Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
Senate President Therese Murray and Sen. Jamie Eldridge filed a bill on Oct. 3 that would provide an increase of $50 million in debt capacity for the Water Pollution Abatement Trust.
The bill (S. 1880) would raise the spending cap for the trust from $88 million a year to $138 million and direct the trust to provide matching grants, principal forgiveness, and zero-interest loans to help cities and towns meet their drinking water and wastewater infrastructure needs.
The bill would give cities and towns more tools to raise their own revenue by allowing them, at local option, to charge developers a reasonable fee to cover the costs of supplying water to new businesses or residents, a process that falls under the broad concept of “water banking.”
The legislation would also provide matching grants to cover half of the $5 million entrance fee for communities to join the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and provides incentives for communities to invest in “green” infrastructure projects such as dam removal, land preservation and stormwater recharge.
The overall financial need for water infrastructure across the state is $20.4 billion over the next 20 years, according to the Water Infrastructure Finance Commission. The Senate bill would begin to address this funding gap without new taxes.
In September, MMA staff and members testified before the Joint Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture in support of a bill (H. 690) that would authorize $2 billion in borrowing over the next 10 years for water infrastructure. The House and Senate bills, combined, would substantially increase resources available to cities and towns to repair decaying water systems.
Sen. Marc Pacheco, Senate chair of the Joint Committee on the Environment, Natural Recourses and Agriculture, told the State House News Service that he hopes to have a hearing on S. 1880 shortly.
In January, the MMA membership unanimously endorsed a resolution calling for more funding for water infrastructure, interest-free loans, and water banking.