As the session draws to a close, Mass. lawmakers are still looking for deals

On the line was a housing bill that would allow the state to borrow billions of dollars to help address the state’s housing crisis and that also offered policy solutions such as legalizing accessory dwelling units — so-called condos for grandparents – in Massachusetts. Legislative leaders were still in talks over a multibillion-dollar economic development bill, including a measure already passed by the Senate that would allow the Kraft Group to build a new home for the New England Revolution in Everett.

That was far from all: the deals on a clean energy bill, a plan to add more than 200 liquor licenses in Boston and a proposal to tighten oversight of hospitals, especially for-profit systems like Steward Health Which in bankruptcy, all remained unfinished because of Wednesday evening.

While the rules of the Legislature require this formal legislation ends by midnight on the last day of July, lawmakers can—and often do—suspend their own rules to continue working until the early hours of August. Two years ago, lawmakers worked for 23 straight hours to complete their work, only to see a major tax cut proposal die at the end of the session.

Democratic leaders began Wednesday’s sessions short on agreement and long on tension. Frustration began to spill over Monday when House Speaker Ron Mariano balked at an 11th-hour Senate proposal to allow cities or towns to approve sites that could offer supervised use of illegal drugs — a measure, he said he, which the House never debated.

“It kind of tells me that you’re not really serious about passing the bill to begin with,” said Mariano, a Quincy Democrat.

The next day, Senate President Karen E. Spilka, an Ashland Democrat, rebuffed Mariano after the House passed a bill requested by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu that would allow Boston officials to temporarily change the city’s taxing authority, reading from a newspaper as she mimics his critical line: “It kind of tells you they’re not very serious about passing the bill to begin with.”

Still, on Wednesday afternoon and early morning, lawmakers huddled to iron out differences between the House and Senate bills and come up with agreements, known as conference committee reports, for the rest of their membership to vote on and to send them to Governor Maura Healey’s office. .

Conference committee reports can’t be changed once they reach the Senate and House, meaning lawmakers often have just minutes to read a bill before they have to vote yes or no.

Anything not taken up by the end of the formal session could reappear in an informal session after July, but that delay comes with risk: Any lawmaker can block the legislation in those thinly-attended sessions.

Among the most closely watched bills was the housing package, which could pump $2 billion into public housing alone. But the versions passed by the House and Senate in recent months contained major differences, in particular the bottom line.

The House, for example, proposed borrowing up to $6.2 billion for housing programs, while the Senate only $5.2 billion. The $1 billion difference was based on a priority of Mariano’s, who wants to expand the water service area of ​​the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority to make it easier to build housing in some municipalities.

Another borrowing bill designed to oil the state’s economic engine also included a variety of hotly debated proposals. The Senate, for example, included a provision that would allow the Kraft Group to build a stadium for the New England Revolution, capping what had been years of effort to build a 25,000-seat stadium on the waterfront near the Encore Boston Harbor casino.

The proposal would remove 43 acres in Everett from what is known as a designated harbor area, a state designation that limits certain waterfront parcels to industrial uses. The property currently houses a decommissioned section of a power plant that Wynn Resorts acquired last year and is on Boston’s doorstep, just across from the Mystic de Charlestown. Some Boston officials, including Wu, were disappointed by the proposal, lamenting that the city was left out of the negotiations between the Kraft Group and Everett.

The Senate also passed a measure that would revive happy hour in Massachusetts by restoring drink promotions after a four-decade hiatus. But the House had not taken up the proposal, and Healey suggested Wednesday that she wasn’t a fan of the proposal either.

“There are issues with him,” she said during an appearance on GBH’s Boston Public Radio.

State Sen. Barry Finegold, who is part of the negotiations for economic development Bill, got rid of Healey’s comments about the happy hour measure. He said he felt “like we made some good progress today.”

“I think we’re moving things forward,” the Andover Democrat told reporters outside the Senate Chamber Wednesday after 5 p.m.

Throughout the morning, protesters crowded the halls outside the House and Senate chambers, demanding action on the final day of the session on climate legislation. The main goal of two climate-focused bills passed in both chambers would reshape the process for approving new energy infrastructure in the state, cutting the time to less than half the current rate while adding safeguards to account for environmental needs and environmental justice communities.

But the rest of the climate bills differed. The Senate, for example, is seeking a broader package that would curb natural gas infrastructure, ban the ability of competing third-party electricity providers to sell directly to residents and update the state’s bottle bill.

While waiting for legislative leaders to reach an agreement on the litany of bills Wednesday, officials quietly moved another piece of legislation. Lawmakers have sent Healey’s office a bill that would subject doctors or clergy who sexually assault a patient or client under false pretenses to up to five years in state prison.

Healey signed a bill passed by lawmakers in early July that would mandate salary transparency by requiring many employers to disclose salary ranges in their postings. The first-term Democrat struck an optimistic tone in a radio appearance Wednesday morning that it will be far from the last.

“There’s a lot more to come,” Healey said.

Matt Stout can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @mattpstout. Samantha J. Gross can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @samanthajgross. Anjali Huynh can be reached at [email protected].