It’s a rainy and dreary day. Your state legislators are stuck at home and lonely. So why not send them an email?
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In July, the MA House and Senate passed their respective versions of an economic development bill (H.5576). This omnibus bill (called “eco-dev” in the State House) has become a major vehicle for each chamber to attach policy priorities at the end of the session.
Each chamber had some important proposals in it, and as the House and Senate negotiate the final details of a bill throughout the fall, it’s important that they hear from you about why the good ones need to stay in a final bill.
So what proposals are we talking about?
- Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) language that would give tenants a right of first refusal to band together and buy their buildings when they go on the market
- Yes in God’s Backyard language that allows faith-based institutions to build multi-family housing by-right on land they already own
- Legalizing duplexes by right in residential areas, an easy way to modestly increase density and expand housing opportunities
- Clean Slate language that would automate the record sealing process so that close to a half-million individuals, including young people with juvenile records, would immediately have most of their cases sealed after the applicable waiting periods are completed
- Raise the Age language that would ensure that high school seniors aren’t sent to adult prisons and instead have better access to education and counseling resources
- AI Safety language that would require major AI developers—known as large frontier developers—to account for their AI models’ risk of critical safety incidents by setting frameworks to avoid potential catastrophes
The fall will be busy, but make sure that your legislators know that you’re still paying attention and you want these critical policies to become law this session.