Governor Charles D. Baker's Budget Recommendation - House 1 Fiscal Year 2018

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SECTION 4 - Collection of Sex Offender Registration Fee

Summary:
This section requires the Sex Offender Registry Board to notify the Department of Revenue (DOR) and the Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) when a sex offender fails to pay the annual registration fee and further requires DOR to intercept refunds and RMV to refuse to issue or renew licenses or registrations until the fee is paid.



SECTION 5 - MassDOT Advertising

Summary:
This section eliminates any ambiguity by explicitly authorizing the Department of Transportation (MassDOT) to promulgate rules and regulations for the control of billboards, signs and other advertising devices.



SECTION 6 - Transportation Employees on Capital

Summary:
This section allows MassDOT to use capital funds for a portion of the salaries of certain employees who work on federally-eligible capital projects and whose salaries are 80% funded by the federal government.



SECTION 7 - MassDOT/MBTA Cost Recovery 1

Summary:
Current law requires that for any sale of real estate greater than $5,000, MassDOT must complete a competitive bidding process, even if the costs of complying with that process exceed the fair market value of the property. This section raises the property value threshold to a point where a competitive bidding process is cost-effective.



SECTION 8 - State Leasing 1

Summary:
This section, together with the subsequent section, provides the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) with one additional option to renew a state lease for five years, which if exercised would result in a maximum lease term of twenty years.



SECTION 9 - State Leasing 2

Summary:
This section, together with the preceding section, provides DCAMM with one additional option to renew a state lease for five years, which if exercised would result in a maximum lease term of twenty years.



SECTION 10 - Commonwealth Facility Trust for Energy Efficiency

Summary:
This section establishes a revolving trust to provide state agencies with funding for smaller energy and water conservation projects.



SECTION 11 - Health Care Cost Transparency

Summary:
This section requires the Center for Health Information and Analysis to make available the weighted average payer rate, by provider, for the most common procedures and services using aggregated data reported by the health plans.



SECTION 12 - Employment and Training

Summary:
This section eliminates the maximum caseload of 60 clients currently required by law for self-sufficiency specialists at the Department of Transitional Assistance. Eliminating this cap will allow the Department to target high risk clients in a more effective manner, without compromising case management services for other clients.



SECTION 13 - Tourism Formula

Summary:
This section amends section 13T of chapter 23A to provide for the distribution in fiscal year 2018 of Tourism Trust Fund revenues.



SECTION 14 - Open for Business: Green Partnerships

Summary:
This section authorizes DCAMM to enter into power-purchase and net metering agreements and to lease state-owned land involved in such agreements for a term of up to twenty years.



SECTION 15 - Trial Court Energy Conservation 1

Summary:
This section, with the two following sections, adds the judiciary to the list of entities that may contract for energy conservation projects that are valued at less than $100,000 without competitive bidding.



SECTION 16 - Trial Court Energy Conservation 2

Summary:
This section, with the two surrounding sections, adds the judiciary to the list of entities that may contract for energy conservation projects that are worth less than $100,000 without public bidding.



SECTION 17 - Trial Court Energy Conservation 3

Summary:
This section, with the two preceding sections, adds the judiciary to the list of entities that may contract for energy conservation projects that are worth less than $100,000 without public bidding.



SECTION 18 - Child Care Quality Fund

Summary:
This section changes the permissible uses of revenues generated through the sale of distinctive license plates and deposited into the Child Care Quality Fund. The change would permit the Department of Early Education and Care to expend the revenues to improve child care services either directly or through grants to for-profit and non-profit entities, rather than exclusively to non-profit entities as current law requires.



SECTION 19 - Hospital Assessment 1

Summary:
This section establishes a non-acute care hospital reimbursement trust fund to support the provider capacity, access and utilization management needs of the MassHealth program. The fund will be credited with amounts collected under the non-acute care hospital assessment.



SECTION 20 - Stabilization Fund Transfers 1

Summary:
This section, with the following section, is part of the Stabilization Fund transfer initiative. This section conforms section 5B of chapter 29 to the proposed replacement of the current capital gains transfer provision, and to establish the requirement to transfer, pre-budget, one-half of the amount by which estimated capital gains tax collections exceed the current statutory threshold for such collections.



SECTION 21 - Stabilization Fund Transfers 2

Summary:
This section, with the preceding section, is part of the Stabilization Fund transfer initiative. This section proposes to replace the current capital gains transfer provision that appears in section 5G of chapter 29, and to propose instead that half of any taxes collected for the budget that exceed the estimates in the enacted budget for that fiscal year be transferred to the Stabilization Fund.



SECTION 22 - Sick Leave Buyback 1

Summary:
This section, with two others, proposes the sick leave buyback legislation filed by the Governor during the 2015-16 session, H.4341.This section limits the accrual of unused sick time for state employees to 1,000 hours. It would also freeze the accrual of sick time for any employee who has already accrued more than 1,000 hours.



SECTION 23 - MBTA Retirement Fund Authorization

Summary:
This section authorizes, but does not require, the Pension Reserves Investment Management Board to manage the investment of the MBTA Retirement Fund.



SECTION 24 - Service Credit Reimbursements 1

Summary:
This section, with the next two sections, changes the current law to conform to the recent practice of transferring to the General Fund, rather than to the Pension Liability Fund, reimbursements from other governmental bodies to cover their pro rata share of former employees who ended their public service with the Commonwealth, but also served in at least one other governmental body.



SECTION 25 - Service Credit Reimbursements 2

Summary:
This section, with the two surrounding sections, changes the current law to conform to the recent practice of transferring to the General Fund, rather than to the Pension Liability Fund, reimbursements from other governmental bodies to cover their pro rata share of former employees who ended their public service with the Commonwealth, but also served in at least one other governmental body.



SECTION 26 - Service Credit Reimbursements 3

Summary:
This section, with the two preceding sections, changes the current law to conform to the recent practice of transferring to the General Fund, rather than to the Pension Liability Fund, reimbursements from other governmental bodies to cover their pro rata share of former employees who ended their public service with the Commonwealth, but also served in at least one other governmental body.



SECTION 27 - Pension Transfer Schedule

Summary:
This section strikes from the General Laws, effective July 1, 2017, the now-obsolete pension funding schedule that has been in place between fiscal years 2011 and 2017.



SECTION 28 - GIC Balance Billing Protections

Summary:
This section expands the balance billing protections currently available to members of the GIC indemnity plan to all of the plans offered through the Group Insurance Commission.



SECTION 29 - GIC Provider Rates

Summary:
This section establishes a limit on provider reimbursements for services rendered to Group Insurance Commission members.



SECTION 30 - Veteran's Tax Credit 1

Summary:
This section, as well as the counterpart section for corporations, proposes a tax credit for eligible businesses that hire veterans. The amount of the credit is $2,000 for each of the first two years in which the veteran is employed.



SECTION 31 - Employer Contribution to Health Care 1

Summary:
This section provides the Department of Revenue with the necessary authority to implement and administer the employer contribution established under chapter 118J.



SECTION 32 - 1099-K Notifications 1

Summary:
This section and the following section enable the Department of Revenue to implement new criteria for 1099-K notifications, allowing the Commissioner discretion to require reporting using criteria that may not match the federal criteria.



SECTION 33 - 1099-K Notifications 2

Summary:
This section and the preceding section enable the Department of Revenue to implement new criteria for 1099-K notifications, allowing the Commissioner discretion to require reporting using criteria that may not match the federal criteria.



SECTION 34 - Sales Tax Modernization: Timing Change

Summary:
This section requires third-party processors (predominantly credit card companies) to remit to the Commonwealth, on a daily basis, the portion of a sale that is attributable to sales tax, provided that the transaction involves a vendor or operator that employs fifty or more people. There would be no change to the current schedule for reporting and remitting the sales tax involving cash sales.



SECTION 35 - Veteran's Tax Credit 2

Summary:
This section, as well as the counterpart section for individual income taxpayers, proposes a tax credit for eligible businesses that hire veterans. The amount of the credit is $2,000 for each of the first two years in which the veteran is employed.



SECTION 36 - Room Occupancy Tax Changes 1

Summary:
This collection of proposed amendments to Chapter 64G will level the playing field in the accommodations industry by obligating those individuals or businesses who are, in effect, running hotel-like businesses to collect and remit the room occupancy tax. The existing occupancy tax (state level of 5.7%) will be applied to any provider of transient accommodations who provides 150 days or more of accommodation in a given calendar year. That property operator would be required to register with DOR, and to collect and remit occupancy tax in the following calendar year. The amendments would also authorize an intermediary to collect and remit the occupancy tax on behalf of an operator under an agreement with the Commissioner of Revenue. In addition, under a separate section, the Commissioner of Revenue would be authorized to enter into agreements with intermediaries serving the transient accommodation market, for the collection of occupancy tax on behalf of all property owners the intermediary may represent.



SECTION 37 - Laboratory Analysis of Cocaine

Summary:
Current law defines cocaine as coming from a plant, requiring the State Police lab to conduct a separate test to confirm that each sample of cocaine it analyzes is not synthetically produced. This section brings our statutory definition of cocaine in line with that of the majority of states, eliminating the need for that separate test and realizing associated cost, time and resource savings at the lab.



SECTION 38 - Fentanyl Trafficking Enforcement

Summary:
This section amends the definition of fentanyl trafficking to parallel the definitions of other trafficking statutes and eliminates the requirement that the Commonwealth prove the purity of a substance containing fentanyl in a fentanyl trafficking prosecution. As the State Police lab does not test suspected controlled substances for purity, this section would eliminate the need to outsource purity testing to a private lab.



SECTION 39 - Home Health Agency Licensure

Summary:
This section authorizes the Department of Public Health to license home health agencies.



SECTION 40 - Public Health Data 1

Summary:
This section authorizes the Department of Public Health to assemble public health data from other governmental agencies to examine an expanded set of public health issues.



SECTION 41 - Nursing Facility Assessment

Summary:
This section authorizes MassHealth to increase the current nursing facilities assessment up to the maximum amount allowed under federal law, but not more than $240 million, in order to support higher nursing home payments.



SECTION 42 - Hospital Assessment 2

Summary:
This section defines "assessed charges" for the purposes of calculating a hospital's liability under the non-acute care hospital assessment.



SECTION 43 - Hospital Assessment 3

Summary:
This section directs the transfer of revenues received from the non-acute care hospital assessment from the Health Safety Net Trust Fund to the new Non-Acute Care Hospital Reimbursement Trust Fund to support increased Medicaid reimbursements to non-acute care hospitals.



SECTION 44 - Hospital Assessment 4

Summary:
This section serves the same purpose as Hospital Assessment 3, but is necessary to take into account the fact that the increased acute hospital assessment used to fund the Delivery System Transformation Incentives will no longer be in effect after September 30, 2022.



SECTION 45 - Hospital Assessment 5

Summary:
This section expands the acute hospital assessment so that it applies to all hospital charges, except Medicaid and Medicare charges, and specifies a uniform non-acute care hospital assessment.



SECTION 46 - Employer Contribution to Health Care 2

Summary:
This section establishes a $2,000 employer contribution for those employers that do not offer minimum health insurance coverage to their employees, as defined by this section.



SECTION 47 - MASAC Transfer 1

Summary:
This section and the following section provide flexibility by allowing the Department of Correction (DOC) to locate the Massachusetts Alcohol and Substance Abuse Center for treating men committed under General Laws Chapter 123, Section 35 at any DOC facility designated by the Commissioner of Correction rather than requiring that the facility be located at MCI Bridgewater.



SECTION 48 - MASAC Transfer 2

Summary:
This section and the preceding section provide flexibility by allowing the Department of Correction (DOC) to locate the Massachusetts Alcohol and Substance Abuse Center for treating men committed under General Laws Chapter 123, Section 35 at any DOC facility designated by the Commissioner of Correction rather than requiring that the facility be located at MCI Bridgewater.



SECTION 49 - MassDOT/MBTA Cost Recovery 2

Summary:
Current law requires that for any sale of real estate greater than $5,000, the MBTA must complete a competitive bidding process, even if the costs of complying with that process exceed the fair market value of the property. This section raises the property value threshold to a point where a competitive bidding process is cost-effective.



SECTION 50 - Health Care Affordability 1

Summary:
This is one of four sections that establish tiered caps on the rate of growth for all acute hospitals and professional service providers, except behavioral health and primary care providers. These sections also authorize the Division of Insurance and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services to establish standards for eliminating administrative facility fees and requiring health plans to reinvest savings into reduced premiums for consumers or higher rates for professional services, including behavioral health and primary care services.



SECTION 51 - Health Care Affordability 2

Summary:
This is one of four sections that establish tiered caps on the rate of growth for all acute hospitals and professional service providers, except behavioral health and primary care providers. These sections also authorize the Division of Insurance and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services to establish standards for eliminating administrative facility fees and requiring health plans to reinvest savings into reduced premiums for consumers or higher rates for professional services, including behavioral health and primary care services.



SECTION 52 - Health Care Affordability 3

Summary:
This is one of four sections that establish tiered caps on the rate of growth for all acute hospitals and professional service providers, except behavioral health and primary care providers. These sections also authorize the Division of Insurance and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services to establish standards for eliminating administrative facility fees and requiring health plans to reinvest savings into reduced premiums for consumers or higher rates for professional services, including behavioral health and primary care services.



SECTION 53 - Health Care Affordability 4

Summary:
This is one of four sections that establish tiered caps on the rate of growth for all acute hospitals and professional service providers, except behavioral health and primary care providers. These sections also authorize the Division of Insurance and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services to establish standards for eliminating administrative facility fees and requiring health plans to reinvest savings into reduced premiums for consumers or higher rates for professional services, including behavioral health and primary care services.



SECTION 54 - Hospital Assessment 6

Summary:
This section revises related references to the acute hospital assessment to account for the non-acute hospital assessment.



SECTION 55 - Study of Public Counsel Services

Summary:
This section requires the Secretary of Administration and Finance to consult with designees of the Legislature and courts and then, by November 1, 2017, report on a set of recommended reforms to reduce spending on public counsel services and promote efficiency and effectiveness within the Committee for Public Counsel Services.



SECTION 56 - Trial Court Transferability

Summary:
This section authorizes the trial court to transfer appropriations within its divisions, as long as such transfers are executed by April 30, 2018. It would also limit transfers from the appropriations for probation and community corrections to 5% of those appropriations. The section requires ten days advance notice to the House and Senate Committees on Ways and Means before a transfer under this section can be executed.



SECTION 57 - Other Post-Employment Benefits Liability

Summary:
This section authorizes the use of debt service reversions to pay for OPEB funding. If debt service reversions are insufficient to cover the required funding, tobacco settlement proceeds would be used to make up that deficiency.



SECTION 58 - Inspector General's Health Care Audits

Summary:
This section authorizes the Inspector General's Office to conduct audits of the Health Safety Net and the MassHealth program, at a cost of $1 million for fiscal year 2018. As in past years, this cost will be borne by the Health Safety Net Trust Fund.



SECTION 59 - Commonwealth Care Trust Fund Transfer

Summary:
This section requires the Comptroller to transfer up to $110,000,000 from the Commonwealth Care Trust Fund to the General Fund.



SECTION 60 - FY 2017 Consolidated Net Surplus

Summary:
This section requires a transfer of up to $10 million from any consolidated net surplus in fiscal year 2017 to the Community Preservation Trust Fund, and up to $10 million to the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, before the remaining funds are deposited into the Stabilization Fund.



SECTION 61 - Pension Cost of Living Adjustment

Summary:
This annual section explains how the Commonwealth is fulfilling its various obligations to the state retirement system, including the obligation to fund a 3% cost-of-living adjustment on the first $13,000 of a retiree's annual retirement allowance.



SECTION 62 - Room Occupancy Tax Changes 2

Summary:
This section authorizes the Commissioner of Revenue to enter into agreements with intermediaries serving the transient accommodation market, for the collection of occupancy tax on behalf of all property owners the intermediary may represent.



SECTION 63 - Sick Leave Buyback 2

Summary:
This section, with two others, proposes the sick leave buyback legislation filed by the Governor during the 2015-16 session, H.4341. It would limit the accrual of unused sick time for state employees to 1,000 hours. It would also freeze the accrual of sick time for any employee who has already accrued more than 1,000 hours, as of the effective date of this act.



SECTION 64 - Sick Leave Buyback 3

Summary:
This section, with two others, proposes the sick leave buyback legislation filed by the Governor during the 2015-16 session, H.4341. It would limit the accrual of unused sick time for state employees to 1,000 hours. It would also freeze the accrual of sick time for any employee who has already accrued more than 1,000 hours, as of the effective date of this act.



SECTION 65 - Special Needs Programs Out-of-District Tuition

Summary:
This section specifies that the state will pay private special education providers the same price that the state paid last fiscal year, except for those programs that qualify for "extraordinary relief" under Operational Service Division regulations.



SECTION 66 - Community Hospital Reinvestment Expenditures

Summary:
This section allows payments from the Community Hospital Reinvestment Trust Fund to be made as Infrastructure and Capacity Building grants to support increased payments to hospitals.



SECTION 67 - Employer Contribution to Health Care 3

Summary:
This section attributes to fiscal year 2018 revenues employer contributions that are for liability incurred in the first two quarters of calendar year 2018, and are received on or before August 31, 2018.



SECTION 68 - Health Safety Net Administration

Summary:
This section allows Health Safety Net payments to be made as 1115 waiver or state plan payments, and authorizes up to $20 million of uncompensated care to be paid from sources of funds other than the Health Safety Net Trust Fund.



SECTION 69 - Initial Gross Payments to Qualifying Acute Care Hospitals

Summary:
This annual section requires the Comptroller to transfer sufficient money from the General Fund to the Health Safety Net Trust Fund to make the required initial gross payment to qualifying hospitals. It requires the Health Safety Net Trust Fund to repay the General Fund before the end of fiscal year 2018.



SECTION 70 - Moratorium on Mandated Benefits

Summary:
This section establishes a five-year moratorium on new mandated benefits.



SECTION 71 - Transfers between Health Funds

Summary:
This section authorizes the Secretary of Administration and Finance to transfer up to $15 million from the Commonwealth Care Trust Fund to the Health Safety Net Trust Fund.



SECTION 72 - MassHealth CarePlus Vision Coverage

Summary:
This section authorizes the Executive Office of Health and Human Services to determine the level of covered vision benefits in the MassHealth program for CarePlus members.



SECTION 73 - Nursing and Resident Care Facility Base Year

Summary:
This section establishes 2007, or any subsequent year the Secretary of Health and Human Services may choose, as the base year for nursing facility and resident care facility rates in fiscal year 2018.



SECTION 74 - MassHealth Dental Coverage

Summary:
This section authorizes MassHealth to provide the same level of dental benefits that it is offering in fiscal year 2017.



SECTION 75 - Public Health Data 2

Summary:
This section requires the Department of Public Health to report key findings from its data collection initiative to the Legislature.



SECTION 76 - Electronic Communication

Summary:
This section permits the Department of Unemployment Assistance to transmit any communication, if required or permitted by chapter 151A of the General Laws, in a manner prescribed by the director, including through electronic means, provided that the department establishes procedures to allow the use of the United States Postal Service for recipients who may lack reasonable access to, or the ability to use, electronic means of communication.



SECTION 77 - Tuition Retention

Summary:
This section creates a task force to evaluate the feasibility of plans to allow all state universities and community colleges to retain tuition revenues in a manner similar to that granted to the University of Massachusetts in the fiscal year 2016 budget.



SECTION 78 - Veteran's Tax Credit Effective Date

Summary:
This section allows eligible businesses to count any veteran hired after July 1, 2017 towards the credit for tax year 2017 and subsequent tax years.



SECTION 79 - Hospital Assessment - Effective Date 1

Summary:
This section establishes that the non-acute care hospital assessment takes effect for fiscal year 2018.



SECTION 80 - Hospital Assessment - Effective Date 2

Summary:
This section establishes that provisions relating to the non-acute care hospital assessment take effect on October 1, 2017.



SECTION 81 - Home Health Agency Licensure Effective Date

Summary:
This section sets December 31, 2017 as the effective date for the home health agency licensure requirements.



SECTION 82 - Employer Contribution to Health Care Effective Date

Summary:
This section makes the employer contribution established under chapter 118J, effective January 1, 2018.



SECTION 83 - Room Occupancy Tax Effective Date

Summary:
This section specifies that the room occupancy tax changes would take effect for transfers of occupancies commencing on or after January 1, 2018.



SECTION 84 - Sales Tax Modernization: Timing Change Effective Date

Summary:
This section establishes an effective date of June 1, 2018 for the timing change applicable to third-party processors of sales tax transaction.



SECTION 85 - Hospital Assessment - Effective Date 3

Summary:
This section restores the current language for hospital assessment at the expiration of five years to take into account the sunset of the MassHealth Delivery System Reform Trust Fund.



SECTION 86 - Effective Date

Summary:
This section provides that the budget shall take effect on July 1, 2017.


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