Green Industry Alliance
By Stephen A. Boksanski, Legislative Agent
The Legislature closed the end of formal sessions, and the activity ratcheted up. The Massachusetts Legislature loves a deadline to motivate them, but this session is a little different. With a record number of ballot questions filed, and a State Auditor who continues to roast the Legislature for a lack of transparency and accountability, they are eager to prove they can get the job done.
Two FY26 Supplemental appropriations bills, financing municipal road and bridge improvements, protecting autistic drivers, cannabis control commission overhaul, and early literacy reform are a few of the new laws already signed while action is expected on the FY27 budget, data privacy, cell phones in schools and social media regulation, higher ed infrastructure, economic development and an environmental bond bill. It is clear to close observers that legislative leadership is intent on delivering enough wins for the membership to cruise to re-election and get the public to agree with them that they don’ t need to be audited.
As always, our ability to impact legislation relies on members making connections with their local state Representatives and Senators. These relationships make all the difference in getting a critical mass of members to agree with our positions and helping to advance our agenda. Please reach out to your legislators today.
MAA is a proud member of the Green Industry Alliance, along with the Cape Cod Landscape Association, Golf Course Superintendents of New England, Massachusetts Association of Landscape Professionals, and Massachusetts Association of Lawn Care Professionals. Jack Ingram, MCA, is our representative to the GIA. If you have questions, comments, or are willing to help with our advocacy efforts, please reach out at admin @ MassArbor. org.
For the Green Industry Alliance, the environmental bond bill represents a positive development in several areas. It includes language to clean up the rain sensor requirement, establishes new resources to help improve septic systems that will lead to less nitrogen pollution, earmarks funding to implement healthy soils programs and has lots of funding for tree planting across the Commonwealth. The Senate version also includes language to codify the drought management task force and to regulate private wells, which we are working on to exclude from the final conference report.
We have also stifled the progress of legislation that seeks to repeal the state pre-emptive authority to regulate pesticides and fertilizers, as well as some home rule petitions that would allow individual communities to get out from under the laws that the GIA fought so hard to out in the MGL.
While we continue to work on priority issues like providing shared responsibility for snow and ice incidents on commercial properties, we see the 2025-26 legislative session rounding out as a relative success. No bad legislation passed, and we have made strides to improve the awareness of industry and its key priorities.
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