A Stunning Degree of Disconnect

Yesterday, when Governor Charlie Baker testified before the Legislature about his administration’s vaccine rollout, there was a stunning degree of disconnect on display.

Baker refused to take any ownership for the failures to date and denied the lack of planning and equity that has been seen and documented across the commonwealth.

As Sen. Jo Comerford said, “This is where we were in two worlds. The committee was in one world. The Baker administration was in another.”

Fortunately, the Legislature can do something about it: they can pass laws.

The Vaccine Equity bill (SD.699 / HD.1283), filed by Senators Becca Rausch and Sonia Chang-Diaz and Representatives Liz Miranda and Mindy Domb, would ensure that equity is prioritized in the vaccine rollout in Massachusetts, recognizing that we can only have a successful recovery if it is an equitable one.

Can you write to your state legislators today about the urgency of passing the Vaccine Equity bill?

Playing by the Best Rules

Sunlight on Beacon Hill

If the Legislature is going to start diving into the work of the new legislative session in earnest, they need to pass a set of Joint Rules. These Joint Rules govern how committees operate and how bills can proceed.

But due to opposition to basic transparency measures from the MA House, there is no agreement yet on these basic operating procedures.

The transparency measures embraced by the Senate are both essential and non-controversial:

  • Publishing committee roll call votes online
  • Making testimony accessible to the public with appropriate redactions (as with any other public record)
  • Extending the notice period for hearings to one week

All of these steps will help legislators do their own jobs better and strengthen the participatory nature of our democracy.

A Conference Committee of three senators and three representatives is currently negotiating what that final set of Joint Rules will look like.

Can you email the Conference Committee today in support of an open and transparent process?

(If the auto-fill email above doesn’t appear, you can use the template here.)

A Quick Action for You to Take Today

Today, the MA House will be voting on a bill (H.89) that will provide workers with access to emergency paid sick leave and offer targeted tax relief to unemployed individuals. Both of these are vital parts of an equitable economic recovery and pandemic response and should be celebrated. And the achievement of emergency paid sick time is only possible because of the work of activists like you across the commonwealth.

Unfortunately, the bill also contains a misguided “Double Dip” tax break for profitable businesses.

Under current law, businesses that receive Paycheck Protection Program funds won’t pay taxes on that money. Under proposed language, they would be able to deduct expenses paid for with those funds. In other words, profitable corporations would be able to write off expenses they paid for with money they didn’t have. Even former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (!) recognized the problem here, once referring to the issue as “Tax 101”: “you don’t get to deduct expenses that someone else paid for.” 

The cost of this tax break could be upwards of $330 million — money that we could be investing in our public schools, our public transit, and our public health infrastructure instead.

Fortunately, Representatives Erika Uyterhoeven (D-Somerville) and Mike Connolly (D-Cambridge) filed two amendments to address this:

  • Amendment #5 would limit this tax break.
  • Amendment #8 would fully eliminate it.

Can you call your state rep in support of these amendments?

Don’t have their phone number on hand? You can find it at http://www.progressivemass.com/legislator-lookup.

Governor Baker Needs to Stop Trying to Dilute Police Reform

In July, both the MA House and the MA Senate passed police reform bills that, although not as strong as they need to be, had a number of vital reforms. Two and a half weeks ago, the Legislature succeeded at hashing out a consensus version of their bills and sent them to the Governor to sign.

Instead of listening to the broad and diverse coalition calling on him to sign the bill, Governor Baker bowed to the pressure of police unions and sent the bill back to the Legislature with harmful amendments.

Baker’s amendments curtail key powers to establish training curricula by a civilian board, allow broad use of the notoriously racist facial recognition software, and severely weaken the definitions and independent oversight for use of force by police.

Crucial negotiations are happening over the next few days, and your voice matters.

Can you email Baker today to urge him to stop trying to water down the Legislature’s bill?

To quote State Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, “The bill that emerged from conference committee was already a compromise package. It’s time to stop asking over-policed communities to give up more and more of the justice they’ve so long been fighting for.”

The Legislature Stood Up to Baker. They Can Do It Again.

This week, the MA House and Senate did something that they so rarely do: they stood up to Governor Charlie Baker.

Rather than signing the budget passed by the Legislature, Baker — who only pretends to be pro-choice — sent back amendments to fully undermine the Legislature’s efforts to create more equitable abortion access. Thankfully, they rejected his amendments by wide margins. You can see the votes below.

But they need to stand up to him again.

They need to stand up to him again by rejecting his harmful amendments to the police reform bill.

And they need to stand up to him by rejecting his effort to strike vital oversight language in the budget to ensure that prisons and jails meet public health standards.

Email your legislators in support of key language on police reform and prison oversight.

The House Rejected Baker’s Anti-Choice Amendment. But There’s Still Work to Do.

Last month, the House and Senate finally took action to strengthen reproductive rights here in MA by passing a slimmed down version of the ROE Act that, although it didn’t go as far as the ROE Act would have, contained important measures to protect and expand equitable access to abortion.

Rather than signing the measures into law, Republican Governor Charlie Baker sent back an amendment to nearly gut them entirely.

Fortunately, the House refused to go along.

Yesterday, they voted down his amendment 107 to 49.

Republican Marc Lombardo (R-Billerica) put forth another amendment that would promote disinformation and stigmatize individuals seeking abortion care. That amendment also went down, by an even wider margin of 120 to 34.

It now goes to the Senate, which plans to vote tomorrow.

But there’s more work to do.

Rather than signing the Legislature’s compromise police reform bill, Baker proposed amendments that would harm the progress made by weakening regulations on the use of force and of harmful facial surveillance technology; weakening the oversight powers of the POST Commission; and delaying the implementation of reforms that we needed yesterday.

Even more, while the COVID-19 pandemic has been spreading rapidly in state prisons, Baker struck vital oversight language to ensure that prisons and jails meet public health standards.

Can you email your state legislators about the importance of standing up to Baker and for civil liberties?