Let’s start out with the ugly, and then the good and the bad.
The UGLY: Yesterday, the US Senate passed a horror show of a budget to take away health care access and food assistance in order to fund tax cuts for the mega-rich and large corporations, and to create a police state in the US by increasing ICE’s budget several times over. If passed, it will be a disaster for the country and for Massachusetts. If you have friends in other states who have Republican Senators or Representatives, ask them to make a phone call in opposition to the Big Ugly Bill.
THE GOOD: On Monday, the Massachusetts State House did something it hasn’t done since 2016: it passed a budget before the end of the fiscal year.
There are some major victories in this budget to celebrate:
- Banning tenant-paid broker’s fees
- $2.5 million in continued funding for an access to counsel program, which provides legal representation to low-income tenants facing eviction
- $5 million for an immigrant legal defense fund
- Permanently fare-free regional transit authorities
- Increased funding for our public schools
THE BAD: But there were also disappointments in the budget:
- Only $1 million in dedicated funding for No Cost Calls implementation
- Less funding for local aid
- Insufficient funding for housing safety net programs
- Insufficient funds for SNAP case workers
Read more about the state budget here, here, and here.
Write to your legislator to express your support for the budget wins and your disappointment with what was left out.
Healey Wants to Spend $360 Million on a New Prison. Tell Her No Way.
For years, our friends at Families for Justice as Healing have been organizing against a proposed $50 million new women’s prison to replace MCI-Framingham.
How has Governor Maura Healey responded? By proposing a $360 million new women’s prison.
Incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and girls have been clear: what we need is not a new prison, but greater programming for those currently incarcerated, better reentry programs for people when they return to community, and greater community investments in housing, health care, education, and economic security and opportunity.
Think of how much that $360 million could do if it went instead to keeping communities safe and ending cycles of incarceration and harm.
Join FJaH in telling Governor Healey to stop the $360 million new women’s prison with the action toolkit at bit.ly/FreeHerMA.
Call daily between 9am and 5pm only – (617) 725-4005
Email any time using this form: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/email-the-governors-office Sample Email/Script:
“Hello, my name is _________________ and I am your constituent. I oppose your plan to build a $360 million women’s prison. Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on prison construction is not investing in people’s wellbeing and will not make our communities safer. Our communities need this money for housing, healing, healthcare, treatment and more. We could actually make Massachusetts a model for the rest of the country by releasing many more women and implementing alternatives to incarceration rather than building yet another prison.”
Another Budget Takeaway: Fair Share Delivers
One major budget takeaway: The Fair Share Amendment has been delivering even more than expected, and it has proven essential. The Fair Share Amendment has been producing even more revenue than projected, and it has made possible critical new investments in education and transportation. Learn more about its $6 billion in positive impact so far at https://www.fairsharema.com/.
