Among the flurry of bills passed by the end of the State House session this week were some notable pieces of legislation which will impact Brookline.
Most timely was one filed by Brookline Representative Tommy Vitolo which will allow the town to install 80 geothermal wells, each 600 feet deep, to heat and cool the new Pierce School.
The bill is necessary because of state protections on publicly-owned park land, and it was approved by the House and Senate just hours before the end of the two-year session.
The passage of the bill will help the town keep the Pierce project on schedule and budget, according to town administrator Charles Carey.
“There are many more steps to come in this complex process before construction begins, including ongoing review by the Massachusetts Environmental Protection Agency. But securing this legislative approval now is crucial to ensuring the project proceeds as planned,” he said.
Also this week, Governor Maura Healey signed a $58 billion state budget that includes free community college for adults over 25, free rides on regional transit systems, and also legalizes online lottery sales.
In addition to the standard annual funding for local governments, the bill includes several earmarks for Brookline nonprofits and town agencies, worth more than $700,000, many sponsored by Vitolo and State Senator Cindy Creem:
- $300,000 to the Brookline-based Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired for independent living skills training
- $250,000 for the Brookline Center for Community Health to improve its Healthy Lives program, a statewide program which helps high-need individuals who have complex comorbidities such as schizophrenia, diabetes, or heart disease
- $50,000 to the town for the Tech Buddies program, which provides technology, technical support and educational programming to vulnerable low-income Brookline seniors and adults with disabilities
- $50,000 to the town to further its compliance with federal standards for language access
- $35,000 for the Brookline Chamber of Commerce to provide grants to independent Brookline restaurants to supply food for local food banks and other programs addressing food insecurity
- $25,000 to the Brookline Council on Aging to support seniors with food insecurity
- $25,000 for the Brookline Community Foundation to support a community theater grant for local nonprofit arts organizations
- $25,000 for Steps to Success, a program that promotes equity for students from low-income families in Brookline.
Vitolo, who also successfully led legislation which would ban municipalities from taking all of the equity in foreclosed homes, praised the budget and the legislative leaders who wrote it, saying it “reflects our commitment to funding crucial programs that directly support the most vulnerable in Brookline and across the Commonwealth.”