Letter: The Home Rule Process is Broken

The home rule process is broken

Jonathan Cohn, “Letter: The Home Rule Process is Broken,” Boston Globe, December 13, 2024.

The Senate’s refusal to take up Mayor Michelle Wu’s home rule petition to shift the city’s tax burden is a damning indictment of the home rule process in Massachusetts (“Wu’s defeat could put her on defensive: Tensions high with Senate, business leaders,” Page A1, Dec. 11).

Whenever a Republican Legislature in another state tries to block its liberal capital city from passing its own laws, liberals in Massachusetts are rightly outraged. But our Commonwealth beat those other states by almost half a century, reinforced repeatedly in the years since by Boston’s business class, who rallied behind Proposition 2½ in the early 1980s and against rent control in the early 1990s.

If the petitions from cities and towns to pass their own laws can’t even get a vote at the State House — and this is just one of a few examples from this session, including rejected petitions on real estate transfer fees and rent control — the fundamental mechanisms of democracy are not working.

Jonathan Cohn

Policy director

Progressive Mass

Boston

PM in the News: “Progressive groups urge Beacon Hill to make anti-Trump push before year’s end”

Adam Reilly, “Progressive groups urge Beacon Hill to make anti-Trump push before year’s end,” WGBH, December 11, 2024.

Jonathan Cohn, the political director of the group Progressive Mass, told GBH News that given the way the Legislature usually operates, waiting until the start of a new session next year to begin initiating safeguards would be a mistake.

“Our legislature moves very slowly,” Cohn said. “What we often see, session after session, is that little in the way of legislation beyond the state budget will happen for the first half of the year in a new session … Things so often just get pushed back later and later and later , creating that bottleneck that [then] exists in July of an even-numbered year.

“With Trump 2.0 coming in January, we can’t wait until July of 2026 to be preparing our state for what’ll be happening,” he added. “It’s also far too late, and not nearly as proactive as we should be … to be even waiting until the middle ofnext year.”

PM in the News: Progressives Urge Action Before Trump Takes Office

Chris Lisinski, “Progressives Urge Action Before Trump Takes Office,” State House News Service, December 11, 2024.

Calling on Democrats to “be proactive, and not merely be reactive,” progressive groups urged Beacon Hill to take significant action on immigration, civil rights and reproductive health care before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

More than a dozen groups wrote to top legislative Democrats and Gov. Maura Healey on Tuesday with a series of requests, including eleventh-hour formal sessions to muscle through legislation they believe would better safeguard Bay Staters from the policies of Trump, who scored a convincing win last month over Kamala Harris.

In their letter, authors including representatives from Progressive Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition pointed to California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom called a special session to reinforce state laws that could be affected by Trump’s second term.

“If old patterns hold, then the Legislature will reconvene in January, committees will be assigned in February, hearings will continue for the next year, and little if any legislation will be passed and signed into law in the first half of 2025,” the groups said in their letter to House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka. “We saw the damage of the first Trump administration, and we cannot afford that wait.”

They praised the Legislature for prior efforts to “proactively respond to right-wing federal action,” including enactment of a law shielding abortion providers and out-of-state patients from legal action originating elsewhere following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The groups also asked Healey to create a state-funded legal defense fund to support court fights over topics such as reproductive health care, form compacts with other “like-minded states,” and prioritize state contracts and investments for “companies that align with progressive values.”

Legislative leaders, who preside over Democrat supermajorities and are working with a Democrat in the corner office, have signaled no plans to take up any Trump-inspired legislation before the new term starts Jan. 1.

They also displayed little to no appetite earlier in the term for tackling the specific proposals progressive groups highlighted, including the so-called Safe Communities Act, which has long been a source of debate but for several straight terms never moved forward for a House or Senate vote.

PM in the News: Progressives Push for Preemptive Action on Trump 2.0

Kelly Garrity, “Progressives push for preemptive action on Trump 2.0,” POLITICO, December 11, 2024.

NOW NOT LATER — With just over a month until Donald Trump returns to the White House, more than a dozen progressive and grassroots groups are urging the state’s Democratic leaders not to wait to strengthen state laws for rights they say are likely to come under fire in the next administration.

In letters sent to Gov. Maura Healey and top legislative leaders, the coalition calls on Beacon Hill’s Big Three to get the ball rolling now, before the current legislative session ends on Dec. 31.

“States like Massachusetts have a responsibility to lead and push back: we must refuse to comply everywhere we can, we must shore up protections for marginalized communities in the Commonwealth, and we must chart a clear course for what accountable progressive governance looks like and how it delivers for us all,” the letter to Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano reads.

The organizations backing the push: Signatories include groups like Indivisible Massachusetts Coalition, Progressive Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition, Act On Mass and Our Revolution Massachusetts.

What they want: The groups are asking Healey to call the Legislature back for a formal session “as soon as possible.”

They’re also calling on the governor to create a “legal defense fund” that would support civil rights litigation, and are urging Healey to join Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’ “Governors Safeguarding Democracy” group.

And they want to see the Legislature pass bills that would ensure no state resources are used in assisting federal immigration enforcement and end ICE detention in the state.

Advocacy Organizations Call on Governor Maura Healey to Take Bold Action to Respond to Threat of Trump Administration 

Tuesday, December 10, 2024 

Governor Maura Healey 

Massachusetts State House

24 Beacon St

Office of the Governor, Room 280 

Boston, MA 02133 

Dear Governor Healey,

We, the signatories of this letter, represent grassroots statewide organizations that value our state’s commitment to protecting our safety, especially the most vulnerable populations, civil rights, public health, public education, and the environment. With Trump reentering the White House in January, we are deeply concerned about the federal policies that will threaten the progress we’ve made in our state. California Governor Gavin Newsom’s recent decision to call a special legislative session to pass protections is a model of the proactive approach needed to shield our residents from Trump’s dangerous agenda. A coalition, “Governors Safeguarding Democracy,” formed by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Colorado Governor Jared Polis to resist potential federal policies affecting political investigations, deportations, and university diversity programs is another proactive approach.

As you know, Trump’s policies will bring aggressive rollbacks of immigrants rights, civil liberties, reproductive rights, climate regulations, healthcare, and LGBTQ+ protections. These attacks will disproportionately impact blue states like ours, where residents rely on progressive policies to ensure their safety and well-being. We urge you to act now to protect our state’s values and shield us from Trump’s harmful policies.

We respectfully request that you act quickly to safeguard our state:

  1. Call on the General Court to come back into formal session as soon as possible: Urge the General Court to come back in session in December to address the critical threat posed by Trump’s policies. This session should prioritize measures to protect our residents’ rights, health, and safety from federal overreach such as:
    1. An Act to protect the civil rights and safety of all Massachusetts residents (S.1510/H.2288)
    2. An Act relative to Massachusetts state sovereignty (S.997/H.1401)
    3. Ensure the safety and well-being of the residents of the Commonwealth and those traveling from other states for reproductive care by shoring up privacy rights and banning the purchase and sale of personal cell phone location data.
  1. Create a State-Funded Legal Defense Fund: Establish a legal fund to defend our state’s progressive policies against Trump’s administration. This fund should support legal battles on issues like people’s safety, reproductive healthcare, environmental protection, and civil rights.
  1. Form Compacts with Like-Minded States: Please establish a regional compact with other neighboring blue trifecta states and also join the “Governors Safeguarding Democracy,” to create a united front showing that our values cannot be undermined by Trump’s administration.
  1. Adopt “Race-to-the-Top” Standards: Lead the way with bold policies to continue to strengthen our labor, immigrant and voting rights, accelerate our clean energy transition, and address the cost of living. These policies not only benefit our residents but also set a national example, demonstrating that our state will stand firm against Trump’s regressive policies.
  1. Utilize State Contracts and Investments to Support Our Values: Use our state’s economic influence to promote civil rights, environmental responsibility, and fair labor practices. By prioritizing companies that align with progressive values and refusing contracts with those that support Trump’s harmful policies, our state can send a powerful message of resistance.

Governor Healey, with your leadership, our state can be a powerful counterforce against a federal government that threatens our most fundamental rights and protections. We urge you to act swiftly to protect Massachusetts residents and ensure that we remain a stronghold for justice, equality, and environmental stewardship.

Thank you for your dedication to safeguarding our values and acting to protect our community in the face of a second Trump administration. We look forward to seeing our state be bold, protect and uphold the rights and freedoms that are essential to our future.

Sincerely,

Indivisible Mass Coalition

Progressive Mass

Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition

Act On Mass

American Federation of Teachers – MA

Asian American Resource Workshop 

Asian Pacific Islanders Civic Action Network – MA

CARE Action, Inc

Clean Water Action

Mass Peace Action

Our Revolution Massachusetts

Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts

Indivisible Acton Area

IndivisibleLAB

Valley Action

Advocacy Organizations Call on Massachusetts House and Senate to Reconvene Before End of Session to Pass Critical Legislation that Addresses Threats of Trump Administration

Tuesday, December 10, 2024 

Speaker Ron Mariano 

24 Beacon St.

Room 356

Boston, MA, 02133

Senate President Karen Spilka 

24 Beacon St.

Room 332

Boston, MA, 02133

Speaker Mariano and Senate President Spilka, 

Residents across Massachusetts have responded to the recent presidential election with fear and anxiety about what will come from a second Trump administration. We know the damage caused from the first one: the harms done to civil rights, labor rights, environmental protections, immigrant communities, communities of color, LGBTQ rights, reproductive rights, health care access, public health infrastructure, and so much more. 

Trump and the coming Republican Congress have been clear that they plan to continue these assaults. They and their allies have outlined it in Project 2025, which proposes a radical right-wing restructuring of the federal government and an attack on basic rights and freedoms that we in Massachusetts cherish. 

States like Massachusetts have a responsibility to lead and push back: we must refuse to comply everywhere we can, we must shore up protections for marginalized communities in the Commonwealth, and we must chart a clear course for what accountable progressive governance looks like and how it delivers for us all. 

This work ahead will follow different timelines, but what is clear now is we cannot wait until next January to get started. We ask you to be proactive, and not merely be reactive to the threats of the Trump administration. This extraordinary moment requires extraordinary action. Other states, such as California, have responded by coming back into session to pass additional protections. We urge you to come back into session as soon as possible this month to do the same. 

Knowing that assaults on our immigrant communities will be immediate actions from the next Trump administration, we urge you to take up legislation this December to protect our state’s immigrant communities, including but not limited to provisions found in bills S.1510/H.2288 and S.997/H.1401: 

  • Guarantee that Massachusetts resources are used for state priorities, not federal immigration enforcement, by ending the state Department of Corrections’ 287(g) agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and ensuring that state and local police will not inquire about immigration status 
  • End ICE detention in Massachusetts and prohibit the deputization of local officials to act as ICE agents 
  • Protect access to courts by prohibiting police and court officials from initiating contact with ICE about a person’s pending release from police or court custody, except at the end of a sentence of incarceration 
  • Ensure the safety and well-being of the residents of the Commonwealth and those traveling from other states for reproductive care by shoring up privacy rights and banning the purchase and sale of personal cell phone location data. 

If old patterns hold, then the Legislature will reconvene in January, committees will be assigned in February, hearings will continue for the next year, and little if any legislation will be passed and signed into law in the first half of 2025. We saw the damage of the first Trump administration, and we cannot afford that wait. 

We appreciate past efforts to  proactively respond to right-wing federal action. After the Supreme Court’s shameful Dobbs decision in late June of 2022, you took quick action to provide legal protections to abortion providers, out-of-state patients, and insurers; expand access to contraceptives; and help ensure that women who face grave circumstances get the care they need. 

We ask that you once again step up. We look forward to working with you in December and also in the coming years to counter the threats posed by the Trump administration. Our Commonwealth must take action at this moment and respond, and we must be flexible now, which means proactively passing legislation in December before this session ends. 

Sincerely,

Indivisible Mass Coalition

Progressive Mass

Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition

Act On Mass

American Federation of Teachers – MA

Asian American Resource Workshop 

Asian Pacific Islanders Civic Action Network – MA

CARE Action, Inc

Clean Water Action

MassEquality

Mass Peace Action

Our Revolution Massachusetts

Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts

Indivisible Acton Area

IndivisibleLAB

Valley Action

Behind Closed Doors: What’s Wrong with the MA State House

By Eileen Ryan, Progressive Watertown

On Sunday, October 27th, Progressive Watertown hosted a forum, “Behind Closed Doors: What’s Wrong with the MA State House.” The impetus for the forum was the failure of key legislation supported by Progressive Massachusetts to pass in the legislative session that ended on July 31st, 2024, despite wide-spread support and 1,000s of hours of activism by constituents across the commonwealth. Close to 50 people attended, including several Watertown past and present City Councilors. I, as a Progressive Watertown Steering Committee member, had the honor of moderating.

Jonathan Hecht, who served as state representative for Watertown and Cambridge for twelve years and Watertown town councilor for four, was our first speaker. He is a member of the leadership team of Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts and on the steering committee of the Coalition to Reform Our Legislature. Jon gave a brief history of voting rights in Massachusetts, which included some surprising facts: until the 1960s, MA had a rigorous and unfair literacy test required of voters, as well as a “pauper exclusion,” i.e., no one who received public assistance could vote. Jon noted that great progress has been made over the past 60 years to make it easier to vote and more citizens are voting and yet, less is being accomplished at the State House. Public hearings are held by committees, but follow-up committee meetings to discuss the fate of the proposed legislation never happen. There are currently about 750 bills sitting in the Ways and Means Committee that have been heard, vetted, and recommended but have not moved forward, with many of these bills multiple sessions or even decades old. Jon also discussed the stipend system of favoritism at the State House and how it disproportionately affects members of the House of Representatives. People who run for office with the best of intentions become frustrated that they are not able to do the job they were elected to do.

Danielle Allen, professor of political philosophy, public policy, and ethics at Harvard University and the Founder and President of Partners in Democracy, spoke next. Danielle addressed the need for constant democracy renovation at the state level and how it interacts with the looming signs of fascism on a national level. She was applauded when she shared that she had just resigned as a Washington Post columnist due to that paper’s refusal to endorse a presidential candidate. Danielle also highlighted that we are in a moment of intense change technologically and economically and that we are all feeling the effects of great migrations and globalization. She deplored the decline of local news and how it affects voters’ awareness and pointed out that MA is 50th in the number of choices we have in each Massachusetts election cycle due to a high bar to get your name on the ballot.

Both speakers support a Yes on Question 1, the ballot question to enable the State Auditor to audit our state legislature, and are working out other possible ways to change the legislature, including a future ballot question to address the State House’s stipend system.

The audience asked great questions and was motivated to take action. The forum was recorded and will be ready for viewing soon.

PM in the News: Ballot Questions

Tavishi Chattopadhyay, “Question 2 proposes removal of MCAS, sparks debate over equity for students,” The Daily Free Press, October 20, 2024.

Jonathan Cohn, policy director at Progressive Massachusetts, a grassroots organization, said he supports Question 2 because he believes the MCAS narrows the curriculum in schools.

“We want our students to have a well-rounded and comprehensive kind of high school experience,” Cohn said. “Reducing that experience to a single test score does students [a] disservice.”

….

However, Cohn said the MCAS already disenfranchises some demographics, including students learning English as a second language, students with disabilities, low-income students and students of color.

Jack R. Trapanick, “With Ballot Question 1, A Test of Trust in the Massachusetts State Legislature,” Harvard Crimson, October 22, 2024.

Jonathan Cohn, policy director at Progressive Mass, pointed out that it was difficult to get any internal information about the legislature’s workings. Neither its committee votes nor hearing testimony are available to the public.

“We hold the status of being the only state where the governor’s office, the legislature, and the judiciary, all claim full exemption from the public records law,” he said.

The legislature, Cohn added, “doesn’t view information, in general, as the public good” — though he conceded that the measure was likely to face a lawsuit if it passes.

Letter: Mass. leaders needed to do more

Marianne Rutter, “Letter: Mass. leaders needed to do more,” Newburyport News, September 22, 2024.

To the Editor:
I, like many Massachusetts voters, was excited for our state to finally have 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 can’t help feeling disappointed.

As has become the unfortunate norm on Beacon Hill, the House and Senate ran out the clock after midnight on July 31 with a long list of unfinished business, leaving unaddressed many important priorities like economic development, climate change, and bills to address the Steward crisis, as well as many common-sense bills that never advanced far enough to come up for a vote. Massachusetts citizens shouldn’t need to wait until 2025 until these important issues are addressed.

Our Legislature’s over-centralization of power, inertia, and complacency will require deep cultural change (or the shocks of election losses). Even worse is a trend not commonly on view for the average voter: there has been a striking decline in basic deliberation and accountability in the Legislature, with both chambers taking fewer than half the recorded votes they did just a few sessions ago.

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.

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

Sincerely,
Marianne Rutter

LETTER: What is wrong with our Legislature?

Lynn Nadeau, “LETTER: What is wrong with our Legislature?,” Marblehead Current, September 8, 2024.

To the editor:

What is wrong with our Massachusetts Legislature? The basic function of a legislature — passing laws — seems too difficult for them. The most recent two-year session has left important bills unpassed. This impacts every issue area that people care about: housing, criminal justice, economic development and climate.

The Legislature has egregiously failed to agree on a climate bill that would combine the omnibus bills passed in each chamber.

Over the last two years, we citizens have learned about proposed bills, attended briefings and hearings, weighed in with our state representatives and senators, and yet still, after two years, we are left right back where we started. The Legislature has failed to come to an agreement on siting and permitting of clean energy projects, on addressing plastic pollution, on plans to accelerate our transition away from gas, and on gas company profiteering by rebuilding remain stuck in limbo or outright dead.

It’s been frustrating for citizens and environmental groups to keep informed and to communicate with Representative Armini and Senator Crighton and then have the bosses in the Legislature fail to bring bills up for a vote. What is wrong with the Massachusetts Legislature? It’s well-paid, well-staffed and full-time. But its productivity and functionality are among the worst in the nation. The Senate president and House speaker control their respective chambers and dole out chairships and other sinecures. In exchange, they insist on vote secrecy, fealty and unanimous votes. The industrial lobbyists must be chortling all the way to the bank. We get to vote on a question on the November ballot to require the auditing of the Legislature by State Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s office. Let’s vote for the Auditor’s Office to find the bloat and dysfunction!

Lynn Nadeau