The House and Senate returned to action Thursday and shipped more than a dozen measures to Gov. Maura Healey’s desk, most of them local bills affecting individual communities or public employees.
The branches also pushed a couple dozen other proposals forward in the pipeline, tackling topics ranging from school bus cameras to bus-only lanes.
Some of the bills that moved Thursday had been idling for months, while others more recently stepped into the spotlight.
That latter category includes a time-sensitive proposal Healey filed last month to exempt passenger vehicle offenses before Sept. 30, 2005 from counting toward commercial license ineligibility, a move prompted by upheaval that put hundreds of Bay Staters at risk of losing their commercial driving privileges.
The Senate approved its version of the bill (S 3002) Thursday, and each branch now needs to take one more vote to send the package back to Healey for her signature.
Senators also brought forward their redraft of another Healey bill (S 2797) that would rename the Executive Office of Elder Affairs as the Executive Office of Aging and Independence, something the governor first proposed in May.
Under the camera bill, cities and towns could choose to install monitoring devices on school buses to record nearby vehicles that fail to stop. Any images or video could only be obtained for purposes other than enforcement of failing to stop, or defending against such an allegation, by a court order, according to a Senate Ways and Means Committee bill summary.
The House approved the school bus camera bill (H 4940) in July.
Meanwhile, the MBTA and other regional transit authorities could use bus-mounted camera systems to enforce dedicated bus lanes and bus stops under a bill (S 2884) the House passed Thursday, after it gained traction in that chamber’s Ways and Means Committee.
Motor vehicles that stop or park in bus-only lanes could face fines ranging from $25 to $125, while those parked at bus stops could be fined $100 under the bill, which passed the Senate in July. Sen. Brendan Crighton at the time said cars blocking bus lanes can hamper public transit service and create hazards for passengers, particularly those with disabilities.
