Sports betting, tax breaks, and expanded safety of abortion and reproductive well being care are among the many points at play in a sequence of payments hung up in negotiations on Beacon Hill because the final days of the formal session wind down.
Lawmakers closed store Thursday, the final day to cross a invoice protected from any veto risk, by scheduling a casual session Monday, the place not each lawmaker is current to vote and a single objection can derail laws.
This signifies that 10 payments at present earlier than joint convention committees attempting to iron out the variations between variations handed by the House and Senate gained’t see a possible vote till Tuesday, on the earliest.
The Legislature’s plan to legalize sports activities betting is at present caught in a single such committee, with House Speaker Ron Mariano saying it could be a while till a compromise is reached. Senators and representatives stay “far apart” on one situation particularly: betting on faculty sports activities.
“I’m reluctant to turn over college sports to the black market,” Mariano stated Thursday. “I’ve had that position since the beginning. If we’re going to do this, I think there’s an opportunity to include college sports rather than let it be only handled by bookies.”
Though sports activities betting was not listed as an end-of-session precedence when Senate President Karen Spilka supplied her remaining objectives to the Herald in mid-July, each leaders did determine numerous overlapping priorities.
Protections for abortion care had been amongst them, and each branches have payments sitting in convention, however remaining passage gained’t come quickly sufficient to keep away from a possible veto from Gov. Charlie Baker.
House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz, who sits on the convention committee, stated lawmakers had been “still working on it” as of final week.
Baker stated in Maine on July 13 he wouldn’t focus on vetoing the invoice with out seeing it first. He beforehand vetoed the Roe Act, citing language round late-term abortions. It stays to be seen if related language will make it to his desk.
Spilka and Mariano each stated they may transfer — subsequent session — to strengthen the state’s gun legal guidelines whereas additionally working now to adjust to a current Supreme Court resolution loosening restrictions on firearm licenses.
A invoice to enhance entry to psychological well being care additionally cleared each chambers with the said assist of their leaders, and that additionally sits in committee.
Senators, very late Thursday, handed their model of an financial growth invoice, which had ballooned to greater than $4.5 billion from the House plan of about $4.3 billion.
That means any plan to cross tax cuts and ship rebate checks to residents can even must clear committee and will face the hurdle of a Baker veto.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”