Mass. lawmakers have 6 weeks to wrap their work. Court rulings, tax talks are complicating it.
“‘Who is more important here, the taxpayer or the tax collector?’”
There are looming Supreme Court decisions. A tax relief plan has yet to materialize. And there’s mounting pressure to act, including from a lame-duck governor hoping to button up the last of his legislative legacy. With 42 days to complete major business, the Massachusetts Legislature’s typical late-session logjam of budget negotiations and unfinished work is being complicated by an unusual crush of circumstances.
House Speaker Ronald Mariano has privately urged lawmakers to speed the pace of their closed-door negotiations, on issues such as climate and energy legislation. Democratic leaders say they’re crafting various contingency plans for if, or when, Supreme Court decisions sweeping away abortion rights and gun safety requirements upend decades-old law. The glut of proposals, both known and unknown, virtually guarantees there will be a torrent of major new laws put on the books this summer. It also raises the potential for a cluttered cutting room floor come Aug. 1.
“When you’re trying to make things happen and you don’t have the ability to just say, ‘Do it,’ it’s frustrating as hell,” Mariano said in an interview. The timing of the Supreme Court decisions — due within days — is “awful,” he said. “It’s the worst. Because we’re gone July 31. People have elections. No one wants to come back in the midst of a fight if they have one. It’s a challenge.”
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