Hybrid Meeting Access Has Been Great for Democracy. Let’s Make It Permanent.

I’ve been happy to see the return of in-person hearings at the State House. There’s a liveliness to a hearing room that can’t be replicated on virtual platforms.

But what I’m even happier about is that the Massachusetts State House has kept the option of virtual testimony for hearings. Not everyone has the ability to trek to downtown Boston and wait for hours for their time to testify. Perhaps because of a job with rigid hours. Or small children at home. Or difficulties with transportation or mobility in general.

Keeping this remote access is critical, and it’s to the State House’s credit that they have done so. But we need to see it expanded across city and state government.

An Act to Modernize Participation in Public Meetings (H.3040 / S.2024) would make the hybrid meeting accessibility we’ve seen over the past few years permanent, prioritizing state agencies and elected municipal bodies and providing resources to cities and towns to make the change.

If you are able to testify in person or virtually, you can sign up here by 3 pm today. (Wouldn’t it be nice if the Legislature gave at least a week of notice? A fight for another day….)

But even if you can’t testify in person or virtually, your written testimony still matters. Can you email the Legislature in support of hybrid meeting access for all?

Build Housing, Not Pipelines

Next week, the MA Legislature will be holding hearings on key bills to put a moratorium on new gas infrastructure and encourage walkable, transit-oriented communities. Both are essential to combating climate change and creating a green, healthy, and affordable state for all.

Put Gas in the Past

This summer has been an ongoing series of warning signs of the need to take bold and comprehensive action on climate change. Earlier this month, from July 3 to July 6, we experienced the four hottest days on record globally. We have seen extreme flooding hit neighboring states as well as our own, and the same for the dystopian impacts of raging wildfires in Canada.

This should serve as a wake-up call that our response to climate change, despite recent progress, is not enough. We have known for many years now that the majority of fossil fuels must be left in the ground if we are to have even a chance of staying within safe boundaries of global warming.

Next Wednesday and Thursday, the Legislature will be hearing bills to put gas in the past by establishing a moratorium on new gas system expansion. This will help us meet our state’s climate goals, protect human and environmental health, and provide time for us to create a plan for a just transition.

Sign up to testify (in person or virtually) at the Senate hearing on Wednesday, 7/26, at 1pm.

Sign up to testify (in person or virtually) at the House hearing on Thursday, 7/27, at 10am.

Want to submit written testimony? Check out the Put Gas in the Past toolkit here, or use this template.

Put Gas in the Past

Tackling Our Housing Crisis

Massachusetts faces a growing affordable housing crisis. We can tout our great quality of life on index after index, but if people can’t afford to live here, it doesn’t mean much.

To rent the average 2-bedroom apartment in Massachusetts requires an income equal to $37.97 per hour. Home ownership has become increasingly out of reach, as the state’s median home price has passed $600,000.

The unaffordability of housing in Massachusetts isn’t inevitable. It’s a result of a long legacy of exclusionary zoning that has disproportionately harmed working-class and BIPOC residents.

The Yes in My Backyard Bill (H.1379) would require multifamily zoning and remove costly parking mandates around public transportation, encouraging dense, transit-oriented development that is good for climate and good for communities. It would also expedite the process of converting unused state-owned land into affordable housing or vacant commercial properties into multifamily housing, among many other steps.

Sign up to testify (in person or virtually) at the hearing on Wednesday, 7/26, at 2 pm.

Want to submit written testimony? Check out the Abundant Housing toolkit here, or use this template.

Key Hearings at the State House Next Week: How to Help

Next week, the State House will be holding hearings on several key progressive priorities. Read on to find out how to show your support.

Show Your Support for Universal School Meals

Over 1 in 5 households with children in Massachusetts are struggling to put food on the table. School meals take the pressure off family budgets and allow families to put food on the table day-to-day.

Ensuring that students receive proper nutrition would reduce health care costs, improve student attendance, improve socio-emotional health, and improve student performance. We have seen the success of the program already, and it’s time to make it permanent.

The House included tuition equity in its FY 2024 budget, but the Senate did not, and it has been a sticking point in ongoing negotiations.

The Joint Education Committee will be having a hearing on the Universal School Meals bill on Monday at 11:00 AM in Gardner Auditorium.

Sign up to testify (virtual or in-person) at the hearing on Monday at 11:00 AM.

Can’t testify to the hearing? You can still submit written testimony! See the instructions on the link above or use our template here.

The Feed Kids Coalition also has a social media toolkit to help amplify support for universal school meals.

Show Your Support for Tuition Equity

From a recent coalition letter organized by our friends at the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition: Immigrant advocates and higher education leaders in Massachusetts have long supported broad access to an affordable public college education for immigrant youth, particularly those without status who arrived in the U.S. as children and have been educated in our public schools. Currently these students are required to pay out-of-state or international tuition rates (up to four times the in-state rate). They are overwhelmingly from low-income, hardworking families, often with substantial responsibilities to contribute to family income, but lack access to both federal and state student financial aid. This combination effectively denies some of our most ambitious and talented high school graduates from continuing their education and contributing to the Massachusetts economy.

The Senate included tuition equity in its FY 2024 budget, but the House did not, and it has been a sticking point in ongoing negotiations.

The Joint Higher Education Committee will be holding a hearing on Tuition Equity legislation next Tuesday at 1 PM.

Sign up to testify (virtual or in-person) at the hearing here.

Can’t testify at the hearing? You can still submit written testimony! See the instructions on the link above and craft your own testimony with MIRA’s toolkit, or use our template here.

Show Your Support for a Zero-Carbon Renovation Fund

With extreme heat and extreme flooding already, this summer has shown that we are already living with the realities of climate change.

The Zero-Carbon Renovation Fund (ZCRF) bill would jumpstart the market for zero carbon renovations with a $300 million fund devoted to (1) maximizing energy efficiency through building envelope upgrades, (2) electrification of building systems, (3) maximizing usage of on-site renewable energy, wherever possible, and (4) use of building retrofit materials that are low embodied carbon.

With an understanding that our sustainability transition must be an equitable one to be successful, the ZCRF would prioritize affordable housing, public housing, low- and moderate-income homes, schools, BIPOC- and women-owned businesses, and buildings located in Environmental Justice communities.

Due to the ongoing internal fight within the Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy Committee, the bill has TWO hearings next week: a Senate hearing on Monday and a House hearing on Wednesday.

Sign up to testify (virtual or in-person) at the Senate hearing on Monday at 9:30 AM.

Sign up to testify (virtual or in-person) at the House hearing on Wednesday at 10:00 AM.

Not able to testify? You can still submit written testimony! The Zero-Carbon Renovation Fund Coalition has a useful toolkit for submitting written testimony here.

Want sample testimony? We’ve got you covered: sample Senate testimony and sample House testimony.

What’s Coming Up Later This Month?

The Gas Moratorium bill will be having hearings on Wednesday, July 26, and Thursday, July 27.

The Yes in My Backyard bill will be having a hearing on Wednesday, July 26.

Stay tuned for more info on all three hearings and how to get involved!

Urge your State Legislators to Reject Permanent Tax Breaks for the Ultra-rich

Over the coming weeks, a group of six legislators (3 from the House and 3 from the Senate) are negotiating the final details of a tax package.

Back in April, the House passed a fairly regressive tax package, filled with tax cuts for the ultra-rich and large corporations. The Senate, a few weeks ago, passed a more equitable tax package.

At a time when the state’s economic outlook is uncertain, and working families are struggling to get ahead, Massachusetts needs to prioritize spending on what will make our state truly affordable, equitable, and competitive: programs that ensure a labor force adequate to our economy’s needs, not tax cuts for the ultra-rich.

That group of six negotiators, called a “Conference Committee,” consists of Senate Ways & Means Chair Michael Rodrigues (D-Westport), Senate Revenue Chair Susan Moran (D-Falmouth), Senate Revenue Ranking Minority Ryan Fattman (R-Sutton), House Ways & Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz (D-North End), House Revenue Chair Mark Cusack (D-Braintree), and House Revenue Ranking Minority Michael Soter (R-Bellingham). And they need to hear from your legislators.

Can you write to your legislators today to ask them to urge the Conference Committee to reject permanent tax cuts for the ultra-rich and large corporations?


We’re joining Raise Up Massachusetts in support of five key demands for the Conference Committee.

  • Reject the proposed cut to the short-term capital gains tax, which would overwhelmingly benefit wealthy investors who are engaged in complex hedged investment strategies.
  • Reject the expansion of the corporate tax policy called ‘single sales factor apportionment,’ which gives a massive tax break to large, profitable multinational corporations that already don’t pay their fair share.
  • Minimize the budgetary cost of estate tax reform by limiting the benefits that are extended to estates above $2 million
  • Protect the revenue from the Fair Share Amendment by closing the “Single Filing Loophole,’ which could prevent Massachusetts from losing between $200 and $600 million in Fair Share revenue each year.
  • Make the outdated 62F tax giveaway system more fair by ensuring an even distribution of any future 62F rebates, rather than maintaining the current system that overwhelmingly benefits the ultra-rich, out of proportion with their contribution to overall state taxes.


Can you write to your legislators today to ask them to urge the Conference Committee to reject permanent tax cuts for the ultra-rich and large corporations?

TUESDAY: Rally & Hearing for the Prison Moratorium

Massachusetts is planning to spend $50 million to build a new women’s prison to replace MCI-Framingham. As of January 1, 2022, the population in MCI-Framingham stood at 179, with more than 20% held in pre-trial detention. In part as a result of sentencing reforms, Massachusetts’s incarceration rate has been falling, which raises the question: Why expand a system that costs $235,000 per person and only causes further harm?

Studies have repeatedly shown that society cannot incarcerate its way to safety, and the family separation of incarceration and the well-documented inhumane conditions in Massachusetts’s prisons and jails fuel the community instability that is detrimental to public safety. Instead, investments in housing, health care, economic opportunity, and other social supports have been shown to be the true foundation of public safety for all.

It’s clear: Massachusetts doesn’t need new prisons, not now and not ever, and the Prison Moratorium bill (H. 1795 / S.1979) is how we can achieve that.

Next Tuesday, the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight is holding a hearing on the Prison Moratorium bill at 11 am in Gardner Auditorium.

Can you show up on Tuesday and join Families for Justice as Healing for a rally before?

Not able to attend Tuesday’s hearing? You can still make a difference by contacting your state legislators in support.

Take Action: How to Support a Progressive Budget

In the FY 2024 budget, both the House and the Senate embraced the opportunity to include forward-thinking proposals that strengthen our commitment to equity, but, with differences between them, the work is not done.

In the coming weeks, a Conference Committee of three senators and three representatives will be finalizing the details for next year’s budget, and they need to hear from you in support of key provisions:

  • Tuition equity language, which would ensure that all MA high school graduates have access to in-state tuition at our Commonwealth’s public colleges and universities, regardless of immigration status, as 23 other states and DC provide
  • Permanent School Meals for All, which would ensure healthy nutrition for all students, increase educational performance, and support working families
  • No Cost Calls language, as outlined in the Keeping Families Connected/No Cost Calls Coalition’s letter, namely, making all communication services free in 2023, including a strong guarantee of access to calls, and laying out clear language to ensure successful implementation

Can you write to your senator and representative to ask them to fight for the inclusion of all three in the final FY2024 budget?

Mark Your Calendars🗓

State House Hearings This Week

If you are interested in testifying (written, in-person, or virtual) and have questions, just reach out!

Thursday, 6/22: Gun Violence Awareness Month Action at the Massachusetts State House @ 10am in front of the State House

The Mass Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence will be gathering on the steps of the State house with local and national partners including Stop Handgun Violence, Moms Demand Action, Giffords, and Brady, to honor June as Gun Violence Awareness month and to mark the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision. Join for a press conference featuring survivors, violence prevention workers, and others impacted by gun violence to address the impact of gun violence in the Commonwealth and call for continued action.

Sunday, 6/25: Progressive Mass Activist Afternoons Continues @ 3:30 PM

Join Progressive Mass for an Activist Afternoons series! We’ll be reaching out to members across the state to reach out to their legislators about key issues at the State House. On 6/25, we’ll be focusing on the Transfer Fee bill. RSVP here!

Tuesday, 6/27: Hearing at the State House for the Prison Moratorium Bill @ 11 am, Rally @ 10 am

Massachusetts does not need new prisons and jails: we need to be investing in communities, not in expanding the carceral system. So make sure that the Legislature hears loud and clear by showing up to support the Prison Moratorium in Gardner Auditorium on the State House and a rally before, RSVP here.

Thursday, 7/13: Common Start Rally at the State House

Please join the Common Start Coalition for a family-friendly rally at the State House on July 13 at 11:00 AM! As we head into the summer months, this is an incredible opportunity to keep up the momentum for high-quality, affordable, and accessible early education and care in Massachusetts.

Following a brief speaking program, children and their families will lead a march through the State House to demonstrate the power of our coalition and to highlight solutions to the child care crisis. Art and other activities for children will be a part of the event.

Common Start Family-Friendly Rally for Child Care

Time: Thursday, July 13 at 11:00 AM
Location: Grand Staircase, Massachusetts State House, Boston
Travel: There will be buses from across the state. More info to come.
Interpretation: There will be Spanish interpretation for the event.
Make sure to RSVP here: https://bit.ly/csrally7-13

What to Say to Your State Senator about Today’s Tax Vote

Since last year’s Fair Share victory, our state’s super-rich and their allies in the media have been pushing a myth that we need to cut taxes on the rich to prevent people from leaving Massachusetts. Even though this has been widely debunked, Governor Healey heeded such demands by proposing a tax reform package skewed toward the very rich. The House, back in April, followed suit.

The Senate is taking up its own tax package this afternoon. So take some time this morning to email your state senator about protecting the Fair Share victory and better responding to our housing crisis — then read on for more.

Saying No to Tax Cuts for the Super-Rich and Large Corporations

Let’s start with some good news:

  • The Senate bill rejects the proposed $117 million tax cut for day traders and speculators proposed by Gov. Healey and passed by the MA House in April. Notably, both chambers rejected this idea last year when Governor Baker proposed it.
  • The Senate bill rejected a $79 million corporate tax giveaway that the House back in April with no public debate.
  • The Senate bill offers a less expensive and less regressive cut to the estate tax than either Governor Healey or the MA House. Unfortunately, every estate tax proposal includes tax cuts for the largest estates rather than limiting them to more modest estates subject to the tax.

Voters last year were clear that they wanted the super-rich to pay more so that we can invest in our schools and infrastructure, so it’s important that senators hold the line here in today’s vote and in negotiations to come.

Housing: The Real Reason Why People Are Moving out of MA

High-ranking senators have rightly noted that the reason people are moving out of MA is not taxes–it’s the high cost of housing. However, the Senate’s proposals on housing are mixed. Although the expansion of the low-income housing tax credit can help our state address a growing housing crisis, increasing the Housing Development Incentive Program (HDIP) without accountability or affordability measures is a false solution.

The HDIP program provides millions in state tax credits and local tax breaks for developers of market-rate housing in Gateway cities. However, the units built through these incentives can be shockingly expensive, and incentives often go to areas that are already attractive to developers. Moreover, the program lacks basic monitoring and oversight to ensure that it is achieving desired ends. Only with affordability and accountability requirements can the program be part of the solution to our housing crisis.

How Your Senator Can Make the Bill Better

Your senator can better protect Fair Share and better respond to our housing crisis by supporting these three amendments:

  • Amendment #16 (Sen. Eldridge): Improve HDIP to create affordable housing, which would ensure that HDIP funds support badly needed mixed income housing by requiring developments funded under the program to have at least 20% permanently affordable housing.
  • Amendment #19 (Sen. Eldridge): Improve transparency of HDIP program, which would establish regular reporting on the awarding of such tax incentives
  • Amendment #26 (Sen. Lewis): Reducing high income tax avoidance, which would protect the revenue raised by the Fair Share Amendment by ensuring that couples who file jointly on their federal taxes do so in Massachusetts as well.

Can you email your state senator this morning about supporting these three amendments?

Take Action: The MA Senate is Voting on a Budget This Week

The MA Senate will be voting on a budget this week. Though there are clear reasons to celebrate (such as the inclusion of in-state tuition for all Massachusetts high school graduates and robust funding for regional transit authorities, including funding for fare-free bus pilots), there are ways to make it better.

Take a moment to contact your state senator in support of Amendments #819, #856, and #941 to the Senate budget this week.

These amendments would protect the Fair Share victory, build on past progress on juvenile justice reform, and strengthen No Cost Calls language.

Want to be quick? Call their office and just say “Please co-sponsor Amendments #819, #856, and #941 to the Senate budget this week. These amendments would protect the Fair Share victory, build on past progress on juvenile justice reform, and strengthen No Cost Calls language.”

Prefer to email?



Amendment 819 (Sen. Jason Lewis): Reducing high income tax avoidance

Amendment #819 would require that couples who file jointly at the federal level also file jointly at the state level, as other states do. Right now, Massachusetts is the only state that has a separate income tax rate for high-income filers without either designating lower tax rate thresholds for single filers than married filers or requiring federal joint filers to file jointly on their state taxes. As a result, under current law, some high-income couples who file jointly at the federal level may be able to avoid up to $40,000/year in Fair Share tax by filing singly at the state level. This loophole creates an incentive for illegal misattribution of income between the two members of the couple, necessitating additional tax audits and causing a loss in vital state revenue.

Amendment #856 (Sen. Adam Gomez): Youth Bail Fees
This amendment eliminates the $40 administrative bail fee imposed on justice-involved youth, paying the bail magistrate fee from state indigency funds. The Senate already passed this last session, so this is an opportune moment to do so again.

Amendment #941 (Sen. Liz Miranda): No Cost Calls

I was grateful to see that the MA Senate’s budget proposal includes “No Cost Calls” language that would end the practice of private corporations charging incarcerated people and their families huge fees to make phone calls to and from jail and prison.

This amendment strengthens the language to guarantee access to voice communications for people and ensures that technology like tablets, if they’re already equipped for phone call, can be used under the new law.

It’s Time to Make Polluters Pay

Tomorrow, the Massachusetts Legislature is hosting a hearing on a new bill to address the climate crisis: the Polluters Pay bill.

This bill, modeled on legislation filed in other states and nationally, embodies a core principle: those who created the climate crisis should have to pay for cleaning up the resulting damages.

At the same time that communities across the Commonwealth are facing the growing costs of climate adaptation — costs that will grow significantly in the coming decades — fossil fuel companies are making record profits.

The Polluters Pay bill would require companies that have contributed significantly to the buildup of climate-warming greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere to bear a share of the costs of needed infrastructure investment. By doing so, it would would raise an estimated $75 billion over 25 years from the 20 largest polluting companies to provide funding for climate resiliency efforts such as restoring coastal wetlands; upgrading roads, bridges, subways, and transit systems; preparing for and recovering from hurricanes and other extreme weather events; installing energy efficient cooling systems; upgrading the electrical grid; and expanding green spaces and urban forestry.

Moreover, the bill understands that our sustainability transition must be a just one, with key provisions to ensure that sufficient funds go to environmental justice populations and that the funding goes to the creation of good-paying jobs.

Can you email your state legislators today in support of this bill?

You can find out if your legislators are already co-sponsors here.

Already emailed? Then call!

Make Polluters Pay

Details for tomorrow’s hearing:

  • 12 pm: Rally on the State House steps with 350 Mass / Better Future Project and allies
  • 1 pm: Hearing
  • Sign up for either here.

Mark Your Calendars: What’s Coming Up

Thursday, May 18 @ 11 am at the State House: No Cost Calls Lobby Day — RSVP here

The Keeping Families Connected / No Costs Calls coalition will be having a Senate advocacy action day to ask Senators to co-sponsor budget amendment #941, which will create a stronger guarantee of no cost calls in the state’s budget. The coalition will be meeting at the fourth floor cafe.

Keep Families Connect: Senate Advocacy Day at the State House

Wednesday, May 24 @ 9:30 am at the State House: Thrive Act Lobby Day —RSVP here

This is an exciting opportunity for students, families, educators, staff, and community activists to come together and connect with legislators about the Thrive Act, new legislation that would create a system of school assessment and improvement that considers the whole child, and focuses on giving students and educators the tools and resources they need to succeed.

Thrive Act Advocacy Day

Tuesday, May 30 @ 10 am at the State House: Healthy Youth Act Lobby Day –RSVP here

An Act relative to healthy youth (S.268/H.544) is a common sense bill that reflects the consensus of the vast majority of MA residents. The bill’s core provision is simple: it will require any public school that already chooses to teach sex ed to provide a medically accurate, age-appropriate, comprehensive sexual health education.

Healthy Youth Act Lobby Day 2023

Wednesday, June 7 @ 2 pm at the State House — Youth Justice Lobby Day — RSVP here

Join activists across the state to advocate for bills that would end the school-to-prison pipeline and ensure better outcomes for our youth. The lobby day will focus on bills to keep 18-to 20-year-olds out of the adult criminal justice system, expand opportunities to expunge criminal records, create opportunities for diversion, and more.

Countdown to Youth Justice Lobby Day 2023

Let’s really value mothers on Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day!

What would our Legislature be doing if it truly valued the work of mothers (and all parents)?

They would be strengthening our child care infrastructure with the Common Start bills so that all parents can access affordable child care.

They would be requiring health insurance plans to cover all pregnancy care without any kind of cost-sharing.

They would be addressing the stark racial disparities in maternal health outcomes in our Commonwealth.

They would be pausing the expansion of prison and jail construction because a new women’s prison would only continue cycles of family separation and trauma.

Can you write to your legislators about the importance of passing these policies this session?

Donate to #FreeBlackMamas National Bail Out

Our carceral system separates families and destabilizes community. We all have a role to play in changing the system.

Each year, the National Bail Out, a Black-led and Black-centered collective of abolitionist organizers, lawyers, and activists building a community-based movement to end systems of pretrial detention and ultimately mass incarceration, coordinates the Mama’s Day Bail Outs, where they bail out as many Black mothers and caregivers as they can so they can spend Mother’s Day with their families. Can you make a donation to their work in honor of Mother’s Day?

Thank you for all that you do to make Massachusetts a place where everyone can thrive.

In solidarity,

Melanie O’Malley
Outreach and Operations Director