Legislative Update from Preti Strategies for June 2023
On June 1, there will be one month left in Massachusetts’ Fiscal Year 2023. If all goes well, before July 31, a six-Member conference committee will have negotiated the differences between the House and Senate budgets and a compromise bill will be presented to Gov. Maura Healey.
There are some significant policy differences between the House and Senate versions; including $587 million in tax relief approved by the House but not yet taken up by the Senate. Additionally, the Senate chose to fund free community college tuition for most applicants, while the House provided funding for universal school lunches.
On housing issues, both the House and Senate included language making provisions preventing the eviction of a tenant actively applying for state rental assistance permanent (those provisions were set to expire). In the Senate, and to the benefit of landlords, language was included that said cases for an eviction claim for failure to pay rent could be dismissed only after state aid fully reimbursed a landlord, while tenants could only get eviction cases paused if they sought financial assistance "in good faith." Courts would be required to notify the state of any suspended eviction cases so officials could "expedite" a pending aid application, and for a tenant to get the case they face paused, their application for aid would need to be "made in good faith" as well.
The House and Senate budgets each invested approximately $1 billion in housing and rental assistance programs, including $180 million for the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP) and $180.6 million for the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT) Program.
Outside of the budget process, the joint legislative committees are well into their hearing schedules. Most recently, SPOA testified before the Joint Committee on the Judiciary in favor of House, No. 1675, which creates a rent escrow requirement for situations where a tenant is withholding funds alleging breach of contract.
SPOA also testified against House, No. 1731, which would codify a universal right to counsel for tenants in landlord/tenant disputes. SPOA testified that the only way to ensure a level playing field was to provide counsel to both rental housing providers and tenants, given that many landlords are often small business owners who cannot afford their own counsel.
Hearings, along with legislative sessions, will continue through the end of July and resume in September.
by Jim Eisenberg
