April 25, 2019 — State Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr sometimes must feel as if the lobster gods are conspiring against him.
The Gloucester legislator, on three occasions, has filed a bill in the state Senate to liberalize the Bay State’s lobster processing laws to allow in-state processing and the sale of frozen lobster parts.
Three times it passed the state Senate, only to expire either at the hands of the House or in some other quadrant of the legislative hurly-burly.
Most recently, Tarr succeeded this session in attaching the measure to a supplemental budget bill for fiscal year 2019 already passed by the House.
But the lobster processing measure didn’t make the final cut during negotiations between the House and the Senate on the final supplemental budget even though a report from the Division of Marine Fisheries supported the legislative reform.
Tarr, however, continues to push his bill and the additional opportunities it could create for the lobstering industry, as well as economic benefits that could accrue for coastal communities.