The MA House and Senate met in rare post-election Formal Sessions earlier this month to give final approval to conference committee reports on the Economic Development Bond bill (H.5100)and the Omnibus Energy and Climate bill (S.2967) – two major bills that saw negotiations extend beyond this summer and into the fall.  Governor Maura Healey signed the Economic Development bill into law on Wednesday morning, and then announced the signing an hour later in her speech to the RAM Annual Meeting.  The Energy and Climate bill was signed into law later that evening.

 

RAM members in attendance at the meeting thanked the Governor for her efforts in promoting these important initiatives and applauded the passage of both bills.

 

Policy items of interest to RAM members in the Economic Development bill include:

 

• RAM sponsored language allowing self-insured worker’s compensation groups to use an alternative payment plan for policy premiums.  This will eliminate the requirement for RAM members in the MA Retail Merchants Workers’ Compensation Group to pay 25% of the annual premium upfront in their first payment and will ease the cash flow burden on group members, allowing them to pay monthly or biweekly directly through their payroll.  This is an important victory for RAM and our members in the WC group. 

 

• RAM sponsored language for a study commission (Section 303) on “the future of payments and sales transactions by credit card and other forms of payment and the impacts for small businesses,” with RAM named to a seat on the commission.  The commission shall review the cost to small businesses in accepting credit cards or other means of payment, the impact of the increasing use of credit cards, and the impact of the prohibition on surcharging.  While we had sought an outright repeal of the prohibition on surcharging, this commission will allow those conversations to continue in a renewed focus in 2025 – still with an eye toward a full repeal.

 

• RAM member cosmetics sellers want to take note of a cosmetics study (Section 304) that is included in the bill, to be undertaken by the Department of Agricultural Resources (DAR).  The study is to review the presence of certain chemicals in cosmetic products and the potential negative effects on minors.

 

Regarding the Omnibus Energy & Climate Bill, RAM applauded the decision of the Conference Committee to refuse to move forward with the Senate passed expansion of the Bottle Bill.  The new law’s major provisions focus on siting and permitting reforms for clean energy projects. 

 

While the law does not include an expanded Bottle Bill, in its place the conference committee did include language (Section 108) to establish a special legislative commission on extended producer responsibility (EPR).  The commission includes a retail seat, and is tasked with making recommendations on specific EPR “approaches and other strategies for product and packaging categories including, but not limited to, paint, mattresses, electronics, lithium-ion batteries, plastics and other packaging.”  RAM has been and will remain fully engaged in the EPR policy discussion and intends to pursue the retail seat on the Commission.

 

Other provisions of interest in the bill include a feasibility study on the electric vehicle only sales mandate scheduled to become effective in 2035, and the establishment of a stakeholder working group to develop recommendations to encourage the construction and operation of solar power generating canopies.