Amendment ID: S2381-17-R1

Redraft Amendment 17

Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection

Messrs. Cyr and deMacedo move to amend the amendment by striking out section 1 and inserting in place thereof the following 2 sections:-

“SECTION 1. Chapter 29C of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding the following 2 sections:-

Section 19. There shall be a separate fund to be known as the Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund. The fund shall be subject to this chapter, except as otherwise provided in this section. There shall be credited to the fund revenue from appropriations or other money authorized by the general court and specifically designated to be credited to the fund including, but not limited to, revenues received under the excise imposed under section 3C of chapter 94G, any investment income earned on the fund’s assets and all other sources, each source being tracked separately for accounting purposes as of June 30 of each year.

The trust shall hold the fund in an account separate from other funds of the trust. Proceeds of the fund shall not be used to offset or otherwise replace contract assistance funds or reserve funds used for pool financing. The trust shall apply and disburse amounts credited to the fund, without further appropriation, to provide subsidies and other assistance, which may include principal forgiveness, to local governmental units and other eligible borrowers in the payment of debt service costs on loans and other forms of financial assistance made by the trust for water pollution abatement projects in municipalities that are members of the fund. Each municipality within Barnstable or Nantucket counties or the county of Dukes County shall be a member of the fund if it is subject to: (i) an area wide wastewater management plan under section 208 of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. 1288; or (ii) a suitable equivalent plan determined by the department of environmental protection. Water pollution abatement projects eligible for subsidies and other assistance under this section may include the utilization of innovative strategies and alternative Title V technologies that result in nutrient reduction for marine and fresh waters.

The fund may provide subsidies and other assistance as provided in this section with respect to debt incurred prior to the establishment of the fund in the towns of Nantucket, Edgartown, Tisbury, Oak Bluffs, Falmouth, Chatham and Provincetown and the city of Barnstable for water pollution abatement projects apart from the trust.

Amounts credited to the fund shall be expended or applied only with the approval of the Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund Management Board established under section 20 and in a manner determined by the board, in addition to any approvals required under this chapter. Ten per cent of the annual revenue deposited into the fund shall be transferred to the department of environmental protection for the department to contract with a regional planning agency or non-profit corporations to evaluate and report on the efficacy of adaptive management measures to reduce nitrogen pollution of coastal waterways undertaken pursuant to an area wide wastewater management plan or a suitable equivalent plan, to monitor the water quality of areas subject to the study and to support further assessment and water quality modeling to further refine area wide wastewater management plans or suitable equivalent plans in Barnstable and Nantucket counties and the county of Dukes County. Any amounts remaining in the fund at the end of a fiscal year shall be carried forward into the following fiscal year and shall remain available for application and disbursement without further appropriation.

A municipality that is a member of the fund under this section may withdraw from the fund by a two-thirds vote of its legislative body; provided, however, that a municipality shall not withdraw from the fund during the term of any financial assistance award from the fund to the municipality. A municipality that has withdrawn from the fund shall not have representation on the Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund Management Board established under section 20. A municipality that has withdrawn from the fund and votes, by majority vote of its legislative body, to return to the fund shall not receive money from the fund until not less than 2 years from the date of its vote to do so.

Section 20. There shall be a Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund Management Board that shall consist of 1 person to be appointed by each board of selectmen or town council in each municipality that is a member of the Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund; provided, however, that an appointee by the board of selectmen or town council shall be a member of the respective appointing authority, a town manager or administrator or other municipally employed professional staff. The executive director of the Cape Cod commission, the executive director of the Martha’s Vineyard commission and the town manager of Nantucket shall serve as non-voting ex-officio members on the board.

Each member of the management board shall serve for a term of 3 years and until a successor is appointed and qualified and each member of the management board shall be eligible for reappointment. Each member of the management board appointed to fill a vacancy on the management board shall be appointed for the unexpired term of the vacant position. The members of the management board shall select a member to serve as chairperson and vice-chairperson for a term established by vote of the management board. The Cape Cod commission, in consultation with the Martha’s Vineyard commission, shall provide administrative and technical support to the management board and may be compensated for its associated costs by vote of the management board. The management board’s duties shall be limited to determining the method for subsidy allocation, including, but not limited to, an equitable distribution among participating municipalities consistent with revenue deposited from each municipality into the fund, and to ensuring that money from the Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund is spent only for the purposes listed in section 19.

SECTION 1A. Section 16 of chapter 62C, as appearing in the 2016 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after subsection (g) the following subsection:-

(g½) Notwithstanding subsection (g), the department of revenue shall promulgate regulations to minimize the administrative burden relative to filing returns under said subsection (g) on operators who offer their accommodations to the public for at least 1 day in 5 separate months or less in the taxable year. The regulations may authorize an operator to file a return only for a month that the operator’s accommodation is offered to the public.”; and

in section 2, in proposed chapter 64G of the General Laws, by inserting after section 3B the following section:-

“Section 3C. In addition to the excise imposed under section 3 and any excise imposed under section 3A, an excise shall be imposed on the transfer of occupancy of a room in a bed and breakfast establishment, hotel, lodging house, transient accommodation or motel located within a municipality that is a member of the Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund established under section 19 of chapter 29C at a rate of 2.75 per cent of the total amount of rent for each such occupancy; provided, however, that all revenues received from the excise under this section shall be credited to the Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund. An excise shall not be imposed if the total amount of rent is less than $15 per day or its equivalent. An operator or room reseller shall pay the excise due to the Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund to the commissioner at the same time and in the same manner as the excise due to the commonwealth.”; and

by inserting after section 4 the following 2 sections:-

“SECTION 4A. Notwithstanding section 19 of chapter 29C of the General Laws, a municipality included in the Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund shall not withdraw from the fund for 1 year after the effective date of this act.

SECTION 4B. A municipality that becomes a member of the Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund under section 19 of chapter 29C after December 1, 2018 shall be subject to the excise under section 3C of chapter 94G on the first day of a calendar quarter after it has joined the fund, as the municipality may designate.”