Massachusetts House passes $3.82 billion ARPA bill, including Mass and Cass cash

After a protracted standoff between Gov. Charlie Baker and the state Legislature over the allocation of billions of COVID-19 relief dollars, the Massachusetts House has unanimously passed a $3.82 billion bill that sends several million toward ameliorating conditions at Mass and Cass.

“The investments made by the House today address evident needs across all Massachusetts communities and sectors of the economy, particularly among those who have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Speaker of the House Ronald Mariano, D-Quincy, of the passage of the bill late Friday night.

The Baker battle began over the speed with which to distribute the funds: Baker wanted to get $2.9 billion out the door sooner, while the Legislature preferred a more cautious approach, scheduling a series of public hearings for input on how best to use the funds.

As the Herald previously reported, Baker called the Legislature’s slow progress toward spending the money “disappointing,” expressing his frustration over the summer about his inability to spend the funds on damaged infrastructure after several floods.

The bill, funded by both ARPA and fiscal year 2021 surplus funds, includes two things both the House and Senate agree upon: $500 million apiece for replenishing the Unemployment Trust Fund to offset businesses’ contributions to it during the pandemic and for bonuses for essential workers who worked in person during the pandemic.

It also includes $300 million for climate initiatives, $200 million in tax relief for small businesses, $250 million for financially strained hospitals, $12 million to resettle Afghan refugees in the state, and other large investments into schools and higher education, homeownership and rental assistance, mental health programs and workforce development programs.

The bill still has to get approval from the Senate, which is also drafting its own plan that will need to be hashed out with the House version. Formal sessions for the year are set to end on Nov. 17, and it’s unclear whether the Legislature will get a bill to Baker’s desk by then.

Between the bill’s beginning and now, it grew by $17 million, some for local programs and some allocated through four mega-amendments compiled from over 1,100 amendments outside public view, as State House News Service reported.

State Rep. Aaron Michlewitz, D-North End, chair of the House Committee on Ways & Means, said the additional funds were well within previously discussed targets. Of those funds, $6.25 million went toward the drug and homelessness crisis at Boston’s Mass and Cass, including $2.5 million for “infrastructure safety improvements” in the area and at least $1 million for revitalizing nearby Clifford Park, which local officials have long sought to improve. Michelwitz added that $1.5 million will go toward the City of Boston for coordination teams for triage treatment and support services. There was a “multimillion dollar increase” in grants for minority-owned small businesses. Smaller amounts went to individual district-level projects.

The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance criticized the private nature of the negotiations, with its spokesman Paul Craney calling it “the most secretive and opaque legislative body in America.”

Michlewitz pushed back on that assessment, calling the six public input sessions “very open and transparent,” and noted the 159-0 bipartisan vote to pass the bill. He said he hopes to work out differences with the Senate and get the bill on Baker’s desk “as quickly as possible,” but didn’t comment on the previous Baker stalemate.

A large chunk of money is still unallocated: $2.4 billion in ARPA funds and $350 million in surplus funds. The state has until the end of 2024 to spend the ARPA money.

The Herald has reached out to Baker’s office and the Senate president for comment.

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3pPHs9l