An Act relative to notification of landowners impacted by state transportation projects

Summary

Before laying out a new state highway or altering an existing state highway, the Department of Transportation convenes public hearings to enable public input in governmental decision-making, and provide a forum for the exchange of ideas regarding the proposal.  The Department, however, is currently under no obligation to notify impacted property owners about these hearings directly.  This bill would require the Department to include direct mail notification of public hearings to property owners whose land may be subject to eminent domain and acquired as part of a state transportation project.   

An Act relative to motor vehicle service contracts

Summary

Legislation was enacted in 2010 that provides a regulatory framework for the offering of service contracts in the Commonwealth.  While the 2010 law regulates the offering of service contracts covering homes and consumer products, it expressly exempted service contracts covering motor vehicles. This legislation amends the regulatory framework that was adopted by the Legislature to add service contracts covering motor vehicles to the products covered by it in order to provide a clear statement as to how service contracts covering motor vehicles can be sold in the Commonwealth.  In addition, it would ensure that consumers purchasing motor vehicle service contracts are protected by requiring the entities providing them to comply with the requirements, such as cancellation rights and providers financial stability requirements, made applicable to service contracts by the 2010 law.

An Act to promote safety, efficiency and accountability in transportation projects through public inspections

Summary

This legislation requires that public employees perform construction inspections on all surface transportation projects receiving state or federal funding.  This will save the Commonwealth money since private sector engineers are paid at a much higher rate than public construction inspectors.  But more importantly, this legislation provides much needed checks and balances on private construction projects.