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June 10, 2025

 

Support Small Businesses;
Contact your Legislators Today!


Reminder to contact your legislators.  RAM is still urging members to contact their elected officials to request that they make lowering mandated costs a priority this session.  At a time when most retailers continue to experience flat or down sales while business costs continue to increase, it is imperative that policymakers at the state and federal level reform those areas of existing law that are contributing to the cost problems facing businesses in Massachusetts.  At the federal level, regulation is needed to reign in the ever increasing interchange fees being charged to merchants by credit card companies, while the three areas of focus in Massachusetts state law include small business health insurance, energy pricing, and unemployment insurance. 

 
Federal Action: Click here to send a message to federal policymakers regarding interchange fees and the Credit Card Competition Act. 

State Action: Click here to send a message to state policymakers regarding state mandated operational costs.

 

 

Small Business Summit

Wednesday, June 18 
at the State House

 

Help turn the tide against those trying to make it harder
for you to run your small business!

As small business owners it is important that lawmakers hear from you as to how their policies impact your businesses. That is why we ask for you to attend the 2025 Small Business Summit on June 18th at the State House. While you are all very busy running your businesses, spending a few hours at the Small Business Summit truly helps bring awareness to the issues impacting your bottom lines like:

  1. Rising Health Insurance Expenses (The Commissioner of Insurance will be attending) 
  1. Unemployment Insurance Tax Hikes (We are paying back over $5 billion in UI debt while UI taxes continue to increase) 
  1. High Energy Bills (An energy expert will present on what is causing prices to rise) 
  1. Labor Costs (swipe fees, a $20 minimum wage, time-off policies will all be discussed)

After presentations on legislation being considered that make it harder to run your businesses, you can meet with elected officials to tell them how those policies impact employers and job creators.
 
We ask that you take a few hours on June 18th to join with fellow business owners from across Massachusetts and help fight for small businesses!
 

Follow this link to register.

 
Please feel free to forward this invitation to your small business owner contacts.  Make the trip into Boston together and amplify your message!

 

MA House Passes Bill to Revamp CCC, Raise Cap on Retail Cannabis Licenses,

Increase Purchase Limits, Regulate Hemp Products

 

The MA House of Representatives last week advanced a reform bill making a number of changes to the laws relative to cannabis in the Commonwealth, including an overhaul of the industry regulatory agency, the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC).  The bill passed unanimously, 153-0.
 
H.4206, An Act modernizing the commonwealth’s cannabis laws, reduces the size of the CCC board from five to three commissioners, all of whom will be appointed by the governor.  The consolidation of appointing authority under the Executive Branch is a significant change from the current structure, where appointments are made by the governor, the attorney general, and the treasurer, with the treasurer appointing the chair of the board. 
 
The bill increases the purchase and possession limit from one to two ounces of marijuana and directs the CCC to establish an equivalent possession limit across all product types.  RAM had recently advocated in support of an increase in purchase limits before the Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy.
 
The bill also raises the existing cap on retail licenses that any one entity can control from the current limit of three to six over a period of three years.  And the legislation proposes to regulate and tax hemp products, requiring all products to be registered with the CCC.  The sale of hemp-based beverages would only be permitted to be sold by retailers licensed to sell alcohol by the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission (ABCC).  Regarding medical marijuana, the bill eliminates the vertical integration requirement under current law.
 
The bill is now pending before the Senate Committee on Ways and Means.