We have two thrilling bouts on the fight card this week — voting rights and carbon taxes — both highly partisan topics. Democrats want to extend mail-in voting. Republicans, not so much. Democrats love the idea of carbon taxes (except maybe for POTUS). And most Republicans could do without them.

However, both parties are in agreement on the need to address one small problem facing 13,000 small businesses that have received pandemic relief grants — actually, it’s a $175 million problem. More on that below.

In other exciting news, five Massachusetts communities are among Expertise.com’s list of the top ten safest communities in the U.S. And the legal cannabis industry continues to eat into black-market marijuana sales and bring MJ states badly needed tax revenues.

And, as usual, we have a plethora of curated news links related to politics, business, energy, transportation, and real estate. There’s something here for everyone.

Let us begin.

Politics

Mass. GOP Puts Brakes on Voting Bill

Republican lawmakers are on a tare to roll back voting rights. Considering the Republican party has lost the popular vote for seven out of the past eight presidential elections, who can blame them for pushing back at initiatives that make it easier for folks to vote?

Case in point: Vote-by-mail provisions originally put into place to slow the spread of Covid-19 are slated to expire at the end of March. Democrats would like to extend the measure through June 30. House Democrats had the bill in the fast lane when they were pulled over by four Republicans — Sen. Ryan Fattman and Reps. Marc Lombardo, Shawn Dooley, and Nicholas Boldyga — who charged that the extension of voting-by-mail needs to slow down a bit.

In a letter to House Speaker Ronald Mariano, the four GOP Senators requested that the body hear testimony from the public and receive data from officials such as the secretary of state before rushing to conclusions. Senate Ways and Means Chairman Michael Rodrigues agreed to give until Monday morning before the gavel to hear testimony

Fattman had this to say about the maneuver:

“Our concern was that it seemed to be moving a little bit quickly without really knowing what we were trying to achieve. I think most people say, OK, if a municipality needs to move their election because they’re concerned, we respect that. But there’s a lot of towns that I represent, and many across the commonwealth, that are fearful that they may have to pay for a lot of this.”

Then, brilliantly, Rodrigues raised the stakes. He implied that Dems want to make the measures permanent with this comment:

“[Sen. Fattman] raises some good points about long-term considerations on whether or not we should make these election vote-by-mail or early voting opportunities available long-term, post-pandemic. And we will have full, open debate and discussion on those issues.”

Then the Republican Party tried to reposition the affront by framing the move as “standing up for the voters.“ The statement called House Minority Leader Brad Jones, a co-sponsor of the bill, “complicit with House Democrats in the scheme to shield the proposal from the public.”

By the time you read this, there will almost certainly be more news on the issue.

Here’s the report from MassLive.com.

More Politics

Business

Small Businesses May Be On the Hook For $175 Million Tax Bill

Another $39.7 million in COVID relief grants has been doled to 1,026 Mass. businesses. The much-welcomed allowances are coming out of a $668 million business relief fund set up in December, plus a $50.8 million fund announced in October. This brings the grand total so far after nine months to over $602 million awarded to 13,346 businesses.

The grants are being handed out by Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation (MGCC). This is the ninth round of COVID relief grants offered by MGCC.

Grants went to 280 restaurants, bars, caterers, or food trucks.
207 personal services businesses received funds.
153 independent retailers benefited.
295 minority-owned businesses got grants.
406 women-owned businesses did as well.
295 recipients are located in Gateway Cities.
329 businesses had not received any prior aid.

Ironically, unless something is done to change it, tens of thousands of struggling Massachusetts small businesses will be on the hook for millions in taxes on various state and federal grants. In total, Mass. small businesses received $14 billion in federal Paycheck Protection Program loans in 2020 putting the potential tax bill at about $175 million.

Fortunately, however, there is hope as these revenues were not included in Gov. Baker’s 2021 budget. And according to Administration and Finance Secretary Michael Heffernan, the Baker administration hopes to waive taxes on all state and certain federal relief grants.

Some states have already waived taxes on relief monies.

MassLive.com has more on this story.

More Business

Energy

Lawmakers Propose Carbon Tax On Transportation and Heating Fuels

A proposal to charge a carbon tax on transportation and heating fuel is in the House. Revenues resulting from the Green Future Act (HD 1972) would help fund local climate projects as well help the state achieve its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.

Advocates of the plan say would bring in more than half a billion dollars in annual revenue to be split between lower-income households, displaced fossil fuel workers, and cities and towns for projects that would reduce carbon emissions.

Carbon taxes are not a new idea in Mass. The state already participates in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which requires power plants to pay for the carbon they produce. And proposals for carbon taxes on fuels have been tabled in the past — although they’ve been short on details.

However, the new proposal goes into greater detail on how the program would be administered.

The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. William Driscoll Jr. explains that “[The bill is] pretty comprehensive in terms of not only trying to drive the policy change but also putting a revenue source behind it. It helps to lay out the path forward to how we’re going to decarbonize.”

Energy News has a comprehensive report on this story.

More Energy News

Transportation

MassDOT has awarded more than $2.8 million in grants under the Shared Winter Streets and Spaces program which provides technical and funding assistance to help Massachusetts cities and towns “conceive, design and implement tactical changes to curbs, streets and parking areas in support of public health, safe mobility and renewed commerce, with a special focus on the challenges of winter,” writes Mass Transit Mag.

The report continues:

“The Shared Winter Streets and Spaces program provides grants as small as $5,000 and as large as $500,000 for municipalities to quickly launch changes for safer walking, biking, public transit, recreation, commerce and civic activities. These improvements can be intentionally temporary or can be pilots of potentially permanent changes. MassDOT says it is particularly focused on projects that respond to the current public health crisis and provide safe mobility for children, for elders, to public transportation and to open space and parks...

A total of 17 municipalities and two public transit authorities have received funding for 19 projects. The article in Mass Transit spells out exactly how each of the municipalities plans to use the funds.

More Transportation News

Real Estate

Commonwealth Boasts 5 of Top 10 Safest Communities Nationwide

Expertise.com has listed five Mass. communities in its list of the Top 10 safest cities and towns in America. According to Boston Real Estate Times, each city was evaluated based on the number of violent crimes, other crimes to persons, and other crimes to property per 1,000 residents.

Top 10 Safest Cities and Towns in America

Wayland, MA
Frederick, CO
Weston, CT
Clinton, MA
Sagamore Hills, OH
Newtown, CT
Madison, CT
Franklin, MA
Medway, MA
Hopkinton, MA

Researchers at Expertise.com used data from the FBI’s 2019 National Incident-Based Reporting System to come up with the ranking.

Read all about it.

More Real Estate

Cannabis

The Cannabiz Is Booming

Some of the fastest-growing industries of modern times — desktop computers, the internet, cell phones, etc. — all had to start from zero customers and weave their way into society. Today, of course, those industries are ubiquitous and have seen phenomenal growth. But it took decades.

Cannabis presents a totally different situation. Both the supply and demand were there before marijuana was legalized in 36 states in the form of a massive illicit market. Now, just a few years into the Green Rush, a good chunk of that revenue stream is being rerouted through the U.S. economy. And according to industry market analysts BDSA, U.S. cannabis markets are booming.

Here are some facts and figures to back that up:

Nationwide, marijuana sales passed the $17.5 billion mark, a 46% increase from 2019.
Before 2020 was over we had 14 adult-use states and 36 offering medical marijuana. Massachusetts, of course, offers both.
California’s cannabis market grew 28.6% from a year ago.
Colorado grew 35.5%.
Oregon grew 48.2%, respectively.
Florida has surpassed 500K MMJ patients up 55% from a year ago and saw a $473 million increase
Illinois rose by $784 million to cross the $1 billion marker.
About 30% of consumers said they shop for cannabis products more often.
25% say their cannabis usage has increased since before the pandemic.
Cannabis deliveries increased 25%.

“We think one of the biggest drivers of legal cannabis market growth is the shift from the illicit market,” writes New Cannabis Ventures publisher Alan Brochstein:

“The pandemic proved to be very helpful on this front, as states which had previously not permitted delivery or curbside pickup did so, and this changed the market in a big way. Consumers can now order cannabis online the same way they order other goods, something the illicit market can’t match. The very solid growth in mature Western states, especially for flower, is a sign that the legal market is continuing to convert illicit market consumers.”

There’s still room to grow. Illicit cannabis sales are still estimated to be over $100 billion. By 2026, the U.S. legal cannabis market is expected to reach $41 billion, or about the same size as the craft beer industry.

There are three reasons this is exciting news. For one, as we mentioned, all that money that was going to criminals is now flowing through the U.S. economy. For another, U.S. MJ states are raking in badly needed tax revenue. And finally, states that have legalized and decriminalized marijuana are saving vast sums of money and human resources on law enforcement — resources that can now be redirected into more pressing matters.

Forbes has more on BDSA’s report and the growth of the U.S. cannabis industry.

Fighting On