BOSTON (AP) - Welcome to crunch time on Beacon Hill.
The Legislature has a mountain of unfinished business and less than three months until formal meetings end July 31. Tasks include sending Republican Gov. Charlie Baker a $41 billion budget for the coming fiscal year.
The two-year session began with lawmakers voting themselves a pay raise, and since then, the House and Senate have been generally meeting only once a week, if at all, on a formal basis.
The Senate was plunged into months of turmoil over an ethics investigation that ultimately led to the resignation Friday of former Senate President Stan Rosenberg.
A few major bills, including a criminal justice overhaul, have become law, but many others are in various states of incompletion.
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OPIOID TREATMENT
Baker proposed a bill last year to improve opioid addiction treatment. It includes expanded access to the overdose-reversal drug Naloxone and a provision that would authorize police officers and medical professionals to take high-risk individuals to substance abuse treatment centers, even against their will, for up to 72 hours. A House committee backed its chamber’s version of the bill Thursday. It has yet to be debated.
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GUN SAFETY
The House plans to vote on a bill later this month that would create a process for removing firearms from people who legally own them but have exhibited unstable or potentially dangerous behavior. The measure also would need Senate approval. The Legislature also faces an approaching deadline to regulate stun guns after the state’s highest court ruled last month the existing blanket ban on those devices is unconstitutional.
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IMMIGRATION
Another high court ruling, issued last summer, found state law does not allow police and other law enforcement officers to hold people solely on the basis of a federal immigration detainer request. Baker - who says he opposes making Massachusetts a “sanctuary state” - filed legislation that would allow cities and towns to honor federal detention requests for people considered dangerous or violent. But there seems little to no consensus in the Legislature on how to proceed, with many Democrats favoring a so-called “safe communities” bill to sharply limit cooperation between local police and immigration officials.
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AIRBNB TAXES
Both chambers agree that short-term rentals, including online platforms such as Airbnb, should be regulated and taxed. What they don’t agree on is how. The House calls for a multi-tiered system for taxing short-term rentals, while the Senate wants to simply impose the state’s existing 5.7 percent lodging tax on those transactions. House and Senate negotiators are seeking a compromise.
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HEALTH CARE
The Senate approved a wide-ranging health care bill last November that - among other things - seeks to reduce huge price disparities between large hospitals, like those in Boston, and smaller community hospitals around the state. House leaders have promised their version of the bill, but it has yet to emerge.
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DENTAL THERAPISTS
Legislation to create a new mid-level dental practitioner received a boost when the Massachusetts Dental Society agreed on compromise supervision and training requirements. But neither chamber has yet advanced the measure . Dental therapists, as they would be called, could perform certain common dental procedures in disadvantaged areas and community settings.
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AUTOMATIC VOTER REGISTRATION
Groups including Common Cause and the League of Women Voters are pushing lawmakers to adopt automatic voter registration to make it easier for people to vote. The system would automatically update a person’s voter registration when he or she notifies a state agency, such as the Registry of Motor Vehicles, of a new address or other change in status. The bill has cleared a legislative committee but has yet to be considered in the House or Senate.
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BALLOT QUESTIONS
Baker and Democratic legislative leaders have stated their desire to head off several proposed ballot questions, including ones that would reduce the state sales tax , gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and require paid family and medical leave for workers. But there’s no indication of compromise being near on any of these items, and citizens groups already are collecting final signatures to secure spots on the November ballot.
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AND MORE …
Hundreds of other bills are pending on Beacon Hill, but most will never see the light of day. Some might include a proposed ban on hand-held cellphones while driving; legislation aimed at better protecting consumers against data breaches ; and a measure seeking to toughen animal cruelty laws .
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