2024-02-27 00:00:00 - Joint Committee on Ways and Means
2024-02-27 00:00:00 - Joint Committee on Ways and Means
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
I put on last year, that is not the case. Project slash
Abel's major
Just focusing
So as I noticed I noted a few
Able to man I
That's see.
SPEAKER5 - Finally,
SPEAKER1 - Oh, sure. I think I already understand it. Alright. Can I, just a second?
SPEAKER3 - I apologize for the people who couldn't hear my earlier clarity test. I know that I assure you it was amazing.
SPEAKER7 - Just you can just leave it. It'll be, like, our visual Okay. Audio. So feel
SPEAKER8 - free to just
SPEAKER3 - Yes.
SPEAKER8 - Alright.
JONATHAN GULLIVER - MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION - So building off of what Matt was talking about with the fair share amendment, the local bottleneck program, so, the fiscal year 2024 funding from the fair share provided $50,000,000 for bridge preservation and $100,000,000 for improvements to municipal roadways. The bridge preservation funds provided a high return on investment by extending bridge life through cost effective measures. And to date, we've committed $19,200,000 for 45 bridges and 14 communities across the state, and then with more work to be planned.
The $100,000,000, municipal ways improvement program, again, through fair share, was provided as a supplement to the $200,000,000 Chapter 90 program was distributed in two different, buckets, $50,000,000 was distributed through the standard Chapter 90 formula, and $50,000,000 was distributed using formula based solely on lane miles, and that approach tended to favor some of those rural communities that have more roadways and not as much population or as many employment numbers. So, communities were very grateful for these funds as usual and this enabled them to implement many projects that they didn't otherwise have funding to complete. Additionally, on fair share and this will be my last slide.
I want to talk about the planned fiscal year 2025 fair share proposal, which provides funding for a number of important transportation investments, including traffic safety and municipal programs. So, $124,000,000 is proposed for municipal road and bridge support, $100,000,000 of that will be distributed to communities using the Chapter 90 formula, which again uses a combination of road mileage, workforce, and population, and an additional $24,000,000 will be distributed1675 using the road mileage only1677 formula. So, again, this approach really improves investment specifically for rural communities. Our fair share proposal also contains $54,000,000 for local traffic and safety investments.
These investments will help communities leverage technology to modernize their local roadway network, with strategies like smart signals and improvements in safety. A portion of this investment will also be used to provide technical assistance to communities so that their municipal funds can be stretched even further. So, I want to thank the committee again for this opportunity, as I think it's probably obvious, I could probably talk all day about our program. But I want to turn it over now to our registrar, Colleen Ogilvie, to talk about how the operating budget supports the RMV.
COLLEEN OGILVIE - MASSACHUSETTS REGISTRY OF MOTOR VEHICLES - Good morning. My name is Colleen Ogilvie, I am the registrar of motor vehicles. It's a pleasure to be with you today to update you on the many important RMV initiatives underway that couldn't be accomplished without the support we have received from you over the last year, so, thank you. In fiscal year 24, the RMV has experienced an increase in customer demand and is grateful for the budgetary support that allowed us to expand our business hours and service centers to be open from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Monday through Friday, and on Saturdays in key regional areas like Springfield, Worcester, Braintree, Lawrence, Revere.
This support also enabled us to expand road skills testing locations so that we provided access to road test services in high demand areas like Metro Boston and Worcester. I'm proud to share that we have offered road test with interpreters to over 38,000 customers with Spanish, Portuguese, and Haitian Creole being the top languages requested. We are working now currently on offering the commercial knowledge test and associated endorsements in1796 Spanish and Portuguese and hope to roll that out in calendar year 2024, Q2, and are in the process of printing the driver's manual in Haitian Creole to support a need for that community. We understand the importance of providing access to services across the entire state.
We recently added commercial skills testing site in Springfield while we continue to search for a solution for a commercial skill testing site in the Berkshires. I met with some of you in August, and I have not forgotten about this request. The RMV has and will continue to use technology to help improve our service delivery. One of our most important responsibilities is driver's licenses, permits, and identification cards. In Mass, we issue two types of driver's licenses and identification cards; a standal or a real ID compliant. To support this business service, we have a multiyear contract with a vendor to provide the equipment, software for taking photos, signatures, the eye screening or otherwise known as the eye test, the technology to administer driver permit tests, the design of the actual driver's license ID card with security features, the card manufacturer, and the mailing of these cards.
As one contract is approaching an end, we are embarking on a new contract that will include a new card design, upgraded hardware and software, and an opportunity to create educational modules about new safety laws in our efforts to support roadway safety. The RMV federal real ID compliance date is May 7th, 2025. We will be focusing over this next year on efforts to educate Massachusetts residents who do not have a real ID about what is needed to obtain one and why a resident might choose to get one. While in Mass, the real ID is not a required document, it is a choice here in Massachusetts. But beginning in 2025, a government issued real ID or federal passport will be needed to board a domestic flight or enter a federal building.
During the pandemic, the RMV offered real ID upgrades to those who renew their driver's licenses or IDs as a standard credential. There are over 300,000 individuals who are now eligible for a free real ID, and we are hoping that those customers will gradually come in over the next year. So, if you are one of those, please don't wait until April 2025 to allow us to serve you. Currently, Massachusetts is at 54% real ID compliant, which means we have a little over 3,000,000 real ID licenses or identification cards issued to Mass residents. Another important aspect of our credential service is the program we'll be launching with the department of corrections next week to issue IDs to prerelease individuals. The RMV will be traveling to nine different department of correction sites to perform the ID transactions. Law and regulatory.
The RMV has been busy during this fiscal year successfully implementing the work and family mobility act. I am proud of the program the RMV team delivered and the warm welcome provided to our new customers. We were in awe of the gratitude that these new customers expressed for access to our services, the materials and information we provided in 15 different languages, the ability to schedule interpreters for road tests, and the many acts of kindness shown by our employees. The RMV is being used as a benchmark to create the roadmap to expand language services in other state agencies because of the scope of what we accomplished with language access.
Another important aspect of the law is data privacy regulation promulgated by the Attorney General's office, which has limited the information the RMV can share and what is provided. There was an option related to for somebody that needs help and assistance that they can sign and release to provide access to that information, that the registry can share, but it's an important aspect of the work and family mobility law to continue to protect the information of the driver's issued licenses under the new program. Under the commercial compliance, we are required to implement in this calendar year, two federal motor carrier safety act items administrated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The first will be in April of 2024 called the exclusive electronic exchange, and this includes the electronic posting of convictions, withdrawals, and disqualifications.
While the RMV already does this, we'll be tweaking our program to make sure we're fully compliant. The second item that we will be implementing will be in November 2024, which is the federal motor carriers’ drug and alcohol clearing house, which is intended to prevent anybody that has a commercial privilege and is considered to be in a prohibited status from being licensed, that will be implemented in 2024. The RMV over the last year has implemented a new crash system to help track the crash reports we received from law enforcement. As part of an act to reduce traffic fatalities, the vulnerable road user crash reporting aspect was implemented by the registry in December, and we have six of 12 records management system vendors that support local law enforcement that have implemented the ability to track2127 and send the registry the vulnerable road user information.
As a reminder, the vulnerable road users include things like pedestrians, bicyclists, mobility device users, and many of those other users that use the road that aren't in a vehicle. Electronic sharing of driver history. Our out of state inspects departments continue to focus on efforts to maintain up to date driving histories. They have been focused on processing duplicate driving record resolution as a result of other states adopting what's called the driver history record process. We have a process to determine if the record that is a duplicate with another state is whether or not that driver is a Mass driver or an out of state driver. This is an important aspect to state motor vehicle departments to realize the goal of one driver in one record.
Driver history record supports the electronic exchange of out of state convictions withdrawals and provides visibility of individuals that may have more than one driver history record and sets rules for us maintaining those records. Another thing we're proud that we have been working on through a grant is the RMV has been working with UMASSAFE and Mass DOT on a research project to better understand the effectiveness of driver's education and training, as well as how such education and training can improve use and understanding of advanced driver assistance systems. This research will examine the role of driver education framework for novice driver training and will help identify opportunities to improve driver education programs to positively influence driving behavior and the importance of the advanced driver assistance systems.
The last item I'd like to mention today is civil motor vehicle citation portal. As the registry processes and receives through our merit rating board, civil citations that we receive is we are underway on an effort to create a vehicle citation portal to improve access and visibility to traffic citation information that will help Mass DOT safety engineers, transportation planners, law enforcement, and other constituents understand where and how citations are issued. This will benefit strategic planning efforts to reduce crashes and improve overall roadway safety. In calendar year 2023, over 800,000 citations were issued in Massachusetts, speeding continues to be a top violation of citations issued. Thank you for your time today so that I could highlight a portion of the important safety and customer service work done at the RMV. At this moment, I will turn it over to my colleague, aeronautics administrator, Jeffrey DeCarlo.
JEFF DECARLO - MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION - Thank you,2297 Colleen. Really appreciate that, and thank you for the opportunity to share some highlights from aeronautics. I will discuss the organization of the aeronautics division today, the two groups, the aviation and airports group and the advanced aviation technologies group. I will also cover the education training and workforce development efforts that are making great strides. The Aviation Airports Group was originally designed to focus primarily on our statutory and regulatory responsibilities across the board as well as our capital programs that are 35 public use airports. This core organization continues to serve that role, but also oversees the Advanced Aviation Technologies Group.
The Advanced Aviation Technologies Group has taken shape over the last several years and is focused on shared services for the Mass DOT and MBTA organizations across a wide spectrum of capabilities to include drone operations and the introduction of new technologies needed in the field. The aeronautics division oversees 35 public use airports that include commercial service airports and general aviation airports. As you can tell by the map, our airports are distributed throughout the Commonwealth. Some of our airports are located near disadvantaged communities, gateway cities and environmental justice areas. The economic impact of these airports is significant, supporting local communities.
Our 35 public use airports are economic drivers for the Commonwealth with over 1,500,000 operations, $24,700,000,000 in total economic output, $1,000,000,000 in tax revenue. The airport supports 200,000 jobs and $7,200,000,000 in payroll. The aeronautics division registers over 2,000 general aviation aircraft, maintains over 75 miles, approximately 800 lane miles of paved runways and taxiways, overseas airport development, including engineering, planning, environmental, and our team performs airport inspections and accident investigations. Our capital programs include horizontal and vertical construction. Our pavement maintenance work is extensive and we leverage FAA Airport Improvement Program Funding to the max extent possible.
Advanced Aviation Technologies Group enables mobility through big data and advancing emerging technologies. Our Advanced Aviation Technologies Group is a shared services entity working with the highway division, the rail and transit division, and the MBTA. We also do extensive work for other agencies and quasi in the Commonwealth. For the drone operations program, we collect massive amounts of data on our transportation assets and translate that data into actionable information. The drone operations program conducts missions across the Commonwealth, including inspections, asset management, construction management, a variety of environmental use cases, as well as incident response and emergency management.
The data and analytics team makes a huge impact by safely and securely collecting, storing, analyzing, and disseminating UAS or unscrewed aircraft systems or drone sensor data in the form of user-friendly analytical products that serve our customers and decision makers well. The data scientists and data analysts are now managing over seven terabytes of data. This big data is allowing us to move from a periodic maintenance construct to one that is predictive based on strong and validated analytical basis. The Commonwealth UAS integration program benefits the Commonwealth by maturing high technical readiness level technologies, capabilities, and processes, and then operationalizing them.
The Commonwealth UAS integration program also integrates emerging technologies to ensure a seamless process within2568 our enterprise workloads. Our team is also ensuring the safe introduction of new aircraft systems that will move people and goods in a green, clean, and equitable way. This work includes the use of drones for package delivery and larger aircraft that can move both cargo and people safely and sustainably. We are developing and integrating sensor technology that can ensure that our airspace is safe and secure around our airports and other critical infrastructure. Our drone team operations are significant.
Over the past three years, we've accomplished approximately 1000 flights per year, and to date, we've flown approximately 4,000 plus flights. The key shows the variety of customers as well as the broad expanse of the Commonwealth that we've covered so far. The Commonwealth UAS Integration Program is making some great strides in very practical ways, including over the recent past. We are testing next generation technologies that are truly game changers and can often improve safety, reduce task times, improve the quality of data, and can often support a business case of orders of magnitude reduction in cost over time. One of our challenges is to fly drones’ long distances, often referred to as beyond visual line of sight.
The aeronautics division has been awarded a waiver unlike any that has been issued in the United States to fly our entire set of rail lines beyond visual line of sight. Our team is integrating a variety of sensor technologies to ensure airspace situational awareness, safety, and security by using radars and other integrated advanced sensor technologies. Recently, we spent time demonstrating drone in a box technology, this advanced technology system as shown on the top right picture is capable of being deployed in similar boxes or containers as shown at locations across the Commonwealth. The aircraft in the boxes will be flown remotely for a variety of transportation missions, supporting a variety of customers.
With the systems remotely located, pilots will control the aircraft as needed on an on-demand basis, ensuring that we have situational awareness on a particular event or the ability to collect data on a specific transportation asset. The aircraft can also be utilized to collect data on Commonwealth assets on a regular and repeating basis. This drone in a box technology will be continued to be tested and piloted at a variety of locations across the Commonwealth and will support a recent US DOT smart grant in collaboration with the rail and transit division. Our advanced air mobility efforts are significant including the development and construction of new electrification infrastructure at our airports.
The lower picture shows2752 an advanced air mobility aircraft, the beta technologies electric conventional takeoff and landing aircraft at the Marshfield ribbon cutting several months ago. The Advanced Air Mobility team has also created what we refer to as the Advanced Air Mobility Sandbox, where we test new technology and infrastructure, which includes working with industry and academia to integrate and deploy operational systems safely and smartly. Our airport electrification program is making great strides, including a US DOT smart grant to plan the development of a smart microgrid for Cape Cod Gateway Airport. This is a $2,000,000 smart grant planning effort that if successful will unlock $15,000,000 of federal funding to implement the plan.
Our education and training and workforce development efforts are exciting and are making a positive impact. Outreach includes working with Girls Inc in Lynn, Massachusetts, Endicott College in Beverly, the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, Roxbury Community College, and the Boston Public Schools, and we hope to add this particular institution to that list as well, sooner rather than later. With our partner Mass Autonomy, we've created training programs to upscale our bridge inspectors as well as other Mass DOT employees. The beauty of this is that this same curriculum, albeit somewhat modified, can be used in our outreach and education program that will work with2843 underserved communities and a variety of institutions.
In the future, we look forward to working with the leaders2849 of Westfield Technical Academy, aviation maintenance training program, which we hope to expand on. This program trains students in grades 9 through 12 in aviation maintenance, opening up a whole new world of opportunity in the form of jobs that are in high demand in Massachusetts and across the nation. We're also working with Western New England University, Cape Cod Community College, and the New England Institute of Technology, a Rhode Island institution that is keen to collaborate. It's my pleasure to have had the opportunity to share with you some of the work of the aeronautics division is doing across the Commonwealth. I'd like to hand it off now to administrator Meredith Slesinger of the rail and transit division.
MEREDITH SLESINGER - MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION - Thank you, administrator DeCarlo. Good afternoon members of the committee. I'm Meredith Slesinger, I'm the rail and transit administrator for Mass DOT. Today, I'll discuss the Governor's budget as it relates to the Commonwealth's 15 regional transit authorities and other local transit providers, as well as provide an update on Compass Rail. As some background, this map shows the 15 RTAs and their service territories serving over 270 municipalities. Each RTA is locally governed by an advisory board composed of representatives from member communities and provides fixed route bus and demand response van service. RTAs provide approximately 22,700,000 unlinked passenger trips in FY 23; this means the number of passengers that boarded public transportation.
Prior to Covid in 2019, this number was 29,100,000. And although negatively impacted by the pandemic, RTA ridership has continued to demonstrate a steady upward recovery trend that has continued through FY 23. The Governor's budget provides $150,000,000 in state contract assistance. This is provided to the RTAs under three different buckets. $94,000,000 is provided as base funding from the Commonwealth Transportation Fund to be distributed by historical formula. $16,600,000 from the fair share funding as will become base funding for the RTAs to be distributed by historical formula as well. There will also be $39,400,000 from the ETF to be distributed according to the RTA agreed upon 60%, 30%, 10% formula, which factors in 60% ridership, 30% population, and 10% service area.
Mass DOT and the RTAs negotiated a new two-year MOU, which continues the collection of data on ridership, customer service, and satisfaction, asset management, and financial information. I'll talk more about that in a moment. In addition to RTA state contract assistance, $15,000,000 from the fair share funding will be provided for fair equity programs to be administered by the RTAs. $4,000,000 is also provided to enhance our community transit grant program with additional support for expanded mobility options for older adults, people with disabilities, and or low-income individuals. The additional state funds would expand support to include the low-income populations.
Current federal Section 5310 funding used for the program restricts eligibility to those services that only benefit older adults and persons with disabilities, the RTAs are also eligible applicants for this program. This slide shows the sources of RTA operating funds over the past several years to give a more complete financial picture. The chart shows all potential sources of operating funds for RTAs, including the one-time federal Covid-19 relief funding, discretionary grant funding, and fare free pilot funds, and together, these make up all sources of RTA revenues. Now I'll briefly discuss the bilateral memoranda of understanding that Mass DOT has executed with each RTA that emphasizes transparency, accountability, and data driven decision making.
The current period ends June 30th, 2025. This MOU cycle incorporated lessons learned from the prior FY 22- FY 23 period by standardizing data collection and reducing duplicative reporting requirements. MOUs include timelines for implementation and reporting on targets to be measured against agreed upon baselines. In addition, we have targets for tracking fleet composition, including our alternative fuels, and accomplishment of recommendations from their comprehensive regional transit plans. The MOUs also cover safety data and asset management information to inform capital planning. In the coming year, we will continue to collaborate with the RTAs to promote the use of data to drive effective outcomes.
We're pleased to3126 see operational enhancements and improvements, including expanded service hours, weekend services, and route expansions made possible by increased state contract assistance. We'll also continue to invest in technology for real time schedule and demand response data, as well as to continue to work with the RTAs on transition plans for zero emission vehicles while maintaining a state of good repair for current fleet. We are also encouraging RTAs to seek competitive funding from IIJA to support capital needs, which will require state match, particularly for fleet decarbonization. We will also continue to provide technical assistance to the RTAs in the areas of workforce training, feasibility studies, and other planning initiatives.
We will review the data from the3167 fare free pilot programs conducted by the RTAs from last year and share a status update on3171 that program in April. While funding for Mass DOT's intercity passenger rail projects is included in the Mass DOT CIP rather than through the operating budget, I wanted to take an opportunity to update the committee on efforts to advance West East rail and other passenger rail initiatives. Over the last few months, Mass DOT has introduced Compass Rail, passenger rail for the Commonwealth, as a statewide vision for inner city rail. Compass Rail includes existing services along the Windsor, like the Vermont and Valley Flyer, as well as upcoming services along the West East corridor.
West East rail is a component of this program, and its capital and service goals3207 will be accomplished through a program of projects. Near term projects include early actions for the inland route, which received a $108,000,000 federal award last fall. This project includes improvements to the tracks between Springfield and Worcester to enable3220 two daily Amtrak round trips3222 between Boston and New Haven, Connecticut via Springfield, and we're grateful to Amtrak and CSX for their partnership on this effort. Next, the Commonwealth has committed resources towards planning and design of a new station in Palmer as well as design and construction of track capacity improvements in Pittsfield.
Also ongoing, is the Springfield area track reconfiguration project utilizing federal Christie funds. This project is expected to be completed in spring of 2025. More recently, the Boston and Albany corridor, the existing west east rail line stretching between these two cities, has been accepted into the FRA's quarter ID program. Inclusion in this program will result in a service development plan and an associated capital project inventory. These deliverables will position the Boston Albany corridor, which includes the rail segments west of Springfield to Pittsfield and Albany for future federal investment. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today, and I'll3274 now turn it over to the general manager of the MBTA, Phil Eng.
PHIL ENG - MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION - Thank you, Meredith, and good afternoon, Chair Feeney, Chair Haddad, esteemed members of the committee, and thank you for the opportunity to present today. I'd first like to thank the administration and the legislature for the support and recent investments we've received to date, for they have been crucial to enabling us to continue improving the T. We understand the need to rebuild the confidence in the T and to make public transportation a viable, even preferred option for residents across the state of Massachusetts. We're committed to achieving this through open and transparent communication as we ensure safety while we improve reliability, performance,3324 and accessibility.
The Governor's3326 budget recommendation for fiscal year3328 25 provides a crucial road map to further advance these goals.3332 By strategically allocating these resources, we can build a stronger, more reliable, and assessable MBTA for all. Here, you could see we proudly serve 175 cities and towns across Massachusetts, offering a diverse network of subways, commuter rail, buses, ferries, and power transit services. As we navigate forward, we're fostering a culture of teamwork, tackling challenges with a new sense of urgency. Every decision considers both local needs and the broader impact on the entire state and region. We believe in investing in public transit experience that improves the quality of life for everyone who lives, works, plays, learns, and receives health care here.
Our state economy hinges on a robust and efficient public transit system. Here, you can get a sense of the T's assets and our presence across the region, but we're more than just infrastructure. The T is a lifeline for countless individuals. We connect students to education, workers to their jobs, and families to loved ones. We believe in a public transit system that empowers everyone regardless of background or circumstance. That's3406 why we're striving to rebuild a more3408 reliable, accessible, and affordable experience that reflects our core values, inclusivity, equity, and opportunity. But our most valuable asset is our workforce, through most of 2023, the T has been focused on rebuilding a depleted workforce. These dedicated professionals are the backbone of our operation vital to our success, I get to see them day in and day out.
With outside the box thinking and streamlining of our processes, we saw record breaking hiring last year with 1500 diverse new employees joining our ranks. This was fueled by a $20,000,000 investment from the administration and the legislature in our current budget, which enabled us to attract, train, retain talent across all of the disciplines needed, laying the foundation for the future. New contract agreements with major unions like the Boston Commons Union and Transit Police Association demonstrate how funding played a crucial role in restoring stability and rebuilding the T.
Over 80% of our represented workforce now enjoys the security of contracts, a significant step towards long term stability, and we've seen the consequences of workforce shortages in the past, and we're committed to building our last year's success by investing in our workforce, we invest in the future of the T of the state and the region as a whole. We're laser focused on improving critical infrastructure across the system. The capital needs assessment that we recently released illustrates the challenge is great, but we're committed to making meaningful progress and reversing the effects of years of deferred maintenance. Programs like the track improvement program are stepping stones to a well-functioning reliable system.
Currently, today, we're addressing green line track infrastructure following successful work on the red lines, specifically, Mattapan, Ash Mont lines, and recently Alewife to Harvard. Each of those completed segments have allowed for us to restore train service back at maximum allowable speeds, bringing us closer to shorter, more reliable commutes for everyone. We understand how this work that we're performing affects our riders daily. We assure you that the short-term impacts will lead to long term benefits. We're maximizing every outage by piggybacking work in these critical areas, like power systems, signal systems, and customer station environment upgrades. This work lays the foundation for embedded T in the future.
We'll be able to better perform maintenance and repairs more efficiently with intention minimizing disruptions to ultimately provide a reliable experience for all of the riders. We're reimagining the T, transforming how we work and deliver service to meet the public needs faster, wiser, and more responsibly. Time is money, that's why we're reviewing every aspect of our operations, focusing on efficiency and effectiveness. We're prioritizing on time, on budget project completion, timely corrective work, avoiding costly future repairs. It's about delivering results and not just spending the money. These examples that I have up here, I believe speak louder than words.
On the left, you could see the Lynn Interim Station that we completed nine months ahead of schedule, saving, $1,000,000 under the anticipated budget. Ashland Station in December was delivered on time and on budget. The new Lynn Ferry service that we launched last year with robust ridership showing a commitment to us improving options for riders to use Mass transportation. Every project we pursue is guided by three principles; affordability, committed to responsible resource management for long term sustainability. Accessibility, we aim to make the team more accessible and inclusive for everyone that we serve, and equity, dedicated to serving all the communities fairly and equitably.
The entire MBTA team, from our laborers to administrators, understand the system's critical role in the state's economic vitality. We're committed to delivering a reliable, efficient public transportation system that benefits everyone. T is committed to being a good neighbor as well to all the communities that we join, even the ones where there are no stations. That means improving transportation infrastructure throughout our system, ensuring safety for the riders, our workers on the T, but also for nonriders and those that use the neighborhoods around our system. Examples here that you can see, focus a commuter rail, grade crossings.
Not only are these treatments that we've installed making it safer for the riders on the trains and our employees, but also makes it safer for the users of the roadway that crosses our system. We've seen immediate benefit from this already, which we're going to continue to track. We know that we have a major presence across Massachusetts, and it's important that we're a good neighbor and a collaborative partner. Following the FTA safety management inspection last year, the T is making big strides in improving our safety protocols. We're focused on providing our employees with all the right tools, the right training, and the right guidance as they make critical decisions every day serving the public. We want to help our employees succeed and really improve accountability across our organization. Thanks to the investment from the state, federal government, the T is reimagining how we work, focusing on timeliness, efficiency, and delivery, and we are moving in the right direction.
As a major public transit system, we understand our responsibility to the environment, we're actively reimagining the T as a leader in sustainability, implementing innovative solutions to minimize our impact and ensure a healthy world planet for future generations. Our commitment is reflected in concrete actions, we utilize renewable sources like two wind turbines, solar canopies to power our facilities, reducing our carbon footprint. We're actively transitioning to cleaner technologies, implementing measures to minimize vehicle emissions, new projects incorporating environmentally friendly practices, prioritizing resource conservation and energy efficiency, and we're investing in climate resilient infrastructure, like storm barricades that we have at Aquarium Station to protect our system and communities from future challenges.
While we're prioritizing and improving the T for current riders, we're also building a sustainable legacy to ensure that the tea remains a viable and responsible public transportation option for generations to come. Here's a quick glance at our budget process and timeline that we present to our board and subcommittees leading to a planned final vote in June. The pro form a presentation was given this past January where we walked through the3832 T's 5-year financial projections. The pro form is a model that assists our financial planning processes, and this year's model incorporates the proposals and then covers H2 budget recommendation. It allows us to identify future budget constraints and gaps so we can appropriately plan for future years and is the first step to building fiscal 25-year budget.
In March, we will present the budget preview deck, then we will move into preliminary budget in April and in May with3861 a final budget approval before the statutory deadline of June 2024. During the preliminary budget presentation, the T advisory board will prepare a review and commentary of the fiscal year 25 budget. In June, again, we will seek the board's final vote on the operating budget well before the deadline in June. Revenue sources come in two forms, first, the operating budget and the second, capital investment plan, outlining funding and investments over a five-year period. Looking at the H2 proposal, the governor proposed increasing our contract assistance by $127,000,000 to assist the operating budget.
In addition, H2 proposes funds of $45,000,000 to support low-income fair policy implementation, which I'll discuss a little bit more shortly. Moving to capital, the budget assumes $60,000,000 of funding from the Commonwealth to support capital needs, program needs, and lastly, another $300,000,000 for funding of the track improvement program, which is provided by the Commonwealth Transportation Fund. I'd also like to highlight our unwavering efforts to pursue every available federal dollar, all of these components are important to balancing the budget. Here, we outlined the state and local revenue sources back to fiscal year 18, both for operating and capital budgets.
Looking at fiscal year 24/25, in the current year 24 budget, we expect to receive $2,051,000,000,000, while in fiscal year 25, we see an increase to $2,317,000,000, that's a 13% over year increase. Increases year on year are the $127,000,000 from additional contract assistance that I mentioned, $45,000,000 for low-income fare program, and $300,000,000 for the track improvement program. We've also received FTA director support funding of $378,000,000 in fiscal year 23 to assist with closing corrective action notices through the SMI program. I do want to highlight a key element of the administration's proposed investment in the T, the low-income fare program, which would ensure that every household that needs or wants to use the T can afford to do so.
Fiscal year 24 budget afforded us $5,000,000 to develop a low-income fare pilot program. The Governor's proposed $25,000,000 in funding for fiscal year 25 budget builds off of that to provide reduced fares to more than 60,000 people across the state, we estimate. This program will advance our equity goals, support increased ridership. This is across all of the modes; commuter rail, buses, subways, ferries, power transit. In closing, I'll say that while we have a lot of work ahead, I'm proud of the new leadership team and everyone at the T for the progress we've made. As public servants, we're always thinking about the communities and people that rely on us every day, and as we restore and rebuild our transportation network, we deliver a system that is safe, reliable, and assessable for everyone, both for today's needs and as we build for the future.
I thank the administration and the legislature for the support we've received and look forward to continued progress as we work through many challenges ahead. We will demonstrate our ability to meet today's demands with urgency, incorporating best practices and innovation as we reimagine the T and provide a transit system that Massachusetts deserves, one that's inclusive, sustainable, and equitable. Thank you again for the opportunity to speak today. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Very comprehensive and very informative presentation. I just want to recognize, my very dear colleague, Senator Liz Miranda, who has joined us and to my left Representative Patricia Duffy all coming. So, I'm going to begin with my questions. So, let me turn this over to. Both. And
SPEAKER7 - and
SPEAKER5 - because we're having some kind of, plenty of difficulty, we're going to be passing for questions. We're passing around the web the, whatever this is, computer, and you guys already have your own. So, take it away, mister Channon.
SPEAKER7 - Yeah.
SEN FEENEY - Thank you, Madam Chair, and, thank you to all for that great4134 presentation. I really appreciate the work that you put into that so that we can have a deep understanding in what's in H2. I want to thank the Healey Driscoll administration for putting in some bold initiatives and for you all, for the work that you do in implementing them. So, two relatively quick questions, but I think one of them is probably best directed to you, administrator Gulliver. You had mentioned in your presentation, environmental resiliency as the key area of focus, and I think that's right. You know, kind of looking at climate adaptation and management and I think you were the one that mentioned that those once in 100-year storms in and out often more frequent that we're seeing in all of our districts across Commonwealth.
Sounds like it's a priority for you and for the administration. Can you kind of dig into that program a little bit? You talked about prioritization, so, just kind of curious. What are some of the things in your world that keep you up and when we talk about environmental resiliency and climate adaptation, where the funds be most needed, and how do you prioritize that? I think you mentioned there's a framework, is that something that's fully adopted and just needs to be implemented? Is it a question of resources from year to year? But if you could dig into that, that would be helpful.
GULLIVER - Thank you, Senator. So, I'd say a couple of things on this. First off, the standards that we use to design our bridges, for example, and our highways, something that has changed and we incorporate into our design standards now are more robust ways of dealing with stormwater. So, increasing the size of culverts, for example, making sure that the height of bridges is able to accommodate what we expect for, no just bridges over the ocean, but bridges inland as well, that they can accommodate the new levels that we're seeing for stream flow. Just by way of example of that, we recently, some of the flooding that was in Leominster, one of the bridges that was washed out, really could best be described as a culvert. It was a 5 foot by 5-foot culvert, and we replaced it and it now appropriately sized for that particular stream at a 15 by 15-foot culvert.
So, the cross-sectional area just jumped up as a result of actual what we're really seeing. That was a 100-year-old bridge that we had to replace, so that's how much things have changed. So, part of it is just really being mindful of the new standards that we need to do and make sure that our engineers and our consultants doing the design work are incorporating those into each and every project, and it's something that we'd make an assessment of early on about what our needs are going to be to make sure that our infrastructure is more resilient and understanding those risks and, either accepting them or or mitigating them as part of that project, so, that's a big part of it. Additionally, this is something that the Secretary has really focused on, and, I know I'm going to screw up the name Secretary, but there's a new office being established in Mass DOT, and, I don't know if you want to add to that about what the name of it is.
MONICA TIBBITS-NUTT - MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION - The environmental, social, and governance team, and this is actually the first ESG department of any department of transportation throughout the United States. This is really focused on sustainability and resiliency in all of our projects4364 independent of mode.4366 This team really is going to be tasked with how do we build resilient systems, how do we work with our municipal partners to help them build resilient systems throughout Massachusetts.
FEENEY - Thank you, Secretary. Thank you, Administrator. Just one final question before I turn it back to the Chair and my colleagues. GMN, you had mentioned the low-income fare program, and I think, you said we'd gone from $5,000,000 in the previous fiscal year in a study to now $45,000,000, for implementation. I'm curious, I believe you said upwards of 60,000 riders, you project would qualify and take advantage of that. Can you dig into a little bit more on that? Is it going4409 to be geographic? Is it a regional4411 program? How do we project on who's qualified for that? You said it was across4417 the system, but just dig into a little bit of that $45,000,000 for the LIF program. Who would be qualified? How do we find them, and, how would it be implemented?
ENG - Certainly, thank you for that4429 question. The $5,000,000 that the legislature and the Governor put into our budget for fiscal year 24 enabled us to do, a lot of preplanning and investigation into rolling out a pilot program. Some of that involved looking at other agencies across the nation on how they've implemented a low-income fare program and what we're looking at right now, and there's a lot of public meetings ongoing, but usually 200% of the federal poverty level to identify those folks that would qualify for this discounted fare. The program is set to look at a certain demographic, I believe, we have, I think it's age 26 to 64 because we do have senior discount programs already.
We do have youth programs, so this would capture a demographic that is not able to participate in some of those existing discounted fares. We anticipate a 50% reduction in fares across all of our modes for these folks that are qualified, and the program would utilize the existing programs where people have already been approved for so as not to really require a huge effort to go through this again. But that's how the numbers are generated, looking at that demographic of that age bracket, and the 200% of federal poverty level. A lot of this will come out of the public meetings as we get more feedback, but the anticipation as it ramps up from year to year is up to 60,000 potentials, either existing rider that are paying fit full fares but really can't afford to, but perhaps new riders that are not using the system because they can't afford to. The intention is for this to be available across the state. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Understood. Thank you very much, madam chair.
SPEAKER5 - Thank you. I just want to, acknowledge that, my difference, knock right in, representative Kearns.
SPEAKER14 - She's just such a quiet lady like.
SPEAKER5 - And also that Representative Christine Barber has been with us, remotely.
REP HADDAD - So, I just have a very quick question and then I want to leave it to my colleagues because if there's anything left over, I'll take it. Madam Secretary, usually or I think the what we were thinking of was that there was going to be a 50-50 split in the surtax. You are not actually given the 50-50. Is that going to be problematic?
TIBBITS-NUTT - Are you speaking about the fair share amendment?
HADDAD - Yes.
TIBBITS-NUTT - We work with Secretary Tutwiler and the administration on this breakdown, and it wasn't that we wanted to take more, it was that we had more programs than education to be able to utilize those funds for this fiscal year.
HADDAD - I thought you got less. Did I miss that? That's okay then, I was worried that you were getting less than.
TIBBITS-NUTT - No, we got everything we needed. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Okay.
SPEAKER5 - Alright. Alright. So, I would I have representative Doherty has indicated that she has a question. You can you wait for those of you who are old enough, you remember
that.
REP DOHERTY - Thank you, Madam Chair, I appreciate it very much. Thank you very much for the presentation, very comprehensive. I learned a great deal myself about the heavy lift that you have as the Department of Transportation for all of us across the Commonwealth. I have several questions, but I'm going to confine my question to a regional question, particularly. In your presentations, almost all of you, I heard the words like, accessible, reliable, equity, regional equity, that kind of thing. Meaning that your work encompasses all of us across the Commonwealth. Sometime about a year ago, right after the pandemic or before the pandemic, the Bloom bus company provided transportation in the region from SMU in Dartmouth, Southeastern Mass University, or now UMass Dartmouth into Boston in various stops on the way.
Bloom decided that they were not going to continue that run to Boston, and so they gave that up. Subsequently, as I understand it, and my colleague, Pat Haddad particularly can help me with this, if you will, in terms of history, DATTCO took over that transportation route. Some of the stops were cut a little bit, but nonetheless, there was still4730 transportation. My concern particularly4732 for the citizens4734 of the city of Taunton and in the greater region. DATTCO gave short notice as far as I'm concerned that they would no longer provide that, service to the Southeast region. So, the legislative delegation, met with Secretary Fiandaca to talk about what it was that we needed to do in order to continue to provide the citizens in this region transportation to Boston to do the various things that people do when they go to Boston because the transportation no longer existed.
I believe with the help of Rep4769 Haddad and, Rep Cabral, we managed to encourage Peter Pan Bus Company to provide that transportation. They were making runs into the airport, said that4781 they would stop at South Station and continue to pick up people at specific locations. So, that happened for a little while,4789 and recently, within the recent past, while Peter Pan was stopping at the Galleria Mall, as one of their stops, plenty of parking there for people, and they had to give that up because that land has been sold over to storage or some other activity. They moved that stop from this area to East Bridgewater, I imagine. Now you can imagine this is a gateway city, not everybody who needs transportation from here into Boston has a car, they can't get to the bus stop that is provided to them there. So, I had several conversations or two actually, with the local DOT about why it was that4837 we were moving that stop to East Bridgewater instead of having it closer on here.
The response was that they have not yet identified adequate parking, an area that had adequate parking for the number of cars about 100, that they4854 needed in order to accommodate that4856 transportation. As far as I know, nothing has happened since that time, and so people have either changed their habits or they have found a way to get to East Bridgewater, but it's definitely not convenient for people in this community, in the surrounding area to get there, take a bus trip. So, one assumes is they have an automobile to get from here to there, then they would have an automobile to get from here to Boston if needs be. So, that's a long way of getting around to whether or not restoring that bus transportation from this region to Boston is somewhere on the agenda. I think that you were at the meeting, Ms. Slesinger.4906
4906 SLESINGER4906 -4906 Yes.4906
DOHERTY - Thank you very much for participating at the time. So, you must recall that conversation as well and I think it would be under your auspices actually. So, if you could just give us some hope that in this region, from UMass Dartmouth all the way forward to the communities that the previous Bloom bus accommodated us, hope for the future for us. Just finally, we were told at the time, well, the train would be online about this time of year, I think that it was the end of the year. Actually, South Coast rail is not online, it's a year delayed as I understand it. So, that hope for that transportation into the city is not yet available to people. The RTA here has also made an effort to try to figure out how to work this out for people who needed their transportation and as far as I know, that has not yet happened.
SLESINGER - I'll do what I can. First, just for South Coast questions, I will defer to the GM. So, I guess in short, we're happy to continue to work with you and GATRA and the bus companies in the area. We don't have direct authority over private operators like Peter Pan. So, I'm happy to talk with you after this, and we can talk about what else we can do to try to encourage connectivity in that region.
DOHERTY - So, just a follow on. So, talking with you after this indicates what in terms of moving forward to be able to restore bus transportation from here to there?
SLESINGER - So, we're unfortunately in the position where we can't compel Peter Pan or a private5028 operator to provide service, but we can facilitate conversations in order to try to make sure that we are serving the needs of the community, whether that's through private operations or through the RTAs or some other source.
DOHERTY - Thank you for that. I guess what I'm looking for is a plan, because as far as I know, at this point, there is no plan, and so all of the promises that we make reliable, accessible, equity, transportation equity, caring about the populations and I know that is true from all of us is not yet fulfilled for the residents of the city of Taunton and surrounding communities. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you.
SPEAKER6 - I'm sorry. Thank you. Was that are you all good? Nobody knows that.
SPEAKER11 - I'd like to now turn
SPEAKER5 - it over to my colleague, that is Miranda.
SPEAKER16 - Good afternoon.
SPEAKER17 - I think I have to do this.
SPEAKER5 - Oh, sorry.
SPEAKER4 - I wasn't paying attention. Good afternoon, everybody. Having gone through a series of these, I came ready and prepared.
SEN MIRANDA - So, I'm going to do a few questions and then allow for my colleagues to add, and then I'll sprinkle some more. I'd love to start with the MBTA if that's okay. I represent the city of Boston, and we're super excited to have this presentation today because not only do I have the red and orange line, but I have the Fairmont line, I have the Mattapan line. Many of my constituents use the ride, and so this is a Christmas for me. So, I'm going to read some of my remarks, and then I have about three or four questions for you, Mr. Chairman. First is on diversity, I was really happy to hear about the 1500 new employees. As a member of the Black and Latino5142 caucus, really helped5144 a lot in terms of the fares that you did in the neighborhoods and communities where there was a disproportionate number of folks of color.
So, I would really love for you to talk a little bit more about, like, how you got to that. Do you have a breakdown? You know, oftentimes when we hear about Bipoc hiring, they're not specific enough, and for me being a black woman who represents a largely diverse community, but mostly black and Latino, had some challenges on sort of extrapolating the data in terms of figuring out, like, when you say diversity, what do you actually mean? Is it gender? Is it sexual orientation? Is it disability? Is it veteran status? Is it specific by race? So, we'd love to hear about that. Because I have the Fairmont Line and I filed this Bill many times, there's been a lot said in our communities about electrification and speeding up.
We saw during Covid-19 that basically the Fairmont line saved a lot of folks who were traveling into work, but it's still a 45-minute wait. So, for many people who need to get to work on time, many of the challenges that Rep Doherty already talked about folks don't have vehicle5224 transportation to necessarily, get to stops. So, a 45-minute wait makes a lot of people actually go back to using the two buses and two train model versus waiting for one train that can get them downtown in 15, 20 minutes just because it's not timed, right? The third question really has to do with the Governor announcing the transportation funding task force in order to make recommendations for long term transportation finance by the end of the year.
We know that congestion pricing disproportionately impacts our communities. Transportation agencies evaluating congesting price scenarios are required to consider the potential negative impacts each scheme may have on various populations. So, I just have a question about the methods to evaluate that, to ensure that there are no negative impacts on low-income communities and communities of color. If so, what are they? And, which EEA agencies and how will these agencies be brought to the decision-making table? The last question has to do with the recent poll, so a little negativity, but I know you're going to make it sunshiny. The public was recently asked in a poll, which of the following issues was most important to them?
We talked about the housing shortage, immigration crime, transportation and infrastructure, and health care, reproductive rights, taxes, and so forth. Out of the 300 people that responded to the survey, almost 40% of them said transportation and infrastructure. Does this budget really allow for the funds to make certain that those that rely on the MBTA, like many of the people5339 in the Second Suffolk, can do so with confidence, and that's a kind of a loaded question. But when you see over 1/3 of the state's population saying that transportation and infrastructure, particularly since many of these are younger riders or senior riders, that's a long remake to me, and so just would love to hear more from you. So, I hope those weren't too bad.
ENG - Thank you, Senator. Regarding the hiring that we have been doing, the record hiring, and we'll get you the breakdown of the hiring. But I know from the numbers, it is a diverse group. It is very representative of the communities we serve, but we will get you a breakdown. I believe 50% of that workforce is diversified across the different races. The one thing that I will acknowledge that we are continuing to work on improving is the ratio of female employees. It is not that we're not pushing for that and focus on ensuring that we have a fair breakdown across all of our areas, it's just traditionally, one where we need to continue to focus on because across many of our agencies, this is an area where you don't see as high a representation of females working in these trades, but we're continuing to work on that piece.
From a management perspective, many members of my senior leadership team are female. So, those are areas where, we are continuing to work forward. Hiring in 2024 is still going to be needed for us, that's been an investment that, the $20,000,000 that I mentioned from the fiscal year 2024 budget has really enabled us to focus on rebuilding the workforce, and that is instrumental to us being able to rebuild our system. Regarding the Fairmont line5459 and electrification, one of the areas that we5463 are focused on, aside from state of the repair and trying to get our system back to where people can really rely on our schedules, the commuter rail is also very important because that takes the network out to many of the communities that are aligned on being able to use.
I see a change in the travel pattern for commuter rails, it's not as much just going into work in the morning and coming back at the end of the day. One of the things that we're focused on is ensuring that the commuter rail system which is running at 93% of the time, which is a very robust percentage, and I thank our partners at Kiyos for that. But also, the ridership on our commuter rail system is actually the highest in return of ridership across the nation. When you look at commuter rail systems, we are in the mid-90s in terms of return to ridership, but we are also looking at how we can reimagine riders too knowing that the travel patterns have changed. We're looking at things where we continue to have promotions, such as the $10 weekend pass that allows people to use our system to have schedules to different events.
Back to Fairmont, we are looking at not only ensuring the reliability of the system and the accuracy of the schedules, but then how do we build5548 towards the decolonization of our system? How do we improve5552 that frequency from that 45 minute5554 that you're talking about. Those are the things that whereas we're diving into the capital investment plan right now to see how we can continue to make sure we protect today's investments and our infrastructure that we need to make sure that it's running reliably, but how do we keep moving to capital projects to continue to move? You know, even if we can't fund the whole project, how does each individual project move in the right direction to allow us to get to that ultimate goal? We'll be able to provide more,5584 Senator, with regards to those things once we have a tune to go through the capital investment plan a little further.
MIRANDA - Thank you. I asked a question of you that I think was for the Secretary around the EEA stuff, so I apologize. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
No. That's okay.
SPEAKER4 - Plowing it all together.
SPEAKER8 - Ask the secretary if you wanted to answer the task force question.
SPEAKER4 - Yeah. I don't know if he I think those were the 3 questions I had for the MBTA. I think 1 more
ENG - I'm not surprised with the polls saying that transportation and infrastructure are important to our riders, and that's one of the reasons that I think all of us are here, myself included, knowing how important transportation is. It's one where people need to know what's there, they need to rely on it, and they need to be able to know that we're focused on delivering this to them. The whole effort over the year that I've been here, the program that we've had has allowed us to start the building blocks for how do we restore our system. The whole effort on the workforce, that's the foundation. If we don't have a skilled workforce that can deliver all the work, we're going to be fighting against ourselves on how to be more efficient, how to deliver the results. But then now the tracking improvement program that I've talked about that is starting to rebuild our system, we need the tracks now to be able to provide reliable service.
Rolling stock is the next component, also, power, which we are focused on in terms of the capital program. All of these things will go back to how we improve the public perception of our system. The track is confusing if we don't have a sufficient track, whether we have good rolling stock, we have the power system, we need the track infrastructure to get back. I mentioned commuter rail at 93%, we're going to get our tracks back to where at the end of this year, all the speed restrictions that we have to date will be lifted. That will enable5703 us to now get ourselves on a regular maintenance routine where we could go in and tackle these in a more timely manner and not allow those types of restrictions to impact the riders in the forward.
The other part is how focused on the station environment. We want people to feel that when they enter our system, they're entering into a cleaner or brighter system and I think as you go through and you see where we're working on track, we're maximizing those averages, and we're trying to go in and fix those stations. Within the limited time we have, understanding it's not a full rebuild, but we're revamping them, we're cleaning them, we're fixing the benches. All of the things that people see when they enter gives that feeling that we care, so we know that they care, and that's important to us. I do believe people will treat the system the way it appears to. So, the cleaner we have it, the more inviting we have it, people will treat it better. We're going to improve all those numbers because that's the reason we're here. It doesn't surprise you that the importance of our system to the polls.
TIBBITS-NUTT - The transportation funding task force is focused on options. I think we all know for the most part how we got to this place as far as our transportation system. We know that it's not going to be easy to get out of it. The fair share amendment, many of these initiatives, they are not the answer. It will help, it will buy us time, but it still does not answer the issue. We know that the quality and quantity of your transportation options depend on where you can afford to live. We all know that, and I think with the cost of housing, it's making this even harder for residents to live in the Commonwealth. We're looking5823 at everything; congestion pricing, tolling, every single option there is to the best of our ability, quantifying what that would look like.
But what we are not doing is making the equity issue even worse. We are not looking to add additional costs for people around transportation because they have no option but to drive, that is not what we're focused on. We're just focused on saying, okay, if we were to do congestion pricing, this is what it would look like. If we were to toll additional roadways, this is what it would look like. Just so we know what those options are, but it is not going to be a recommendation focused solely on the amount of money that you can gain from a particular option to the detriment of the communities that are going to have to bear that impact. Thank you.
MIRANDA - Thank you. I'll ask one more question, and this is to you, Colleen. I just want to publicly just thank you. I've seen a huge difference in the way we respond to constituents. You know, I don't know if you all know this, but everyone hates contacting us about the RMV. When I first got started in the house, I used to think, how silly is this that people are calling me about the RMV? But in most cases, they're the most serious cases, people are incredibly frustrated, and it really affects their quality of life. So, I want to thank you, particularly around your staff time and you actually handling some of those cases at your level. I didn't expect you to, and you've done an amazing job, so I want to thank you publicly.
I had two quick questions. One is I worked a lot on the mobility act on moving Mass forward, and we've seen some phenomenal numbers and just wanted to check-in around that if you could share a little bit more. Two, I'm Cape Verdean, American, and I've noticed a lot of challenges around the Cape Verdean community that's been here. I really applaud you on the Haitian Creole but many times Cape Verdeans are forced to have a translator or have interpretive services that are in Portuguese and Portuguese is different from the mainland, Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese is different, and then the dialect of Cape Verde and Creole. Have you heard particularly, like, in the South Coast area or South Shore, has that been a challenge?5959 Has that been brought up to you around the need for specific Portuguese services or Cape Verdean Creole?
As I can imagine, cities like Brockton really faced with those challenges with a disproportionate number of Cape Verdean Americans. Thank you for working on the ID thing, particularly for incarcerated folks that are returning back to society, and there's been a lot of improvement on that. It used to be that almost everybody that returned back to neighborhoods like Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, even though we pumped a lot of money in reentry, would still contact my office three, six, nine months later and say, I still don't have an ID, and because I don't have an ID, I can't get housing, stable housing, I can't get my license. So, thank you for doing that. But have you heard anything about the federal parolees and folks that are returning from incarceration at the federal level? I know they're not coming out of our Mass DOC, but many of them are returning to our communities with those similar challenges.
OGILVIE - To start with the languages, thank you. When we did the state benchmarking for what languages we would focus on for the implementation of work and family mobility, I think the state standard we found was, like, 11 or 12 languages. But knowing our constituency and specifically, the Cape Verdean community, we wanted to expand a little bit knowing that this was a start and that we would learn from this and get the feedback similar to what you have shared with us to determine what else do we need to do to refine the services in the languages that we make them available in. So, I've had different feedback from across the state about different versions of Portuguese and what's helpful. Nothing right now stands out as Cape Verdean community being a particular problem.
I know in the summer; I attended the Brockton Community Association of Cape Verdean to help people get ready for the implementation of the law and applying for a driver's license. So, if there's additional feedback and community members that we can connect with, we'd love to get that feedback to determine if there's some way we can adjust or tweak. The law does not allow us to track the specific new customer base in terms of what we have done but the three areas that we have been tracking since implementation are the increase in the number of learners' permits, that driver's learner's permits that have been issued, the number an increase in out of state driver's license conversions, and the overall number of driver licenses issued.
We have seen a demand increase, certainly. There were different peaks as part of the implementation, but in terms of basically where we are now permits, when6119 we compare July 1st, 2023 to our current date6123 as compared to July 1st, 2022 with February 27th from 2023, we've seen a 210% increase in driver's license permits issued. We've seen 174% increase in out of state conversions processed, and we've seen an increase of 118% of driver licenses issued over the same period of time. So, those are the indicators related to that. While we've added staff and added a variety of resources to our road test program, certainly the demand for language services is consistent and is there.
As I mentioned in my slides, we're very proud of the fact that we provide interpreters if you don't have one for a road test, and we've done, I think it's close to 39,000 road tests with in person interpreters right now. We have a partnership and are working with Baystate interpreter services here in Massachusetts, they're a company that provides interpreter services for many of the hospitals in Massachusetts, and they have been a great partner in this effort. We've had a great success. Similarly to what MBTA said have focused on, diversity on hiring, our road test program is very diversified, I don't remember how many different languages we have employees that speak, but those employees that speak additional languages other than English have been willing to use their language skills as part of the road test as they6219 administer the road test.
So, the federal program level is soon to be released. We haven't spoken at the federal level, most of our efforts, the last year or so have been with the department of correction here in Massachusetts. We do have a variety of programs over the years that the registry has participated and supported. We have many different homeless shelters that we work with6243 that bring residents to us and clients to us to help through the process. Certainly, over time, we've always participated in operation stand down across the street, helping some of the veterans. So, if there's more information or different constituencies that you think could use assistance, happy to connect with them. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you very much.
SPEAKER5 - Thank you. Representative Smollett.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you
REP SMOLA - Thank you, Madam Chair and Mr. Chairman for hosting us here today. Thanks to the entire team for your testimony, we really do appreciate it. You know, when we talk about transportation infrastructure, rural transportation is really in a different type of a category. A number of my colleagues that are here on this committee today who are from Central and Western Massachusetts that represent rural territories of the Commonwealth, the discussion on transportation is completely different than when we move to larger cities and we talk about the T and the train and, even to be able to pick up an Uber or some sort of ride share service, it's very different in the rural part of the Commonwealth. But, I'm very happy to hear about the new Grant Central. I'd just like to press you a little bit on that if you don't mind, Mr. Administrator, because, one of the big issues, and this has come up before a number of committees in all kind of backgrounds of the Commonwealth is access to state programs and grants.
So, when you6343 come to a small rural community, they may have only a6345 couple of 1,000 people, they don't have the grant writer that's on staff. They don't have the professional person that's there that may even know how to access these applications and be able to pursue them on behalf of their small municipalities. So, in terms of this new state of the6360 art online portal, which I think sounds great, it almost reminds me of the community one stop for growth program, which I think is really helpful on a small municipality. But can you tell me a little bit about how this is going to be rolled out, how smaller municipalities particularly are going to kind of get introduced to the idea of this is the way it works, this is how we6380 can prepare somebody because an online portal can be intimidating to a lot of folks that have never dealt with it, especially going after resources from the government.
GULLIVER - Thanks, Rep. We totally appreciate the needs of rural communities. I myself am from one, as is the Secretary. I mean, I live in Lancaster, we just got pizza delivery as a new thing, a couple years ago. So, believe me, I hear you when it comes to trying to get those kinds of services. Our grants team spent a lot of time talking specifically with rural communities across the state in what's known as our district 1 and district 2 office as well as in Central Mass, to make sure that we were getting the feedback from those DPW directors and town leaders to understand what their specific needs are. So, there's a number of changes that are anticipated in that Grant Central, program, as it's called.
A couple of things; we heard loud and clear from many municipal leaders that getting access to grants, not just ones administered by Mass DOT, but also some of these new federal grants through US DOT has been challenging. We have been beefing up our grants teams that are in each one of our districts, and those people in those new teams are specifically there to provide that technical support6459 to communities who may need it. I know especially out in the Berkshires, although we've done a lot of work on making sure they have access to high-speed Internet, there's still some challenges in certain areas. It's not unusual for us to bring them into our office and sit down with them and use our resources and really work through some of those grant opportunities with them.
But our goal is to really identify what those grants are that we think can work for them. We've done some work in a number of communities; Springfield and Brockton, I know those aren't rural, but just by way as example, to identify some issues that they had on their local network and get federal grants for them, very successful in the last couple of years. We're going to expand that through all of our districts, that same strategy to try to gain grants for some of those smaller communities that really need it as well. As far as getting out the word to them, we've been talking this program up for the last several months. We were at Mass Municipal, just a couple of weeks ago where we talked about this. We work through Bay State Roads which is also an association that a lot of cities and towns are part of, DPW directors are part of to make sure they understand what's going on there.
Then the last piece is working through the various public works associations across the state. Those are all places that we have targeted and will continue to target as this rolls out, to make sure6548 that they understand what the software can6552 do and understand how it works and make sure that they get the resources that they need. Then, lastly, I'll pitch, Mass DOT Fulton Innovation Conference every year, we get a lot of municipal turnouts to it. It's actually coming up next month. We are going to have a session on that particular piece of software and our grants program in general to try to get cities and towns who especially needed an opportunity to get familiar with the software, get familiar with the new system and talk to our leaders that are in those grant programs to make sure that they get the help they need.
SMOLA - Thank you very much, and I appreciate that. I think making sure that we continue to get the word out about those programs and let us be helpful to you in that regard in terms of reaching out to our local municipalities because I think that's going to be extremely important. Registrar, thank you very much for your testimony here today. You had mentioned on real ID that we're just over6608 50%, I think you said 54% in terms of compliance for real IDs. That data has been pushed back a few times primarily because of the pandemic on the federal level. We recognize that fully appreciate that, and understand it. But where are we with respect to what our expectation is?
So, I know that it's not a requirement in Massachusetts that real ID be acquired by but, we are going to be about a year away from, compliance with that standard. What do you hope that number is going to be, and are we where we should be in terms of that outreach? Guess, I'm trying to figure out why only 50% of people, just over 50% have a real ID given the fact that this has been around for a few years now.
OGILVIE - Sure. I think there's a couple of reasons. Number one, certainly during the pandemic, we offered the free relay upgrade so that people wouldn't come in6660 and people that were fearful. Number two is that one of the focuses for the next year for our communications and education will be the identification documents that you6673 need to provide at the time that you're in person. It's an in person transaction, if you want to pursue and obtain a real ID, you need a copy of your Social Security card, you need to provide two forms of address validation for Massachusetts residency, and if you've had a name change, that is evident any of your identity documents, so your birth certificate is in one name and then your current driver's license or your passport is in a different name, we need to see that chain of name change and how you came from Colleen Smith to Colleen Ogilvie, so to speak.
So, part of it is when people are there, they'll say, well, can I get it today without this and just get the standard? And the answer is yes. So, I really want my team to focus on more making sure people really understand the choice they're making at the time of service. They certainly can come back and upgrade for $25 and provide that additional information, but if we can make it more communicative at the time of service, that if they have the ability to go get those things in, then we'll make sure they can come back with ease and service them. I think it's been a struggle to understand what should be our percentage. The Department of Homeland Security recently transferred oversight in the real6749 ID program to transportation, TSA. So, we've been working with our representatives over several years, some of us in the registry have been working and looking at real ID requirements since 2005.
It's really interesting to understand and focus in saying what percentage should we really be at for compliance, because it is a personal choice, and if you have an active passport, you don't necessarily need a real ID. If you have a passport card and you fly domestically, you don't need it. So, what we are looking at is probably, realistic in the neighborhood of 60%. We're seeing a growth rate of a little over 3% every year. For the last two years with real ID acceptance, we have that a little over 300,000 people that are eligible for the free real ID, and I think that if we hit the 60% range, that might be okay. But again, it's a personal choice, and we want to educate. So, we plan on doing some additional communication approaches and radio stations so that people really understand what's the choice. Do they have the ability to get the real ID and do they need it?
SMOLA - Thank you very much for that. Just one additional question. We are often contacted by constituents relative to hearings that are before the RMV for a whole host of different reasons. In terms of length of time from the point of which somebody requests a hearing of the RMV for whatever reason to the time that hearing actually takes place. Can you give us a sense of that period of time and if, where it should be?
OGILVIE - Sure. So, there are three different types of hearings, so to speak, when we talk about an individual that the registry has oversight or participation in. So, we have the regular driver license hearing so that you've done something on your driving, you've got a citation, you've hit three surcharge able events, and you have a right to a hearing. Or if you are somebody that was suspended for driving under the operation of influence of drugs or alcohol, you'll need to see a hearings officer to start the process to reinstate. So, those hearings are really typically available within about two weeks, depending on the time of the month that you have and we're consistently working pretty hard to make sure that those are available in the 14 days. We also collect the $25 fee for the courts to do a court hearing, so, if you get a civil citation and you don't want to pay it and you want to fight in court, the registry processes that request for a court hearing, we take the money and we provide that information to the court.
We're not involved in the scheduling, and I don't really have a good sense right now at this hearing how long it's taking for people to get the court hearing. We can certainly look into that and provide that as follow-up. The third type of hearing is with the board of appeals. The board of appeals is administered by the division of insurance. The registry of motor vehicles has representative on the board of appeals, the Attorney General's office has a representative on the board of appeals, and the division insurance has a representative on the board of appeals. They conduct hearings typically four days a week, and it's my understanding that they'll prioritize some of the caseload that6943 they get from people aggrieved by a registry decision to try to focus and offer dates for hearings for people that have a shorter suspension time that we have administered. But I have also heard that for those cases6956 where it is not a short suspension time, you could be waiting several months for6960 a date.
SMOLA - Thank you very much for that. No more questions other than to acknowledge the administration's work on West East Rail. Secretary, you were out to Palmer last year, actually, I think was one of your first stops after you got your position. So, we really greatly appreciate you getting on top of that immediately. And to acknowledge Meredith as well for all the work that you've done over the years in terms of supporting our West East rail initiative, and we're excited about the opportunities that are coming in the future. So, thank you for all your work on that.
SEN MOORE - Thank you, Madam Chair, and, Chairman Feeney. Actually, I'm going to build upon the question on the hearings. Probably within the last two months, I've had two individuals from my district that approached me that one, they both had substance abuse issues many years ago. One was from 18 years ago, and another one's from 30 years ago, and they were being called in for hearings before the registrar, and they both subsequently ended up getting their license suspended for actions that took place decades ago. So, I'm just kind of curious, is there an initiative going on? I don't see the public safety benefit where the individuals have now, they've been clean and sober for many years, they're back in the workforce. Can you help me with that?
OGILVIE - Sure. So,7048 typically, what happens is7050 that other states are cleaning out their closets to ensure they're up to date with providing, we have a responsibility to share with other jurisdictions, if there's outstanding violations or convictions. So, typically, we'll find out from other states there was an unpaid fine or unresolved action that we were not notified. It's our requirement to put it on the driving record. In certain cases, we adjudicate it if it wasn't adjudicated at the time. So, if they were supposed to have been suspended at the time of the event, but we were never notified and we didn't suspend, it is our obligation to suspend them upon notification. So, without knowing the specific details of those specific cases, which off line outs of this hearing, we can certainly do some research and get back to you, but that's typically what happens.
MOORE - Right. Again, I had one individual that had been 18 years that was clean and sober, no adverse, and it was something that had to do with a driver's license issue from 18 years ago. I just didn't see the public safety benefit to us now where the person's business owner, family person, and had a job. The other thing I have is, actually, I don't know who would handle it, maybe Jonathan, maybe would do. What are we doing to expand the infrastructure for electric vehicles for the charging stations?
GULLIVER - Thank you, Senator. So, we have a number of initiatives in play right now. I think the largest one is what's known as the NEVI program, that's the National EV network that's being built out. All 50 states are currently working towards getting something going on that. We just released an RFP, and Secretary, please correct me when I'm wrong, but we just released the RFP, I believe, a couple of weeks ago on that and that's moving through the process to start getting those programs into place. Massachusetts as well as all 50 states is getting a significant amount of federal funding to build up the EV charging network. Additionally, we have just recently upgraded and switched partners with some of our existing charging stations that are on the turn pike.
Those just went active over the last couple of months. Again, you may remember there was some significant downtime on them, those have been now changed over and have a new owner in7187 place. As part of a redevelopment of our current service pluses specifically on the Turnpike and elsewhere too, that is something that that's currently being looked at as far as how we're going to build out and what the ownership is of those EV chargers.
MOORE - So, are these grants that are being issued to private, commercial or private vendors and they're doing it, or we are actually putting the infrastructure in not just the turbine bikes, but rather all the highways?
GULLIVER - So, it's a little bit of both, the biggest investment is through Federal Highway with this NEVI program. That's going to be building out again the National EV Charger network. But I understand there are some grants available, I believe EEA is actually administering some, if I'm not mistaken, and, so that it's going to be a combination of both.
MOORE - Thank you. And not to bring up a controversial issue, but as we all know what's going on with the migrants, the administration's doing a great job of getting the work permits. How do they then get those driver's license? How does that process work? So, they can start employment.
OGILVIE - So, we'd start with whatever identity documents they had. So, if they qualify under the family mobility, the law is very prescriptive about what type of documents for identity needs to be provided and then meet the residency requirement for the RMV. So, we haven't encountered any issues of late with that topic.
MOORE - Do you know what the residence requirement is? How soon are they getting their licenses so they can get to work? How soon it is they have to wait before they can get a driver's license?
OGILVIE - I'm not aware of how long, we wouldn't have a wait period if they could produce something that says they're a Massachusetts resident for where they're living, there's a variety of different documents that prove residency in Mass. So, if there's specific organizations that work with us, we'll certainly work with them in terms of process. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Okay. Alright. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER12 - Thank you, senator. Representative Tarras. I think we're just going to move the mic over.
While waiting for the microphone, I'll let you all know that I have a perfect factory at rest in it too.
SPEAKER20 - Thank you. Thank you, Phil Donahue. Thank you, senator. I'm glad to hear that you have pizza delivery. That's good news.
REP XIARHOS - A couple of things, comment and then a question. Thank you for the wrong way driving deterrent sites, we have one in West Barnstable that can save lives and someone doesn't7347 realize they're getting on the highway, which is the wrong way, that alert can save lives and prevent tragedies, thank you for that. Thank you for the Complete Streets program, and you used the word, bridge help, I like that, and I put a plug in for the Cape Cod bridges. They're 100 years old almost, and I know you're helping us get those replaced, but in the meantime, repairing them, we appreciate. For the registrar, following up on Senator Moore, I remember last year, I think it7383 was $28,000,000 for the7385 Family Mobility Act. Now, it's 32, so it's gone up $4,000,000. If you could explain that a little bit. Then also maybe tie in, how do we make sure that the documents that are being shown are legitimate? And how do we make sure that that license doesn't turn into the right to vote? Those things come up a lot, questions from constituents that because they have a license, now7418 they can vote, and if you could clarify, that would be great.
OGILVIE - Sure. So, regarding the funding is that, really, most of the money is to support the extended FTE count that we have at the registry to support the expanded hours. So, we expanded our service hours Monday through Friday. We originally were at 9:00 to 5:00. We expanded to 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, and then we opened seven sites originally. I think we grew to 11 and then cut back down to about nine Saturday hours. We're seeing, the last two months, about 3,000 transactions a month when July through December, it was about 4,000 transactions on a Saturday. The community members seem to really enjoy the Saturday hours. So, with that, we extended leases, we have security guards, we have cleaning, so, there's a lot. Most of the money is really to support the staffing and the infrastructure for all the programmatic needs to run an operation that is open that many hours and days a week.
We extended the number of road test examiners. Road test examines have increased over the years since the registry took the program in 2007, and we're well beyond 200,000 road test per year. We were operating before family ability with 34 active road test examiners, which really is what contributed to the long term wait and7502 the complaints many of you might have received, with family mobility, we have grown to over 100 road test examiners. In some locations, you can get a road test same day or the next day. We build in a two week wait period for the road test scheduling so that those people that need interpreters, we have the opportunity to fulfill that request for an interpreter. We're really happy to say that there's a lot of availability for road tests, in most cases, you can get one, even in a few days. So, what was the second question?
XIARHOS - The ability to make sure the identification being shown is accurate and legitimate and the ability7540 to vote.
OGILVIE - Sure. So, all of our employees on the front line go through fraudulent document training that is offered and provided by our association in the American motor vehicle7553 association of United States, so, we put all new hires through7557 that training. Part of the, certainly training and advocacy for the frontline is it's not just the documents, but it's the overall look, feel, and really the part of the interaction with the individual. We do7572 have some technology that can validate the security features on documents that have security features like passports, and so it's really the frontline staff, the supervisors, and then back office.
If we have learned of something that is of concern, then we'll do7588 some follow-up research and investigation from the back-end side of the house. Regarding the voting is so certainly that you have the opportunity as you interact with the registry for a license or ID transaction to indicate you would like to register to vote. Working with the Secretary of the Commonwealth's office is that individuals that fall into certain criteria would get their records sent electronically to the Secretary of the Commonwealth to be shared with the local, city or town election official to make the determination of eligibility to vote.
XIARHOS - So, getting a license doesn't automatically mean you can vote?
OGILVIE - Correct. There's a misunderstanding there. It is the local election official that really has the responsibility to determine your eligibility to vote. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you. Thank you, senator.
SPEAKER2 - Phil.
SEN COMERFORD - Thank you so much. Secretary and team, thank you so much for your really important testimony. Secretary, when you started, you know, one of your first phrases was regional equity, which probably, I would imagine made all of my colleagues who represent rural areas, hearts beat a little bit, faster with thanks for you, in terms7677 of forwarding and foregrounding that. I also just7681 want to start by saying that just as a matter of grounding the remarks I'm going to make, that district 2 in Western Massachusetts could not7691 be more fabulous and the initiatives that you7695 all spoke about, whether it's school zones or trail plowing or emergency response, D2 for Western Massachusetts Communities just knocks it out of the park continually on all of these statewide initiatives for the towns, that I represent, so, thank you.
I want to talk specifically about rural roads, but I'll just say that in the testimony on rail, as Representative Smola said well, is a game changer for Western Massachusetts and Compass Rail under the direction of Director Slesinger is thrilling, frankly. West East from Pittsfield into Boston will revolutionize the Southern tier of Western Massachusetts, there is no question about that. I would just say at the beginning though that there are really four rail initiatives in Western Massachusetts, all different, but I don't see them as competitors, and I see them as synergistic game changers. Director Slesinger said well about the Valley Flyer, that permanent ServiceNow North South service is incredible for us.
Thanks to Mass DOT, we continue to grow that service and really deepen and committed to working with Amtrak to make that better and better for constituents. The Berkshire flag, which seasonal service that hooks up from New York. I don't know if the Berkshire, but that's also extraordinary for the economy of the Berkshire, so, thank you for that. Then I'll put a little plug in for the Northern tier, study that's happening right now. Really, again, well facilitated by Mass DOT, and that's from North Adams into Boston, maybe hooking up in a fixture with existing service. Just as the Southern tier was sort of the moonshot years ago, I know the other tier has, you know, many, many hoops to jump through, but I will say that at about the same time that we see that, predictions for population decline in rural Franklin County, hollowing out communities, making them completely unviable, this could make them viable.
This could still hold in rural, underserved, largely poor communities. So, I just want us to keep it still on the table even as we work through what I understand will be challenges. But there is growing public support for this service, growing and passionate support from many of these Northern tier communities. I'll just say also about RTA service. The RTA's investment that this administration has made is really breathtaking. Up in Franklin County, that's meant restoration of night and weekend service. We're also really proud, the micro transit pilots, that the MTA has begun to launch. I think of the Mississippi little public Ubers, right? We can't send a big box into Leiden or Warwick or Northfield, but there are people who need to be hooked up maybe to existing service, maybe on demand service.
This will be everything in terms of what we can afford our people. Secretary, you said that, you know, I think well and hard to grapple with the truth and a person's zip code really does determine the quality of their transportation services and when we highlight, we focused on health care eligible individuals and we're seeing unbelievable returns in terms of people getting to the doctors, getting the care they need. Now we're thinking about education, tying into education, so it's very exciting. Let me go to rural roads, and I love, I think you can imagine that I love the investments, and, administrator Gulliver, thank you for the work that you're doing to grow those, with my secretary, with the administration.
What's the end game for rural investment when you think, you know, 10 years out into I want to be here? You know, because what we hear from our communities is, yes, thank you, where this administration is saying the word rural a whole lot, and, boy, isn't that amazing for communities that haven't had that said in a very long time. But what's the level at which this administration will think, okay, we're actually doing justice to these 100,000 of miles of roads that have deferred maintenance, that could send us off, you know you know, with our heads between our knees because the issues are so cute. So, where are we going with this? What can we hope to see in the future as we grow this this pot of money that really privileges minds and not people, and we have the7979 minds, we don't have the people yet, although with rail.
GULLIVER - Senator, thank you, and thank you very much for your shout out for our districts 1 and 2 offices, they do great work.
COMERFORD - I don't work with district 1, although I love them.
GULLIVER - I'm going to include them in there.
COMERFORD - You should. I know other people work with7999 D1 and love D1 as well. So, you know, I just get to work with D2.
GULLIVER - So, on the roadways, and I do not have presenter candy, but what our long-term goal is, there's some federal metrics that have been established as far as what our roof condition should look like. In particular, they separate them into a number of different categories. Of course, interstates are one, the secondary roads and those state numbered routes are very important one as well, and the municipal roadways is a third one. Our goal is to make sure that we meet all of those metrics in each one of those categories. So, we've started that process, it's what led to the status in the municipal paving program a couple of years ago, really identifying where we're falling behind and what we need to do to increase the metrics on those roads.
They take into account a number of different things, but the major one that we look at is what is the pavement condition? We have a pavement management team that every two years, I believe it is, drives literally every roadway in the Commonwealth and they measure a number of different things with their equipment, and it's not just a couple of guys in a truck, it's a truck that has a lot of8080 instrumentation on it, has lidar, has instrumentation that measures what the8084 roughness of the roadway is. It measures how bumpy it could be based on what kind of potholes there are and so on. We're constantly upgrading that to make sure that we are measuring where we need to do work, in particular.
So, we take the data that they produce, and it helps us to do these both the targeted investments that we've been doing through the municipal pavement program for the state numbered municipally owned routes, but also to work with the MPOs to identify where those needs are to do some bigger projects in the future. So, there's no silver bullet for the problem of municipal roadways. I think the legislature's continued support of Chapter 90 and these programs are going to continue to really make improvements in them, but I do think we're a way off. Again, I can certainly share those metrics with you if you'd like, we can pull those together.
COMERFORD - Thank you. Then, have you done an analysis, you probably have, with how far we have to go to meet those and where there are the most acute issues in Mass DOT's mind?
GULLIVER - Yes, so we have a very big asset management team, that that pavement management group works for, and, part of what they do on just really on an ongoing basis, but it's reflected in our five year plan, is they look at8165 those goals, what those8167 metrics are that are set for us, and then they do a gap analysis every year of what we need to continue to invest and what level of investment we need to maintain, for all of our assets, bridges and roadways included.
COMERFORD - Thank you so much. I'd love to see any information, that you want to send in. In closing, I just want to add my voice to, Rep Smola's when he said that we could be and should be, especially representing small communities’ ambassadors for this new grant portal. I'm very excited about it as well and want to make sure that our communities are all plugged in, and getting the information that you all are giving out with regard to how8207 to engage most effectively. So, thank you so much.8209
GULLIVER - We're happy to work with our legislative team too in getting all of the information on that as it comes out. I think that'd be great to get that help. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
And if we're giving shout outs, I need to give a shout out to just
SPEAKER21 - a guy.
SPEAKER5 - So they're married to them. And they put up with8226 a lot from us.
SPEAKER21 - Believe it or
SPEAKER5 - not, they we're not the most disengaged people. That's all. We have questions from representative McKenna. And while we're giving him the microphone, I want to acknowledge that representative Beal is the first.
REP MCKENNA - Thank you very much. I have two questions for administrator Gulliver, hopefully, relatively quick. The first is on bridges, and I know we've talked some about bridges, but I'm interested specifically about those bridges that kind of fall into a doughnut hole. They're too big to meet the state's small bridge repair program, but they're not on main roads, they're not state-owned roads, so they do fall on the responsibility of the town. As you discussed the engineering requirements for those bridges is still what it is, and those are incredibly expensive projects that simply don't work in municipal budgeting oftentimes, and so go years deferred. Or8290 in many cases, there's a bridge out between Webster and Dudley, which is a main connection that has now been out, I believe, six years with no real hope for connection in the future. Is the central grant program an opportunity to kind of8306 meet those municipal donut hole bridges? Is there other programming that you envision that could meet those bridges and provide that municipal support for those Tweener bridges there?
GULLIVER - So, that's a great question. Bridges remain challenging, they are one part of our program that has gotten just more and more expensive over the years. What used to be a $5,000,0008332 bridge 10 years ago is8334 now easily a 10 to $15,000,000 bridge. Prices have just skyrocketed on them for a variety of reasons, so that leaves the bridges that you're talking about in a particularly tough place. Our district offices tend to, if they get contacted by a community, they will elevate those to our state bridge engineer and try to identify funding sources. So, I'm actually familiar with the one you're talking about. I remember having, I think, a meeting with you back when it first closed.
I can look into some more details on it, I don't have it with me right now, but I know those are the kind of bridges that we do want to get opened up as quickly as possible. They are challenging, however, and, something that we are really particularly proud of, and I know some of you in the legislature have heard me say this a number of times, is that regardless of ownership of bridges, all of our bridges are safe. We don't have any bridges that are open to the public that are unsafe. As soon as we identify them as having a safety issue, we close them. That's a hard and fast rule that we've used now for many years.
Unfortunately, sometimes important8406 bridges for communities do get closed, because despite best of efforts8410 from both the community and us on the Mass DOT side, but it's more important for them even though it's incredibly inconvenient at times and we realize the impact that has on communities, it's important for them to remain safe, and that's why we have to unfortunately take that action. We do it several times a year, unfortunately. It is the hole in8432 our program, I don't have a great answer for you on how we hit those ones that are in between. The way that we assess investments in bridges is by a number of things, including what the current condition is.
Obviously, if it's closed, it's unsafe, but in addition to that, what the impact is on the community, whether there's for example, if it's impeding, things like first responders, like a fire station or police station and so on. So, I'm happy to work with the district on that particular one to see where they are with it and see if we can do something to accelerate it. Again, if there's a specific issue in any community, like the one you're describing, we always encourage the communities to work with our district offices to try to find a solution to it, and our district highway directors and their teams are always very good at elevating those problems quickly and trying to figure out creative ways to addressing them.
MCKENNA - Then my second question, not on8493 bridges, is on the wrong way driving that Rep Xiarhos had mentioned. I'm wondering if there's any measure of efficacy of those, the kind of success metrics are, and if there's any hope or plans to expand. In particular, just in early December, there was a two-fatality wrong way driver accident on Route 395 right near the Connecticut border8519 in the town of Webster, where a8521 wrong way driver traveling North on 395 struck and killed a 35-year-old young mother, school teacher heading home to Connecticut. I know for a fact that there is a wrong way indicator right in the vicinity of where that accident took place. I don't know whether that wrong way driver passed that indicator to get on the highway or entered via another entry point to the highway. So, just hoping for some more details on that program, what it looks like, what success means, and expansion of it.
8552 GULLIVER8552 -8552 I'll8552 have to look into that particular case you're talking about, but in general, we have 16 pilot sites, they have been installed and ones our team identified as having preexisting problems where there was driver confusion getting on. In many cases, those are in locations where the on ramp and off ramp are directly next to each other. So, especially at nighttime where the majority of these crashes happen, it can lead to driver confusion getting on the right ramp. The way the system is supposed to work, it gives you a visual alarm8586 as you're entering the wrong way, and also there's a video camera8590 that's mounted to the system that feeds back to our highway operation center, or HOC.
When the alarm comes on into the HOC, all the8602 first responders are notified right away. Message boards are lit up on the highways that8608 the wrong way driver is entering so that they can see, so the other drivers that are there are warned that there may be a wrong way driver ahead. So, it's a system that's meant to really do two things. One,8620 advise the8622 driver who's gotten on the wrong way that they8624 are on the wrong way, and we're happy to demo some of these if any of the legislatures ever interested in it. A lot of signage lights up, there's bright lights that will come at you if you're a driver at night, and, there's flashing signs. So, a lot of stuff to try to identify to the driver that they are going the wrong way.
Then, again, those signs for the people that are going the right way that they really, really need to use caution. The measure of success on those is theirs, again, a data system on it that tracks how many vehicles are coming up the ramp. Success for us is when they turn around, when they self-correct, and we see a lot of that happening on some of these ramps.8669 But when they self-correct and turn around, get off the highway, and get back up going the right way, that is our ultimate goal. We'd love to be able to stop every single wrong way driver there that gets on the highway the wrong way, but they are some of our most challenging crashes, they're obviously extremely, extremely deadly when they happen. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER5 - Thank you. I have next, representative.
SPEAKER2 - Hey.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER - Thank you for all the information you're providing, it's very good. First, I'm going to just take a quick dive about the RMV and the real ID process, because I have a constituent that had, like, two speeding tickets, but he was under 21 within six months, and he was supposed to be suspended, but they didn't suspend until he was 35. He has two kids, and he's working as a manager at a factory. He's trying to get to work. So, there needs to be some kind of maybe look at the process and the statute of limitation. That's all I'm going to ask is that you just look at that system.
The other thing is my question about the smart streets. You said that not all communities are enrolled in smart streets and I'm wondering, like, what is the percentage of how many rural communities are enrolled? Then maybe because they're afraid that they got a little bike path in and everything, right? I know there's systems with Smart Street where you don't always have to put a bike path depending on the road, but they might be hesitant to enroll. I'm wondering if there's been any outreach, and if that is the case, that most of those8758 places that are enrolled are in the rural8760 communities.8760
GULLIVER - Yes, so we are over 80%, the two areas that we've been targeting the last couple of years to get as many communities on board as possible. Actually, down on the Cape is one of the areas that we would like to see more participation. Then, really, it is some rural communities in the Western part of the state, especially kind of in the center8785 region of the state, seem to be the ones that have not necessarily adopted all of those programs. When we talk to them, there's a variety of reasons, in some cases, it's been cities that didn't see the value of joining because they already have their own programs.
So, it's not that they weren't adopting all of the right strategies, it was just that they felt they had their own program in place already, and they didn't need to adopt ours. Usually when we speak with them and kind of educate them on the grant opportunities that are available to them once they get into it, we've turned some of those around. We have heard from some of them that they just felt the grants were too complicated, they didn't want to8829 bother8829 with them. In some cases, the city or town planner or DPW director, whomever is in charge of doing it, is misinformed about the whole program and thinks that it's going8842 to actually add a lot8844 of extra process to them, and it's really8846 not about that.
The Complete Streets program is intended to be flexible; it doesn't force a community to do something they don't want. We want those communities to have that flexibility. So, that number has increased over the last few years, and it's really been a testament to our team who's been doing that direct outreach to those communities and trying to work with them directly to try to get them educated about the program, get them up to speed, and really get them some of those grants. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you. Appreciate it. And that's to talk to you about lighter data. That's quite an extensive data there. I hope you have exploiting that, but that's8886 just a side thing for me.
REP MURATORE - Thank you so much. Thank you for all your testimony. Great information. Speaking of little bridges, the Sagamore and the Bourne Bridge, is there additional money that's being put aside in this budget8905 as well?
GULLIVER - I don't believe it's in this budget. We already have it as part of our8909 five-year plan, I don't think it's part of the operating budget specifically. It's in our8915 capital program.
MURATORE - Is there additional in this capital budget coming out?
GULLIVER - I can't say for sure what year8921 it's programmed in, but I know it matches up with the current plan, and just for the record on where we are with it, we've received the first of two grants that we applied for, which is very encouraging for us. We're continuing to work with our federal partners, advocating for Massachusetts, making sure that we're in line for8942 that next grant, which we expect, sometime this spring. I know, the Secretary and I as well as the Governor's office and a whole lot of people in the administration have really strongly been advocating to the feds, including talking to the White House on a regular basis, talking to Federal Highway and the US DOT on a regular basis, our partners at Army Corps with Federal Highway, you name it. There's been no shortage of traffic back and forth with our federal partners to make sure that we are well positioned to8972 receive these monies. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Awesome.
SPEAKER12 - We really appreciate that.8974 Anything we can do as a delegation, please reach8976 out. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER6 - Thank you.
SPEAKER5 - Oops. Sorry about that.
REP KERANS - Thank you, Madam Chair. Just very quickly, I do apologize for my lateness, I had an unavoidable conflict. I thank the entire team, Secretary Tibbits-Nutt, all of you. Just very quickly, I did not catch the testimony of everyone, I wanted to put a plug in with the aeronautics division. You have a nice new airport director, manager up in Beverly, very earnest. Could use, I think, all the support you can provide to address relentless awful airport noise in the Beverly, Wenham, Danver’s area. So, thank you for that, that's been a rough ride, pun intended. Second, I just want to say, thank you to administrator Gulliver, we've talked to the transportation committee, I appreciate all the work. Have to give the shout out for district 4.
To registrar, I thank you, wonderful on the translators and a shout out to the Danvers registry, phenomenal, and to Eddie Paladino. I think we all probably feel the same way if there's anyone who isn't grateful to Eddie. I just want to quickly to the GM, thank you for the phenomenal work on the T. As a member of the transportation committee, I followed this closely as has Rep Blais, others. You have given9081 us reason to be optimistic and hopeful and appreciate9085 your responsiveness on my little bus issue up in Danvers, the 4:35. So, thank you very much. I think that's everybody. Thank you.
HADDAD - Thank you. I'm just going to say, just a couple of really good things. I personally feel that the9107 communication has improved tremendously, I did say9111 that to GM that, prior to your tenure, I9117 had to find out what's going on for you9119 the globe. Again, I'm going to say to District 5, Ms. Carrie takes a lot, she has a lot of patience. She's very responsive and listens. As far as9136 aeronautics, we have9138 a great little handbook that is in rehab to Amy's time. So, we thank you for that. So, you know, just a big overall9148 thank you because I know how convoluted, how difficult you were operating not only with the crisis,9156 you should do it, but whatever has to be done, so, thank you all. Thank you for your patience with all of us, and I hope you enjoy today and you're dismissed. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you, Sontag.
SPEAKER21 - Thank you. So, I'll say
SPEAKER5 - to my colleagues while we're having the, transition from transportation to energy environment, agriculture. Please grab something.
SPEAKER24 - For you. And, you know, we didn't really know very many of you. And,
REBECCA TEPPER - EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS - Over the last year, everybody has been so welcoming and so collaborative and just want to thank you all and the whole committee for all that you've done to make us feel welcome and to work with us over the last year. As you know, we have a superstar team here. We're all committed to our major goals of decarbonization, resilience, environmental justice.9233 As you know, these issues aren't issues that are one agency, these are things that can't be talked about in a silo anymore, they affect everybody, and so that's why we're all here, and this is why we're all working together as a secretary to try to address some of these difficult problems.
So, I know I spent more time with some of you than others, I have spent a whole day on the club and so. So, I do know that very well, but I hope that we will get to continue to get to know each other and our phones are always open. One of the things is really important to us as a team is that we be responsive to you. Maybe we can't always say yes, but we can at least be available and open to talking. So, I want to make sure that everybody knows that that is where we are. So, now I'm supposed to read to you. So, as you may remember, some of you were here last year that I stated that my goal as Secretary was to urgently move towards the state's legal mandate for net zero emissions.
Thanks to Governor Healey and the legislature, in fiscal year 2024, EEA received 1% of the budget for the first time ever. This significant9315 increase allowed us to invest in staffing to address resilience, decarbonization, and environmental justice. Guided by the Clean Energy and Climate Plan, this year, we served Massachusetts residents across the board, broad spectrum of EEA activities. We supported outdoor recreation, protected energy consumers, and fostered clean energy. We renewed the municipal vulnerability preparedness program to advance environmental justice and provide greater funding for local climate resilience projects.
These projects will help communities weather extreme heat, precipitation, and sea level rise. The fiscal year 2024 budget allowed us to fill the positions needed to support these efforts, and thank you very much for that. I'm grateful that for the second time, the Governor's budget does dedicate 1% of the overall budget to the Secretariat. Today, I'd like to talk to the committee about how the Governor's budget significantly boosts our ability to advance five key strategic areas. I'll start with environmental justice and equity because that is involved in everything that we do and how we're approaching our issues. So recently, as you know, our first ever environmental justice strategy was finalized, that's going to be a road map for all agencies to embed9403 environmental justice and equity through structured and measurable programs.
EEA's H2 budget invests $7,000,000 in the Office of Environmental Justice and Equity. These funds enable structural change at each of the EEA agencies by funding environmental justice liaisons. So, each agency will have a liaison being funded by this money. These liaisons will ensure outreach to environmental justice communities is meaningful and in the language of the community. We know that we can't have equity without access. H2 provides $2,200,000 to fund language access, which includes written translation of documents and oral interpretation during public meetings. This is a long overdue investment that increases transparency, allows all residents to equal access to information, and promotes public participation.
Climate tech and workforce. As the Governor has said, in her state of the state and, today on Jim and Marjorie, I heard her say it, Massachusetts is uniquely positioned to lead the world in climate tech innovation. H2 advances our climate tech industry by allocating $30,000,000 for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. These funds support equitable clean energy workforce training partnerships, support, and climate tech innovation. This administration is committed to making Massachusetts the Climate Innovation Lab of the world. This industry will help all of Massachusetts, in fact, and I did not know this until very recently, the majority of clean energy companies in Massachusetts exist outside of 128.
Over the past 10 years, the Mass CEC workforce team has partnered with the Executive Office of Education and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to launch a clean energy innovative pathway program, this program will expand Mass CEC long time commitment to fostering clean energy career awareness by establishing9532 scalable model for high9534 school students to gain exposure to clean energy careers. The budgetary funds will allow Mass CEC to expand more than 60 current programs that support innovators, train a diverse clean energy workforce, and build our offshore wind industry. About resilience and mitigation, which I know is near and dear to every legislator's heart because it is important to every community in Massachusetts.
As we saw this summer, climate change is here, and it's bringing floods and erosion and extreme heat and drought. So, H2 doubles on the Healey Driscoll's administration's adaptation and resilience initiatives. Last fall, we9580 released the resilient Mass plan, which analyzes future impacts of climate change and outlines the actions we will take. Through this plan, we are identifying challenges and leveraging funding to support improvements and updates to mitigate future climate hazards. For example, through this strategy, we established the state's first office of climate science. The office will help the state and municipal governments access the best available climate data so we can incorporate climate projections into our work.
Communities can't and shouldn't bear the burden of climate change alone. $10,100,000 of the budget will fund climate resilience and decarbonization teams and targeted climate initiatives. We also need a holistic, collaborative, and equitable approach to coastal resilience. That's why EEA and the Coastal Zone Management Office have launched the Resilient Coast Initiative. Resilient Coast is our first comprehensive strategy to protect our waterfront communities and ensure a strong resilient future for our Massachusetts shoreline. In collaboration with the state's 78 Coastal Communities, Resilient Coast is pursuing a multi-pronged approach to identify regulatory policy and funding mechanisms to develop focused long-term solutions.
To pursue the planning process with integrity and engage stakeholders throughout, enhanced in funding for our Office of Coastal Zone Management is essential. In addition, H2 supports the Department of Fish and Game's Blue Carbon Incentive Program that will advance an innovative concept for coastal land protection, resilience, and restoration to the state to support the state's ambitious zero carbon goal. This program will harness the unique power of Massachusetts salt marshes to store carbon and support future conservation9698 and restoration of an9700 additional 4000 to 5000 acres of salt marsh. This past year9705 brought record floods to Massachusetts, and our aging dams and culverts were dangerously strained.
We're ramping up our efforts to repair and remove these structures with $2,800,000 to provide technical assistance for private dam owners, and municipalities, and for another $2,800,000 to help replace failing culverts. As the weather becomes more extreme, it's imperative that we protect our natural resources for generations to come. Our budget advances forest stewardship, PFAS mitigation, our food supply, and the green spaces we enjoy. The fiscal year 2024 budget allowed our agencies to build critical capacity to carry out these goals. For example, the increase in funding in the fiscal year 24 budget allowed Mass DEP to hire 78 new employees, supporting the agency's core mission in building out new and expanded programs for clean air, water, and soil.
Since receiving the additional funds, Mass DEP has been able to onboard over 96% of those positions, filling roles for PFAS sampling and assessment, compliance and enforcement, resiliency, permitting, and prioritization of environmental justice. Staffing in these areas is critical for environmental protection as we continue to work across the administration with our legislative partners and federal partners to address emerging contaminants, ensure access to clean water, and mitigate the impacts of climate change. The fiscal year 24 budget also supported 62 net new DCR employees, 50% of those have been hired and hard at work to make sure that the parks and beaches and waterfronts are ready for the public to enjoy year-round in every part of the Commonwealth.
In total, the fiscal year 24 budget allowed for 256 net new positions in our Secretariat,9838 and we have hired 73% of those positions to9842 support our important work. This year, the budget that we9846 are proposing supports those continuation of those jobs. To fight hunger, this fiscal year, the Department of Agriculture is creating a new division of food security. This division will include successful and innovative programs like the Massachusetts Food Trust, the Food Ventures Program, and the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program. To ensure that9870 all of the Secretariat's food security programs are managed together, this new division will include the9876 successful food security infrastructure grant program.
Our net zero future requires a clean energy supply, and offshore wind9896 will be a critical part of9898 that supply. With the support of the legislature last year, the Healey Driscoll administration issued an RFP for 3600 megawatts of offshore wind, the largest solicitation in New England. Through a new multi-state effort, which is a MOU with our colleagues in Rhode Island and Connecticut to review bids from the procurement, this and future procurements of clean9921 energy transmission and energy storage resources will be critical to achieving our statutory emission reduction9927 requirements. This session, we hope to work with you to expand the administration's ability to procure these resources in the time frame and quantities necessary to meet our statutory mandate. Over the last 15 years, the Department of Energy Resources has played an ever-increasing role in our clean energy transition.
From spearheading our solar programs, to drafting climate friendly building codes, to running procurements for offshore wind, DOER is leading the state's efforts to decarbonize. To fund the staff needed to carry out DOER's critical mission, the H2 budget includes an increase to DOER's assessment on gas and electric utilities. Making this small increase in DOER's total operating budget will free up millions of dollars in REGGI9979 funds for transportation and building decarbonization measures. The road to decarbonization means ramping up the use of electrified heating technologies. The DPU took a historic step this year in their 2080 order to guide the evolution of the natural gas distribution industry to clean energy.
The DPU's forward thinking framework is a significant step in our efforts to achieve net zero emissions while also addressing affordability and workforce transition. The funding provided last year has allowed10012 the DPU to make significant progress10014 on staffing, particularly in the transportation oversight division, however, staffing continues to be a challenge at the department. So, I'll just close out by saying this is an exciting time in Massachusetts, and the Healey and Driscoll administration continues to be one for urgency, action, and equity. Thank you for providing us with the opportunity to speak to you this afternoon, we're grateful for the support and leadership in the legislature taking aggressive action to combat climate change. So, I did want to tell you who's here with us today, we have a lot of people.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
So, instead of me introducing everybody, why don't everybody introduce themselves? So why don't you start, Tom?
SPEAKER21 - Thank you, secretary.
SPEAKER17 - Thank you to Bristol County, agricultural high school for hosting us. Great site to be at.
SPEAKER5 - At. We did that especially for you.
SPEAKER21 - Yes. Right. Bonnie Heiple, commissioner of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. Elizabeth Mahaney, commissioner of the Department of Energy Resources. Kathryn Antas, undersecretary for decarbonization and resilience. Emily Ragridge, chief executive officer of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.
SPEAKER24 - And on the screen, we have chair Ben Austin. Ben Austin.
SPEAKER1 - Ben Austin.
SPEAKER9 - Can't hear you.
SPEAKER17 - You're muted.
SPEAKER24 - Oh. No. He's not. Okay. Alright. We can10106 hear you. Having technical difficulties. Brian, can we hear you?
SPEAKER3 - Brian Arrigo, commissioner for the Department of Conservation and Recreation.
SPEAKER24 - Well, I'm certain that people will be working on that. We'll see if we can, get you here, but we do have a10119 few more people
SPEAKER5 - under center 2. Good afternoon. Stephanie Cooper. Thank you.
Oh.
SPEAKER24 - He's, like, hiding behind 4 rows. You know? He's hoping you won't ask him any questions. No.
SPEAKER5 - No. That's typical Lauren Bossman.
SPEAKER21 - Maybe just need the whole
SPEAKER5 - I have
SPEAKER19 - a whole bunch of questions for him.
HADDAD - So, thank you, madam secretary. You know, I'm10162 the one trick pony here, and I am so enthusiastic about your plans for procurement of offshore wind. So, I just want to say thank you, because it was always the vision when we began this process in 2014 that the procurements would come regularly. We would be encouraging more developers to get involved and thereby making sure that the competition was giving us very low rates.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
So, I'm not going to take up time. I'm going to turn it10196 over to my colleague, the senator from Alvaro, senator Feeney.
SPEAKER21 - K.
SPEAKER12 - Feedback support staff there as well. We do
FEENEY - We just had a couple questions and then I'll turn it over and then maybe circle back if I could. I've been scoping over the last couple of years because I've seen it so prominent in my district, but we have a damn problem in Massachusetts, and we need a damn solution, quickly. Could you just kind of talk about the resources that we're dedicating towards dams in Commonwealth. I know there's some technical assistance, I believe, that is in to, kind of dig into that a little bit. Is this a priority of the of the10248 secretariat of everybody trying to10250 not only find dams that are needed to repair, but really what I've seen is a jurisdictional issue. We have so many privately owned dams and other ones that are, there's challenges on who owns them or you have abandoned owners, you have other ones that are under Massachusetts roadways. What is the administration? You know, the resources that we're putting into the budget this year, is that enough to cover? What are we looking to do in future years, and what are some of the ways that we can support you in that work?
TEPPER - Well, thank you for the question because this is one of our top priorities and was one of top priorities in this budget. You know, if you look at the budget, you see that it's pretty flat from last year. There are inflation adjustments here and there, but one of the few areas where there is significantly more money is for dams and culverts, and that's because we all saw this summer what it means to have a dam get close to overflowing. As you say, we have a real problem with our dams and culverts, and we need to focus on them. So, I'll let other people talk more about it, but I can tell you that I was at a10335 dam the other day, and it's one of the issues that is the most difficult because they're expensive, and so, we are trying to get to as many of them as we can. But as you say, some of them are private. So, I'll let commissioner Rico, do you want to talk any bit about dams at all? SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
See if we can hear you. Yeah. Now oh, there you go. Now? Almost. Hi. Little bit. Hold on 1 sec.
SPEAKER5 - Okay.
KATHERINE ANTOS - MASSACHUSETTS EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS - What I'm saying is that we've been working closely with MIMA over the last couple of months on an application for federal funding, which just about to get fitted for MIMA payments. One of the things that we did, I think was really successful. We did really robust outreach to dam owners to10397 make sure that they knew about the program. As a result, I know you won't be surprised by the stigma and promise you just made. You10403 identified $40,000,000 in projects that we'll be putting those forward for federal funding. So, when the secretary was talking about what we're proposing in this budget, it's really creating kind of a one stop shop for dam owners because the regulations are complex, the challenges are big.
One of the things that's so important us to do is to identify and always know what the need is out there. So, the idea is to have this technical assistance office, within the Secretary's office where the dam order can fall and we will be able to help with compliance through PCR's office of dam safety and for those dams that need the most attention, whether it's the greatest risk, we're also looking at providing consulting services directly to say, you know, you haven't had a compliance suspension. You don't have an emergency action plan that's up to date. We're going to help you get that done right away. Then on the flip side, we'll also be evaluating, is this dam a candidate for removal?
And then we partner with our division of ecological restoration to advance that as well. his budget also allows for expanded standard on the grant program as well. Then the final piece I would say too is that your legislature created the Dam Seagull Fund, I know you're all well aware of that too. who's on that about the secretary's office too. So, this technical assistance office will also oversee that program and be able to help plug down with it to that available funding as well for grants and loans. So, really by taking a holistic look and having10498 experts who are coordinating and talking to dam10502 owners on a daily basis to think we can make the situation better.
FEENEY - I appreciate that, thank you. Then the last question, and I'll turn it back. I believe we said $30,000,000 for clean energy center in this budget proposal. I apologize if I missed it as I was coming in. Can you just dig into a little bit, how these funds are being used? Are there new programs? Is it operational considerations? Then finally on that, does the administration have an eye towards just transitions? One of the things that my colleagues and I have been working on in tandem over the last few years as we come up with bold10545 climate, plans is to make sure that we're taking care of the workforce that could be10551 adversely affected. With that, I think CEC and other programs and departments in the administration need to focus on that to make sure10560 that as we flip the switch and stop moving, that we have some serious robust transition programs to take care of that workforce. So, I'd be interested to kind of hear about your focus on that as well. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Yeah. How about your budget? Sure.
SPEAKER21 - So could
SPEAKER5 - Yes. Thank you. That's what I was just going to say. Please Thank you.
EMILY REICHERT - MASSACHUSETTS CLEAN ENERGY CENTER - Well, first, let me say thank you, for the funding provided to the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center last year. We are very grateful to be included in the operating budget for the first time at $30,000,000 for fiscal year 24. We've started to put that funding to good work on a variety of different fronts, which I can get into. But let me answer your question about what would we do with this funding this year. So, we anticipate really spending this in should we be so lucky as to be granted these funds. The areas that we intend to focus on this year would be climate tech, economic development, workforce development, and getting to your point of a just transition programs that are related continuing to build those and expand those, and then offshore wind, programming to support all of the capital10636 investments that we're making.
We need10638 flexible programming dollars to do things like invest in the workforce, make sure that we have a safe and highly skilled set of individuals who can really push the industry forward. Then we do a lot of collaboration, bringing parties together around offshore wind, grading I'd say it's really a group of, folks that are all doing offshore wind training and helping to bring them together to make sure that we have common practices and protocols across offshore wind training. So, those10676 are a couple items. I will also say that we are working on developing an offshore wind, renewable energy innovation center in New Bedford, and this center would really allow us to be one of the premier clusters of offshore wind innovation development relative to any other state.
We are ahead of the curve when it comes to innovation, we've been running innovation related programs for offshore wind for10710 several years now, and this would allow us to bring together the startups, the developers, and the supply chain all in one place. This center is actually in design and development this year, we had some ARPA funds that allowed us to see that effort. So, what we'd10731 be looking for as part of the F 25 budget would really be to see the programming, which we see, being a public private10739 partnership. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Great. Thank you.10743 Thank you, madam chair.
SPEAKER5 - Thank you. Rep Sefaros?
XIARHOS - Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm glad to hear about the food security program. Even on Cape Cod, you know, there's so many people in need. But also, offshore wind is a huge issue on the Cape. We have three projects in the town of Barnstable, which I represent some of that and get a lot of questions from constituents, mainly concerning the industrialization of the ocean, that's one of their concerns, the cable coming from the ocean,10783 underneath10785 the beaches, and10787 then ending up at substations on top of our sole source aquifer, all our drinking water comes from one area. So, those are the questions we get a lot about, and since you're here, I thought we would ask that. If you have any way, I can help my constituents with their concerns.
TEPPER - So, offshore wind is a critical part of our clean energy future. We can't meet our clean energy goals without offshore wind. So, that being said, we do have to do it in the right way and we understand that. We have a very long process, as you know, picking the lease areas, we10834 have10834 a lot of permitting that happens on our side of the work. But I will say that in order for offshore wind to be effective, we have to get it to places where people can use it, and that means building transmission and substations. That's going to be true throughout the state. In order to meet our electrification goals, we are going to have to build more substations and more distribution lines and more transmission lines.
That means every community needs to start thinking about this as I'm being part of the clean energy transition, and part of that10875 is we're going to host some transmission lines in our town because everybody's going to be hosting energy infrastructure because that's the only way that we're going to be able to meet our clean energy and climate goals. So, I think it would be very helpful if we as all, as leaders, talked about that straightforwardly, and talked about how we all need to do our share with this. The reason why we're doing it is for our10903 kids so that they can breathe clean air, so that they have a planet to10909 live on.
So, we're talking about very important things, and it is going to take a collective effort. On your particular issue with the transmission lines going underground, you know, transmission lines under the sand are not dangerous, substations are not dangerous, we have substations all over the place, transmission lines are not dangerous. So, we do want to be careful about where we cite things and make sure that we cite them in the areas that are least environmentally impacted. But we are we are going to have energy infrastructure.
ELIZABETH MAHONY - MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY RESOURCES - I'll speak to, we are excited to see what comes in March 27th when bids are due, just in a couple of weeks for the next round of projects. The first line that was built in Barnstable was done successfully and done in partnership with the community so that community's concerns were really taken into account, and I think the next couple will be done the same way. We also know that with 3600 megawatts of offshore wind that we're trying to get, we're going to have to, as the secretary noted, plug that in in a lot of places. So, there's going to be a lot of communities that will be facing this and, I think the Cape right now feels like they're the first ones up because they're the closest perhaps to these projects, but a lot of our communities are going to be dealing with this.
We don't know what's going to come in, in March, and we don't know what we're going to pick in March. So, there's some big questions, but we are looking forward to them being successful. I think the other thing that I think about, and certainly some of my colleagues up here know this much more than us, but the impacts of climate change on our coastal communities is striking right now. We want to make sure that we're taking steps now to protect our communities from the impacts of climate change, and we can't do that without transitioning to clean energy. I11026 also think a lot about the other work that we're11028 doing for building decarbonization, for transitioning our11033 transportation structures.
We're going to need to figure out11037 how to do that in the smartest way, and I think that we can take a lot of lessons out of the experience on the Cape, out of the experiences in Somerset, and make sure that we're doing it in a right way that we are constructing our buildings in the best way, so that we reduce the load that goes on to our grid. So, we need less energy being produced than we would otherwise think so that we would need fewer substation upgrades. But to the secretary's point, this is the start of these conversations, and we look forward to talking with folks on the Cape about how to make this done the right way.
TEPPER - Yes, the only thing I would add is,11076 you know, this is also a affordability issue. I11080 mean, as you all know, right now, we get our energy supply mostly from fossil fuels, from power plants that are fueled on natural gas, and we're at the end of the pipeline for natural gas, and the price of electricity is focused primarily on the price of gas. Because if your power plant runs on fossil fuel, natural11102 gas, that means that's your biggest expenditure. So, that's what you pass on11106 to customers, the price of gas and electricity generally follow each other. So, right now, we're heavily dependent on natural gas.
As we saw with the war in Ukraine and inflation last year, we're also dependent on LNG, which is coming from other countries, which is also subject to the worldwide price of gas. So, we're at the end of the pipeline, and we're buying stuff from other countries. If we have homegrown solar and offshore wind and storage, all of11142 that is here. We get better reliability because we're not relying on other countries, we're not relying on something coming down from Texas or Pennsylvania. We're not at the end of the pipeline,11153 we're right here, better reliability and ultimately lower prices because we're going to be doing it here with our own workers.11174 It's a reliability issue, it's an affordability issue, and it's a climate issue because it's the right thing to do for the environment. So,11182 you know, I think, overall, we're really excited about this clean energy future and see it as an opportunity.
XIARHOS - Thank you very much. Is there someone I can refer constituents to at some point?
TEPPER - Yes.
XIARHOS - That would be great. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Yeah.
SPEAKER24 - We have taken it. We have a lot of lot we have to receive many,
SPEAKER20 - thank you. Thank11210 you, chair.
SPEAKER5 - And just11212 an aside, Somerset will take all the cables. But, we have next, excuse me, representative McKenna.
MCKENNA - Thank you very much. I'd like to turn the conversation to solar development and commercial solar development. In particular, it's my belief that the incentives and the siting and zoning of solar is completely broken right now. In particular,11238 I want to highlight two projects in my11240 district. One, which is currently ongoing, is a 65-acre development, and for context, looking out these windows, we sit on about 70 acres. So, it's not very much smaller than what you can see out these windows, and it was a forested hilltop that was clear cut. 65 acres, clear cut. Once the forest11260 was taken off, they took off the topsoil11262 until they hit hardpan.
It's 65 acres of hardpan that is on the top of the hill leading to two separate lake watersheds that over the course of the past eight months have been inundated with siltation and runoff that has traveled first through abutters' yards, properties, basements, and other personal property. The only recourse11287 really has been for the town's conservation commission to assess a $200 a day fine, which to these companies that have by right zoning is a penny for the millions that they're going to make in the profits on these developments.
So, in my humble opinion, the incentive to drive these commercial solar projects for renewables is having the comically perverse effect of clear-cutting green forests and polluting our watersheds and our lakes and our homes and our neighbors and our abutters. And to11326 just add a cherry on the project, to level the site after they clear11330 cut it, they imported soil, which is11332 suspected to be contaminated with PFAS that is now adding to11336 the runoff. This is the11339 same company that in 2021 in the same town, clear cut 45 acres overlooking the Welham Lake Watershed with the exact same results, and they have not learned, they have not changed their operations. So, I don't know if there's a question in there, but something needs to be done about by right zoning of commercial large scale solar that is completely devastating green spaces, forests, and the abutting community. Thank you.
TEPPER - No, thank you for that. That is one of the reasons why we did form this siting and permitting Commission, because of issues just like this, to make sure that when we're deciding where this clean energy is going to go, it goes in places that's appropriate, and also balancing the different land use needs that we have. So, we're hoping to get some recommendations from the siding permitting Commission soon, and, Undersecretary Judge is leading that group. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
and do you want to Yeah. I
SPEAKER7 - want to Yeah.
But then also we will continue to accept them through March 15th.
MICHAEL JUDGE - MASSACHUSETTS EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS - So, people are free to comment on some of the process that we've had to date, but our final recommendations are provided on March 31st, and our hope is that that will lead to comprehensive legislative programs or to address some of the concerns you have. I think, though, also, this gets to the structure of our incentive programs, which our goals are going to be premised around that.
MAHONY - I'll start with the current program, SMART, disincentivize that type of development. It actually instead of giving an adder so we've given an adder to building parking lot canopies or on a building rooftop. Instead of giving an adder, we've said we're taking away some of the incentive. We've seen a lot of change in the last couple of years with solar development, and, so, this is one of the questions that we're currently looking at. Is the disincentive enough, and what should it be? Last year, we put out a study and an accompanying map with it, it was called the technical potential of solar study. You can go on DOER's website, and you'll get every parcel in Massachusetts to determine what solar could be sited there.
We took into account biodiversity, distance to this nearest substation. We really looked at the land use for solar. So, we know that that is one piece of the puzzle to building towards how we really actually cite solar projects. So, the other thing that we're doing right now at DOER is we've engaged with consultant to actually tell us what it costs to build solar, because, again, with inflation and the cost of supply chain,11534 there are challenges in the solar market, and we know that we have aggressive goals here in Massachusetts to build more solar. But we want11544 to make sure that we're incentivizing using11546 those dollars in the right way. I think the other big issue that we're thinking about, particularly in that technical potential of solar study, is where should we be citing and incentivizing projects?
The technical potential showed us that we have11563 the technical potential in Massachusetts to build hundreds of gigawatts of solar when we11569 really only need about 30 gigawatts.11571 So, that gives us the freedom11573 to really look at where we're building and where we're incentivizing. We11577 know that we have a lot of rooftops, and we have11579 a lot of parking lots, and we want to make sure that we are working with the owners of those rooftops to build. But, coming back to one of the points the secretary made, we also have to think about the balance and what the cost is because, ultimately, it's our ratepayers that are helping to fund these projects. So, we have a lot of11595 things to consider, but good news is we always have a robust stakeholder process. So, we'll certainly want to hear more from you and your community's experience as we build out this program, looking towards a new program probably in 2025. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Representative Hawkins has a question.
SPEAKER6 - If you like the prankster,11619 my question is for the 2 people who can't answer.
REP HAWKINS - Secretary, Commissioner Arrigo, I peppered you with concerns a few months ago, and you sent me a thank you11630 note. You'd raise the bar for me, I've got to learn from you. The other question is about DPU, and I would've expected it more in the previous hearing than in this one. But I have a question about a statewide towing contract, and I wonder if we could reach11647 out maybe tomorrow or outside of this hearing, so I can understand what's going on. Thank you. I know you can't answer me, so thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Are we able to have him answer?
Go ahead, commissioner. See if you can if we can hear you. You're muted.
SPEAKER1 - Yeah. This is Jimmy Van Ostrin, chair of the DBU.
SPEAKER15 - Sorry. We're still here.
SPEAKER12 - K.
SPEAKER5 - Sorry about that. But you 2 will connect.
SPEAKER24 - Yeah. We'll definitely11685 reach out on that.
SPEAKER21 - Okay? Yeah.11687 Yeah.
SPEAKER24 - I'm sure that happens. Probably better.
SPEAKER6 - Yeah. Oh, no. It's complicated. So better.
SPEAKER24 - True. Yeah. Fair enough.
SPEAKER5 - Senator Comerford?
SPEAKER14 - Thank you.
COMERFORD - Thank you, secretary and team for your stellar work. I'm very grateful. Thank you, Madam11704 Chair. I wanted to talk a little bit about the DPU, but I'm realizing that maybe it'll be a big shot if somebody can answer. I'm glad that the DPU recently completed a rule making to implement the 2021 climate legislation, and that's good. I'm sure this is not new to any of my colleagues, I hear from constituents every day, who were eager for the DPU, or waiting to see the changes from the 2022 DRIVE Act. Now, I understand11744 that the DPU has opened a docket, if I'm correct, and that is good, we're going to start to talk about that. But I have a general question about how we're going to meet our climate goals if the implementation of the legislation takes so very long, and I don't discount the complexity, and I don't discount the staffing issues, secretary, that you ended with.
But I just wonder what the plan is to help DPU open dockets more quickly, churn through, and implement legislation more quickly. Representative Blais and I have a single parcel rule that probably has plagued many of you, from our constituents, and, that's impeding solar development in a rural Western Massachusetts where we have these single parcels, and the multiple units won't get the benefit of net metering, and it's stymied that growth. Most of that is small solar developers working with small, sized, developments, but still, we I think we need it, in that 30-gigawatt goal. So, I just wonder about this, what's the plan for the DPU? SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
I don't I I don't think I don't think Jamie, can you anyway, I don't think we can hear you. So, you want to try 1 more time? But, otherwise, we'll just answer for you.
No. No. No. A little bit.
SPEAKER4 - Do you
SPEAKER12 - do you want me to mic the laptop or give me feedback?
Oh, gotcha. Okay. Okay.
TEPPER - Well, first of all, we were all happy to see, as you said, the 2021 rules come out, and I do think those are a good first start, but we need to implement the 2022 as well.
JUDGE - My understanding is that in the department's order approving the final rules, they indicated that they are going to expeditiously move to implement the 2022 rules once those regulations are promulgated in the state register, which I believe should be11890 by the end of this week, I think. I'm not positive about that,11893 but so they should be able to open the next rulemaking very quickly and hopefully move much faster, with that one because it is a much far less complex, in terms of the change that are contemplated. I understand the single parcel rule changes are also going to be implemented separately and that they are working very hard on that. I think we understand the speed at which we need to move and we're trying to get the DPU the resources that they need to move dockets along faster. So, it's certainly a top priority of ours.
COMERFORD - So, Undersecretary, is it resources?
JUDGE - That's a big part of it, particularly in the legal division. I think that's been a challenge, is, obtaining and retaining good legal talent that can move these dockets through faster. I think that's been a major obstacle.
11947 COMERFORD11947 -11947 And11947 secretary, does this budget account11949 for the resources that DPU needs11951 to staff up?
TEPPER - You know, the DPU is funded through assessments from the utilities. So, we would need to increase that assessment in order to increase the budget there. They have some positions that they can fill, which they're trying, and I will11975 tell you from having been there and being the general counsel there, one of the hard things about recruiting11981 is that it's a really complicated subject matter. So, it's hard to find people who know anything about it. Then when you get people who are younger and you train them, everybody wants to hire them because now they've been trained by the DPU, and they leave after three years. You know, everybody's having problems hiring right now, and I know it's a difficult situation. But the DPU is near and dear to my heart, I am very committed to making it work well. I am also cognizant of some of the challenges that we have, and we really are committed to making that agency everything that we need it to be.
COMERFORD - Right. And I should have been more specific, I was thinking about the agencies that feed into the DPU in the budget. But I understand that the DPU gets its money from ratepayers, and, so, thank you for that commitment. I actually12041 wanted to pivot super quickly to the grid modernization12043 advisory council, which I'm totally a fan of, and thank you, Mr. Secretary. Looking at the utilities, and the plans that they're giving the GMAC, what it's going to take in terms of the financial investment needed to green our homes and businesses. I wonder what the administration is thinking about the balance between ratepayers, speaking about the DPU and ratepayers, and the public investments that may be needed, so that our constituents, you know, I want the green future you all want, but I'm also worried about people who can't pay their utility bills. So, what's the balance there as GMAC contemplates this green transition12097 with utility companies and the12099 really big price tag, that we're going to look at, and how are we going to pay for this?
TEPPER - I think affordability is top of mind, and the DPU just recently opened a docket specifically on affordability, because we are going to have to think about how we're going to do this in a way that rate payers can afford and what are the funding mechanisms that we need to do? We cannot fund this whole clean transition on the electric bill. So, we do need to find additional ways to make sure that we have adequate funding to make that transition. At the same time, to be thinking about, particularly for our lowest income residents, some kind of mechanisms where we protect them from high costs.
COMERFORD - Thank you, that's very helpful, and I really do appreciate the work of the GMAC so much.
MAHONY - If I could add, you know, the GMAC was created under the 22 climate law, and, we stood up the committee, last year, I think you listened into some of those meeting, it was an interesting process, and what it led to was these electric sector modernization plans, which are now before the Chair at the12178 DPU, so, I won't talk too much about what's in them, although maybe I'll ask12183 the Chair just to close his ears. We've got three big cases, they're massive documents, and the team at DOER is going through them, and we're going to be offering testimony next week about our critiques and our suggestions for how to make them better.
But a lot of what we're focusing on is really what you're bringing up, Senator, and that is we need to be making these plans in a way that helps the Commonwealth build to a clean energy future, while balancing rate payer needs. Of course, the12213 secretary and I spent a long time at the ratepayer12215 advocate's office, so that's a hat that you can't take off, so, it's at front of mind. Part of that really comes down to how are the utilities thinking about the future grid? How are they forecasting for future growth, and how are they building for future growth? What we would really like to see them do is, create forecasting plans and grid update plans in a way that utilizes all the technologies that we know we12246 have before us.
So, really being smarter about how to build the grid. You know, one of the things that12252 always frustrates me is that when they build a forecast, they assume that every single electric vehicle is going to charge at the same time, at the peak of the day, and that's just not realistic. We also know that there are ways to be smarter about our charging of our electric vehicles. We know that there are technologies that we can use to tweak down our heat pumps or we all can get Nest Thermostats, so, we know this works. So, we want to bring that together and help the utilities shake off some of their typical utility thinking and come into this future grid planning.
They've never had to think about the future, they've always known what do we do before and how do we build it to match what we've done before. So, we're trying to flip that thinking, and I would say that these ESMPs are the very baseline start, and we have a lot to do, and we will have another couple of years to get it better after these might be approved. We've learned a lot, and we will continue to press the utilities to work with us and to be a little more creative.
HADDAD - Before I turn the mic over to Senator Miranda, I just want to comment because in my little 7 square mile town, National Grid is engaged in a, what I think seems like a very large increase in capacity, 3600 megawatts, I guess, just in town. So, I just want to give them a shout out because they have been very responsive with Senator Rodrigues and I keeping us informed. So, we've got plenty of wires, and as I said, we're ready to take on any other cabling. But, just throw this into the mix of the grid while you're thinking of it, one of the main complaints from my constituents is the cost of distribution, and I know, you know, that's too big, I don't even want to get into it today, but I just want you12387 to know that it's huge. The Senator pointed out to me that there was an article in Statehouse News today.
MIRANDA - Good afternoon. Thank you. Hopefully, you guys were here earlier, you saw that I had a bunch of questions, but thank you guys all for being here. I have one question for the Department of Ag, a question for DCR, my friend Brian. I know you sadly they muted you, and a couple wide questions for EEA and just anyone that can answer them can. I'm going12421 to kind of talk a little bit about the elephant in the room, a little bit about, you know, we've tried to make a lot of strides in the environmental community, particularly around equity and understanding EJ communities often look very different than what the room we're sitting and standing in today.
So, my questions are very12440 pointed to communities of12442 color and just bear with me. For the Department of Ag, I just had a question about black farmers. We don't hear about them enough here in the Commonwealth, but it's something that is going around in the country. It says that they faced a lot of systemic discrimination, and there was just recently a study talking about that black farmers are disproportionately affected by low acceptance rates for loans. On average, their loans are accepted at about 36%, and their white counterparts are nearly double that. So, I was just wondering if there are any plans for remediation relief for funding for the ones that we know exist. I just got a great email from you, and I saw Mattapan Food and Fitness, shout out to them.
But I also saw, Tony Andrews Farm, and my parents own a home in Falmouth, and I've long lived near that farm, and I was just really excited about that. So, I had that question for you, and I wonder if you can, share a little bit if that's been part of your work. For DCR, recently, your department publicly12509 shared an EJ strategy that includes prioritization and evaluation investments and allocation of resources to serve EJ populations. I just was curious to know what that means in practice. A lot of times, we use a lot of words and folks that are living and breathing in EJ communities don't really understand what that means. So, I'll stop there and then, ask the other four questions that I have of EEA.
ASHLEY RANDLE - MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES - I can start. I appreciate the question, Senator Miranda. Thank you for that, and12544 I'm glad you received our letter today on Black History Month. It's really been a great trust building exercise with the community because to your point, there have been a group of underserved farmers in the state that we haven't been able to previously reach, so we've really been12564 intentional with our grant programs to be able to make phone12568 calls directly to them, talk them through the grant writing process, connect them with individuals so they can have access to resources and funding. One of the programs that we've been able to roll out, which is over $14,000,000 in it, is the local food purchase assistance cooperative agreement12587 program, where we're able to provide funding to what USDA would12593 define as underserved farmers, so, women owned businesses, veterans, and persons of color.
We are able to provide the funding to them to then be able to distribute food free of any cost to underserved communities. We're finding that that model has worked extremely well in connecting with our black farmers and our environmental justice communities. We've actually been in conversations to have that included in the Farm Bill because it was a tranche of funding that came through the American Rescue Plan, and so we'd like to see that program continue and through the Office of Federal Funding, that's certainly a priority to be able to leverage these USDA funds for further programming for our environmental justice communities. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you for the question.
SPEAKER4 - And Brian can't talk, but
SPEAKER9 - I can probably text you. I think
SPEAKER24 - I'm I think Is it working?
SPEAKER3 - Can you hear me now?
SPEAKER5 - We can sort of hear him. I'm sort of hearing him.
SPEAKER14 - He's got I think he's coming through.
SPEAKER4 - Can we just put the mic on?
SPEAKER24 - I was thinking that maybe undersecretary, Maria Belen could, respond to that question. Okay.
SPEAKER21 - Sure. Hi, senator.
SPEAKER27 - Thank you.
MARIA BELEN POWER - MASSACHUSETTS EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS - Hi, Senator. So, two of the ways in which we see the funding and the prioritization of environmental justice populations is through language access. So, we know that a lot of communities, communities of color, immigrant communities don't have access to the12696 information to public meetings, and so a lot of that will be language access for interpretation of public meetings, as well as translation of documents. Then the second piece is around community engagement and making sure that we are coming to the communities where they're at and ensuring that they are engaged, that they're participating, and that they have a voice in developing programs, and that they know the access that they have as well as shaping the outcome. So, we want to hear from them, and then we also want their perspective to shape the programs and the outcome that comes out of that. So, a lot of it is around language access as well as community engagement that is meaningful.
MIRANDA - Awesome. So12738 maybe I see the secretary, but I'll ask a couple of questions, and maybe you're best suited to answer them or other folks. The last three questions I had, one is for DEP. I live in the Dudley Triangle, there's two movies about my neighborhood in a book around the fight to get eminent domain power over the land that was of an EJ community. There were illegal trash transfer stations, we were redlined, there was arson for profit. Everything that you can imagine happened to this neighborhood, small neighborhood at the cornerstone of the South End, Roxbury, Dorchester, and South Boston. Recently, I've been in a fight, and the DEP shared that our district's trash transfer station, there's one left, Republic Services is in compliance with the law.
But where I live, which abuts this transfer site and hearing from hundreds of constituents, there is still significant concern. 100% of Cambridge's trash, and I hope Cambridgeites shouldn't be coming to Roxbury, but it is. It's 100 feet away from public housing in an elementary school, I'm just giving this as an example of what12813 EJ communities are still facing. How can we hold these national companies accountable, for current practices that are in compliance with the law yet still undesirable? Because I can believe12826 that I went to school at Wellesley, like, this wouldn't be happening in the town12830 of Wellesley or Dover or Weston, where they have much more means than the people of Roxbury.
Abutting property to this trash transfer station has been contaminated land, and we've even learned that a school has halted construction until the toxic land can be remediated. We want it gone, we've been working, we've been trying to send in pictures, so, this is just one example that I'm sure happens all across the state where communities that have language access problems or communication problems are working through their elected official to say, this shouldn't be happening. Roxbury already has a 30-year decline in life expectancy and five times the asthma rate. Literally, the ZIP code is killing us and everything that I've done, I'm a pretty good fighter, hasn't led to this. So, I just want to know how we can actually make this happen because it's unfair to the people of the 2nd Suffolk that this still exists.
BONNIE HEIPLE - MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION - Hi, Senator. So, we are aware of the facility that you mentioned in particular. I know that a few years back prior to my time, some concerns were raised. We did interact with the facility; we have not been hearing significant complaints since that time. If you and12906 your neighbors and your constituents are experiencing odor, litter type of nuisance, concerns, absolutely call us, we want to know that, the facility operator should12917 want to know that. My understanding is they did take some mitigation measures when we reached out previously, so we would certainly expect that and more from them if similar concerns are persisting now. I'll say that going forward, you mentioned things like increased asthma rates in EJ communities, we are extremely focused at DEP on making sure that facilities like this one are not focused only in our EJ communities as that has been, I think, historically the case.
So, we are very soon, hoping to issue what we're calling cumulative impact analysis requirements that for any facility that would either expand significantly or would be a new emitter of air pollutants in or near an environmental justice community, there are increased requirements for that permittee before they even come into us with a permit application. So, we're providing a whole host of data, socioeconomic data, health data, that they have to do a really comprehensive analysis of what the community looks like right now, so what already exists there and what this facility would do, what impact the facility would do, not just in a vacuum, not just with blinders on, but what real world impacts would happen, if they were to get the permit that they're seeking.
MIRANDA - Awesome. I think one of the challenges was probably after we fought for this site to be removed, people have lost a little bit of morale, and the burden has shifted upon them as folks that are low-income workers to be able to prove that13011 something is bothering them or something is not adhering to policy. So, I'll get back to you on that. My staff loves working on this, so we'll get you what you need to go back out there. Hopefully, in my lifetime, I'll see it gone. The13025 next question I have is how are we going to make sure that communities of colors in EJ populations are at the forefront of the workforce development and the emergent clean energy industry?
What is your outreach plan to communities like mine? I'm really excited to hear about things like working with Franklin Cummings Tech, working with Roxbury Community College, working with Madison Park Voc Tech, but really haven't seen much progress. I know it's early on in the process, so just trying to figure out what are the strategies to make that change and how can we make sure organizations are supported to be key partners in these13061 industries for communities that actually lack the current infrastructure to get to the goals that we actually want to see. Right now, it doesn't exist and it's new, it's a new emerging industry, but we're really far from like the built environment infrastructure to be able to get to the goals that we want to see happen, particularly in wind energy, when we even talk about solar, we're much more behind than the rest of the Commonwealth.
REICHERT - Senator Miranda, I can address the workforce part of the question. That's really, Mass CEC's area of practice and growth, I would say. Want to thank you for the question. So, the way that we think about this is a couple fold. One is we are in the process right now of developing a workforce plan for the entire state. So, it was one of the recommendations in the, climate report that came out, through the climate chief's office. We have, at this point, been able to develop an RFP13131 and then also start to kick that off, which we will be doing at the end of the month. So, that process is just getting started, and the results should be available at the end of, probably in the13148 June time frame, we'll be socializing that from the rest of the administration.
We would certainly welcome having your voice and others that you would like to recommend early in the13161 process and that would be now. So, happy to do that and have that input. But I think in general, our approach to workforce development, really, the equity lens is just there from the very start. It's crucial to how we think about developing these programs, and I'd say that one thing that we do when we're working with an organization like Franklin Cummings or a community college or a middle school, all of those we recognize that right now, they are not necessarily the training13201 programs, the equipment, all of those things that are needed to even do the training.
So, what we've worked on is capacity building. First, we have organizations submit to us a plan, we do a planning grant typically, then we do a capacity building grant, and then we often find that these programs are really ready to launch. So, I'd say if you feel like you're not seeing progress yet, we'd be happy to update you on kind of where we are in that cycle with various organizations because it's likely that we really started being able to spend program dollars on this just a couple years ago, and so we're really building up that capacity more broadly in the Commonwealth just right now, and I think you will be able to start seeing the results of that. But happy to have a longer conversation with my team, and, please know that the equity question for us is core to the entire thing.
REICHERT - Thank you. I just want to add to that too. The Clean Energy Center is doing a lot with workforce development on the clean energy transition. We're also supporting that work in terms of climate resilience and how can part of our efforts to adapt to a changing climate also create workforce opportunities for residents with a focus on equity. NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, they recently, had a competition for a new climate13291 ready workforce grant. And so we are a formal advisory partner to the city of Boston's application for that grant to build on and expand their Power Core program, which isn't just doing that workforce development training, but also providing those critical wraparound services so that those residents, can show up and be prepared, to to participate in this workforce. So, that's something that should we receive that funding, it would look to expand Power core not only within Boston, but also throughout the region as well.
MAHONY - I'll just add13329 a couple of things. With respect13331 to offshore wind, we've seen success with the current project that's being built, Vineyard Wind. You probably all know that labor reach a project labor agreement with the project. In that PLA, it had specific targets for equity and expanding jobs into more populations, and that is actually really succeeding. So, we're hoping that, that is not the bar, it's actually the floor for the next projects. When we talk with labor, that's what we hear. When we know about PLAs, we know that they deliver results, and the unions work to that, and, the projects do too. So, that's been one successful example. Working with the Clean Energy Center, DOER is going to actually invest money this year in building out lab space for heat pump technology at community colleges, including, building upon the great success of Roxbury Community Colleges programs. We're going to make that program available to all of our community colleges.
So, we know we've heard from Springfield, we're up in the North Shore, we're going to be everywhere building out this lab space and then also really working hand in hand with the CEC to make sure that we are building a curriculum that brings everybody to the table, providing tuition and stipends for that program. So, we're really excited about that, and that's what the Governor spoke about in the state of the Commonwealth. Then lastly, a couple of years ago, as you probably know, there was a terrible gas explosion up in Lawrence and North Andover. The Attorney General's office and DER and some other parties got settlement funds from Columbia Gas to set up a fund in the Merrimack Valley called the Merrimack Valley Renewal Fund. With those funds, DOER and the AG's office is working on workforce development in those communities, and we just awarded grants to Greater Lawrence Technical and the Green Jobs Academy to actually be in the community and offer training to residents. The great thing about it is it's13456 going to be training in energy efficiency and electrification in Spanish. That's one of the gaps that we've seen is that there actually isn't a lot of training in Spanish, so, we're hoping that this will be something that we can learn from and grow and bring to CEC to manage in future neighborhoods. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
I'm doing my job.13481 Rep like.
SPEAKER29 - Thank you.
REP BLAIS - Thank you, Madam Chair. First, I want to echo Senator Comerford's praise and emphasize the promise13498 of the grid modernization advisory council. As you said, it is a base that we need to build on quickly, and I really want to express my thanks to the council for its work because, as you said, it was stood13512 up very quickly. What you all have13514 been able to accomplish together has really13516 been extraordinary, and thank you all for being here. You have an incredible team, secretary. I think this is for commissioner Randle.
According to the American Farmland Trust, Massachusetts is third in the country for the percentage of farmland projected to be lost by 2040, and that's for a number of reasons that I know, you know better than anyone here in this room. But the census of agriculture numbers that came out last week did report that Massachusetts lost a significant amount of farmland, about 27,000 acres between 2017 and 2022. We're just wondering what actions the department can take and is taking to stem that loss, particularly in favor of other priorities that we as a Commonwealth are pursuing, including housing and solar, and what, if anything, the legislature can be doing to support your efforts there?
RANDLE - Thank you, Representative Blais for the question. So, I would first start by saying that those numbers were very stark to see. In light of that, I think it's really timely that in December, we were able to release the farmland action plan that sets goals and prioritizes how we're13596 going to protect more farmland in the state as well as make it affordable and accessible to farms. Those are really the two priority areas of the plan, our access and affordability, because we realize for our farming community, those are the greatest challenges.
So, working with our partners at American Farmland Trust, our sister agencies, we're really mindful of how we can reach our goals around food security, land protection, affordable housing, renewable energy. So, the farmland13630 action plan sets a baseline for that work, and we actually, this week, just brought on a farmland action plan coordinator to work with municipalities to do the outreach so that we are prioritizing farmland that's in communities, protecting more farmland through13647 our APR program, the Ag preservation restriction program, as well as making land available that maybe would otherwise not be of13657 use, but we're looking to purchase land and be a landholder at the department to make that land accessible to farmers as well.
BLAIS - Thank you. Madam chair, if I could just one more question, it is for the DPU, and it is a little bit Deja vu. Following up13677 on a question that I asked at last year's hearing, the DPU is currently tasked with overseeing safety at the MBTA,13685 and in light of the findings of the FTA review and the subsequent corrective action plan that was issued, I know the DPU was planning to take several action steps that were named at last year's public hearing. It would be really helpful if we can get an update on where DPU is.
TEPPER - I think we probably should get back to you with the specifics, but I do know that they've made significant progress this year and the FTA has been very pleased with13715 the amount of work that the DPU has done. I think they've issued several corrective action letters that shows that the DPU has completed the action. So, let me get you the details on it. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
That would be13725 great. Thank you.
SPEAKER5 - Representative Pease.
REP PEASE - Thank you, Madam Chair, thank you everybody for coming out and giving us all this great information again. For one, I really like to hear about the dams being a municipality that I believe has two of the five municipality owned dams, that's really good that we're making progress, and I think we've put some investment into that to try to give them back to the Army Corps of Engineers so they can be responsible for them. So, hopefully, that'll keep going. Last year, I asked the question about whether you thought we'd be able to get to where we're trying to go with our goals through just wind and solar. I believe you said that we need 30 gigawatts for Massachusetts to be sustainable and you also mentioned13783 last year that there was looking like some possibilities in even hydrogen.
So, I guess one question would be, is that still a possibility? Where is that going? The second one is, why is natural gas so13801 frowned upon when it's such a clean energy? That's my question. Why? I13805 know we're at the end of the line, but it's a clean energy, it's a fossil fuel, but it's a clean energy, why do we pooh pooh it? It's not an oil, and I don't know if that's just because of where it's at, and I look forward to, as you move forward, to be the honest brokers to tell us what we can and can't do and what we need to do. So, we don't have rolling blackouts or brownouts or whatever going forward because that's a stop, you lose all public support there. So, that's kind of my13834 questions, so I appreciate anything you can13836 shed on those.
TEPPER - Sure. I mean, the clean energy transition is a transition, as you say, and it has to be done safely, it has to be done reliably and affordably, and we recognize that. We do hope to be the honest brokers on that13855 issue. I'm going to be announcing soon, that we're going to have an office of energy transition, that is specifically going to be focusing on the issues that you are talking about, which is how is it that we make this transition in a fair and safe and reliable manner on the ground? You know, very specifically, what do we need to change? How13883 do we make sure that if we're going to change from gas to electric, people still have service? You know, that kind of very concrete items.
Well, I think there are several other forms of energy that we'll be able to use, including hydro coming down from Canada, and we're hoping that we're going to have that up when? December? That's 1200 megawatts, so that's a lot, and so we're hoping to have that. We're also hoping to work on some timelines with our neighbors so that we can share a little bit better, both with New York and maybe someday with also the other states down South some. That will allow us to be able to get13941 power from Canada when they need it and when we don't need it. On hydrogen, DOER is working on a hydrogen road map. What's the timeline for your hydrogen road map?
MAHONY - In the next couple of months, we're going to have a report. We have a group that's come together with experts from the industry13960 and the utilities to really tell us what our road map should look like.
PEASE - Is it looking well, no, in a couple of months, whether it's looking promising or not, right?
MAHONY - Well, we know that there are hard to transition industries that could really benefit from hydrogen, so we are starting with a positive look. We worked with New York, New Jersey, and the New England states last year to actually apply for a hydrogen hub with DOER. Unfortunately, we didn't get it. So, we're starting from a good place of we've learned a lot, and we are learning more with this hydrogen road map. I think what we put out will be really informative, and we'll make sure13995 to share it with you.
13997 PEASE13997 -13997 I appreciate that. Because, again, you look at Europe, right? They're trying to go down the same path as we are, but right now, they got all the farmers shutting down the cities because they're getting told they're not going to get their diesel subsidies anymore. So, they are just protesting and shutting down cities over in Europe right now because of it. I don't want us to get to the point where we're doing that here, especially when we're losing farmlands. Earlier, you talked about ratepayer needs, you got to take into account your environmental, your ratepayer needs, but also your act economic impacts. Because if businesses aren't going to get the affordable energy, they're not going to come here, they're going to leave here. So, those are just concerns I have. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you. Thank you. Sorry.
SPEAKER5 - Thank you, representative. Next, the microphone goes to senator Moore.
MOORE - Thank you, Madam Chair. One quick question because, I guess, I'll jump on the DPU. About two years ago, we sent a letter to the DPU asking them to review how they set the rates for electric companies to bill or to put a bid in for purchasing natural gas. Because when the whole Ukraine war started, that was the issue bringing the gas over. I guess there's an issue with the larger companies can only make a bid once a year and the smaller companies twice a year, so it hindered their ability to get a lower price. I think DPU was supposed to look into that and we never got a reply back. I know there was a study that was going on.
TEPPER - I'm just trying to remember too. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
can do you think Jamie's at the top?
SPEAKER7 - I I they said there was a note on the screen that said they thought they had fixed it. I don't know. Okay.
SPEAKER12 - Good. Jamie, you want to try? On mute. Chair.
SPEAKER1 - So can you can you hear me now?
SPEAKER7 - Yeah.
SPEAKER19 - Yes. I think he just get that to me. That'll be fine. Yeah.
SPEAKER1 - You still can't hear me now. Okay.
SPEAKER12 - I'm not sure
SPEAKER5 - if I know. Yeah.
SPEAKER24 - I'm not sure I'm not sure I know either. So let us get back to you.
SPEAKER7 - Yeah.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER19 - Okay. Alright. Thank you.
MOORE - So, I got a couple softballs, I guess, maybe, one for MDAR, been getting a lot of questions regarding hemp falls underneath your department, and I guess there's a new hemp drink that's out on the market that's right now, it's a loophole. The CCC doesn't regulate it, but it falls underneath you, but there's no regulations. So, is there any direction that we're looking at going?
RANDLE - Because we don't regulate food14153 and beverage, that would be DPH. We've been working with our colleagues at DPH to put out an advisory and frequently asked questions, and we're hoping that that will be out in March because we know that there has been an increase in these type of products on the market, and so that guidance will be coming out next month.
MOORE - Okay. Thank you. Another issue that we haven't brought up, but I guess we talked about it when we originally talked about climate change, and I know last summer and the summer before that, pretty much the entire state was under some level of a drought watch. It's February, we got beautiful weather. Probably going to have another hot summer. Do we have any drought management plans or any strategies that we're looking at to try to address any stroke, shooting drought issues throughout the state?
TEPPER - I didn't realize that when I started that I'm the person that declares a drought. I have learned now more about droughts than I thought I would ever know.
ANTOS - Thank you for your time. So, we do have an updated drought plan, and, like, is saying, you hope that you don't have to use it, but14223 we do have ready to go. We have been monitoring14225 conditions on the Cape, and some of14227 you know about that, that the groundwater has been somewhat depleted there. So, I think it's hard to forecast exactly what we'll be dealing with, but I think our plan is a good one. We do better and more proactive monitoring now, so we know when things are coming and can14247 get water suppliers and others to put measures into place to begin saving water to curtail a drought more quickly.
MOORE - Have you been meeting with our municipal leaders to update them? Have you been meeting with our municipal leaders to update them on what the strategy is?
ANTOS - That is a good question. I don't know that we've had that, we've had a significant drought discussion recently, but we'd be happy to do that.
MOORE - Thanks. I think the last question I have, both commissioner and the environmental police, so a nice new story on the right whales and how they need to be protected. So, I guess commissioner to you Fish and Wildlife, about biodiversity plans that we have? Also, to Colonel Santos, is there any sort of right whale of protection that we are patrols or protections we are doing right now? SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Why don't you go first, colonel?
SPEAKER2 - Yes, sir.
SPEAKER1 - It's a welcoming right now in Massachusetts, Florida.
SHAUN SANTOS - MASSACHUSETTS ENVIRONMENTAL POLICE - We're out there in daily basis, recurring patrols, noting sites, logistics, and letting out how to find some of nowhere, close to God, you know. Our aim is to keep the mistakes we can because we know that we're gaining species. Thus, we can in all avenues to pull up the phrase you can find as well we look at the end of all the time in regards to that, and we're going to have new strategies to combat that and where it was, added patrols, and that's where we do it.
MOORE - Do do you have enough resources for the patrols that you're doing? SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Good answer. Thank you, commissioner. Bio biodiversity.
SPEAKER2 - Great.
TOM O'SHEA - MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE - Thank you, Senator. Few things to say. First, that, you may know division of marine fisheries received a $4,500,000 NOAA funding and $475,000 from National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, all to support monitoring and research of whales in Massachusetts waters. So, right now, you probably know that we use aerial surveillance during14384 this time of year to detect the presence of right whales in Massachusetts waters, but this will14388 be...
MOORE - That's with drones or planes?
O'SHEA - Planes with pilots. We're going to start to14393 develop acoustic monitoring systems14395 throughout a whole array outside of Massachusetts waters and in Massachusetts waters. So, from Maine all the way down, and these acoustic monitors will pick up all14404 types of marine wildlife, including right whales, that'll give us a much better precise understanding of when they come into Massachusetts, where they are, and where they're going. That'll help us inform future regulations and or working with the fishing industry, particularly the lobster industry around gear and so forth. So, I think that's really helpful. The other thing we're going to look at is, investing in a pilot program for ropeless gear technology for the lobster industry, so, that's something that we're just looking into now.
So, that's really significant funding that will hopefully last for the next five years. It's subject to federal appropriations, but that's a really significant investment in right whale conservation. Massachusetts recently received the Spotlight Award from NOAA, for our work and leadership nationally on right whale conservation, so that's a real plus. On the biodiversity executive order, we're in the midst of that whole process right now, and we're hoping to engage many of our conservation organizations and the public, and to give us input in shaping those goals out to 2050. I think right whales are one of those iconic species that we want to make sure that we recover for the next few decades and so that the next generation can have14477 these types of wildlife and species around. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Okay. Alright.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you, Sandra.
SPEAKER3 - Did I just have a quick question?
SPEAKER4 - No. No. No. I'm sure.
SPEAKER3 - Uh-oh, Todd, and then we'll do some. Perfect.
SMOLA - Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and, thank you for your testimony. I don't want to belabor this this point, but I do want to reinforce what Representative McKenna had talked about relative to our current solar policy and the Commonwealth. You know, when we talk, we use the term equity quite a bit these days,14508 but if we're thinking about this in terms of regional equity. I'm not speaking out of school here when I say that there's many people in Western Massachusetts that feel they get ignored by Eastern Massachusetts, for better, for worse, whatever their rationale is. But, many of these selected companies who would never look twice at the rural communities of Western Massachusetts are all of a sudden knocking on their doors because we have the one thing that they need that a lot of other places don't have, and that is space. So, when you move through some of these small communities, and I have them in my district, I know my colleagues from Western Massachusetts all have them in their district.
To see the policy of clear-cutting open space in order14548 to put these acres of solar fields up, we now have them on rock formations, which used to be beautiful landscape of Western Massachusetts, has now totally devastated what we're looking at, I think that's a real problem. In our zeal to advance solar, which I think every single one of us is for, but it's how that policy is applied really does make a difference. So, I appreciate your comments today in terms of looking at that. Please, with laser like precision, focus on that policy in terms of rural communities that indeed have the land that is ultimately being looked at. To go to Rep Blais point about our farmlands, I mean, these companies come in, they knock on the doors, the farmers are having trouble, what else are they going to do?
They can't keep this land, they can't work it, they don't have the right incentive in order to be able to move forward with it. Farmland that is in the family for generations, and it's very easy to be able to sign the dotted line and14607 say, you know what? Solar is coming here, and, we're all for it. So, there's got to be a better balance in the policy we've got right now because it's not working, and it's to the detriment, I really believe, of Western Massachusetts where a lot of these places are coming. I do have some questions for our Commissioner Arrigo, but I'll save those. Secretary, I know that you were out at the Quabbin Reservoir in the good capable hands of Senator Comerford, thank you for coming out there, that's super important to us in the Western Mass delegation.
There's a lot of important issues that are related to the Quabbin Reservoir, I'm not going to belabor them today, but important ones that the delegation needs to keep in touch with you and your team on DCR, and I'll follow-up with the commissioner on that. But, secretary, you did say one thing at the beginning of your testimony, and I just wanted to press you a little bit on it, in terms of workforce under your secretariat, I know labor is a challenge with everybody, and, that everybody is having a real problem trying to hire the adequate amount of employees in different arenas, particularly of government service. Can you tell me how short we are in this arena, and what you can pinpoint the problem? I know it's a universal problem, but, to the degree that we have shortages in the arena of the environment, can you give us kind of a sense of what our challenges are, and what we can do in order to improve that situation in terms of hiring?
TEPPER - Inflation from the budget from last year has made a huge difference. It allowed for additional 256 new jobs in our secretariat, that's a lot, and we're about 75% way there of hiring all those people. So, particularly, DEP has done a terrific job of getting new people into their team, and I think it's we're seeing a real difference. I think probably the place that is still in most need and sort of been restructuring and figuring out how to deal with the workforce is the DPU. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Yes. Go ahead.
SPEAKER3 - Go ahead.
SPEAKER1 - Oh, Madison. I just want to say thank you for coming out to Grafton to look14738 at that dam with you and your staff, 2 weeks ago. So thank you very much. You're welcome.
SPEAKER3 - I'm really interested. Oh, just does senator Peede want a
SPEAKER4 - Go ahead.
SPEAKER1 - Last word?
SPEAKER4 - Go ahead.
SPEAKER3 - I,
COMERFORD - I just wanted to build off if I could, off of what Rep Smola said and just say that part of what we're dealing with in Western Massachusetts can14756 sometimes be, I think, mischaracterized as nimbyism, right? Because we're told often that our communities don't want solar simply because we don't want to look at it. But I do think and this administration, secretary and your team have made it clear that you also understand that one of the reasons that Western Mass communities are concerned about solar proliferation without good guardrails around it is that we're essentially breathing for the Commonwealth, right? Our farms, our trees, forests, dream beds, Quabbin. You know, we are sucking up the carbon that is part of our combined climate plan to get to a net zero Commonwealth by 2050.
So, I wondered if you could sort of help us even in a brief amount of time because I know that we're at the end of the hearing, but understand sort of the departments or you’re all of your secretariat departments consideration around carbon sequestration and how are you prioritizing funding for things like APR, commissioner Randle said, or pilot payments? We're having a conversation around the Quabbin now, how do we keep that 100,000-acre watershed free of development so that the water is pristine? You know, how are we developing, maintaining and actually growing carbon sequestration in the Commonwealth? Again, Western Massachusetts feels a lot of pride about that. We do want to do our part there, but the math has to add up too.
TEPPER - I'll say something just sort of general, and then maybe, the undersecretary can add some more specifics. Carbon sequestration and land preservation is a key part of the clean energy and climate plan. You know, it is absolutely necessary part of making sure14873 that we meet our clean energy and climate goals.14875 The sort of the intersection of land preservation, solar, clean energy, housing, agriculture, how we're going to use our land has a lot of difficult conversations, and a lot of working that we're going to have to14896 do together to figure out how we best use our land. But having carbon sequestration and preserving the land for that is a crucial part of the clean energy and climate plan.
REICHERT - I'll add a little bit. My colleague, Katherine Antos also wants to. So, on the conservation side, senator, you've been very supportive of our forest as climate solutions initiative, and that is about conserving14921 our forests and, you know, for the many benefits that they provide, the14925 least of which is, optimizing carbon sequestration. So, part of that is about the conservation investments. But another big part of it is about helping landowners, helping forest landowners keep their property for however they choose to manage it, whether it be, you know, active sustainable harvesting or for passive strategies.
So, we've just invested $3,000,000 more in an already pretty robust program called the Working Forest Initiative. So, that's a piece of the puzzle. Then I know commissioner O'Shea spoke earlier about the blue carbon program, that DFG is hoping to launch this year, and so that the piece about conserving our coastal wetlands is another big part of the puzzle, and thinking about we know that they are storing so much carbon, so we need to keep on having those policies that help us, you know,14974 acquire new, properties of those types, but then also help maintain the ones that we have and then keeping track of what we're sequestering as well.
ANTOS - So, as you know, for the clean energy and climate plan, to get to net zero, 85% of that comes from emissions reductions, but 15% of that comes from maintaining the carbon storage that we have and also increasing sequestration. So, this is a very important question. To build on what undersecretary Cooper said, we are also doing additional analysis of what are the different storage and sequestration values of different types of land uses, such as blue carbon, such as other wetlands types, also understanding how we can manage our forests in different ways to increase their carbon storage capacity through the forest's climate initiatives, what are different end use markets that can help to incentivize that type of management as well.
We're also looking at other industrial carbon sequestration opportunities as well. Then, finally, we are doing an evaluation just like we're in a regional energy market. How can we work with our regional partners? If we can't achieve all of that sequestration within Massachusetts alone, are there ways that we can partner with neighboring states to look at regional sequestration framework? So, that is another piece that we're working on that we're going to be starting some public engagement on later this year.
COMERFORD - You can't do it all in Massachusetts.
ANTOS - That is our first priority. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you, madam chair.
SPEAKER4 - Thank you, madam chair. And I will be brief15077 because I think I just saw some cookies coming about.
SPEAKER3 - Yeah. And I
15081 SPEAKER415081 -15081 don't15081 wanna get in the way of this. Of course, representative Hawkins was following right behind
SPEAKER5 - the
SPEAKER4 - tray of desserts. Yeah. The hawk. The cookie hawk. It's funny.
FEENEY - Thank you all. I didn't plan on saying this, I don't want to belabor the point, but I do want to lift up this point because I think it's so important, what Rep Smola has been talking about and Senator Comerford. We had a brutal issue in, actually a sibling school to this, to an agricultural school in Norfolk County, over the last few years where we're talking about photovoltaic solar panels, siding, and it split the community apart, it split the15116 entire school district apart. The county, where it's great that we can promote solar where, certainly when we need it, but then to clear cut 100 plus year old trees in this kind of beautiful bucolic New England area in Walpole, it was absurd to me. There was really no kind of clear guidance from anybody, it was just kind of the Wild West and, you know, who can make the most noise? Do we want to put solar there?
Is it worth it to the county? You know, what are the ramifications? And the students actually stood up, which was great to see. We had a Zoom, this is a couple years back, and each of them put the war axe as their picture on Zoom, which was great because they were saying they speak for the trees, and I thought it was such a great message. But I do want to echo that, and I know, secretary, you and your team have been focusing on kind of citing and how do we do this, but I just don't want to see another community or regional school district have to go through that again, especially in a beautiful campus like we're in now. Then, just my final question, you just spoke about, you kind of hit on it. But workforce, DPU is a glaring need, certainly, DEP has done, really well in staffing up recently. I see commissioner Arrigo is with us, and, I think the commissioner is doing an incredible job and this secretariat as well, understanding, that there was a lot to kind15209 of to buttress with DCR.
It was generational, and I'm not trying to be wise when I say it, but I think one15215 of the most frustrations that we have as legislators over the years has been DCR, and we don't see that. We're starting to see kind of this great communicative effort from the commissioner and from you all, but I'm still concerned about staffing. I hear from people all the time that DCR is severely understaffed, and I think this year, we're looking at, where we had a 1.2% increase over FY 24, $159,000,000 all in for operations of DCR. What can we do? I mean, we are hearing it from everybody, certainly, the workforce, I see Moses, is here as well, and we've been hearing from people in our community saying DCR, we need to be staffed more. So, what can we do? Is the 1.2% increase enough? There's $159,000,000 for operational cost, is that going to get us to a certain target, and what's the plan to buttress that as much as possible?
TEPPER - So, under last year's budget, DCR had the opportunity to hire additional 62 workers, and they are well on their way to getting all of those workers15283 hired as well. They've also, in this budget asked for a significant amount of money specifically for the seasonal workers, an increase in funding for the seasonal workers. As you know, that's the swimming, the beaches, it's really important, and the cost for hiring them have gone up over the years, significantly. In order to get people to be a lifeguard, apparently, you have to pay them a lot of money. So, this new budget does account for more money for the seasonal workers. So, I think that we're in a good place, we're moving forward. Are we fully staffed? No. Do we need more staff? Yes.
FEENEY - Well, again, I just want to end with this. I really do appreciate you all and commissioner Arrigo. I know there has been, dating back many previous administrations, a lot of challenges when it comes to this area and I think you are meeting the moment. I appreciate you working with us going forward. Thank you.
TEPPER - Well, I do think that DCR in particular, impacts every almost every district,15359 and, I hope that you are feeling15361 like you're being heard and your questions got answered because I know it's Commissioner Arrigo's top priority to make sure that they're transparent, they're available. So, I feel like there's been a big change, and I hope you do as well. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Agreed.
SPEAKER3 - A big change.
SPEAKER4 - Thank you.
HADDAD - Well, I just want to wrap up. I know that you said we weren't going to talk about this anymore, but I have to say one more thing about the whole solar issue. Not that it's under your department, but the Department of Revenue needs to be more helpful to the cities and towns because they're getting killed on taxes, they're not able to tax, and there's a whole thing going on there, which I'll bring up at that hearing. But I did want to say that, a couple of people have mentioned it.15418 There is a very different vibe coming from this15423 administration, so many of us who have felt that15427 we were kind of forgotten, really appreciate that we are not forgotten. We had significant issues on the South Coast trying to get wind started and really move this new industry that was not forthcoming, that is much more forthcoming. So, just on behalf of people like the New Bedford people, thank you.
The aquaculture people that we didn't even get to today, thank you. The fact that the blue economy corridor coming from Dartmouth up into the Cape, thank you. Sometimes we make a lot of mistakes when we do legislation,15475 but I think I feel a very closer partnership. Our commissioner of agriculture has really given us so much attention. You know, you have given, especially to my district, so much attention. So, I just want to say thank you because, I've been around a long time, we haven't necessarily been able to say that, as strongly as I want to say it right now that the attention that is coming up across the state, I have a teeny15509 tiny park that we've talked about. So, all of those things, help us to be part of a bigger partnership that's so important for our state to really do well because we want to remain on top in everything that we do, and you have been, in our world, in the South Coast, a great partner in that process. So, thank you all.
TEPPER - Thank you so much. I will say, as you can imagine, it comes from the top. You know, Governor Healey and Lieutenant Governor Driscoll have made it very clear that we're going to be collaborative, we're going to work together, we're15551 going to include people, and we're going to be available and transparent. So, I'm really happy to hear that that is coming through because we're trying really hard. So, thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
I can I tell a little story about I had some really significant issues in my town, and the secretary and the governor hung in there with me, texting with me well into the, almost the next day? It's a it was a, you know, little part of the world, but the secretary's right. The attention and the15584 feeling of even if15586 we can't be down there fighting for you, we're here pushing you and being at15591 your back to make sure that you feel supported. So
SPEAKER7 - And he's willing to go
SPEAKER3 - out into15597 the carbon footprint.
SPEAKER8 - And she's willing to go.
SPEAKER6 - Well, I went to,
TEPPER - I asked15602 today how many towns and cities I went to last year, and I went to 75. So, I'm going to try to find the next 75 that I didn't go to last year and go to this year because as you know, going and seeing makes a huge difference, and also it gives us an opportunity to talk to you and talk to the communities. When we hear things like the solar information that we got today, that's meaningful, that's really good information that we can take back and say, this is happening to real people, this really matters. We need to think about that, and being out and about and talking with you and your constituents has been one of the highlights of the year. So, thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
So, shall we give ourselves and the panel a round of?
So I will declare this meeting closed. And as I said to the previous panel, you're dismissed.
SPEAKER7 - Thank you, chairs.
SPEAKER9 - It's a wonderful hearing. God.
SPEAKER5 - Thank you. Oh,
SPEAKER4 - Phil. Not the Alright.
SPEAKER5 - We got in, Carrie.
© InstaTrac 2025