RE: H.56, An Act empowering municipalities and local governments 

Dear Chair Rausch, Chair Lewis, and members of the Committee:  

We write today to offer our strong support for H.56, An Act empowering municipalities and local governments filed by Governor Healey.  

The tools included in this bill will help municipalities across Massachusetts save funds at a critical time, streamline programs, and allow us to provide the best possible services to residents. As municipal employees, members of municipal boards and commissions, and municipally-focused organizations, we ask that the legislature move this bill quickly and maintain key provisions included below. 

Remote and Hybrid Meeting Flexibilities 

We are grateful for the legislature’s continued extension of COVID era flexibilities to hold public meetings, and we ask that you make permanent the flexible provisions as included in H.56, and supported through repeated extensions. Within our municipalities, we have a mix of in-person, hybrid, and remote meetings that can be flexible and responsive to the needs of committee and community members. This flexibility has allowed increased participation in local government, and we urge the Legislature to continue to allow continued flexibility for the ways in which we hold public meetings.  

Procurement Updates: 

There are multiple procurement updates included in the Governor’s proposal that will streamline the process and make it easier for municipalities to efficiently provide services at competitive rates. These provisions include: 

Setting all Ch. 30B thresholds for advertised procurements to $100K for all municipal purchasing, not just school procurements, in order to standardize procedures and reduce administrative burdens; 

Clarifying cooperative purchasing language to make it easier for municipalities to select multiple vendors to fulfill an RFP. This will ensure that small and local businesses can compete in the RFP process and can lower costs for different components of a bid; 

Exempting snow hauling from Chapter 30B to match snow removal exemptions. 

Municipal Governance: 

There are numerous provisions in the Governor’s proposal that will make it easier for cities and towns to carry out necessary functions and ensure that they can provide the best services and resources for residents. These provisions include:

The ability for cities and towns to utilize joint cooperative services for certain municipal officers;

The ability to increase the maximum bond term for school projects from 30 years to 40 years to better reflect rising construction costs and the lifetime of these projects and so that we can address the backlog of these projects in our communities; 

Allowing cities and towns to fine companies for keeping double poles up after 90 days to improve safety and mobility while holding utility companies accountable; and   The ability for municipalities to amortize a deficit related to a declared emergency over 3 years so that as we see disasters happening with increasing frequency and intensity, municipal budgets are not severely disrupted in the recovery process. 

We believe that the provisions in this bill will allow us to better serve the residents in our communities. We urge the Legislature to continue to work with our municipalities to find solutions to the challenges facing our local governments and to quickly pass the Municipal Empowerment Act. Please reach out to Georgia Barlow, MAPC Senior Government Affairs Specialist, at gbarlow@mapc.org with any questions.  

Sincerely,