Senate includes juvenile court reform in landmark economic development bill

More teenagers could be prosecuted in the juvenile court system under a policy that senators tacked onto their sweeping $2.86 billion economic development bill during deliberations Thursday.

Senators unanimously engrossed the sprawling package (S 2856), seen as a critical tool for maintaining the commonwealth's successful life sciences sector and making a similar massive investment in the climate tech landscape, on a unanimous 40-0 vote just before midnight.

Under the reform, most 18-year-olds would be tried as juveniles instead of as adults, aside from those who commit serious crimes like murder. They would instead be directed to programming that better aligns with their brain development and aims to reduce the likelihood of recidivism.

With Senate President Karen Spilka at the rostrum, senators adopted the amendment, championed by top Democrats including Sen. Brendan Crighton and Majority Leader Cindy Creem, on a 31-9 roll call vote. Five Democrats -- Sens. Nick Collins, John Cronin, Michael Moore, Walter Timilty and John Velis -- joined Republican Sens. Peter Durant, Ryan Fattman, Patrick O'Connor and Bruce Tarr in voting against the policy, which has been endorsed by the Boston Celtics among more traditional advocacy groups.

"The juvenile system is able to invest much more in developmentally appropriate programming that addresses the root cause that led these youth into this offensive behavior. Simply put, avoiding adult criminal justice system involvement leads to better outcomes for individuals, better outcomes for society," Crighton said. "Raising the age to include 18-year-olds would help us to avoid obstacles that they would face to join certain trades, licensures and even military service."

Massachusetts raised the age of juvenile jurisdiction to include 17-year-olds in 2013, and policymakers have weighed whether to gradually raise the age to also overhaul how 19- and 20-year-olds are prosecuted. Juvenile arrests have decreased since 2013, Creem said.

"We realize, that what we know now, these older teenagers are better suited developmentally for the resources and approach offered by DYS," Creem said, referring to the Department of Youth Services. "Based on the available data, the juvenile justice system is similarly equipped at present to incorporate our 18-year-olds."

Senators adopted an overall economic development package that dramatically scales back investments into the life sciences sector compared to the bill the House recently passed and the proposal that Gov. Maura Healey championed for months as a way to secure Massachusetts' competitive edge against other states.

The Senate approved $225 million in bonding to reauthorize the life sciences initiative for another five years, while broadening the mission of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center to include health equity, biosecurity, digital health and artificial intelligence.

Representatives and Healey proposed funneling $500 million into the life sciences sector over the next decade. Also unlike the House and governor, the Senate stopped short of boosting the life sciences tax incentive cap from $30 million to $50 million per year. Without discussion, Cronin and O'Connor withdrew their amendment that would have aligned the Senate with the life sciences funding commitments in the House's economic development bill.

Sen. Barry Finegold, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technology, gave a shout-out to Spilka, the panel's former leader, for helping spearhead the state's historic investment into the life sciences sector about 15 years ago. Finegold said the initiative spurred 17,000 jobs, and 18 out of the top 20 biopharma companies in the world have a presence in Massachusetts.

Finegold also touted Massachusetts' prowess in the health care and education sectors. While the commonwealth's "bold investments" have paid off, the Andover Democrat warned that "other states are taking notice and taking steps to attract these industries."

"Since 2022, the share of Massachusetts businesses that plan to reduce their presence here or expand outside of Massachusetts has increased nearly six times. This should sound the alarm bells to all of us," Finegold said during opening remarks Thursday. "We must now act to remain competitive in a changing global and national economy."

He added that the bill will help Massachusetts "become someday a trillion-dollar economy."

Aligning with the House, the Senate approved $400 million in climate tech bonding authorizations, augmented by a climate tech tax incentive with a $30 million annual cap, as state officials also see an opportunity for Massachusetts to become a global leader in that burgeoning sector.

The sprawling bill carves out $100 million for the Seaport Economic Council, $99 million for advanced manufacturing, $400 million for MassWorks public infrastructure projects, $100 million for the Rural Development Fund, $100 million for an Applied AI Hub, $115 million for the Massachusetts Tech Hub, $100 million for local economic development grants, $85 million for the Massachusetts Education Financing Authority, and $150 million for public library capital grants, among a bevy of other investments.

But there's limited funding for all the Legislature's projects under the state's bond cap, and Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr repeatedly emphasized that Massachusetts has the second-highest rate of indebtedness per capita in the country.

"So as we think about the grandeur of passing bond bills that appropriate hundreds of millions of dollars -- much of which may never be spent because of the requirement that they fit into the capital spending plan -- but as we think about the grandeur of all of that, we also need to think about the impact of it on the problem that we must come to grips with: to stem the tide of out-migration," Tarr said.

The Senate rejected several tax reform amendments from Tarr that sought to raise the estate tax threshold, overhaul the rolling stock tax, create a small commercial tax exemption, and reduce the short-term capital gains rate. Tarr argued the tax changes would help staunch the out-migration of residents and businesses out of Massachusetts, and chastised fellow senators for not focusing on tax policy after hours of debate on the economic development bill.

"So we spend all day debating hundreds of millions of dollars, billions of dollars, and yet what do folks care about? A hundred percent of the folks leaving this state, considering leaving this state, said it's tax policy," Tarr said. "It's not whether or not the Senate approved billions of dollars in new spending."

Senate Ways and Means Chair Michael Rodrigues urged senators to vote against Tarr's amendment, reminding them of a "historic" tax cut package signed into law earlier this session. 

"We have taken lots of measures to focus on the affordability and competitiveness of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, so much so that just this year, our bond rating agency for the first time in many years increased the bond rating in the commonwealth of Massachusetts to AA+," Rodrigues said, describing it as one of the highest possible bond ratings.

The policy-packed bill creates a pathway for construction of an Everett soccer stadium, allows foreign-licensed physicians to obtain a limited license to practice medicine here, and establishes an internship tax credit program for employers who hire interns enrolled at or recently graduated from Massachusetts colleges.

Through a successful amendment from Sen. Sal DiDomenico of Everett, lawmakers also approved $2 million for the "planning, design or construction of public infrastructure projects along the Route 99 corridor," which is home to the parcel the Kraft Group is eying for the New England Revolution's new home.

Early into deliberations, the Senate approved a Sen. Julian Cyr amendment to create a local option allowing willing communities to offer discounted specials on alcoholic beverages. Cyr pitched happy hour as a way to revitalize downtowns and Main Street businesses still struggling after the COVID-19 pandemic rewired work patterns.

He said it could boost the "fun factor" in a state sometimes known for being buttoned up.

"It's been 40 years since the happy hour ban was put in place. Massachusetts was the first state in the nation to have a happy hour ban, and at the time, in 1984, it probably made some good sense, where the dangers of happy hour and especially drunken driving were rampant across the country," Cyr told his colleagues. "Yet Massachusetts is now the last state in the nation to have an absolute ban on happy hours."

Sen. Jo Comerford withdrew her amendment establishing a five-year jail and prison construction moratorium, a day after criminal justice advocates gathered on Beacon Hill to generate late-session support for the policy.

Former Gov. Charlie Baker vetoed the moratorium plan tacked onto a larger bill last session. Gov. Maura Healey spokesperson Karissa Hand said Wednesday the governor "supports efforts to stop new construction of prison infrastructure, provided it does not preclude the state from making critical renovations to maintain safe, modern facilities and attain quality programming and services."

Senators on a voice vote swiftly adopted a Sen. Cindy Friedman amendment enabling Massachusetts to join an interstate nurse licensure compact, which supporters have described as a tool for reducing the commonwealth's health care workforce shortage, boost access to telehealth, and improve providers' ability to care for patients across state lines. Ahead of Thursday's session, the Massachusetts Nurses Association and AFL-CIO said they "strongly oppose" the amendment, warning the compact could end up outsourcing registered nurse jobs, lower wages and destabilize the workforce.

"There is no evidence that labor supply or mobility of nurses increases with NLC, but there is data demonstrating that it causes a complication in nursing practices and depression of nurse wages," AFL-CIO President Chrissy Lynch wrote in a letter this week to senators. "By outsourcing nursing jobs to other states, this amendment does nothing to strengthen the economic development of our Commonwealth."

On a 35-4 roll call vote, senators adopted an amendment dubbed "SAPHE 2.0" that requires the Department of Public Health to create a set of baseline public health standards and provide adequate resources for boards of health at the local and regional level. Supporters argue the pandemic highlighted disparities in public health capabilities across the state's 351 cities and towns.

Both branches unanimously approved an earlier version of the bill in the final days of formal sessions in 2022. Baker returned it with an amendment, and lawmakers did not process his proposed changes during informal sessions, allowing the bill to die.

The Senate rejected amendments that would have allowed for a temporary receiver to be appointed to manage the beleaguered Cannabis Control Commission; directed the Department of Transportation to study extending the Orange Line through Roslindale Village in Boston; created a fund to support lobstermen who are financially impacted by fishing area closures to protected endangered marines species;  launched a live theater tax credit; and largely prevented the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits at pet shops.

Sen. Patrick O'Connor, a Weymouth Republican, pushed unsuccessfully for another amendment that would have explicitly allowed patrons with out-of-state driver's licenses to purchase alcohol in Massachusetts.

O'Connor said the change "makes a lot of sense" as a partner to the local-option happy hour push, recalling a recent visit to Cambridge when he observed a bouncer turn away a visitor with a license from another state.

"I truly don't understand why we do this," he said, before the Senate rejected his amendment on an unrecorded voice vote.