Laws With Financial Impact on Cities and Towns: Calendar Years 2016 - 2020

DLM identified 29 statutes that potentially have a substantial impact on municipal budgets and operations. 

Overview

After reviewing legislation enacted during calendar years 2016 to 2020, DLM identified 29 statutes that potentially have a substantial impact on municipal budgets and operations. DLM identified the primary sections of the highlighted statutes, but this list may not be exhaustive and is subject to further analysis such as through a mandate petition or municipal impact report. The number of statutes enacted in each of these calendar years is as follows:

2016	9
2017	2
2018	6
2019	5
2020	7
TOTAL	29

 

The 29 statutes are detailed below, organized by type/subject matter and listed in order of their enactment within each type.

Education

Acts of 2016	Chapter 52, §§ 15, 63
An Act Relative to Substance Use, Treatment, Education and Prevention
Section 15 requires schools to develop substance abuse policies and education and to screen pupils for substance abuse. Section 63 requires each district to implement a verbal screening tool by the 2017–2018 school year to screen pupils for substance use disorders.

 

Acts of 2016	Chapter 255
An Act Relative to School Improvement Plans
Requires review and approval of school improvement plans by the superintendent, in consultation with the school committee.

 

Acts of 2016	Chapter 443
An Act Requiring Automated External Defibrillators in Schools
Requires schools, unless they are granted a waiver, to have at least one automated defibrillator and one person trained to use it.

 

Acts of 2017	Chapter 138, §§ 9, 27, 55
An Act Relative to Language Opportunity for Our Kids
Section 9 amends existing law by requiring districts to file additional information with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) regarding English-learner programs, including a plan to evaluate the programs’ effectiveness. Section 27 requires principals (in consultation with school councils) to include a description of the educational models and approaches offered to ensure the progress of English learners in their districts’ student performance plans. Section 55 gives parents the choice to enroll their children in any English-learner program offered by the school district. A district or charter school is required to provide a response to a request by parents or guardians of not less than 20 students to implement a specific program.

 

Acts of 2019	Chapter 41, § 36
An Act Making Appropriations for the Fiscal Year 2020 for the Maintenance of the Departments, Boards, Commissions, Institutions and Certain Activities of the Commonwealth, for Interest, Sinking Fund and Serial Bond Requirements and for Certain Permanent Improvements
Section 36 establishes a per-pupil facilities component to be included in the amount each district must pay per pupil for charter school tuition.

 

Acts of 2019	Chapter 132, §§ 5, 6, 10, 23, 28
An Act Relative to Educational Opportunity for Students
Section 5 requires school districts to establish targets for addressing achievement disparities among student subgroups and develop an evidence-based 3-year plan to meet their targets. Districts are further required to submit their plans to DESE every three years and to annually submit relevant data to demonstrate success in addressing disparities, along with any plan amendments that are needed to improve district performance on meeting plan goals. Section 6 rewrites definitions for the Chapter 70 program, as well as rules for calculating foundation budgets. These changes could cause higher spending by some districts that do not receive additional aid from the adjusted formula. Section 10 redefines amounts that each municipality shall annually appropriate for its public schools and regional schools. Section 23 requires school districts to submit their first 3-year plan by April 1, 2020. Section 28 provides that DESE, in consultation with the principals of the five recovery high schools in the Commonwealth, shall examine the costs associated with sending students to a recovery high school and shall determine the average cost per pupil at recovery high schools.

 

Acts of 2020	Chapter 133
An Act Regarding Breakfast after the Bell
Requires public schools in needy areas to offer school breakfast in accordance with federal law, although the Commonwealth will reimburse some of the cost. Schools that are required to serve breakfast and where not less than 60% of the students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals under the National School Lunch Program shall offer all students a school breakfast after the beginning of the instructional day, starting not later than the beginning of the  2022-2023 academic year.

Elections

 

 

Acts of 2019	Chapter 142, §§ 89, 91
An Act Making Appropriations for The Fiscal Year 2019 to Provide for Supplementing Certain Existing Appropriations and for Certain Other Activities and Projects
Section 89 authorizes five days of early voting for the 2020 presidential primary and any municipal election held at the same time and requires municipalities to allow any qualified voter to vote during the early-voting period. Municipalities are required to provide notification of the early-voting location, and registrars must prepare voting lists for early-voting sites and lists of all voters casting early ballots and update the voter list. Municipalities are also required to accept early voting by mail. Section 91 requires local election officials to transmit absentee ballots to voters covered under the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act for the November 2020 state election.

 

 

Acts of 2020	Chapter 45
An Act Granting Authority to Postpone 2020 Municipal Elections in the Commonwealth and Increase Voting Options in Response to the Declaration of Emergency to Respond to COVID-19
Authorizes postponement of local caucuses and elections scheduled before May 30, 2020 to a date on or before June 30, 2020, with notice to the public, and extends voter registration deadlines to 10 days before a rescheduled election, provided registrars hold a registration session that day. The legislation also authorizes early voting by mail during municipal or special state elections held on or before June 30, 2020. Local election officials shall send early-voting-by-mail ballots to those who have applied.

 

Acts of 2020	Chapter 92, §§ 1, 2, 7, 8
An Act Relative to Municipal Governance During the COVID-19 Emergency
Sections 1 & 2 provide that a city or town can postpone a municipal caucus or election scheduled on or before June 30, 2020 until on or before August 1, 2020, with notice to the public. Section 7 provides for publication of notice before a vote to consider an adjustment to town meeting quorum requirements during the state of emergency and notification after the vote to the Attorney General. Section 8 provides requirements for instances when the moderator in a town meeting requests that a representative town meeting be held through remote participation, such as minimum standards for the video or telephone conference platform as well as notice and warrant requirements. Municipalities holding remote representative town meetings are required to record them and preserve the recordings for not less than 90 days.

 

 

Acts of 2020	Chapter 115
An Act Relative to Voting Options in Response to COVID-19
Institutes early voting by mail and in-person early voting for the September 2020 state primary and November 2020 general election and any municipal election held at the same time. Election officers and registrars shall include an application for early voting by mail with the acknowledgement notice sent to any person registering to vote or changing their voter-registration address. Early-voting ballots and materials shall be mailed to voters by the clerk as soon as they are available. Municipalities are required to provide notification of the early-voting location, and registrars must prepare voting lists for early-voting sites and lists of all voters casting early ballots.

 

Acts of 2020	Chapter 227, § 99
An Act Making Appropriations for the Fiscal Year 2021 for the Maintenance of the Departments, Boards, Commissions, Institutions and Certain Activities of the Commonwealth, for Interest, Sinking Fund and Serial Bond Requirements and for Certain Permanent Improvements
Section 99 extends provisions for early voting by mail, requiring municipalities to allow any qualified voter to vote early by mail or as prescribed therein during any annual or special municipal or state primary or election held on or before March 31, 2021. Local election officials shall send early-voting-by-mail ballots to those who have applied.

 

Acts of 2020	Chapter 255
An Act Providing for Early Voting by Mail
Extends the provisions established by St. 2020, c. 227, § 99 and extends in-person early voting requirements for municipalities that authorize in-person voting for any annual or special municipal  election held on or before March 31, 2021.

 

Employees

 

Acts of 2018	Chapter 44
An Act Relative to Standards of Employee Safety
Subjects municipalities and municipal employees to federal OSHA standards.

Employment Benefits

Acts of 2016	Chapter 402, § 13
An Act Relative to Risk Management and Own Risk and Solvency Assessment
Section 13 requires a public employer self-insurance group to regularly conduct an Own Risk and Solvency Assessment and also to do so when there are unique circumstances or the insurer exhibits qualities of a troubled insurer. The public employer self-insurance group must timely file an Own Risk and Solvency Assessment summary report with the Commissioner of Insurance or be subject to daily penalties.

 

Acts of 2017	Chapter 63
An Act Further Regulating Employer Contributions to Health Care
Requires all governmental employers of more than 5 persons to pay a contribution for each employee who receives health insurance coverage through the division of medical assistance or subsidized insurance through the commonwealth health insurance connector authority. Repealed effective December 31, 2019.

 

Acts of 2018	Chapter 148
An Act Further Regulating the Disability Benefits Provided to Certain Police Officers and Firefighters
Adds breast and reproductive cancer to the types of cancers presumed to be sustained in the line of duty for public-safety personnel, and shifts the burden to government employers to prove cancer was not sustained in the line of duty.

 

Acts of 2018	Chapter 160
An Act Protecting the Rights of Custodial and Other Non-Teaching Employees of School Districts
Adds language requiring hiring/firing decisions by superintendents and principals to be done in accordance with collective bargaining agreements.

 

Acts of 2018	Chapter 210
An Act Providing Firefighters and Police Officers with the Opportunity to Enter a Smoking Cessation Program Prior to Termination
Allows police officers and firefighters to enter a smoking cessation program before termination by a municipality if the individual smokes tobacco products.

 

Acts of 2018	Chapter 217, § 1
An Act Relative to the Creation of the Commonwealth Technical Rescue Regions and Coordinating Council
Section 1 requires municipal fire departments to treat firefighters who are members of a regional rescue team as “on duty,” and therefore covered under firefighter illness, injury, and sickness benefit laws, while performing official team duties.

 

Licensing

Acts of 2019	Chapter 133, § 16
An Act Modernizing Tobacco Control
Section 16 requires local police departments, at the request of the commissioner of revenue or the commissioner’s duly authorized agent, to enforce this section regarding seizure of untaxed electronic nicotine delivery systems in the hands of an unlicensed person.

Municipal Services

Acts of 2016	Chapter 121, §§ 9, 11, 14
An Act to Improve Public Records
Section 9 requires municipalities to designate and post the contact information of at least one employee as a records access officer, who will be required to coordinate, document, and respond to public records requests electronically unless the records are not available electronically or the requestor does not have the ability to receive or access them electronically. Records access officers are allowed to charge fees for records requests that demand more than two hours of employee time. Section 11 adds requirements for keeping public records safe when not in use. Section 14 provides that electronic record-keeping systems or database systems, to the extent feasible, must be capable of providing data in a commonly available electronic, machine-readable format and provide for information storage and retrieval methods that permit the segregation and retrieval of public records and redacting of exempt information in order to provide maximum public access.

 

Acts of 2016	Chapter 174
An Act Relative to Electronic Publication of Certain Legal Notices
Requires municipalities, if required to publish a legal notice in a newspaper, to publish said notice in a newspaper, and requires that the legal notice appears: (i) in a newspaper’s print publication; (ii) on the newspaper’s website; and (iii) on a statewide website that may be maintained as a repository for such notices; provided, however, that, if a newspaper does not maintain its own website, publication on a statewide website and reference to the statewide website in the print publication notice shall satisfy the requirement of publication on the newspaper’s website.

 

Acts of 2016	Chapter 218, §§ 2, 6, 66, 77, 81, 108, 199
An Act Modernizing Municipal Finance and Government
Section 2 creates new recordkeeping and public-notification requirements for awarding by municipalities of construction or materials contracts, based on contract amount. Section 6 amends and extends recordkeeping rules for procurement of a supply or service in an amount between $10,000 and $50,000. Section 66 provides that the final payment on account of any bonds issued by municipalities must be made no later than June 30th of the fiscal year that the payment would have otherwise been due. Section 77 makes cities, towns, and districts responsible for conducting their own periodic audits of their accounts, instead of petitioning the director of accounts at the Department of Revenue for an audit or for installation of an accounting system. A regional or other governmental unit created within one or more cities or towns to provide services or conveniences shall be considered a district for the purposes of conducting a periodic audit. The cost of each audit shall be a current expense of the governmental unit and shall be apportioned among the member cities and towns. Section 81 provides that the director of accounts shall annually require the accounting officer of each city and town to submit schedules to provide for uniform returns concerning receipts, payments, public debt, and assets and liabilities, rather than the director furnishing the schedules to the city or town. Section 108 provides a new formula for value of state-owned land that has a negative impact on certain municipalities. Section 199 provides that the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security shall promulgate rules and regulations establishing standards for the issuance of electronic traffic citations, including the proper equipment to be maintained by each department.

Public Safety

Acts of 2016	Chapter 295
An Act Relative to Preservation of Evidence for Victims of Rape and Sexual Assault
Requires that a governmental entity in possession of forensic evidence collected during the investigation of a rape or sexual assault shall retain that evidence, in a manner reasonably designed to preserve it without destruction or deterioration, for the length of the statute of limitations and in no case for less than 15 years. Nothing in this act is intended to amend, modify or render ineffective M.G.L. c. 278A, § 16, which provides that any governmental entity that is in possession of evidence or biological material collected for its potential evidentiary value during the investigation of a crime, the prosecution of which results in a conviction, shall retain such evidence or biological material for the period of time that a person remains in the custody of the commonwealth or under parole or probation supervision in connection with that crime, without regard to whether the evidence or biological material was introduced at trial.

 

 

Acts of 2018	Chapter 69, §§ 2, 11, 24, 27, 61, 195, 214, 228
An Act Relative to Criminal Justice Reform
Section 2 requires local law-enforcement agencies to implement an in-service training program developed by the Municipal Police Training Committee on bias-free policing and handling complaints involving persons with mental illness or developmental disabilities, among other topics. Section 11 imposes requirements on local law-enforcement agencies and any crime laboratory operated by a police department of a municipality of more than 150,000 concerning the newly-established sexual assault evidence kit tracking system. Section 24 provides requirements and deadlines for local law enforcement, and any crime laboratory in a municipality of more than 150,000, concerning handling of sexual assault evidence kits, provides that any kit shall be entered in the kit-tracking system, and provides that, in cases where testing results in a DNA profile, the crime laboratory shall enter the full profile into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) and the state DNA database. Section 27 requires schools to have school resource officers (SROs). The police chief of a municipality shall assign an SRO that the chief believes would strive to foster an optimal learning environment and educational community. The superintendent and police chief shall enter into a written memorandum of understanding and shall establish standard operating procedures for SROs, including certain types of guidance. Section 61 requires each police department for which the state treasurer has established a special law-enforcement trust fund to file annual reports with the state treasurer regarding all assets, monies, and proceeds from assets seized under M.G.L. c. 94C, § 47, held by such fund and regarding all expenses from said fund. Section 195 creates a process for expungement of criminal records that local criminal-justice agencies must follow. Section 214 requires governmental entities to safely store non-investigatory sexual assault evidence kits until the statute of limitations. It further requires law-enforcement agencies to submit all previously unsubmitted kits to the state police crime laboratory or the crime laboratory of a police department in a city or town of more than 150,000 and for the laboratory to test them within 180 days of receipt and enter DNA profiles into CODIS and the state DNA database. Section 228 requires all entities who have custody of sexual assault evidence kits to fully participate in the sexual assault evidence kit-tracking system not later than                   December 1, 2019 and requires local law-enforcement agencies to begin full participation in the kit-tracking system according to the secretary of public safety and security’s schedule, but not later than one year after the effective date of the act.

 

Acts of 2019	Chapter 122
An Act Requiring the Hands-Free Use of Mobile Telephones While Driving
Requires law-enforcement agencies that appear to have engaged in racial or gender profiling to collect information on all traffic stops, including the reason for the stop, for a period of one year and undertake implicit-bias training.

 

Acts of 2020	Chapter 253
An Act Relative to Justice, Equity and Accountability to Law Enforcement in the Commonwealth
This complex police reform bill has many provisions that may impose costs on municipalities. See Appendix C.

 

Taxation

Acts of 2016	Chapter 141, §§ 10, 13
An Act Relative to Housing, Operations, Military Service and Enrichment
Section 10 adds veterans who have a disability rating of 100% for service-connected blindness and their spouses to those eligible for a property-tax exemption. Section 13 amends motor vehicle excise tax exemption for a person serving abroad in the military to last for at least 180 consecutive days in a calendar year, rather than 45 days in a calendar year.