Mass. lawmakers close in on deals on Gov. Healey’s big 2024 priorities

With Election Day less than three weeks away, Massachusetts lawmakers are getting close on two of Democratic Gov. Maura Healey’s big legislative priorities for 2024.

On Thursday, legislative negotiators announced they’d reached “an agreement in principle” on a key piece of climate legislation that reform siting and permitting rules.

Work continues, meanwhile, on Healey’s signature economic development proposal, which provides billions of dollars in bond authorizations and tax credits to lift the state’s life sciences and climate tech industries.

Both bills were left on the table when lawmakers wrapped up formal sessions at the end of July.

The legislation can be approved in informal sessions through the end of the year. But the bills can be derailed by the objection of a single lawmaker.

The Democratic governor had earlier tucked those climate provisions into a year-end spending bill in an apparent attempt to speed lawmakers’ hands.

In a joint statement, House and Senate negotiators on the climate bill said the state “must continue to be a national leader in the effort to combat climate change, a prerequisite for which will be transitioning to a clean energy economy and creating high-quality jobs in the process.”

Specifics on the proposal were sparse on Thursday.

But state Sen. Michael J. Barrett, D-3rd Middlesex, and Rep. Jeffrey N. Roy, D-10th Norfolk, the lead Senate and House negotiators, said they hoped to “file a conference report in the coming days, with the goal of sending these critical reforms to the governor’s desk for her signature as soon as possible.”

Meanwhile, legislative negotiators continue to work on the economic development bill, a spokesperson for Senate President Karen E. Spilka, D-Middlesex/Norfolk, told MassLive.

Spilka is “encouraged by the work the Legislature has continued to get done since the end of July,” the spokesperson continued, adding that the Senate boss and her colleagues “will continue to work on these pieces of legislation and others until the legislative session ends on Dec. 31.”

During an appearance on GBH News’ “Boston Public Radio” program on Wednesday, Healey said she remained optimistic that lawmakers would get both bills onto her desk soon.

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“I certainly hope that we get this done and get this done in real short order. I am pleased with the legislative record,” she told the station, pointing to gun law reforms, a housing bond bill, and other bills lawmakers sent to her, and she signed, over the summer.

“So that‘s good, but I have said, ’Look, it‘s October. We’ve got to get this done, particularly economic development, and particularly with respect to climate,” she said. “ … You know, we’re sitting on projects that need to be permitted, that need to be sited … So I’m hopeful that we’ll get it done very soon.”