Friday, January 21, 2022
Chairman Hinds, Chairman Cusack, and Members of the Joint Committee on Revenue:
My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.
We urge a favorable report for H.2890 and S.1853: An Act providing for climate change adaptation infrastructure and affordable housing investments in the Commonwealth, jointly known as the HERO bill.
The motto for Progressive Mass is “We all do better when we all do better.” If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we are all connected and that we must trust and rely on each other to create the robust, healthy state we all want to live in.
As income inequality skyrockets and housing prices rapidly escalate, exacerbating the housing stability faced by countless families, Massachusetts must take action to ensure that we can still be a place where people can afford to live and thrive at any stage of life. Likewise, as the consequences of climate change become increasingly apparent, we must similarly take bold action to enable us to meet and exceed existing climate goals. But both of these crises cannot be addressed without raising the funds to address these issues.
Raising the deeds excise tax to be more in line with the rest of New England is an easy way to raise some of this much-needed revenue. We cannot afford to pass up this opportunity to add $150,000,000 to our Global Warming Solution Trust Fund to allocate towards climate mitigation and climate adaptation measures and another $150,000,000 towards Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and the Housing Preservation and Stabilization Fund (HPSF).
The HERO Coalition has been an impressive effort uniting housing advocates and climate advocates around shared goals. Indeed, the goals of affordable housing and climate justice are deeply linked, as greening our housing stock is essential to climate mitigation and combating climate change is essential to community stability amidst extreme weather. This bill provides a great opportunity to take action, with long-term positive benefits that ripple across the Commonwealth.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Cohn
Policy Director
Progressive Massachusetts