Three Bills That Didn't Make the Cut this Legislative Session

BOSTON, MA — Procrastinators may well sympathize with Massachusetts lawmakers this weekend who, eyeing up a midnight end-of-session deadline, let several bills expire as the clock ran out.

"People try to wait until the bitter end," House Speaker Robert DeLeo, told NECN Sunday, responding to criticism that such last-minute votes lead to shoddy lawmaking and obscure bills from the eyes of taxpayers in a race to the finish. DeLeo compared to the end of the legislature's formal session to major league baseball teams waiting out a trade deadline.

In keeping with the House Speaker's metaphor, here are three of the biggest bills left on the bench in this legislative session:

Noncompetes

Many entrepreneurs and startup investors are again left disappointed this session, after legislators left unresolved another attempt to revise Massachusetts non-competes. Critics say the mandatory wait periods cramp tech employees' ability to move between companies or start their own business, stifling innovation in hubs like Boston and Cambridge, compared to San Francisco and similar. Differing versions of the noncompete revision bill could not be resolved between the House and the Senate before the session deadline.

Airbnb Tax

A $700 million economic development bill eked through the legislature, but a proposed tax on Airbnb was stripped from it this weekend. The tax, which the company supported, would have been imposed on the company, whose mobile app lets people rent out their homes, apartments or rooms.

Paid Leave

A bill to esure paid family and medical leave in Massachusetts passed the Senate in a last-minute vote this weekend, but couldn't beat the clock Sunday in the House. It would have required employers offer employees up to 16 weeks of paid leave for family care and up to 26 weeks for temporary disability leave.

Among the bills that did pass before the session deadline were a regulatory package for mobile ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft, as well as an energy bill that paves the way for first-in-the-country development of offshore wind energy in Massachusetts.

>> Photo by Daniel X. O'Neil, via Flickr/Creative Commons; Boston's Granary Burying Ground