“Policy is my love language.”

Policy is my love language

“Policy is my love language.” This is a quote that Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley often uses, and it rings so true. If we want to build a society where people truly love, care for, and respect each other, then we need policies that reflect that, rather than policies that dehumanize and marginalize.

Tell Your State Rep to Vote YES on the Work & Family Mobility Act!

Last Friday, the Work & Family Mobility Act was reported out of the Joint Transportation Committee.

This bill would enable all qualified state residents to apply for a standard Massachusetts driver’s license or identification card regardless of immigrant status.

Many MA residents depend on a car to get to work, to school, to the hospital, etc., and immigration status shouldn’t be a barrier to getting a license.

Moreover, the Work & Family Mobility Act would make us all safer. If all drivers have passed the same test and know the same rules of the road, and are properly insured, we all benefit.

The House is expected to vote on the bill soon—possibly as early as this week.

Can you write to your state rep to urge them to vote YES?

Valentine’s Day Rally to Pass the Jail and Prison Construction Moratorium Bill!

Let’s show love to incarcerated women and love for our communities! Come to the State House with Families for Justice as Healing on Monday from 12-1pm to push the Legislature to pass the Moratorium Bill and free women from Framingham and invest money in what communities really need to thrive! Please wear masks to keep each other safe. Feel free to bring signs with messages like FREE HER, STOP THE NEW WOMEN’S PRISON, or PASS S2030/H1905. RSVP HERE.

Hearts Broken on Slow Solutions, Love is Strong for our Movement

Every day that passes without action breaks our hearts, knowing that Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Immigrant, and all oppressed people are harmed by the status quo. Our frontline movements have worked for years for urgent social change, with some priority bills delayed by our legislature for over a decade. It is with our broken hearts and fierce love for each other that we will gather at the statehouse, united in calling for action.

We will be joining allied organizations in gathering at 3pm on Monday in front of the State House (and on Zoom) to lift up our priorities together. Will we have another year of immigrants in MA denied access to a driver’s license? Will tens of thousands more face needless COVID-19 evictions and foreclosures?

Healthy Youth Act Lobby Day

For over 10 years, the Healthy Youth Act has been our Commonwealth’s opportunity to ensure that public schools that choose to offer sex education provide lessons that are inclusive, comprehensive, and medically accurate.

This Monday, February 14, from 12 pm to 2 pm, the Healthy Youth Act Coalition will be hosting a virtual lobby day to urge the Legislature to pass the bill. RSVP here (and you can email your state rep here if you can’t make it.)

Fighting for a Fair Share from Our Wealthiest Institutional Neighbors

Tuesday, February 15, 6pm – 7:30 pm

Across the Commonwealth, towns and cities are wrestling with the challenges and fiscal burden of expanding nonprofit property tax expansion from some of the wealthiest education and medical institutions in our country. Without a framework for institutional contributions, critical services for residents are threatened. From Western Mass to Greater Boston, from North Shore to South Shore—this issue demands state action. Join us for a discussion on necessary state legislation on payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) programs and how advocacy organizations and state and local legislators are fighting to win it.

The PILOT Action Group is hosting a discussion with Davarian L. Baldwin, college professor and author of In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower and How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities. Baldwin’s book provides an excellent analysis of the role of large nonprofit institutions in our communities, and presents a vision of a more equitable relationship between communities and these institutions. Register here.

Common Start Coalition Roundtables

The Common Start Coalition is a statewide partnership of organizations, providers, parents, early educators, and advocates working together to make high-quality early education and child care affordable and accessible to all Massachusetts families.

Over the next few weeks, the Common Start Coalition will be hosting a series of roundtable discussions about why long-term investment in child care and early education infrastructure is so critical. Sign up today!

Wednesday, Feb 16, from 6:30pm – 7:30pm: Roundtable discussion on racial justice and Common Start, hosted by Neighborhood Villages and Coalition for Social Justice

Thursday, Feb 17, from 4pm – 5pm: Common Start Roundtable discussion on wraparound services, hosted by Horizons for Homeless Children

Thursday, February 24, from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm: Common Start Roundtable discussion with religious leaders on affordable childcare

Tuesday, March 1, from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm: Common Start Roundtable discussion on Building Blocks for a Healthy Future

PILOT Reform: Our Wealthy Institutions Need to be Better Neighbors

Harvard campus

Friday, January 28, 2022

Chairman Hinds, Chairman Cusack, and Members of the Joint Committee on Revenue:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.

We urge a favorable report for H.3080 and S.1874: An Act relative to payments in lieu of taxation by organizations exempt from the property tax (Rep. Uyterhoeven & Sen. Gomez).

Massachusetts is lucky to be home to many world-class hospitals and universities. But these large institutions, despite often operating indistinguishably from for-profit institutions, do not have to pay taxes. Given their large footprint, that is a fiscal drain for many communities across the Commonwealth, especially as communities are looking to find much-needed funds for investments in schools, housing, and infrastructure.

This bill would address this discrepancy by requiring large hospitals and universities to pay 25% of commercial property taxes to municipalities, based on the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreement in Boston. Under this bill, municipalities could opt in to requiring a mandatory PILOT rather than having to engage in drawn-out negotiations or chasing down institutions one by one.

Why 25%? This number reflects the costs posed by such large institutions to municipal services like police, fire departments, and departments of public works. It is still a good deal for the institutions, who are still paying far less in property taxes than an individual would have to pay. And, by applying only to institutions with property worth over $15 million, the bill would avoid risking any adverse impact on smaller institutions.

We need to be empowering municipalities to take action to address the many crises before us, but they need the funds to do so. And when they have wealthy institutional neighbors, they shouldn’t be forced to be stuck in struggling fiscal straits.

Moreover, municipalities across the Commonwealth, as well as the state government itself, would benefit from a clearer understanding of how much money gets lost through such tax exemptions each year. We thus also urge a favorable report for H.3802 An Act establishing a study to examine lost municipal real estate tax revenue (Rep. Robinson), which would provide a clearer assessment of just what that lost revenue is.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts 

The Legislature Just Voted 159 to 41 to Advance the Fair Share Amendment. Here’s What’s Next.

Earlier today, the MA Legislature voted 159 to 41 to advance the Fair Share Amendment to the November 2022 ballot. 

The vote was 121 to 39 in the House and 38 to 2 in the Senate (the 2: Ryan Fattman and Bruce Tarr). 

2021 FSA Vote House

The Fair Share Amendment would amend the Massachusetts Constitution, creating an additional tax of 4 percentage points on the portion of a person’s annual income above $1 million. This new revenue would be invested into funding our public schools and colleges as well as the repair and maintenance of our roads, bridges, and public transportation infrastructure.

Although today’s vote was exciting, the work isn’t over yet. It’s just beginning. 

In the coming months, we’ll keep you posted about ways to help ensure a victory for Fair Share in November of 2022. But here’s what you do now. 

(1) Make a pledge to vote for Fair Share next year! 

Do you support the Fair Share Amendment? Do you plan to vote YES in favor of passing it on the ballot in 2022? Then become an official “Fair Share Amendment Voter” by filling out the pledge at https://raiseupma.us/pm. 

And then after you sign, share it with five friends!

(2) Sign up for a Fair Share event! 

You can find launch events around the state here. 

NEXT WEEK: Fair Share Vote, CD-08 Hearing, SCA Phone Bank

Yesterday, the Massachusetts Legislature announced that the Fair Share Amendment will be on the agenda and up for a vote during their Wednesday, June 9th Constitutional Convention!

Before the Fair Share Amendment can be placed on the 2022 ballot, it must be brought up for a vote in a Massachusetts Constitutional Convention twice and receive YES votes from 50% +1 of the legislature.

In 2019, the Fair Share amendment passed its first Con-Con with a 75% YES vote. Next Wednesday’s Constitutional Convention vote is the LAST hurdle before the Fair Share Amendment is OFFICIALLY placed on the ballot.

Here’s what you can do:

1. EMAIL YOUR LEGISLATORS – It is incredibly urgent that every legislator hears from their constituents about how important it is that they vote YES to advance the Fair Share Amendment. Take 30 seconds to email your legislators now!

2. ATTEND A FAIR SHARE KICKOFF EVENT – Over the next few weeks, the Fair Share 2022 Campaign is hosting Fair Share Amendment kickoff events in every corner of the state. Find one near you and urge your friends, family, and social networks to attend these events as well. RSVP for one near you at https://raiseupma.us/events!

**************************************************

Phone Bank for the Safe Communities Act! 📞📞📞

The Safe Communities Act achieved major progress last year. Building on that momentum, we’re ready to fight for a victory this session.

But we need a supermajority of House and Senate votes to overcome an expected Governor’s veto. That’s two-thirds of each chamber: 107 House votes and 27 Senate votes.

Help us engage constituents in purple districts, so that swing legislators can be confident they have public support when they take that vote.

Join us for a Zoom Phone Bank next Wednesday at 6 pm to constituents in swing districts to generate calls to their legislators! Register here—and don’t forget to invite your friends!

We provide a short training at the beginning, log-in information, and lists for phone banking. You’ll need a computer and phone to participate, and we’ll send you Zoom information on how to join when you RSVP.

**************************************************

CD-08 Redistricting Hearing: Tuesday, 6/8, 12 pm to 5 pm

The Redistricting Committee will be hosting separate hearings for all nine Congressional Districts. These hearings provide an opportunity for area residents to offer their opinions on local and community interests that the Committee should consider when creating the new legislative districts.

Next Tuesday, the Committee will focus on CD-08.

CD-08 includes all or part of Abington, Avon, Braintree, Bridgewater, Brockton, Canton, Cohasset, Dedham, East Bridgewater, Holbrook, Hingham, Hull, Milton, Norwood, Quincy, Stoughton, Walpole, West Bridgewater, Westwood, Weymouth, Whitman, and the neighborhoods of Beacon Hill, Dorchester, Downtown, Jamaica Plain, South Boston, Roslindale, and West Roxbury in Boston.

Sign up to testify here.

Charlie Baker Wants to Deny Teachers Emergency Paid Sick Time

Last month — around the one-year anniversary of the declaration of emergency in Massachusetts due to the COVID pandemic — the MA Legislature finally passed a law to allow all workers to access five days of emergency paid sick time for COVID-related sickness, quarantine, caregiving, and vaccination.

Enter: Republican Governor Charlie Baker.

Rather than signing the bill, Baker sent it back with amendments to deny Emergency Paid Sick Time benefits to municipal employees – workers who are on the frontlines of the pandemic response and deserve the same protections as private-sector workers.

At the same time that he is requiring schools to reopen, he is trying to take away vital protections for teachers and staff. And trying to put countless other public workers at risk.

Fortunately, your state senator and state representative don’t need to listen to Baker and can reaffirm their commitment to an equitable recovery. 

Please take 2 minutes right now to email your legislator, asking them to oppose Governor Baker’s changes to the Emergency Paid Sick Time legislation.

Our 2021 Annual Member Meeting: Videos & Slides

2021 Member Meeting

Thank you to everyone who joined us earlier this month for our 2021 annual member meeting!

We were not able to record every breakout session, but we do have recordings for five of them, which you can watch on our YouTube page: 

You can also view the slides from the three presenters for the “What the COVID Pandemic Reveals about Our State Government” breakout.

And the slides from the “Massachusetts Budget Dilemma: Wealthy State, Inequitable Services” breakout:

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.

The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly of the House Budget

Late last night, the MA House passed a much-delayed budget for FY 2021.

Let’s dive in.

The Good

The House last night voted to pass a slimmed down version of the ROE Act, which — although not as comprehensive as the ROE Act — has been celebrated by reproductive rights advocates as a major step forward.

The amendment, which passed 108 – 49, would do the following:

  • Expand access to abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy in cases of a lethal fetal diagnosis, allowing pregnant people facing serious medical obstacles to their pregnancy to make the decision that’s best for them in consultation with their doctor and receive care here at home.
  • Allow 16 and 17 year olds to make their own decisions about abortion care without having to go before a judge.
  • Streamline access for those under 16 years old by allowing remote hearings, eliminating the need for young people to travel to a courthouse and stand before a judge.

How did your state representative vote? Find out here.

11.12.20 House Vote on ROE

Want to thank them if they were one of the 108 YES votes? You can do so here.

The Bad

If we want to have an equitable recovery from the pandemic and the related recession, we need to invest in our public schools, our public infrastructure, our public health system, and our social safety net in all its forms.

And that requires money.

Unfortunately, the MA House hasn’t gotten the memo. The House budget fails to deliver on the promises made in the Student Opportunity Act last year and shortchanges public services across the state, especially public transit.

Legislators had a chance on Tuesday to push back against these cuts and vote to raise additional revenue.

Unfortunately, the House voted 127 to 30 against doing so.

In a time when the billionaires in our state keep getting richer, these representatives overwhelmingly voted against a common-sense amendment from Rep. Mike Connolly (D-Cambridge) to tax unearned income (income from non-retirement investments and other forms of asset ownership, such as stocks, bonds, and dividend and interest income) at a higher rate than earned income (income from wages and salaries, as well as pensions, annuities, 401k, IRAs, and other similar retirement accounts). Unearned income goes overwhelmingly to corporate shareholders and other high-income individuals, and a modest increase could generate significant sums of money to fund public services.

Here was the vote.

The Ugly

If you follow the news, you know we’re in store for a dark winter, as COVID-19 case numbers and death tolls are expected to rise.

Low-wage workers are our first line of defense against COVID-19, but they are feeling the greatest economic impact of the outbreak. Healthcare and long-term care workers, janitorial workers, food service workers, child care workers, municipal workers, adjunct faculty, gig workers, and others on the front lines are critical to supporting our communities during the OVID-19 outbreak.

But many of these front-line workers are struggling economically and lack basic economic protections including adequate paid sick time. No one who is sick should feel like they have to go to work or else they will lose their job. That’s bad for the economy and bad for public health.

Unfortunately, even though a super-majority of state representatives signed onto a budget amendment to grant two weeks of job-protected emergency paid sick time, the House punted, choosing to leave workers behind again. Emergency paid sick time didn’t even get a vote or a debate.

Want to tell your representative how you feel? Find their information here.

We plan to keep fighting — for better results in the Senate next week and better results in the session next year.