With Clock Ticking, Legislature Scrambles to Finish Work

BOSTON (AP) — Lawmakers on Beacon Hill have a mountain of unfinished business and less than three months until formal meetings end July 31.

Tasks include sending Republican Gov. Charlie Baker a $41 billion budget for the coming fiscal year.

The two-year session began with lawmakers voting themselves a pay raise, and since then the House and Senate have been generally meeting only once a week, if at all, on a formal basis.

The Senate was plunged into months of turmoil over an ethics investigation that ultimately led to the resignation Friday of former Senate President Stan Rosenberg.

The list of major bills pending include ones to expand opioid addiction treatment, allow for the removal of firearms from people considered dangerous or unstable, create a mid-level dental practitioner and to tax and regulate short-term home rentals brokered through Airbnb or similar companies.