Rep. Hynes State House Report December, 2007 (Part One) The Legislative fall season has quickly passed. It started slowly, just after Labor Day, with not many major controversial items presented for debate to the full body. These early weeks were largely consumed by legislative committees doing their work, i.e. conducting public hearings and making investigations of the more than 6000 bills filed for consideration in this biannual session. More recently the pace of activity before the full House rapidly ramped up with matters ranging from a supplemental budget to the death penalty being debated. In two parts, over the next month, I'll try and summarize some of the issues we are encountering. Commercial Fishing: The fishing industry, particularly the groundfish industry, is at risk of extinction. This is due primarily to restrictive regulations imposed by the federal government in an effort to restore groundfish stocks to a level seen in Massachusetts waters 50 years ago. In the 1960's and 1970's large foreign fishing trawlers overfished waters off the New England coast resulting in several fish stocks (cod, haddock, flounder, etc) being depleted. The federal government established regional management councils which in turn imposed restrictive regulations on commercial fishermen. These regulations, progressively more burdensome over the years, have resulted in many fishing families abandoning their traditional livelihood and others, who continue to eek out a living from the sea, wondering if their businesses are sustainable. Last year, commercial fishermen were restricted to fishing as little as 24 days at sea in certain traditional fishing areas. Recently the federal government has agreed to consider a new approach to the management of groundfish, one which more directly involves fishermen themselves. This new management structure allows for fishermen to form and participate in regional harvest cooperatives or Sectors. Fishermen signing onto a particular Sector would essentially fish as a "team" with each Sector being assigned a total allowable catch. Fishermen will act more directly as stewards of the sea and its food supply. During the next two years federal management agencies will review a dozen or more proposals to form Sectors in various coastal regions, including that of the South Shore (Scituate-Marshfield-Plymouth). In order to enhance this effort and support our fishing industry working to develop Sectors, I was able to include in the Supplemental Budget, $500,000 for the MA Department of Fish and Wildlife to be made available for Sector development. CH 40B: I testified a month ago at the public hearing held by the Joint Legislative Committee on Housing and Development on several bills I have proposed regarding this matter - from a ban to a moratorium to more modest adjustments and reforms to the existing onerous law. CH 40B, under the goal of developing "affordable housing," effectively strips a local community's ability to manage and protect its own resources through its own land use regulations. Recent 40B developments in Marshfield and Scituate make this a particularly challenging issue. Several Marshfield residents, including Marshfield Selectman, Kathryn O'Donnell, attended this State House hearing. My testimony centered on two of the measures I filed. One would allow the establishment of local bylaws to require subdivisions of ten or more units to have 25% of those units be deemed affordable by making them available to households earning up to 120% of the area's median income. The second proposal would count accessory apartments as affordable housing and would allow such units to count toward a municipality's subsidized housing inventory. On a related note the citizen petition to repeal CH 40B has passed its initial review by the Attorney General. Almost simultaneously, however, a new committee of business and civic leaders has formed to fight these efforts to repeal the law. Look for this contentious issue to spur heated discussions in the coming months. School Buildings: Four years ago I, and other legislators, after several years of determined advocacy, successfully passed legislation to overhaul the state's program for school construction and renovation. This effort was borne out of recognition that without substantial revamping, the program would collapse from both financial inadequacy and the increase of funding requests from school districts. The reformed program is now housed in the state treasurer's office, has the dedicated use of 20% of the state's sales tax, and employs a management team which scrutinizes a school district's proposal according to objective and sound published standards and priorities. During the past three years a moratorium on the use of state grants for new school construction and renovation was in effect while previous authorized building projects were completed and financing secured and appropriated. The moratorium has now ended and 422 school construction projects have been submitted to the state's new School Building Authority for its review and consideration. After much study, site visits, facility assessments, and review of the existing building's adequacy in meeting its ability to provide adequate educational opportunities for children, a "construction ladder" has been established for 162 projects, which prioritizes a project on its way to receiving a state grant. Marshfield's Governor Winslow School has been placed on the second ladder step indicating that the proposal is limited to replacement or repair which would materially extend the useful life of the school. In fact, this will allow the Governor Winslow School to receive state assistance in replacing its antiquated heating boiler. Scituate's Gates Intermediate School has been placed on the fourth ladder step indicating that additional investigations and discussions between the state and town are necessary to determine whether new construction or repair and renovation is the best pathway to achieve the desired result. Once this is determined, the project can advance quickly to the primary step, i.e. the invitation to execute an agreement detailing the scope, milestones, and cost-sharing responsibilities for this project. Congratulations to Superintendents Mason and McGoodwin for their progress thus far. As usual, my office remains determined to assist in whatever way possible to achieve the desired state funding. Housing Values/Taxes: The Department of Revenue recently released its "FY 2007 Average "Single Family Tax Bills and Assessed Values." The assessment represents the value of a house as determined by the local Board of Assessors as of January 1, 2006. The tax represents the average single family property tax bill levied between July 1, 2006 and June 30, 2007. For the state as a whole the average assessed value of a single family house was up 5.5% in 2007, to $406,673. The average tax bill increased from the previous year by $161 or 4.2% to $3,962. In Scituate the average home value increased 4.5% to 543,917 with a 6.4% increase in taxes to $4,520. In Marshfield, the average value increased 5.9% to $453,709 and a 3.7% increase in taxes to $3,693. As Scituate's Capital Planning Committee member Frank DiCesare recently pointed out, this published Department of Revenue assessed value does not reflect today's falling house prices. A recent survey he completed shows that 33% of housing units in Scituate this year are actually being sold below their assessed value - another reflection of the nation's housing market decline. "All Aboard Greenbush:" After an absence of 48 years the first commuter train rumbled out of Scituate at 5:44 A.M. on the morning of October 31. After nearly 25 years of debate and planning, and a full ten years after restoration of the two other branches of the Old Colony Line, the coastal communities of the South Shore were reintroduced to a mode of travel available to every region around Boston. At a cost of over $500 million, Greenbush is expected to carry over 8000 passengers a day and provide harried commuters a safer, dependable, more reliable method of travel in and out of Boston. Full ridership is not expected to be achieved for several months and reliability is threatened by the recent dismal on-time performance of the MBTA's commuter trains - 30% of Boston's commuter rail lines are reported to be running more than five minutes late since September. Legislators, under the direction of Senator Robert Hedlund, have expressed concern stating that when performance standards are not maintained, ridership is lost. The MBTA, the contractor operating the lines, and union officials representing engineers and trackmen, are pledging renewed efforts to return service to the historical standard of five minutes or less within scheduled arrival time for at least 95% of commuter rail trips. In any event, if you are tired or frustrated with your automobile commute to and from Boston, try the train. |