Both the House and the Senate reached an agreement on the housing bond bill but, according to Charles Rasmussen, spokesperson for House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, "before the House has final approval, people here want resolution on Chapter 40B." Elizabeth Dillen, chief of staff for Representative Michael Cahill, chairman of the committee on housing and urban development, also tells GlobeSt.com that the reason the bond bill was held up was because the legislature wanted the Chapter 40B bill to be resolved.

While Rasmussen acknowledges that the two bills are not a package deal, he points out that some of the money in the bond bill will be used in 40B projects. "The 40B law creates parameters for affordable housing," he says. "The bond bill money will go to affordable housing." Because 40B is about affordable housing, he adds, and the bond bill is also, many members of the legislature see them as tied together.

The House and the Senate passed different versions of the bond bill last summer but recently reached a compromise. It was anticipated, especially by housing advocates in the state, that the bill would be passed shortly. But a number of legislators pushed to hold off on its passage, wanting instead to hammer out a compromise to the 40B bill first.