Letter: Legislators Should Finish Their Work on Bills that Can’t Wait

Heather Ford, “LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Legislators Should Finish Their Work on Bills that Can’t Wait,” Westwood Minute, August 18, 2024.

To the Editor:

Massachusetts has a Democratic governing trifecta (Governor, Senate, and House) again. However, when seeing the productive legislative sessions in other new Democratic trifectas like Michigan or Minnesota, I am disappointed.

As has become the unfortunate norm on Beacon Hill, the House and Senate ran out the clock on many important priorities, adjourning on July 31st (well, the morning of August 1st) with a long list of unfinished business. We’re experiencing the hottest summer on record, and they passed no climate bill. Several other bills are stuck in dead-end negotiations, and that’s not to mention all the bills that never even made it that far.

Our Legislature’s over-centralization of power, inertia, and complacency will require deep cultural change (or the shocks of election losses). But in the near term, the Legislature should do something simple: come back into session and finish their work. The economic development bill has important policy components, such as keeping high school seniors out of adult prisons and strengthening our public health infrastructure (both in the Senate bill), and we shouldn’t have to wait until next year to start all over again. The same for climate legislation: Mother Nature doesn’t wait, and neither should the Legislature. We need robust legislation that centers environmental justice and includes a clear plan to transition away from gas.

The Legislature struggled to pass bills that had wide support in the last legislative session. The SAPHE 2.0 bill, which would strengthen our public health infrastructure, passed both chambers unanimously in 2022 before being vetoed by our former Republican governor. A moratorium on new prison and jail construction was passed with wide support before the same fate. It would only be rational to think that the Legislature would prioritize such bills and take care of them at the start of the legislative session. Instead, the prison moratorium has yet to see a vote, and the SAPHE 2.0 bill is stuck in the conference committee for the economic development bill (with clear support only from the Senate).

Going back into session will mean the Legislature will do what it is supposed to: deliberate, legislative, and vote.

Sincerely,

Heather T. Ford

Westwood, MA

Letter: Beacon Hill’s legislative process is broken

Al Blake, “Letter: Beacon Hill’s Legislative Process Is Broken,” Berkshire Eagle, August 6, 2014.

To the editor: Thank you for your Aug. 3 editorial “This is (still) no way to legislate.”

This session was a missed opportunity to make the commonwealth a climate leader. The Legislature’s inaction is a grave disappointment to anyone who cares about saving our planet.

This session was a chance to make serious progress slowing the expansion of our dirty and expensive methane gas system, but instead legislative leadership got tied up in political spats and chose not to extend the session and finish the job.

This comes after a year and a half of advocacy that included hundreds of meetings and thousands of calls and signatures to legislators. Many of the most popular policy proposals received vast majorities of legislative co-sponsors, yet House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka did not allow them to come for a vote.

Many policies “died in committee,” where politicians take secret votes that their constituents are not able to see. Many more died in the backroom process where amendments to bills were withdrawn before they had a chance to receive a vote.

The legislative process is broken, and undue influence from corporations routinely blocks popular and effective legislation in favor of utility and developer profits.

We can do better, and we must.

Al Blake, Becket

Letter: “Beacon Hill’s two-bosses problem”

Jonathan Cohn, “Beacon Hill’s two-bosses problem (Letter),” Boston Globe, August 10, 2024.

When talking about the dysfunction and over-centralization of the Massachusetts State House, I often describe the building as having a “two-bosses problem.” In most jobs, the person who decides whether to hire and fire you and the person who controls your pay are the same person: what we call a boss. However, in the Legislature, there’s a split: The people who hire and fire you are your constituents, who can exert that power every election, and the people who decide your pay are the legislative leadership, who can dole out the perks with chairs, vice chairs, and other positions (something that’s been sharply detailed in Globe reporting).

Massachusetts is notorious for having among the least competitive elections in the country (in recent years, we’ve ranked dead last), and most legislators will skate by uncontested year after year, never having to meaningfully defend a record to their constituents. Next month’s primary is but the latest example. Whether through more competitive elections or more vocal advocacy, the collective boss of “we the people” needs to do more to remind legislators whom they ultimately serve.

Jonathan Cohn

Policy director

Progressive Mass

Boston

Letter: “The ‘benefit,’ Mr. Speaker, is more affordable housing, including in wealthier areas”

Jan Soma, “The ‘benefit,’ Mr. Speaker, is more affordable housing, including in wealthier areas” (Letter), Boston Globe, May 22, 2024.

Matt Stout’s March 16 article describes House Speaker Ron Mariano’s reticence to embrace the real estate transfer fee portion of Governor Maura Healey’s housing bond bill. Mariano is quoted as saying that relatively wealthy communities would disproportionally benefit from a local real estate transfer fee. Let’s consider the benefits: As clearly stated in the governor’s proposal, transfer fee proceeds would be deposited in affordable housing trusts that use the funds solely for low- to moderate-income housing. The benefit is more housing opportunities in communities that all but the very wealthy can afford as well as in other communities.

We need affordable housing across the state, not just in enclaves that segregate residents by income. I applaud communities that want to be part of the housing shortage solution. I am proud to live in one. Housing funds from the Commonwealth are generally more available to communities that are struggling economically. If wealthier towns are willing to help share the financial burden through a transfer fee, doesn’t everyone win?

Jan Soma

Needham

The writer is on the steering committee of the Needham Housing Coalition.

Letter: Mass. Can Do More to Lower Housing Costs”

Green affordable housing

Marianne Rutter, “Letter: Mass. Can Do More to Lower Housing Costs,” Newburyport Daily News, April 12, 2024.

To the Editor:

It should come as no surprise to my fellow readers that Massachusetts has a housing crisis. To rent the average 2-bedroom apartment in Massachusetts requires an income equal to $41.64 per hour, more than twice the minimum wage.  Do the math yourself:  Coming up with monthly rent is a near impossibility in a two-earner household working $15/hour minimum-wage jobs, even if both wage-earners are holding down two jobs.

Home ownership has become increasingly out of reach, as the state’s median home price has passed $600,000.   In parts of our northeastern corner of the Commonwealth, the average home price today is 25% higher than that.

The Legislature needs to take action before the crisis gets worse. 

Governor Healey (who, let’s remember, hails from our part of the state), has shown leadership in responding to this crisis by introducing the Affordable Homes Act, which combines funding authorizations for various housing programs with important new policy measures for affordable housing.  One of the most exciting proposals is the real estate transfer fee local option. 

This would enable cities and towns to levy a small fee on large real estate transactions in order to create a dedicated revenue stream for affordable housing production and preservation. Cities and towns across the state have already expressed a desire to do so, and the state should let them and ensure that the local option is flexible enough for cities and towns across the state to benefit.

I am grateful that the housing crisis will be at the center of the Legislature’s attention this year.  I’m urging Senator Barry Finegold and Representatives Dawne Shand, Adrianne Ramos and Kristin Kassner to advocate actively for the strongest legislation possible. Massachusetts must be a place where people can afford to live at any stage of life, and the only way to make or keep that a reality is through good policy.

Marianne Rutter

Amesbury

Letter: Transfer fee could boost affordable housing

Green affordable housing

Rachel Roth, “Letter: Transfer fee could boost affordable housing,” Your Arlington, April 4, 2024.

I am stunned by how much the cost of housing in Arlington has increased since my family moved here about 20 years ago. Renovated upstairs units in two-family condos routinely list for $1 million, and to rent the average two-bedroom apartment, someone must earn $41.64 per hour, more than twice the minimum wage – and that’s for the entire state, not just high-cost areas like greater Boston.1

We are fortunate to have Reps. Dave Rogers and Michael Day fighting for housing security, such as the right to have an attorney when facing eviction, yet there is so much more to do, including in the governor’s housing bill, unveiled last October.

The bill would be improved by adding options for cities and towns to raise money with local real estate transfer fees or implement rent control. According to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, with a robust real estate transfer fee, Arlington could raise almost $8 million each year for affordable housing, and Winchester could raise over $9 million.2

I ask our reps to keep pushing for strong housing laws with both statewide commitments to adequate and affordable housing production and allowances for some locally tailored options as well.

Letter: More Housing Helps Older Residents to Downsize

Jason Brown, “Letter: More Housing Helps Older Residents to Downsize,” West Roxbury / Roslindale Bulletin, April 4, 2024.

My older family members have lived here in Boston for a majority of their lives. As they grow older, their options to age-in-place or downsize are quite small: either stay in a too-big house (with too many stairs), or face a limited and expensive housing supply in Boston and across the Commonwealth.

Massachusetts faces an affordable housing crisis, and I’m hopeful of the proposals in Governor Healey’s Affordable Homes Act, which combines funding authorizations for various housing programs with important new policy measures for affordable housing.

For example, the Bill would permit Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) of <900 SF to be built by-right in single-family zoning districts in all communities and prohibit the parking mandates and owner-occupancy requirements used to make ADUs harder to build. This kind of thinking could open up new space for older residents to downsize without leaving the area.

In addition, communities across Massachusetts have shown interest in passing real estate transfer fees to raise much-needed additional funding for affordable housing, and the state should let them take action.

I am grateful that housing will be at the center of the Legislature’s attention this year, and I hope that our West Roxbury elected representatives will advocate for the strongest legislation possible. Massachusetts must be a place where people can afford to live at any stage of life, and the only way to make that a reality is through good policy.

More Letters to the Editor on the Affordable Homes Act

Nancy Phillips, “State delegation needs to support rent control along with governor’s Affordable Homes Act,” Cambridge Day, March 26, 2024.

Massachusetts is in the throes of a terrible housing crisis. A family trying to rent an available two-bedroom apartment in our expensive state (costing, as of February, $2,949 a month on average, according to Apartment Advisor) needs an annual income of at least $117,960. At $56.71 per hour, this is almost four times the state’s $15 minimum wage. (Here in Cambridge, which boasts some of the highest rents in Massachusetts, the average available two-bedroom unit rents for a staggering $3,592 a month, which requires an annual household income of $143,680.)

Meanwhile, waiting lists for rent-subsidized, affordable apartments are vastly oversubscribed, with applicants forced to wait at least three years – and in many towns as long as 10 years.

In response to this crisis, Gov. Maura Healey has introduced the Affordable Homes Act, which addresses the housing crisis in several useful ways, among them:

  • Making it easier to use public land for housing development;
  • Enabling cities and towns to establish real estate transfer fees as a means of raising funds for affordable housing development;
  • Enabling cities and towns to pass inclusionary zoning ordinances by simple majority rather than the currently mandated two-thirds vote. (Inclusionary zoning bylaws are those that require developers of new housing to include a certain percentage of affordable units.)

One critically important issue the bill doesn’t deal with, though, is repealing the 30-year-old statewide ban on rent control so those decisions can be made locally. Surely cities and towns can be trusted, and should be permitted, to make their own decisions on this as they do on other local matters.

I’m sure Cambridge’s state House members and senators will support the Affordable Homes Act. Equally if not more important, I hope they’ll make a strong effort to get the ban on rent control repealed. We in Massachusetts need to be able to do everything possible to provide affordable housing and keep people from being displaced.

Steven Leibowitz, “Healey’s Affordable Home Act gives local governments flexibility to increase housing,” Cape Cod Times, March 24, 2024.

We have talked about the issue of affordable housing on Cape Cod for decades. Our communities are working hard but struggling to find answers. We have the enormous challenge of second home ownership, environmental challenges and preserving open space, and the ever-present argument of the “character” of Cape Cod — something I’ve yet to see defined, especially in a way that overshadows the needs of residents. The people make the character.

Gov. Healey has filed the Affordable Homes Act, legislation that will create a new toolbox of opportunities for cities and towns to creatively address our housing crisis. This is an opportunity for the state to step up as a partner, unlocking options specific to one’s own community. It provides for a town such as Barnstable to have a local transfer fee on expensive real estate that could generate millions for affordable housing. This bill is the first serious effort in decades to provide money and strategies to create affordable, needed, workforce housing.

Please urge your state reps and senators to support this effort and amendments to strengthen the bill further, such as a flexible local transfer fee. The way to preserve Cape Cod is to keep people invested in and able to stay here.

Letter: Need to Push Legislation for Affordable Housing

Nina Lev, “Letter: Need to Push Legislation for Affordable Housing,” West Roxbury – Roslindale Bulletin, March 21, 2024.

I have recently had the opportunity to help a family of newcomers to Boston. This experience has given me a new appreciation of our City’s resources. The children were welcomed by the Boston Public Schools. The family has benefitted from excellent care at Boston Medical Center and enjoyed outings at the zoo and city parks. In so many ways we have created wonderful amenities, BUT our housing crisis makes it nearly impossible for our young people to build lives here, newcomers to settle here, and even for many of our residents to remain here.

The average two-bedroom apartment in Massachusetts requires an income of more than twice the minimum wage, with
the State’s median house price being $600,000. Fortunately, the Governor has introduced the Affordable Homes Act which would provide funding for various housing programs and new policy measures for affordable housing. These include enabling cities and towns, like Boston, to pass real estate transfer fees to raise money for affordable housing and creating a process to enable individuals to seal eviction records.

I know from talking with our elected representatives from both Roslindale and West Roxbury that housing is one of their major concerns. We need to encourage them to work within the legislature to support the strongest legislation possible to ensure that the residents of our communities can thrive here throughout their lives.


Nina Lev
Roslindale

Letter: The Affordable Homes Act and the price of living in Massachusetts

Hewon Hwang, “Letter: The Affordable Homes Act and the price of living in Massachusetts,” The Concord Bridge, March 16, 2024.

Our house was the single largest purchase in our lives, but we could afford it on our salaries in 1993. Unfortunately, this is no longer possible for many families today.   

Massachusetts has a housing crisis. Homeownership has become increasingly out of reach, as the state’s median home price is approximately $600,000. In more than 20 communities, including Concord ($1,594,000 in 2023), the median home price recently passed $1 million. The high cost of housing has led to displacement, and in a growing number of municipalities, the local workforce can no longer afford to live there.  

Governor Healey has responded to this crisis by introducing the Affordable Homes Act, which combines funding authorizations for various housing programs with important new policy measures for affordable housing. One of its key proposals is the local real estate transfer fee option. It enables cities and towns to levy a small fee on large real estate transactions to create a dedicated revenue stream for affordable housing production and preservation. Cities and towns across the state have already expressed a desire to do so — Concord’s home rule petition has been refiled for the third time and is pending at the State House. The Affordable Homes Act also includes capital authorizations to support the badly needed repair, rehabilitation, and modernization of over 43,000 crumbling public housing units across the Commonwealth, including $150M for public housing decarbonization and $115 million for sustainable and climate-resilient affordable housing. 

The Affordable Homes Act is a much-needed measure to address our housing crisis. I hope our legislators, Rep. Cataldo, Rep. Gentile, and Senator Barrett, will continue to advocate for the strongest legislation possible at the State House. Let’s make Massachusetts a place where people can afford to live at any stage of life. 

Hewon Hwang