply only to those projects which have not commenced at the time of this Act.”
Rejected
LOC 76
CPA REHABILITATION
Mr. Tarr moved that the bill be amended by inserting, after Section X, the following new section:-
“Section 2 of Chapter 44B of the General Laws is hereby amended by striking the definition of “Rehabilitation” and inserting in place thereof the following:-
"Rehabilitation", the remodeling, reconstruction and making of extraordinary repairs to historic resources, open spaces, lands for recreational use and community housing, but not including maintenance, for the purpose of making such historic resources, open spaces, lands for recreational use and community housing functional for their intended use, including but not limited to improvements to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal, state or local building or access codes. With respect to historic resources, rehabilitation shall have the additional meaning of work to comply with the Standards for Rehabilitation stated in the United States Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties codified in 36 C.F.R. Part 68. With respect to land for recreational use, rehabilitation shall include the replacement of playground equipment and other capital improvements to the land or the facilities thereon which make the land or the related facilities more functional for the related recreational use”.
LOC 77
WITHDRAWN
Rejected
LOC 78
COMMUNITY PRESERVATION ACT
Mr. Tarr moved that the bill be amended by inserting, after Section X, the following new Section:-
“SECTION XX. Section 3 of chapter 44B of the General Laws is hereby amended in paragraph (e) by striking subsection (2) and inserting in place thereof the following subsection:-
(2) for $100,000 of the value of each taxable parcel of class three, commercial, and class four, industrial, property as defined in section 2A of said chapter 59”.
Rejected
LOC 79
SENIOR PROPERTY TAX EXEMPTION
Messrs. Tisei, Tarr, Knapik, Hedlund and Ross moved that the bill be amended by inserting, after Section ___, the following new Section:-
“SECTION 1. Clause Forty-first of section 5 of chapter 59 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2004 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out subclause (B), beginning in line 865, and inserting in place thereof the following subclause:-
(B) that such person’s income does not exceed that required to qualify under section 5 subsection (a) of chapter 62.
SECTION 2. Said clause Forty-first is hereby further amended by striking out the words “five hundred dollars”, in line 849, and inserting in place thereof the following figure:- $1,000.
SECTION 3. Clause Forty-first B of said section 5 is hereby amended by striking out the words “five hundred dollars”, in line 1035, and inserting in place thereof the following figure:- $1,000.”
Rejected
LOC 80
PUBLIC LIBRARIES
Mr. Kennedy moved that the bill be amended, in section 2, in item 7000-9501 by striking the figure “6,823,657” and inserting in place thereof the figure “8,107,657”.
Rejected
LOC 81
MUNICIPAL PENSION PUSHBACK
Mr. Tarr moved that the bill be amended by inserting, after Section X, the following new section:-
“Chapter 32 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 22E the following section:-
Section 22F. (a) A system, other than the state employees’ retirement system and the teachers’ retirement system, which conducts an actuarial valuation of the retirement system as of January 1, 2009, or later, may establish a revised retirement system funding schedule, subject to the approval of the actuary, which reduces the unfunded actuarial liability of the system to zero not later than June 30, 2040, as long as: (1) the payment in a year under the revised schedule or a subsequent schedule is not less than the payment in a prior fiscal year under the then current schedule until the system is fully funded; and (2) the increase in the amortization component of the appropriations required by the schedule from year to year does not exceed 4 per cent and so designed that the funding schedule and any updates to it reduce the unfunded actuarial liability of the system to zero on or before June 30, 2040.
(b) If an updated actuarial valuation allows for the development of a revised schedule with reduced payments, the revised schedule shall be adjusted to reduce the unfunded liability of the system to zero by an earlier date to the extent required to ensure that the appropriation required for a particular year under the new schedule shall not be less than the amount identified for that year under the prior schedule established under this section.
(c) If a schedule established under this section would result in an appropriation in the first fiscal year of the schedule that is greater than 8 per cent more than the appropriation in the previous fiscal year, the requirement of clause (2) of subsection (a) may be adjusted with the approval of the public employee retirement administration commission.
ADOPTED
Redraft LOC 82
Mr. Kennedy and Ms. Fargo moved that the bill be amended by adding the following language: -
Notwithstanding any general of special law to the contrary, the department of elementary and secondary education shall develop a plan for any city or town that has enrolled more than 25 students displaced by an earthquake since January 2010. The report shall include, but not be limited to, the per pupil cost and the per pupil cost of counseling and interpretive services; provided further, that no later than December 31, 2010, the plan shall be submitted to the speaker of the house of representatives, the president of the senate, the house and senate committees on ways and means and the joint committee on education.
Rejected
LOC 83
LOCAL AID AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENTS
Mr. Morrissey moved that the bill be amended, in section 3, by inserting after the first paragraph, the following new paragraph:-
Any city or town that has a contractual obligation with its employees shall use its Unrestricted General Government Aid to pay said contractual obligation; provided, however, those parties may mutually agree to or negotiate alternative conditions or payments, including but not limited to contract modifications or deferrals, in lieu of the city or town’s contractual obligation.
Redraft LOC 84
WITHDRAWN
Rejected
LOC 85
REGIONAL PUBLIC LIBRARIES
Mr. Eldridge moved that the bill be amended, in section 2, in item 7000-9401, by striking the figure “$8,781,475” and inserting in place thereof the following figure:- “$12,327,160”.
Rejected
LOC 86
SENIOR PROPERTY TAX FREEZE
Messrs. Tisei, Tarr, Knapik, Hedlund and Ross moved that the bill be amended by inserting, after Section ___, the following new Section:-
“SECTION 1. Section 21C of chapter 59 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2004 Official Edition, is hereby amended in subsection (e) by inserting at the end thereof the following subparagraph:-
The provisions of this subsection shall not apply to persons 70 years of age or older provided that such persons have owned the real estate subject to such tax increase for a period of at least ten years.”
Rejected
LOC 87
MUNICIPAL ASSISTANCE RESERVE
Ms. Spilka moved that the bill be amended by inserting at the end thereof the following section:-
SECTION XX. Chapter 29 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2006 Official Edition, is hereby amended by adding the following new section:
Section 2YYY. There is hereby established and set up on the books of the Commonwealth a separate fund to be known as the Municipal Assistance Reserve, consisting of any monies appropriated to the fund by the general court and any income derived from investment of monies in the fund. The fund shall be administered by the secretary of administration and finance. Funds may be expended by the secretary in grants to cities and towns to:
1) meet the extraordinary increases in the cost of public safety services provided by a municipality, provided that the provision of services has been in response to requests for assistance from mental health facilities, community residential programs, homeless shelters, and rehabilitation facilities and related educational facilities which provide clinical, rehabilitative and supportive services for adults or children; and provided further that preference shall be given to municipalities in which there has been an increase in requests for public safety services during the previous 60 months of at least 25%; and
2) meet the extraordinary increases in the cost of public safety services provided by a municipality provided that the provision of services has been in response to requests for assistance from a correctional institution or other facility operated by the department of correction, and provided further that preference shall be given to communities in which such requests for public safety services in fiscal year 2007 was increased by at least 20% over such requests in fiscal year 2006; and
3) provide assistance to municipalities in which at least 190 parcels, representing at least 1% of the total number of parcels in that municipality, are exempt from taxation under clause 3 of section 5 of chapter 59 of the General Laws; and
4) provide assistance to municipalities to meet the education and service needs of children in the care of the commonwealth who are residing in a community which is not their original community of residence; provided that the assistance shall be for technical assistance and resources for the transportation, assessment, education and continued support of said children in their new communities.
No expenditures from the fund shall be authorized that would cause the fund to be deficient at the end of any fiscal year.
ADOPTED
LOC 88
AUDIT OF 40B PROJECTS
Mr. Hedlund moved that the bill be amended by inserting, after Section __, the following new Section:-
SECTION __: The Inspector General, in consultation with the Attorney General shall enter into a contract with a third party for the purposes of auditing all affordable housing projects built through the comprehensive permit process since July 1, 1998 as outlined in Sections 20-23 of Chapter 40B of the Mass. General Laws. The third party shall be hired through a competitive bidding process and meet minimum professional qualifications as determined by the Inspector General’s Office.
All audits performed through this section shall be conducted in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards, and include but not be limited to a review of the submitted cost certification, agreements between the developer and the financing authority, purchase and sales agreements, any and all documentation relating to the real estate appraisal of the relevant property or properties, all reported expenses and revenues, all documentation regarding to the purchase, sale or lease, or all constructed units, and any other matter requested by the Inspector General.
At the request of the third party, the Inspector General’s office may summons the production of all records, reports, audits, reviews, papers, books, documents, recommendations, correspondence and any other data and material relevant to any matter under audit or investigation, in accordance with Section 9 of Chapter 12A of the MGL.
The findings of every audit, including any evidence of illegal or fraudulent activities, or cases where the actual realized profit of an individual project exceeds 20 percent, shall be presented immediately upon completion to the Inspector General for his review. The Inspector General may take whatever further action he deems is necessary, in accordance with Section 10 of Chapter 12 A of the MGL.
It shall be the responsibility of the Attorney General to recover all monies owed to the host communities. The third party hired to conduct the initial audit may receive a pre-determined percentage of all recovered monies, not to exceed 10 percent, with the balance being returned to the host community.
RULED OUT OF ORDER
LOC 89
MUNICIPAL GAS TAX
Mr. Hedlund moved that the bill be amended by inserting, after Section __, the following new Section:-
“SECTION __. Chapter 64A of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2004 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting, after section 7A, the following section:— Section 7B. The sale of fuel to a city or town which having consumed the same for any municipal purpose shall be exempt from the excise established by this chapter.”
LOC 90
WITHDRAWN
LOC 91
REGIONALIZATION INCENTIVES
Mr. Hedlund moved that the bill be amended by inserting after Section __ the following new Section:-
SECTION __: The amount of a grant provided to a municipality under Section 34, of MGL Chapter 90 shall be increased by 25% if that municipality has entered into an inter-municipal agreement regarding the sharing of services for the for maintenance, repair, improvement, and construction of town and county ways and bridges.
Section 2: This section shall take effect on July 1, 2011.
LOC 92
WEYMOUTH LOCAL CONTRIBUTION RECALCULATION
Mr. Hedlund moved that the bill be amended by inserting after Section __ the following new Section:-
Section __: Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education shall recalculate the minimum local contributions for fiscal years 2010 and 2011 for the town of Weymouth by using the final actual fiscal year 2008 local contributions. The department shall also recalculate the final actual local contributions for the fiscal years 2008 through 2010, inclusive. The department shall include in the final recalculations required by this section any updated financial audits of the district’s payments, or other similar information, that the superintendent may present to the department. The district shall be held harmless for any shortfalls in required local contributions attributable to any accounting errors discovered after the department conducts the recalculations required by this section.