With more than half of the population of Massachusetts now fully vaccinated, and the cleanup of the economic train wreck caused by the pandemic well under way, things are looking up for businesses in the Commonwealth. Another $30 million-plus in small business grants were handed out this past week while lawmakers try to decide how best to spend the reservoir of federal money that will be flowing into the state this summer.

Over the past week, the House has been picking through the next budget and has scared up more than a thousand potential amendments to be debated and decided upon before the spreadsheets can be passed on to the Senate. With 1,157 proposed amendments, to be exact, it’s a lot of important work.

In other news, real estate in Massachusetts is on fire and setting price records as inventory becomes more and more scarce. With companies like Apple and Amazon planning to expand their footprints, Boston is fast becoming the San Francisco of the East Coast.

Also in this week’s news we’ll tell you about 12 of the top 10 greenest cities in Greater Boston and the recent passage by the U.S. House of Representatives of the SAFE Banking Act which could be a major breakthrough in federal cannabis policy reform. On top of that, you’ll find a couple dozen more links to other important stories impacting the Bay State this week.

So sit down and relax and dig in. This will only take a few minutes and then you can get on with your day.

Politics

1,157 Amendments Filed For House Budget Proposal

Last week we told you about the $47.6 billion budget plan proposed by the Massachusetts House. Items on the wishlist of nearly 1,200 amendments include earmarking of funds for public schools, social services, and local economies hit hard by the pandemic.

Right out of the gate, the House budget is $2 billion more than Gov. Baker’s proposed budget. Plus it’s a yearly tradition for lawmakers to pile on local funding proposals for their home districts.

Here are some of the amendment proposals as reported by MassLive.com:

Funding increases for community centers, hospitals, volunteers and nonprofits who have helped Western Massachusetts residents navigate the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Relief to farmers and other businesses hit hard by the economic downturn.
$100,000 to Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires, a Great Barrington-based clinic that serves seniors, immigrants and low-income residents without insurance.
$3 million to preserve the Rural Schools Aid funding for grants to cities, towns, regional school districts, county agricultural schools, vocational schools, and other schools.
$40 million for districts that saw fluctuating enrollment numbers during the 2020-21 school year.
An amendment to allow farmers to deduct 25% of the value of certain food donations as charitable contributions on their taxes.
$30 million additional funds for the Food Security Infrastructure Grant (FSIC) program — $25 million to for-profit applicants and $5 million for nonprofit applicants — bringing the total up to $38.6 million.
$500,000 for the UMass Center of Springfield.

We won’t list the other 1100+ amendments here, but we’ll certainly update this story as it develops.

More Politics

Business

$30.4 Million More In Grants Awarded To Bay State Businesses

Another $30.4 million in grants has been doled to more than 600 Bay State businesses — 100 of which have not received any prior aid — through the COVID-19 business relief program administered by the Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation (MGCC). The grant program is part of the Baker-Polito Administration’s effort to foster economic recovery.

This brings the grand total to over $680 in grants to more than 15,000 businesses across the state. Of the 600-plus recent grants, 126 were minority-owned, 115 woman-owned.

Last week, the Administration announced the award of 37 grants totaling $5 million to cities, towns, and non-profits through the Regional Pilot Project Grant Program. This week, the Administration awarded $1.6 million to 59 tourism organizations, chambers of commerce, and cities and towns through the new Travel and Tourism Recovery Grant Pilot Program.

Also, as part of the Partnerships for Recovery 125 communities are working with consultants to be granted a portion of $9.5 million awarded through the Local Rapid Recovery Planning program. The state has also invested $21.1 million in municipal projects through the Shared Streets and Spaces program since June 2020.

Read all about it at ABC6.com

More Business

Energy

The 12 Greenest Towns of Greater Boston

Out of 40 towns and cities within the 128/95 border, 12 have been dubbed the “greenest” of them all in a report by Boston Magazine. Municipalities were assessed on 19 indicators including “the percentage of the town or city’s fleet of ordinary passenger vehicles and light trucks are electric.”

Communities received zero to five points for each indicator with a maximum possible score of 95 points. Actually, 12 municipalities made the Top 10:

10. Belmont (70 points)
9. Salem and Brookline (tie 75 points)
8. Lexington and Winchester (tie 76 points)
7. Somerville (77 points)
6. Melrose (78 points)
5. Medford (80 points)
4. Boston (81 points)
3. Newton (82 points)
2. Arlington (87 points)
1. Cambridge (90 points)

The full list of 40 cities and towns in the running can be found here.

And a full list of the 19 green city indicators can be found here.

Check out the complete story at Boston Magazine.

More Energy News

Transportation

Sagamore Bridge Repairs Completed Ahead of Schedule, Bourne Bridge Next

Sometimes it seems like road repair work can go on forever. For a change, work to maintain the structural integrity of the Sagamore Bridge is getting done ahead of schedule. According to a report at the Boston Herald, all lanes on the Sagamore are now open.

With that out of the way, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New England District will now move its equipment over to the Bourne Bridge and start repair work that had initially been scheduled for the fall.

Starting Saturday, the Bourne Bridge will be reduced from two lanes in each direction to a single 12-foot lane in each direction 24 hours a day until Memorial Day weekend — just in time for summertime Cape traffic.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New England District said in a statement:

“Motorists planning to use the Bourne Bridge during this timeframe should be aware that travel delays are likely to occur during the morning and afternoon peak travel periods each day. Signs, traffic control devices and police details will be used at all times that work is being performed on the bridge.”

More Transportation News

Real Estate

Home Sales Continue To Set Records

Massachusetts homes are on fire — metaphorically speaking, of course. Home prices in the state have set records again in March according to the Warren Group, a real estate analytics firm. There were 3,849 single-family home sales in Massachusetts last month. That’s a four-year high for the month of March, and a 2.5 percent increase over a year ago.

Those numbers would be even higher if the inventory wasn’t at its lowest point since at least 2004 according to the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. (That’s when the Association began reporting data.)

As a result of the lack of inventory, the median price for a single-family home jumped a whopping 14.4 percent from $402,000 in March of 2020 to $460,000, setting a new record for the month.

You’ll find an in-depth report at Boston.com.

More Real Estate

Cannabis

U.S. House of Representatives Passes SAFE Banking Act

The U.S. House of Representatives signed off on a cannabis banking reform bill just in time for 4/20 — an annual day of celebration of human rights or another excuse to party depending on how it’s spun.

The bill which is designed to protect banks from being penalized for working with state-legal marijuana businesses passed the House in a rare bipartisan vote of 321-101. The SAFE Banking Act has now been approved by the House four times since it was first passed in 2019.

Industry stakeholders are hoping that the bill passes while the democrats have control of both branches of Congress and the White House. Although Democrats now hold a thin majority in the Senate, its passage there is not guaranteed, nor is Biden’s signature. And if Republicans regain control of either the Senate or the House in 2022, the chances of passage are even slimmer.

Federal cannabis policy reform is a long time coming and banking is, by far, the largest source of friction for the cannabis industry. David Torrisi, president of the Commonwealth Dispensary Association, says that access to banking and capital is “probably the largest barrier of entry for getting into this industry.”

This issue is no longer just a regional matter. Medical marijuana is now legal in 36 states, seven of which also permit adult recreational use. Most banks are reluctant to do business with cannabis concerns due to the drug’s Schedule I status over at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. As a result, many marijuana dispensaries are forced to operate on a cash-only basis, even paying their taxes with a truckload of cash.

(To be fair to the DEA, DOJ, FBI, et al, they were only doing their job. Only Congress can repeal the federal prohibition of marijuana and they’ve been dragging their collective feet for half a century.)

The SAFE Banking Act, should it pass, will shield banks from penalties — such as racketeering charges — for working with marijuana companies.

Marijuana Moment has a full report.

More Cannabis News

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