Legislative Highlights

As Chairman of The House Committee on Steering, Policy and Scheduling  and as a member of the Speaker's Leadership Team, I am proud of the following highlights of our last legislative session...

Reorganization of Governor's Cabinet and Selected Agencies of the Executive Department
In a move to increase the efficiency on the state level, the House voted to reorganize the structure of the Governor's cabinet as proposed by Governor Deval Patrick, elevating energy, housing and working people's issues to the cabinet level.

Immediate Capital Improvement Bond Bill
The House passed a 1.47 billion bond bill to address the immediate capital improvement needs of the Commonwealth, authorizing planned projects that addressed critical repair needs, secured federal grant funds and improved government efficiency through informational technology.

Bonding Bill Changing the Life of the Bonds to 30 Years
The House voted to pass a bill that would extend the life of bonds to 30 years in order to save the Commonwealth money when financing the capital improvements of the state.

FY 2008 Budget
Renewing its commitment to municipalities, the House passed a balanced budget focused on core services such as education and public safety, including a $15 million increase in Lottery aid to cities and towns and more than $3.73 billion for Chapter 70 education funding, a $220 million increase over last year's allocation. The FY'08 budget provided an overall increase in appropriations of 4.2 percent over FY 2007.

Film Tax Credits
To increase revenue and to spur job growth in the Commonwealth, the House passed legislation to provide the burgeoning Massachusetts movie industry with incentives to film here through meaningful tax credits. The impact was immediate with "The Pink Panther 2" moving its central location to Boston to take advantage of the credits.

Group Insurance Commision (GIC) for Municipal Employees
In acknowledgement that the skyrocketing cost of providing health insurance to municipal workers had become a drain on the coffers of cities and towns across the Commonwealth, the House passed legislation to allow municipal workers and reirees to opt into the Group Life insurance Commission (GIC) healthcare plan, which will yield millions of dollars in savings to municipalities that can be used to provide much-needed property tax reductions.

Pension Reserves Investment Trust (PRIT) for Municipal Employees
Maintaining its commitment to cities and towns throughout the Commonwealth, the House passed legislation to permit the state to take over poorly performing municipal pension systems, a measure that will provide significant savings to municipalities and help provide further property tax relief.

Improving Juror Service
The House approved legislation to alleviate the curent strain on jury resources and allow courts impanel more cases, bring cases to trial more quickly, reduce or eliminate backlogs and improve the swift and fair administration of justice proceedings.

Sales Tax Holiday
For the fourth consecutive year, the House passed legislation to provide consumers a two day sales break and deliver a shot-in-the-arm to businesses throughout the Commonwealth in August. By all accounts the "holiday" was another success for retailers, consumers, and the Commonwealth.

Identity Theft
To protect Massachusetts residents from the growing problem of identity theft, the House passed comprehensive legislation to notify the public of data breaches, establish security freezes of accounts subject to identity theft and set standards for disposal of records containing personal data.

Moratorium on Internet Hunting
Aligned Massacusetts with 22 other states to ban the hunting of live animals through the Internet and establish a fine of up to $2500 or imprisonment for 2 1/2 years if a person is found to have participated in Internet hunting.

"Baby Safe Haven" Law
Makes permanent leguslation originally passed in FY 2004 which provides a safe alternative for parents who might otherwise abandon their babies to surrender their newborns, 7 days of age or younger, to appropriate personnel at hospitals, police departments or manned fire departments.

Expand Access to Birth Certificates of Adoptees
In an effort to simplify the process of obtaining their birth certificates, the House passed legislation to allow adoptees, 33 years or older, to access their birth certificates without a court order.

Increased Benefits to the Families of Police and Firefighters
The House approved a bill authorizing municipalities to raise funeral expense reimbursements to families of firefighters and police officers killed in the line of duty from $5000 to $15,000.

Union Authorization Cards
The House passed legislation allowing public workers who want to unionize the ability to do so by signing majority authorization cards.

FY'08 Supplemental Budget
The House passed a $278.7 million supplemental budget that closede the books on Fiscal Year 2007 and provided approximately $100 million for key economic development initiatives to stimulate emerging industries such as clean energy development and support growth industries such as life sciences.

Electronic Health Records for Health and Human Services
To promote a standard and up-to-date system of health records for those enrolled in state health and human service programs, the House passed a bill which would establish a task force to create electronic health records for these individuals.

Protecting Patient Confidentiality
In order to provide clients of licensed mental health counselors with thesame right of confidentiality as clients of psychiatrists, social workers and psychologists, the House passed legislation to protect confidential communications in certain legal proceedings between clients and counselors.

 Support for Public Libraries
To sustain and grow the public libraries of the Commonwealth, the House approved an appropriation of $500,000 for municipal libraries facing fiscal hardship.

Labor Reorganization Bill
In order to increase efficiency among state agencies, the House approved Governor Patrick's reorganization of the Labor and Workforce Development secretariat.

Darfour Divestment
In an effort to help weaken the government-sanctioned genocide occurring in Darfur, the House voted to divest the state's employee pension funds from companies providing financial support to the Sudanese government.

Aid to Commercial Fishing Sector
The House voted to provide financial support to the commercial fishing industry in Massachusetts through an appropriation of no less than $500,000.

Tidelands/Chapter 91
The House overwhelmingly passed legislation to ensure a new, public-driven review process for large-scale projects being built on the Commonwealth's many tidelands.

Property Tax Classification
The House acted to reinstate the current property tax rate for businesses at 175 percent of residential rates in a further effort to help stem the rising tide of residential property tax rates.

Ticket Re-Sale Legislation
The House overwhelmingly passed legislation designed to simplify existing laws on the resale of sports, concert and other tickets while giving broad new protections to consumers victimized by counterfeiters and frauds.

Mortgage Foreclosure Relief
The House passed bold new legislation to help stem the number of mortgage foreclosures by encouraging banks to help borrowers, providing a new 3-month window to cure defaults and mandating tough new licensing standards for mortgage loan originators.

Commonwealth Corps
The House passed Governor Patrick's legislation to establish the Commonwealth Corps, a statewide volunteer and service organization aimed at encouraging residents of Massachusetts to lend their time and service to communities in need.

Child Abuse and Neglict Legislation
Acting to toughen the laws meant to protect our most vulnerable children from abuse and neglect, the House passed legislation to create a new cabinet secretary dedicated solely to child welfare, establish minimum educational requirements for social workers and their supervisors, and order training of mandatory reporters and increase criminal penalties.

Green Communities Act of 2007
The House unanimously approved bold energy reform legislation to promote the use of cleaner, renewable energy in Massachusetts. the bill establishes energy goals for the Commonwealth and acts to implement tose goals through state-wide clean energy initiatives and reforms. The bill provides incentives to individuals, business owners and municipalities to invest in energy-saving technologies and aims to reduce energy consumtion at the state-level.

LIHEAP-Assistance Appropriation
The House acted to avert a home heating crisis by unanimously approving $15 million in emergency funding to help more than 100,000 elderly residents and low income families stay warm this winter.