Federal Outlook/Recap
Presidential Race and Presidential Race Alone
Let me just cut to the chase so i don’t waste your time. Congress is on halt until January 2025 when a new President is sworn in. all action that happens in Congress will be directly related to helping messaging for either presidential campaign, case in point the Democratically controlled Senate forcing a vote on the child tax credit to show that Republicans aren’t for it even though the VP candidate JD Vance is pushing for one, or the Republican controlled House, forcing a vote on making it illegal for illegal immigrants to vote in presidential election, to make Vice President Kamala Harris speak to why Dems voted against it.
Now until next year, is the mother of all dog and pony shows on Capitol Hill. As an employee of the Home Care Alliance I will not be sharing my views on the presidential elections, so that no one misconstrues my views for the associations views. There will still be state updates over the next couple of months, and if anything comes up federally of importance i will write about it.
till then, sit back, grab a football helmet and get ready for the most brutal 4 months of our lives.
State Outlook
What Happened to My Piña Colada?
With session ending on July 31st, August is usually the time when the state house goes quiet. Legislators head off for vacation to get some R&R and unwind from work before kids go back to school in September. Not this year.
As has been reported by every major news outlet across Massachusetts, the state legislature failed to pass numerous big ticket pieces of legislation before the end of session, such as, an energy package, gun reform, long term care package, private equity reform, and an economic development package. Democrat party leadership in the House and the Senate had been touting their goals of passing each one of these big ticket items for over 2 years, but due to internal fighting between the House and the Senate, they failed to make any progress before July 31st came and went.
The most noteworthy bill not passed, is an economic development package, which is usually passed in session. While according to state law, legislation can pass during an informal session which requires 100% of the vote to pass, that is not an option for the economic development package. Since the package includes bond authorization, It has to be passed during a formal session, which can only be called by the Governor, which rarely if EVER is needed. Governor Healey has already signaled that she wants the legislature to continue negotiation between the House and Senate versions of the bill so that they can call a formal session some time before the end of the year. while the two package are for the most part are the same there are key differences that have resulted in the legislature not coming to an agreement. While both packages call for billions of dollars in bond authorizations and tax credits aimed at lifting the state’s life sciences and climate tech industries, the House and Senate disagree on how much money to authorize. The House is demanding a bigger investment than the Senate has signaled they are comfortable with, which has been the main sticking point. Another key provision that was proposed in the Senate version was language that would add Massachusetts to the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC). HCA has long supported Massachusetts joining the NLC as we believe it will help to alleviate the ongoing workforce shortage for home care nurses that has resulted in countless referrals being denied and patients going home without care. At the moment it doesn’t seem that legislators are close to coming to an agreement, since many legislators have left for their pre planned vacation. HCA has continued to push for the NLC language to be added to any agreed upon package.
Now I can’t sit here and tell you that it is easy to pass legislation, let alone huge pieces of legislation, so I really am not shocked that all of these pieces of legislation were not passed this session. But I will say, they set themselves up for failure by setting their goals for the legislative session as high as the international space station. While we all have grandiose goals and dreams for the future, its important that legislators don’t let their eyes get so big that they lose sight of what is actually possible. It seems like every year legislatures forget that they can’t focus solely on passing legislation that could be used as a template for other states, because every year they have to tackle a huge beast of legislation that cost more than any piece of legislation they will ever pass, The annual budget. Over the last 30 years, Massachusetts has consistently been one of the last states to pass their budget, which prevents legislatures from focusing on other key pieces of legislation that could have a profound effect on the commonwealth. I personally believe that they should change the system so that the budget is set every two years, where they can always pass a supplemental budget if needed, if needed. This would give legislatures time to focus on projects that people really want to see done, such as gun reform, climate change legislation, and long term care legislation.
State Recap
Governor Healey Signs FY25 Budget
On Tuesday, Governor Healey signed the $57 billion FY25 budget, after trimming off trimming $317 million from 60 separate line items in the spending plan with her veto ability. The governor signed nearly all of the budget the Legislature sent her 10 days ago, approving of all but three of the 261 policy proposals lawmakers padded it with. The budget, which the governor’s office said carries a $57.78 billion bottom line after Healey’s actions, increases state spending by about $1.7 billion, or about 3.1 percent, over last year’s budget. It uses about $1.2 billion in one-time revenues to support the outlays during a time of volatile state tax collections and an expected increase in revenues from the state’s new tax on household income above $1 million is also helping the state to boost spending.
I would like to note that after extensive advocacy the final budget does not include inflammatory language that was proposed by SEIU that would 1.) require annual reporting on wages for home providers 2.) Require “Strong enforcement” of 75% permissible use standard 3.) Require EOEA to audit the annual wage reporting requirement to confirm compliance with the 75% pass through requirement. The final budget proposal includes language that would require EOHHS to report on their methodology for how they review chapter 257 rates for home care services.
The single largest veto was in the MassHealth managed care account, where Healey cut $192.3 million and said the remaining $5.9 billion in the account was the “amount projected to be necessary due to anticipated utilization, timing of rate updates, and new revenues.” The three policy sections that Healey returned with proposed amendments deal with a new MassHealth “notice of eligibility” requirement and with $63 million in annual supplemental MassHealth payments to Cambridge Health Alliance (technically two sections). Among 46 states whose fiscal year began July 1, Massachusetts was the last one to put an annual spending plan in place, according to data tracked by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Lawmakers and Healey previously agreed to an interim budget covering state expenses for about a month.
Governor Healey Signs Wage Transparency Bill
Today, Governor Healey signed the wage transparency bill, that now requests employers with 25 or more employees will have to post pay ranges alongside job openings. The new law also requires employers with more than 100 employees to file copies of federally-required equal employment data with the state secretary’s office, which would then be forwarded to the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
Supporters say the measure would reduce gender and demographic wage gaps. It was backed by the Women’s Legislative Caucus, the business group Associated Industries of Massachusetts, the Mass. AFL-CIO umbrella union, and the Mass. Municipal Association.
State House News reported that The attorney general’s office will conduct a public awareness campaign around the new rules. Their office also has enforcement authority and the ability to impose fines or civil citations for violations of the law, and employees will receive protections against retaliation for asking for salary ranges when applying for a job or promotion, according to the governor’s office. “Gender and racial wage gaps are real. They cause wealth gaps. With this legislation, Massachusetts claims lead position in building economic prosperity through equitable treatment of every worker,” said Evelyn Murphy, co-chair of the Wage Equity Now Coalition in a statement.
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