Legislative Update from Preti Strategies for January 2025
Typically, the end of the two-year legislative session is a relative non-event, where mostly non-controversial local bills and small changes in policy are adopted without debate and without most people noticing.
This year’s session, however, has been anything but typical. The 2023-2024 Legislative Session (or 193rd General Court, as it is properly called), will end on December 31, 2024 at midnight, but really it should have for the most part ended on July 31. That’s the date when by joint House and Senate rules, all controversial bills should have been addressed, with no more roll call votes to be taken for the remainder of the year. The joint rule was put in place to prevent pre-election controversy and lame-duck votes on important matters.
This year, however, because the Economic Development Bill (and many others) had not been completed, the House and Senate agreed to come back into a formal session in the fall, so they could take roll call votes on conference committee reports and send big bills to the governor’s desk. It also means that some controversial items—including the Boston Tax Bill—have been taken up in informal session as well. Fortunately, that bill was not passed by the Senate, but where we used to say that if we made it to the end of July, we were safe—now we have to remain vigilant all the way up to the final seconds of the session. (As an aside, the end of session is set by the Massachusetts Constitution, so it can’t be suspended or changed by the legislature).
What that means for SPOA is that bills we have been tracking, and have presumably seen die for the session, are still technically a threat. We’re working with our allies in the House and Senate to make sure they don’t surface, but unfortunately the Holiday Season doesn’t mean we can let our guard down.
We are also hard at work on planning out our legislative priorities for next session. While it will take a couple months to ramp up, we will face the same challenges, and some new ones, in the coming two years, and will be doing so with some new faces in both the House and Senate.
Speaking of legislative priorities: In addition to continuing to oppose bills that hurt landlords and rental housing production, we are also hard at work on several pieces of legislation we hope to file in the new year that will proactively address many of the problems that continue to plague rental housing providers. Included in this list of proposals are:
The Good Landlord Bill: This bill would create a grant program to provide tenants with down payment assistance funded through a voluntary, tax-deductible contribution by landlords either for their own tenants, or into a general rental assistance fund that could be restricted by zip-code. Additionally, the bill will address high property tax rates for landlords and create an interest free loan program for landlords who improve and/or repair rental units in exchange for setting rent at HUD rates or limiting increases to inflation for a certain number of years.
Grants to Municipalities to Fund Voluntary Right-of-First-Refusal Programs: A voluntary program that would allow municipalities to pay property owners for future rights to advance notice of any sale of their property.
Anti-Squatter Legislation: This bill addresses an issue that is becoming more prevalent nationwide and protects the rights of property owners in maintaining possession of their properties from bad actors.
Eviction Procedural Reform: This legislation would correct many of the so-called “temporary” changes, including but not limited to changes in eviction sealing laws, to Massachusetts eviction law that were put in place during the COVID era.
RAFT Reform: One of the biggest issues faced by rental property owners is that they rely on their tenants to apply and advocate for rental assistance payments. This bill would allow landlords to apply directly to the Commonwealth on their tenants’ behalf.
Rent Escrow Legislation: This is a re-file of a bill that SPOA has championed in past sessions which would require rent payments be held in escrow in the case of disputes before the courts.
Landlord Right to Counsel: This bill would provide equal rights to landlords and tenants in cases where taxpayer funded legal counsel is provided to tenants.
by Jim Eisenberg
