Comprehensive bill also includes updates to Unemployment Insurance and Tax Relief for Businesses, Tax Filing Deadline Extension

 BOSTON—Last week, Senator DiDomenico joined with his colleagues in the Massachusetts Senate in passing a comprehensive bill that would guarantee five paid days off for every employee in the Commonwealth. The bill also seeks to stabilize the state’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) trust fund, provide substantial tax relief to businesses and workers, and delay the state tax filing deadline.

“I am proud of the action taken by the Senate to pass this comprehensive bill that will help both businesses and workers, all while working towards an equitable recovery here in Massachusetts,” said Senator DiDomenico. “Although things are beginning to improve as more people are able to access the COVID-19 vaccine, it is not lost on us that our small business community and working families are still very much hurting from the fallout of this pandemic. I am confident this bill will bring much needed relief to our businesses, support to our front-line workers, and tax relief to low-income families. I know the House is also committed to taking swift action on this legislation and am grateful for their partnership on this matter. I sincerely look forward to seeing this comprehensive bill be signed into law.”

To help protect employees on the front lines, and prevent the further spread of COVID-19, this bill ensures that all workers in Massachusetts have access to paid leave if they are unable to work as a result of a COVID-19 infection or a quarantine order. Significantly, given the state’s push to increase vaccination rates, employees will be able to use this paid leave time to take time off to receive the vaccine. In addition, the legislation provides for leave if the worker needs time to care for a family member unable to work because of COVID.

Under this legislation, employees are eligible for up to five days of paid leave, at their regular rate of pay, capped at $850 per week—which is the same maximum weekly benefit provided for in the Massachusetts Paid Family Medical Leave (PFML) law. Employers covered by federal legislation providing for paid leave will have the cost of providing such leave paid for through the federal tax credit. For all other employers, the bill creates a $75 million COVID-19 Emergency Paid Sick Leave Fund to reimburse eligible employers for providing their employees with emergency paid sick leave. The state requirement for paid leave would extend until September 30, 2021 or until the fund is exhausted.

The COVID-19 public health crisis has created a surge of pandemic-related unemployment claims, which has depleted the Commonwealth’s unemployment trust fund, necessitating borrowing from the federal government to pay out those benefits. The bill therefore authorizes up to $7 billion worth of borrowing to replenish the UI trust fund and to repay all federal UI loans, funded by an employer charge, and creates a separate time-limited employer assessment to repay interest on federal UI loans by their due dates to ensure the solvency of the UI trust fund.

The bill also provides much-needed UI-related relief to businesses and employees. For businesses, the bill prevents increases in the UI rate schedule for 2021 and 2022, providing employers with needed stability and relief as the Commonwealth continues to recover. For unemployed workers, some navigating the UI system for the first time, the bill waives tax penalties on UI benefits in 2020 and 2021. It also mirrors federal tax provisions included in the recent American Rescue Plan and excludes $10,200 of unemployment compensation received by an individual with a household income of less than 200% of the federal poverty level from gross income for tax purposes, putting up to $500 into the hands of lower income unemployed individuals. This would apply to individuals making $25,760 or under, or a total income of $53,000 for a family of four.

Further relief for businesses comes in the form of a change in state tax policy regarding PPP loans. In Massachusetts, corporate excise, but not personal income tax, is tied to the current federal Internal Revenue Code. As a result, Massachusetts' tax law treats forgiven Paycheck Protection Program loans differently depending on whether the recipient small businesses is organized as a pass-through entity or a c-corp. This bill conforms to federal law and ensures that all forgiven PPP loans, advance Economic Injury Disaster Loans and payments made under the federal Small Business Debt Relief are excluded from gross income, regardless of how the business is organized. 

Finally, to align state tax deadlines with federal tax deadlines, the bill extends the Commonwealth’s tax filing deadline from April 15, 2021, to May 17, 2021. This tax flexibility, similar to a delay authorized last year by the Legislature, will provide stability and ensure residents have time to prepare and file taxes as the state continues to weather the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 The bill now goes to the House for further action.

###

BOSTON– Senator Sal DiDomenico has once again joined forces with anti-hunger organization Project Bread in sponsoring new legislation to provide free school meals to all children in the Commonwealth. SD519/HD1161, An Act relative to universal school meals, would allow every student who wants or needs a school breakfast or lunch to receive it—at no cost to their family and with no requirement to sign up or provide income or other information. Just as no student is required to pay fees at public schools when they enter the classroom, there would be no financial barrier in the school cafeteria.

Senator DiDomenico partnered with State Representative Andy Vargas, his former co-sponsor of Breakfast After the Bell legislation, in filing this legislation to provide universal schools meals. Last week, the legislative duo joined with Project Bread and the Feed Kids Campaign– a state-level legislative campaign comprised of the most influential and dedicated anti-hunger partners in the state– to officially launch the campaign, announce their newly filed bill, and emphasize the need for this critical legislation. 

“Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, too many in our Commonwealth were struggling to meet their most basic needs. Today, the COVID crisis has shed a stark light on the state of hunger in Massachusetts, especially for kids, with twenty percent of households with children being food insecure. That is unconscionable,” said DiDomenico. “We have a moral responsibility to take immediate action to end childhood hunger in Massachusetts, and we simply cannot do so without providing universal school meals to every child, free of charge.”

Right now, 1 in 5 Massachusetts families with kids is hungry, and 27 percent of children experiencing food insecurity in Massachusetts are not eligible for free or reduced-price school meals. However, as a result of flexibilities granted in response to the pandemic, every student in Massachusetts currently has access to free school meals. The barrier presented by cost and paperwork was temporarily removed at the federal level because this crisis put a spotlight on the need to ensure the right to the most basic of necessities—food—for all kids. Consequently, for the past 10 months, thousands more Massachusetts children and teens have been able to get free breakfast and lunch at hundreds of meal sites across the Commonwealth.

Despite this important step forward, without state-level legislation in place, there is a possibility that barriers to school meals will return once the waivers expire post-pandemic. To keep school meals accessible for all students, Senator DiDomenico, Representative Vargas, and the Feed Kids Coalition joined forces seeking a bold solution to end childhood hunger by ensuring that every student receives the nutrition they need while they are in school. 

“Our priority in Massachusetts, must be to feed our kids, full stop, and School Meals for All will do that,” says Erin McAleer, CEO of Project Bread. “Now more than ever, we need to be intentional about meeting the basic needs of students. We’ve seen during the pandemic that it’s possible to expand access to school meals for the benefit of all children. Every child and every community is better off when all students are nourished and ready to learn. Massachusetts has the opportunity right now, to invest in the health and future of our kids, and to lead the nation in providing School Meals for All. It’s a necessary step to solving hunger permanently.”

This is the first legislative session this bill has been filed. More information about the bill and the Feed Kids Campaign can be found at the FeedKidsMa.org. 

BOSTON- On February 1st, Senator Sal DiDomenico testified before the Commonwealth’s Health Equity Task Force regarding health disparities that underserved and underrepresented communities disproportionately experience in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Senator DiDomenico represents one of the hardest-hit districts in Massachusetts, and throughout this pandemic, his Senate office has centered the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable residents and worked to address the fallout from the COVID-19 crisis.

“COVID-19 has offered us tangible and concrete representation of health inequities that have been in existence in Massachusetts for many years but have now been exponentially worsened due to the public health crisis,” said DiDomenico. “Data has clearly illuminated what we have already known—infection rates are highest and most disproportionate in traditionally underserved communities, like those I represent. If we are to comprehensively and holistically solve the health-related inequities in our state, it is my recommendation that we first ensure the stability of the most fundamental necessities of our residents.”

During the virtual Task Force hearing, Senator DiDomenico highlighted policy priorities that he continues to champion in the Legislature; issues that have a direct impact on public health outcomes for Massachusetts residents. These priorities include:

• the disproportionate impact of COVID on environmental justice communities and the need further enfranchise these populations;

• the growing necessity of housing stability during the pandemic and the increased need for a right to counsel in housing court;

• the need to provide financial assistance to those living in deep poverty– i.e., those living below half the federal poverty line; and

• the need to provide comprehensive medical coverage and care to immigrant children living with disabilities.

Senator DiDomenico has filed corresponding legislation to address all of these issue areas and respectfully urged the Task Force to consider these policy priorities in their upcoming recommendations. “Both Dr. Assaad Sayah and Michael Curry have been longtime public health champions in our communities, and as chairs of the Health Equity Task Force, I have no doubt that they will continue to shed light on how on we can further support our most vulnerable populations. I am deeply grateful for their efforts, as well as their invitation to testify on the experiences that my constituents are acutely experiencing throughout this pandemic.”

###