It was just a matter of time, mortgages, taxes, maintenance, income; they all have to come from somewhere and what happens when the eviction control ends? Setup for failure from the very beginning.

from newspaper:

Massachusetts landlords in need of rent payments are hoping a federal judge will soon end the state’s eviction ban amid the coronavirus pandemic, a lawyer representing property owners tells the Herald.

Landlords in a federal lawsuit in Boston’s U.S. District Court are arguing that the eviction moratorium is unconstitutional, said attorney Richard Vetstein, lead counsel for the property owners.

The suit is against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development.

“The state has never taken this drastic step,” Vetstein said of the eviction freeze on Wednesday.

“Our main thrust is there’s never been a whole moratorium on the filing of evictions in the history of the Commonwealth,” added Vetstein, who also has a state lawsuit pending in Suffolk Superior Court.

Vetstein is representing Marie Baptiste, a nurse who owns rental property in Randolph. Her tenants owe her about $20,000 in back rent, and that figure is expected to climb to $25,000 by October when the moratorium would expire at the earliest.

Gov. Charlie Baker on Tuesday extended the moratorium from August to October.

“She’s a blue-collar nurse, and is in serious financial difficulty because of this,” Vetstein said. “When a tenant can’t pay, that burden flows down to the landlords.”

https://www.masslive.com/news/2020/07/seek-alternative-transportation-mandated-social-distancing-to-limit-how-many-students-massachusetts-districts-can-transport-on-school-buses-this-fall.html

The Senate on July 16 passed a $17 billion five-year bond bill to fund a wide range of transportation-related projects, though the bill does not establish future funding levels for the Chapter 90 road and bridge program.

Because the Legislature had already passed a standalone fiscal 2021 authorization for Chapter 90, the Senate opted not to take up Chapter 90 again in its comprehensive transportation investment bill (S. 2813).

The MMA, with the support of Sen. Adam Hinds, filed an amendment to the Senate bill that would have funded Chapter 90 for five years at $300 million per year, indexed to inflation, but the amendment was withdrawn before the Senate debated and voted on its bond bill.

The Senate bond bill includes funding for several municipal transportation grant programs, including $20 million for the Complete Streets program, $70 million for the Municipal Small Bridge program, $50 million for a new Local Bottleneck Reduction program, and $100 million for a new Municipal Pavement Partnership program.

The bottleneck program would fund changes to address “operationally influenced” impediments to traffic flow, which cause safety issues and excessive idling that boosts greenhouse gas emissions. Changes would include redesign, re-striping, lane and shoulder width adjustments, addition of auxiliary, collector and distributor lanes, signal improvements, ramp adjustments, signage and other infrastructure improvements.

The competitive pavement grant program would be for the construction, reconstruction, resurfacing, repair and improvement of pavement and surface conditions on municipal roadways. Expenditures may include the costs of engineering, design, permitting, climate change adaptation and resilience, and other services essential to the projects.

The MMA has long advocated for an increase in Chapter 90 funding, which represents the only source of unrestricted and non-competitive state funding for local road maintenance. Chapter 90 has been level-funded at $200 million since 2012, with a few one-time exceptions.