Key sections of Municipal Empowerment Act move in House

The Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government has favorably reported a re-drafted version of several sections of the governor’s proposed Municipal Empowerment Act that had been in the committee.

The language was sent to the House Committee on Ways and Means on Feb. 19.

The wide-ranging bill, strongly supported by the MMA and local leaders, is intended to increase municipal flexibility, reduce administrative burdens, strengthen municipal finances, address municipal workforce challenges, and improve the efficiency of local operations.

Various portions of the bill were assigned to three committees: the Joint Committee on Public Service, the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government, and the Joint Committee on Revenue.

The Public Service Committee favorably reported out its provisions of the bill, which focused on allowing flexibility for critical workplace shortages and a section that would create an Other Post-Employment Benefits Commission to address unfunded liabilities from non-pension employee benefits.

The Municipalities and Regional Government Committee held a bulk of the bill’s provisions, including those that would:
• Make the current remote and hybrid meeting flexibilities for public meetings permanent
• Reform procurement procedures and regulations, including increasing the threshold for all municipal purchases under Chapter 30B, streamlining cooperative purchasing agreements, and including snow-hauling services with snow-plowing services as exempt from rules of the Uniform Procurement Act (Chapter 30B)
• Extend the borrowing term for municipal building projects to up to 40 years
• Establish enforcement mechanisms for prohibitions on doubled-up utility poles

A new draft of this portion of the bill reworks the provision on double poles by creating a civil penalty for old attachments paid into a Double Pole Municipal Fund.

The portions of the Municipal Empowerment Act that were sent to the Joint Committee on Revenue are still awaiting action. These include provisions related to:
• Extending property tax exemptions for seniors
• Increasing the maximum local-option meals tax from 0.75% to 1%
• Increasing the local-option tax on hotels, motels and other short-term rentals from 6% to 7% (and 6.5% to 7.5% in Boston)
• Allowing a local-option surcharge on assessed motor vehicle excise taxes of up to 5%