L E G I S L A T I V E
U P D A T E
The Beacon Hill Report
by Stephen A.Boksanski
MAA/GIA Legislative Agent
2019 LEGISLATIVE CALENDAR
The Legislature continues to slowly establish and organize itself
in preparation for the onslaught of legislation moving through
the House and Senate Clerks’ office and to committee. The
House and Senate have adopted their own rules and must agree
on Joint Rules before the process can ensue. With fewer distinc-
tions between the two versions of the Joint Rules than in
the past two sessions, we expect a relatively quick resolution
and then the announcement of leadership and committee
assignments.
Each of the Joint Committees must also meet to adopt Commit-
tee rules, receive all related matters, and begin the process of cat-
egorizing the bills and then scheduling public hearings. Every
bill filed must be given a public hearing and receive a recom-
mendation from the Committee and the Committees may hold
on to bills until February of the second year of the term.
Part of our responsibility is to review all newly filed legislation
and identify matters that may be of interest to members of the
MAA. We have identified an initial list of matters based on the
titles and take a closer look at each once the bills are processed
and they are given bill numbers. While the bills still only have
docket numbers, they are all available for viewing online – at
https://malegislature.gov.
FY2020 BUDGET
The next 3-4 months will be focused on the Legislature getting
organized at the committee level and the budget process. The
House Ways and Means Committee will publish their FY2020
spending mid-April and debate the plan during the last week in
April. The Senate will follow a similar pattern in May, with the
Senate Ways and Means Committee releasing their version mid-
May and debate taking place during the final week of the month.
GIA PRIORITIES
Promote Industry Awareness – an important aspect of govern-
ment affairs is making interpersonal connections and making
sure legislators and regulators are familiar with industry leaders
and the challenges you face in conducting your business. If we
don’t tell them our stories, then we can’t expect them to know
where we are coming from: nobody is out there doing that for
us. BCB helps develop these relationships at the State House –
we also need you to be a part of our grassroots army and connect
with your state legislators.
Ally Development – another key ingredient to a successful gov-
ernment affairs operation is to seek out and develop allies who
agree with our positions. The MA Farm Bureau, product manu-
facturers and other vendors can all help play a role supporting or
opposing a variety of issues. We must continue to communicate
with such stakeholders to keep them engaged.
14 MAA NEWS / March 2019
Issues – There are many issues of interest that are active across
the Legislative and Executive branches of state government,
including:
• Water Resources Commission – The WRC has an upcoming
meeting to discuss its Draft Drought Management Plan, which
includes plans to develop legislation to implement statewide
outdoor water-use controls
• MA Department of Environmental Protection – The DEP
has issued an “updated” version of their model bylaw, which
still includes restrictions on how many days per week water-
ing is allowed rather than advocating for the use of more effi-
cient tools and methods.
• Snow Removal Service Liability Limitation – Kevin
Gilbride (ASCA) has provided us with language and back-
ground materials as well as some first-hand knowledge of the
issue and we will be working with his group to push this issue
forward this legislative session. We have identified a similar
proposal that we will seek to amend via the committee
process. We will need a lot of voices to gain some needed
attention to this issue.
• Pesticide Pre-emption – Legislation has been filed to repeal
the statewide authority on the regulation of pesticides and
give every city and town control over what may and may not
be used within their communities. This would be a very trou-
bling development and we will need all hands on deck to
keep things in the hands of MA DAR.
• Product Restrictions – Neonicitinoids have been in the cross
hairs for the past few sessions but we and others have been
able to keep this legislation from gaining too much traction.
This legislation will be back and there could be others.
A multitude of other issues will also be in play, including but not
limited to promoting healthy soils, changes to the minimum
wage, changes to the new paid family and medical leave pro-
gram, workplace discrimination and scheduling restrictions. All
are being advocated for by different organizations, many of them
from the world of organized labor who play a major role in set-
ting policy here, as if you didn’t know that already!
In closing, we have some good opportunities to work on and as
usual we will have our hands full protecting the current state of
business in the Commonwealth. Please do not hesitate to reach
out to the MAA to learn more about getting involved.
The MAA is a proud member of the Green Industry Alliance along with the
Massachusetts Association of Landscape Professionals, Massachusetts Associa-
tion of Lawn Care Professionals, Irrigation Association of New England, and
the Golf Course Superintendents Association of New England. Natascha
Batchelor, MCA and Russell Holman, MCA serve as the MAA’s representative.
If you are interested in becoming involved with the GIA’s legislative and advo-
cacy activities, please contact the MAA Office.