BOSTON — House and Senate negotiators reached an eleventh-hour agreement late Sunday on a bill that seeks a dramatic increase in the state’s reliance on offshore wind and other renewable energy sources, legislative leaders said.
The compromise, which still required final votes in both chambers, was reached just hours before a midnight deadline for lawmakers to complete formal sessions for the year.
Closed-door negotiations on the energy bill and several other key measures dragged on behind closed doors for hours as the House and Senate tried to resolve differences before the clock ran out.
The Legislature, meanwhile, voted to override Gov. Charlie Baker’s veto of funding for the Massachusetts Cultural Council. The vote, which was unanimous in the Senate and 156-2 in the House, brings the council’s budget back to $14 million. As part of a larger set of vetoes, Baker vetoed $7.7 million, a 55 percent reduction.
“Providing robust support for artists and arts organizers helps the Massachusetts economy,” said Senate President Stan Rosenberg, D-Amherst.
The council provides grants to nonprofit cultural organizations, schools, communities, and individual artists.
The Senate also voted to override Baker’s veto of the entire budget of the Franklin County Regional Opioid Task Force, and restored $112,000 for the Northwestern district attorney’s anti-crime task force.
Baker eliminated funding for both programs when he issued his budget vetoes.
Rosenberg said in a statement the opioid task force is a national model of a collaborative effort to fight opioid addiction.
The budget the Legislature sent to the governor June 30 included $300,000 in funding for the task force to continue its work addressing addiction to painkillers and heroin in the region.
The anti-crime task force helps local law enforcement investigate drug related crimes and fire arms offenses.
Named for months as one of the top priorities for Baker and Democratic legislative leaders, the energy measure would, among other things, require utilities to solicit long-term contracts to bring significant amounts of energy from offshore wind farms to Massachusetts, while also encouraging the delivery of more Canadian hydropower and other renewables.
Supporters have called the bill a critical step toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are blamed for climate change, and to replacing energy that will be leaving the New England electrical grid in the coming years, including the scheduled 2019 shutdown of the Pilgrim nuclear plant in Plymouth.
Baker’s original bill filed last summer focused far more heavily on importing hydropower and did not specifically address offshore wind.
Senate President Stan Rosenberg also told reporters late Sunday that negotiators were very close to agreement on a bill that would regulate popular ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft.
“When we bang that gavel at midnight … we’ll all be feeling very good about the day,” Rosenberg said.
Earlier in the day, the Legislature approved a wide-ranging bill designed to help cities and towns govern local affairs more efficiently and cope with ever-increasing budget pressures.
By rule, the Legislature must by midnight Sunday end formal meetings for the session that began in January of last year. House Speaker Robert DeLeo, speaking to reporters after a Democratic caucus earlier in the day, said he would not consider waiving the rule and extending the session beyond the deadline.
DeLeo said it was not surprising to see negotiations continue until the final hours.
“People try to wait until the bitter end,” said DeLeo, responding to criticism that last-minute deals would afford rank-and-file lawmakers, not to mention the general public, little or no time to review or comment on the final details before they were voted into law.
An avid baseball fan, DeLeo compared the process to major league teams waiting for the trade deadline — also Sunday — to pull off transactions.
Rosenberg suggested on Saturday that the House had been slow in advancing certain bills, leading to the frenetic last-minute negotiations. DeLeo disagreed.
“I think if we started this two months ago we would still be here today,” he said.
The municipal modernization bill would eliminate what many local officials viewed as outdated state rules and provide cities and towns with more autonomy from the state.
“What is at stake here is making the job of our local officials easier,” said Sen. Barbara L’Italien, an Andover Democrat who led negotiations on the bill. “We want to bring things up to the 21st century and reflect current practice.”
Left out of the final bill was a provision sought by municipal officials, including Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, that would give cities and towns more flexibility in issuing liquor licenses.
Negotiations were ongoing Sunday on two other bills listed as priorities by Baker and legislative leaders: A more than $700 million economic development bill and a measure that would restrict non-compete clauses in private employment contracts.
Legislators also voted over the weekend to override dozens of line-item vetoes by Baker from the state’s $39 billion budget. Among the funding restored was nearly $8 million Baker had cut from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, amounting to a 55 percent reduction for the agency that provides grants to nonprofit cultural organizations.
Gazette staff added material to this report.
Editor’s note: This article has been corrected to show the vote total in the House on the cultural council override was 156-2.