As the end of the 192nd legislative session approaches this Sunday, hundreds of bills are being finalized by the legislature, many of which will soon become law. In our blog post last week, we touched on two bills relating to expenditure - the FY23 budget and the economic growth and relief bill. These are among a number of active bills in the legislature that will bring new advancements across the Commonwealth when codified. Many of these important bills have been debated on or enacted with little notice being provided to the public. To show just some of the important work that has been done in recent weeks, we provide a synopsis of a handful of these important soon to be laws:

Over the past five days, the Massachusetts legislature has made significant progress on two major expenditure bills, the FY23 budget and economic growth and relief bill. This legislation, if enacted, will provide over 57 billion dollars of critical support to the Commonwealth over the next fiscal year. With the legislature preparing to take vacation at the end of the month, this has only increased the sense of urgency to get these bills passed. This week, the final version of the 2023 budget, HB5050, was laid before the Governor, and later today, the Senate will take up the economic growth and relief bill, SB3018. While the total allotment of funding may end up changing in the coming weeks, this hurried attempt to rush the legislative process has left many struggling to keep track of everything. For those who may be in this position, we conducted a brief analysis of these bills and their movement thus far.

The end of the 192nd formal session in Massachusetts is quickly approaching, yet many bills still have not been passed. As the legislators take a vacation in August, this has led to a surge of activity this month, with both chambers already taking up a number of bills in formal sessions. However 1,000 bills remain in the joint committee stage alone, and as such, it is unlikely that many of these will be brought before each body prior to the 31st. There are a number of “big bills” that InstaTrac highlights which have yet to be enacted this session. While all legislation is certainly important, these “big bills” are the pieces of legislation often with the most news coverage, client tracks, large expenditures, and cultural impact. The economic growth and relief bill, HB5007, has been the focus of the House this week, and debate will continue today on it. Although not all “big bills” have even made it to floor debate yet, and to better understand where the legislature is at with regard to these bills, we took a deeper look at their progress.