Over the past month, Governor Charlie Baker, who often gets an undeserved reputation as a moderate, has shown his conservative side on issue after issue.
Last month, he vetoed legislation to expand equitable access to abortion care (thankfully, the Legislature had the votes to override him). And he got the Legislature to weaken a facial surveillance ban and use of force standards in their police accountability bill with a veto threat.
Baker continued this pattern last week.
On Thursday, he vetoed the Next Generation roadmap bill, which would have established stronger emissions reduction targets, codified environmental justice protections, accelerated the transition to renewable energy, and enabled municipalities to adopt net-zero stretch codes to promote greener buildings. Baker thought the bill did too much to address the threat of climate change, hearkening back to his climate-change-denying days back in 2010. As climate advocates had made clear, the bill was a solid step — but didn’t go far enough.
Later on Thursday, he vetoed core tenant protections in the economic development bill—in particular, language to allow for the sealing of eviction records (something that’s especially important during the pandemic-induced eviction crisis!) and provide tenants with the ability to purchase a building when the owner wants to sell (again, an important thing when we want people to be able to stay in their houses!).
And on Friday, he vetoed the creation of a low-income fare program for the MBTA, a significant win from the transportation bond bill. Transit advocates have been fighting for this for years, and it would be a solid step in the direction of fare-free transit.
The reason that Baker was able to do this was that the Legislature waited until the last days of the session to take action.
Fortunately, Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano have pledged to re-file and re-vote on the climate bill, overriding Baker if they need to.
The Legislature should do the same with the other provisions that Baker vetoed. There is so much work to do in the next session, and we can’t let the fights already won slip away.
Can you email your state senator and state representative today and urge swift action?
Know your legislators’ names? Senate emails use the template FIRSTNAME.LASTNAME@masenate.gov. House emails use the template FIRSTNAME.LASTNAME@mahouse.gov.
Don’t know their names? Look them up here. You can find their phone number there too (and then store it on your phone!)
Sample Email/Call Script:
Dear [Legislator Name],
I was grateful to see the Legislature take action at the end of last session to address the climate crisis, protect tenants, and increase transit equity–and disappointed to see Governor Baker use his veto power to roll back progress.
It is essential that the legislature act swiftly to re-file and re-pass the Next Generation Roadmap bill, the eviction sealing and the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase (TOPA) language in the economic development bill, and the creation of a low-income fare program for the MBTA from the transportation bond bill.
We have a lot of work to do this session, and I urge you to fight to lock in these wins from last session.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
