Municipal Empowerment Act

The bill contains local option revenue raisers, including a new Motor Vehicle Excise surcharge local option that can benefit every city and town in the Commonwealth; provides relief from numerous administrative burdens, including reforms to procurement rules that raise thresholds for competitive bids and remove onerous publishing requirements; improves the efficiency of local operations by, for example, updating borrowing rules for school projects and establishing enforcement mechanisms for double pole prohibitions; and provides new tools for addressing critical local workforce challenges, such as allowing the creation of Regional Boards of Assessors, centralizing valuation of telecom and utility property at the state level and creating additional flexibilities in post-retirement employment exemptions.