Mass. lawmakers adjourn after all-night session with a housing bill passed — but not much else

Katie Lannan covers the State House for GBH News. Feedback? Questions? Story ideas? Reach out to Katie at katie_lannan@wgbh.org.

By the time the gavels banged to close out an all-night formal legislative session on Beacon Hill, the scrap pile was bigger than the list of accomplishments.

Faced with a deadline for passing controversial bills and apparently intractable differences between the House and Senate, top Democrats said early Thursday morning that they couldn’t reach deals on several closely watched pieces of legislation.

The biggest casualty is arguably a sweeping economic development package that would have authorized billions of dollars in borrowing to invest in the life sciences and climate technology sectors. It was a priority bill of Gov. Maura Healey’s, but legislative leaders said they couldn’t come to terms on it. And borrowing bills can only be voted on in formal session, so that piece of the legislation is effectively dead.

Lawmakers also walked away from negotiations around clean energy, prescription drug costs and hospital oversight measures.

Speaker Ron Mariano said House and Senate lawmakers had been getting frustrated as they tried to negotiate the two health care bills on topics that were “too important to get lost in the shuffle and get watered down.”

“I’d rather have a good bill than a bill with errors and mistakes in mismatched sections,” Mariano, a Quincy Democrat, said. “I’d rather have something that makes sense and goes into operation right without mistakes, without screw ups.”

After Thursday, the Legislature will continue to meet twice a week but will only do so in informal sessions, when any one lawmaker’s objection can block a bill. That makes advancing a bill a much tougher hurdle to clear.

“This has happened before. We picked up the pieces,” Senate President Karen Spilka, an Ashland Democrat, said. “We’ll keep working on it, and we’ll get it done.”

What’s dead

• Clean energy: House and Senate lawmakers — and Healey — wanted to make it easier for new clean energy projects to get off the ground by streamlining the processes for siting and permitting that infrastructure. The two sides could not reconcile the House bill and a Senate version, which also included measures aimed at nudging the state away from natural gas. Sen. Michael Barrett said working to lower households’ natural gas bills is a “moral requirement” to offset an increase in electric costs. “Tonight and this week the utilities have won,” Barrett said. “The Senate, to its great credit, is insisting that we carry over the entire discussion [to the next legislative session] if we can’t come to a more consumer-friendly resolution this evening.” Rep. Jeff Roy, the lead House negotiator alongside Barrett, said he was “disappointed that the Senate has gone back on its word” to get siting and permitting reform done this session. “This is not an issue that can wait till 2025,” Roy said.
• “Bottle bill” update: The Senate tucked into its energy bill an amendment that would update the state’s “bottle bill” recycling deposit law by doubling the deposit to 10 cents and expanding it to include non-carbonated beverages. That fades away with the rest of the bill.
• Overdose prevention centers: The Senate made a last-minute bid to authorize overdose prevention centers, also known as safe injection sites, where people can use illegal drugs under medical supervision. Senators included that in a broader bill aimed at tackling substance use disorder, which they passed Tuesday, but Mariano suggested the controversial proposal was a non-starter in his chamber with so little time left to negotiate.
• Cannabis Control Commission takeover: State Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro asked lawmakers to put an independent receiver in charge at the Cannabis Control Commission amid what he described as a “leadership crisis” at the agency. But Rep. Daniel Donahue, the House chair of the Cannabis Policy Committee, said Tuesday that members of the panel “believe there are alternative paths forward that would be less disruptive to the industry and more directly address our concerns,” but did not plan on having a solution ready by the end of formal sessions. The committee will hold public hearings throughout the fall, Donahue said.

What passed

• Housing bond: One of the final items to make it over the finish line was a $5 billion bill aimed at helping the state get a handle on its housing crisis. “It’s a big crisis. This is a big bill,” Sen. Will Brownsberger said. “It’s going to make a dent.” The final bill dropped a House-backed initiative to expand the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority’s Service Area and a Senate plan to have landlords, rather than tenants, pay broker’s fees. But it does include Healey’s initiative to allow accessory dwelling units — like in-law apartments — without special permits in areas zoned as single-family.
• Veterans’ benefits: A bill that made it to Healey’s desk Thursday morning makes more veterans eligible for state benefits and increases the annuity paid for disabled veterans, among other changes aimed at supporting former service members and their dependents.
• Parentage equality: The first big legislative breakthrough of the marathon session came around midnight Thursday, when lawmakers filed the final version of a bill to update how state law defines parentage. The bill unanimously passed both the House and Senate, and supporters say it’s a necessary change to make sure the statute reflects LGBTQ families and others who have children through assisted reproduction methods like surrogacy.
• Circus animals: With little fanfare, House and Senate lawmakers came together to send Gov. Healey bills banning circuses from using elephants, big cats and other live animals at shows in Massachusetts.

What’s left in limbo

• Boston liquor licenses: Boston officials asked state lawmakers to approve 250 new liquor licenses for the city targeted to specific neighborhoods, as something of a corrective to a scarcity of licenses that leaves hospitality development concentrated in wealthier, less diverse areas. The House and Senate approved bills that differed in the details, and negotiations seem poised to continue. “That may not get done today,” Brownsberger said around 6:30 a.m. “That’ll get done. There’s no issues.”
• An Everett soccer stadium, a Menino Convention Center and local-option happy hour: Even though the economic development bill is effectively dead, provisions tacked onto it could re-emerge later in the year. That includes a zoning change clearing the way for a New England Revolution stadium in Everett, a bid to rename the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center after former Mayor Tom Menino, and language that would let cities and towns opt-in to offering happy hour drink discounts at their bars and restaurants. The happy hour measure faces additional hurdles, though — Gov. Healey said on Boston Public Radio Wednesday she sees problems with the idea.
• Health care reforms: Speaker Mariano said he’s “pretty confident” that the hospital oversight bill, inspired by the turmoil at Steward Health Care, and the prescription drug bill can both pass in informal sessions. The drug costs bill would regulate the pharmacy benefit managers who serve as a middleman between health insurers, drug companies and pharmacies, and it would also cap or eliminate co-pays for certain drugs that treat asthma, diabetes and heart conditions. Other bills addressing long-term care and maternal health are also still technically in play.