Warning that Massachusetts stands at a “breaking point” for housing infrastructure, incoming House Speaker Ron Mariano is suggesting that zoning reform could be a solution. But a long-sought Gov. Charlie Baker proposal to lower the voting threshold for local zoning changes remains mired in conference committee with just days to go before the end of the legislative session.

“People want to live and work in Massachusetts, but we don’t have the housing stock to welcome them,” Mariano said. “Meaningful zoning reform can change that.”

No worker should have to commute more than an hour to get to a job, Mariano said.

As part of economic development bills they passed, both branches approved language, colloquially called “Housing Choice,” that would lower the vote needed at the local level for many zoning changes from a two-thirds majority to a simple majority. The Senate version also includes a provision mandating the creation of multifamily-friendly zoning near MBTA train and bus stations, which housing scholars and activists say could conceivably open the door to the building of hundreds of thousands of units region-wide.

However, the legislation has been stuck in House-Senate conference committee negotiations for more than five months.

In an interview with the News Service after his election as speaker, Mariano said he hopes all three remaining conference committees – transportation, climate change and economic development – can finish their work by the end of session on Tuesday but conceded the economic development talks are still “very far apart.”

Sen. Eric Lesser, who is the Senate’s lead negotiator on the economic development bill, said he was “surprised” to see the speaker’s characterization of the talks, describing them as “at the 2-yard line.”

“The Earth was created in six days. We can create an economic development bill in five,” he said, referring to the amount of time remaining before the lawmaking session ends.