Senators churned through nearly 330 amendments during a 150-minute first shift of work on the fiscal 2026 state budget and largely sidestepped off-budget issues that could have elicited greater debate.
When senators broke for lunch around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, they had adopted 153 amendments, rejected 75 others and withdrew 101 ideas from consideration. Additional “bundles” were voted on soon after the Senate returned at 1:30 p.m. — a collection of 54 amendments was adopted and another of 54 amendments was rejected.
After passing a few amendments highlighted by President Karen Spilka in a pre-session press scrum, senators went on a run of withdrawing policy amendments in favor of other advocacy avenues, rather than trying to force the issues in the Senate budget.
Sen. Michael Moore advocated for and then withdrew his pitch to delay the implementation of minimum electric vehicle sales requirements, a topic that came up during the House budget debate as well, saying he recognized “the bill we are taking up today is not focused on this policy.”
Under the Advanced Clean Cars II regulation that Massachusetts adopted following California’s lead in 2023, vehicle manufacturers must produce and make available for sale a gradually-increasing percentage of zero-emission vehicles starting at 35% in model year 2026.
“By enforcing this rule, manufacturers will have to artificially manipulate vehicle inventory to force more zero-emission vehicles into the state while reducing the number of gas-powered vehicles available,” the Millbury Democrat said. “Looking at last year, 280,000 new vehicles were sold in Massachusetts. To artificially meet the 35% threshold, there would have to be a reduction of 198,000 gas-powered vehicles, representing a $9 billion reduction in economic activity in Massachusetts.”
Also Tuesday, a coalition of 16 chambers of commerce and business organizations sent a letter to Gov. Maura Healey asking her to delay implementation of the ACC II rules, similar to action her administration has already taken related to similar mandates for truck sales.
“The fact is that even with the Commonwealth’s aggressive efforts to encourage EV sales over the last several years, we are still short of goals. In 2024, approximately 14% of new vehicle sales in Massachusetts were ACC II compliant,” the coalition wrote. It added, “These below-expected levels of demand make clear that many Massachusetts drivers do not consider EVs a practical or affordable purchase at the scale needed to satisfy the current timeline in this mandate. A primary concern is the lack of public charging infrastructure. In their 2024 Massachusetts Climate Report Card, the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EOEEA) reported that less than half the number of needed public EV charging stations have been installed.”
The coalition includes the National Federation of Independent Business, Retailers Association of Massachusetts, Cape Cod Canal Regional Chamber of Commerce, Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, Metro South Chamber of Commerce, Neponset River Regional Chamber of Commerce, United Regional Chamber of Commerce, and the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council.
Sen. Patrick O’Connor did the same with his amendment to move towards a single statewide inspection and permitting process for food trucks, eliminating the patchwork of differing municipal processes. He said he will focus his efforts instead on the standalone legislation he filed to the same end.
“We’ve seen too many times over and over again, with different businesses and different industries that have grown here in Massachusetts, that we don’t do enough to foster their growth. And this is something so simple — that we’re basically taking the control from a local municipality and putting it into a statewide umbrella, asking the Department of Public Health to promulgate regulations that will be one standard regulation for food trucks,” the Weymouth Republican said.
In her maiden speech in the Senate Chamber, Sen. Kelly Dooner of Taunton gave a preview of an issue that could spark greater debate as the budget debate goes on: the zoning requirements of the MBTA Communities Act. Her remarks focused on the burdens small communities like those she represents — Carver, Berkley and Rehoboth among them — face as they try to comply with the multi-family zoning mandate.
“I ask you, and I will continue asking you, for as long as I’m here, to have some compassion for those communities that are smaller, whether it’s an extension, whether it’s revisiting the conversation, both of which I believe need to happen, but anything to help our small adjacent communities that do not have the infrastructure to comply,” the first-term Republican said. She added, “I just ask for your help in stopping the one-size-fits-all plan. And let’s be partners to our municipalities, not the enemies that we have become known as by this MBTA Communities Act.”
One of the MBTA Communities Act-related amendments highlighted by Dooner, O’Connor’s bid to exempt so-called adjacent communities from the mandate, was rejected by the Senate without discussion. The others — amendments 12, 13, 140, 147, 296, 297 and 298 — remained pending just before 2 p.m. Tuesday.
