Beacon Hill Roll Call: May 10 to May 14, 2021
Published: 5/21/2021 3:09:06 PM
There were no roll call votes in the House or Senate last week. This week, Beacon Hill Roll Call reports local senators’ roll call attendance records for the 2021 session through May 14. The Senate has held 28 roll calls so far in 2021. Beacon Hill Roll Call tabulates the number of roll calls on which each senator votes and then calculates that number as a percentage of the total roll call votes held. That percentage is the number referred to as the roll call attendance record. In the Senate, 39 of the 40 members did not miss any roll calls and have 100 percent roll call attendance records. It is a Senate tradition that the Senate president only votes occasionally. Senate President Karen Spilka follows that tradition and only voted on 11 of the 28 roll calls while not voting on 17 of them.
Chris Lisinski
State House News Service
The future of the state s controversial film tax credit, legalization of sports betting, and per-trip fees on ride-hailing services are among the issues senators targeted in the 923 amendments they filed to the Senate s annual state budget ahead of debate starting Tuesday, May 25.
Senate budget-writers, led by Ways and Means Committee Chair Michael Rodrigues, proposed pushing the sunset date for the credit from Jan. 1, 2023 to Jan. 1, 2027 while eliminating its transferability, capping eligible compensation, and increasing the amount of filming or spending in Massachusetts required to qualify.
Seven different amendments, filed by Democrats and Republicans, aim to alter or outright eliminate the Ways and Means Committee s film tax credit proposal.
As something of a mental health supporter and campaigner within financial services, Steve Nelson felt a bit grumpy about the slogans and hashtags being deployed during this year's Mental Health Awareness Week. In this column for PA he explains why.
6 hours ago in Local Photo: WHMP
(Undated) For the first time in nearly a year, no one in Massachusetts died from the COVID 19 virus. That from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, which reports that there were 472 new COVID cases reported in the commonwealth on Tuesday, but NO new fatalities–the first time that has happened since June 30, 2020.
(Undated) A state senator is renewing the call for hazard pay for so-called “essential” who were forced to work outside their homes during the COVID-19 state of emergency. The bill filed by Senator Paul Feeney would pay essential workers one and a half times their normal rate for work done during the pandemic. A similar bill was sent to a study committee during the last legislative session.
Beacon Hill Roll Call: April 26 to April 30, 2021
Modified: 5/7/2021 3:11:33 PM
Beacon Hill Roll Call record local representatives’ and senators’ votes on roll calls from the week of April 26 to April 30. All the House roll calls are on the House version of a $47.7 billion fiscal year 2022 state budget. Most of the decisions on which representatives’ amendments are included or not included in the budget are made “behind closed doors.” Or in the COVID-19 era, “behind closed Zoom meetings.” Of the 1,157 budget amendments proposed, most of them were bundled into consolidated “mega” amendments. This year there were seven mega amendments and all but one, which had just one vote against it, were approved unanimously.