Less Than 100 Days Until the End of the Legislative Session

The formal legislative session in the Massachusetts State House ends in less than 100 days, on July 31.

Although the session will continue on an informal basis through January 5 of next year, the vast majority of all legislative action will happen between now and the end of July. So what’s happened so far?

There have been 167 bills signed into law:

  • 122 were home rule petitions for one city or town
  • 22 were administrative matters for specific state employees
  • 10 were budgets or supplemental budgets
  • 4 were awareness days
  • 2 were bond authorizations

That leaves 7 stand-alone bills:

  • Temporarily extending hybrid meeting access for local meetings
  • Updating the state’s shield law protecting access to gender-affirming and reproductive health care
  • Setting the primary election for September 1
  • Strengthening protections against assault & battery for transit workers
  • Making car rentals more affordable
  • Updating the collection of birth and death statistics
  • Modernizing cannabis regulations

Now, to be fair, the Legislature has passed various new policies through the budget, such as banning tenant-paid broker’s fees and creating an immigrant legal defense fund (both big wins). And we have been able to see transformative investments in education and transportation due to Fair Share revenue that YOU helped win on the ballot in 2022.

And some bills have passed one chamber and not the other. You can see some of those on our Legislator Scorecard, through February.

But what this shows us is that there is still so much work left to do this session. We’re ready to keep fighting. So keep making calls and emails (an getting friends and neighbors to do so as well).

Happy National Library Week! Let’s Rein in Book Bans.

Happy National Library Week!

The theme for this year’s National Library Week is “Find Your Joy,” a recognition of the value of libraries in helping individuals of all ages explore, imagine, learn, relax, and so much more. Libraries make learning fun.

But libraries have been under attack, with a rise of book ban efforts attacking schools and libraries across the country and here in Massachusetts. Book bans are attacks on free speech in general, and attacks more specifically on the identities, histories, or topics represented in targeted books, materials, and media. Many attempts have targeted books and media dealing with LGBTQ characters and themes, race, equity, social justice, and the US’s complicated history.

Many book bans have targeted librarians themselves—limiting their ability to choose books and media, and even proposing punishments. Some book ban attempts challenge classroom book collections, limiting teachers’ abilities to meet their students’ needs.

Last November, the MA Senate passed legislation to rein in politically motivated book bans. We need the MA House to do so too.

Can you write to your state rep today about the need to pass legislation to do so?

Follow-up Links to Spring Forward: What Beacon Hill Can Do on Energy Affordability webinar

Thank you to everyone who joined last night’s webinar! And if you weren’t able to join, you were missed!

Here is the video:

Vick shared two action alerts and one upcoming event:  

PM in the News: “Massachusetts’ AI program is more than meets the eye”

Jonathan Gerhardson, “Massachusetts’ AI program is more than meets the eye,” Shoestring, April 8, 2026.

The announcement has been met with controversy. State Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven (D-Somerville), who among elected officials has been one of the most vocal critics of the deal, points to a lack of clear privacy protections in the contract and alleged conflicts of interest by the advisory board which recommended OpenAI. And Jonathan Cohn, policy director for Progressive Massachusetts, said the governor did not engage with state employees to gauge whether the tools would actually be helpful before committing to the OpenAI contract. 

“She seemed proud to be the first state to do this, when no one was clamoring to do this,” he told The Shoestring.

Follow-up links & actions to Webinar “Spring Forward: Privacy and Power: Protecting Our Digital Rights and Democracy”

Thank you so much for joining our webinar on Wednesday “Spring Forward: Privacy and Power: Protecting Our Digital Rights and Democracy”! And thank you to our great speaker, Kade Crockford from the ACLU of Massachusetts. 

You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/wHi4nsmLjjc.

https://youtu.be/wHi4nsmLjjc

And here are the follow-up links from Kade: 

  1. ACLU presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1G9hEyXj0-3IMz16f9ctnPXQaiP7NO_bZ/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=108538486946816465140&rtpof=true&sd=true
  2. ACLU resources on privacy: https://www.aclum.org/campaigns-initiatives/data-privacy-now/
    1. Includes talking points
    2. Action: https://mobilize.aclum.org/a/pass-enforceable-data-privacy-legislation
  3. ACLU resources on facial recognition: https://www.aclum.org/campaigns-initiatives/press-pause-face-surveillance/
  4. ACLU blog on license plate readers in MA: https://data.aclum.org/2025/10/07/flock-gives-law-enforcement-all-over-the-country-access-to-your-location/
    1. Local level action: https://mobilize.aclum.org/a/email-your-municipal-leaders-flock

Hope to see you at an upcoming event!

FY 2027 Budget Testimony

March 31, 2026

Chair Michlewitz, Chair Rodrigues, and Members of the Joint Committee on Ways & Means: 

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director at Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group fighting for a more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic commonwealth.

As we contemplate the daunting, anxiety-inducing, catastrophic possibility of steep cuts to the federal budget as Republicans in DC attempt to take an axe to health care, education, infrastructure, and so much more, we need to be prepared in MA to protect our essential services. We need to continue to do what we are doing—and we also need to be doing more. 

To make that possible, we urge you to embrace progressive sources of revenue as well as tap into the rainy day fund in order to avoid any cuts. 

In the FY 2027 budget, we urge you to focus on increasing critical investments that underlie the quality of life in the Commonwealth and make this high quality of life accessible to all: 

  • Delivering on Our Promises to Our K-12 Students: The Student Opportunity Act from 2019 was a major win for students across the Commonwealth. However, the combination of high rates of inflation in FY23 and FY24 and a tight inflation cap under the SOA has led to a $465 million gap in district budgets.  As a result, districts across the state are being forced to cut their budgets, lay off educators and staff, and cancel long-needed investments. We must keep our promises to students.

The impact of inflation is being compounded by the impacts of ICE terrorism. Many of our cities have experienced declining attendance in their public schools due to fear of ICE activity. The districts should not be punished for that. 

We further urge you to fix charter school tuition reimbursements so that our public schools are not losing critical funding. Tuition dollars follow students, but if a class size falls from 25 to 23, a school cannot hire 23/25 of a teacher. So many of the costs of education are fixed costs, and siphoning off resources harms the 90% of students who attend local district public schools. 

Our students deserve not only well-funded schools, but also green and healthy schools that focus on the whole student. We urge you to increase funding for capital improvements for school buildings so that students can have the safe and healthy environment conducive to learning, and to provide funding for community schools so that districts can embrace this proven model that empowers students, parents, and educators to collaborate and provide vital wraparound services. 

  • Building on Recent Child Care & Early Ed Investments: Last session, you made historic investments in early education and child care, moving us closer toward a vision of quality and stability for providers, good pay for educators, and affordability and access for families. We join the Common Start Coalition in calling for continued investments:
    • Increasing the number of families receiving child care financial assistance (this was included in the supplemental budget!),
    • Increasing funding for the C3 operational grant program to support child care providers,
    • Moving Massachusetts further toward child care reimbursement rates that cover the true cost of delivering high-quality care, and
    • Delivering much-needed funding for Head Start providers
  • Increasing Funding for Access to Counsel: We join fellow organizations in the Right to Counsel Coalition in urging for an increase to the Access to Counsel pilot (Line Item 0321-1800) from $2.5 million to $4 million. In the first 12-months of funding, legal services opened 1,192 cases. In 87% of the cases closed, tenants have stayed housed or received the time to find new housing
  • Protecting Our Immigrant Communities: Last year’s creation of the Massachusetts Access to Counsel Initiative (MACI), which provides legal aid for individuals in Massachusetts facing Immigration Court proceedings, was a big win, and it has been doing excellent, necessary work already. To meet need, we urge you to fund the program at $15 minimum.

We also urge you to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit to immigrant workers who file taxes with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN).

Thank you for your work on the budget and on this marathon of a hearing. 

Sincerely, 

Jonathan Cohn 

Policy Director 

Progressive Massachusetts 

MA Needs Same Day Registration

Tuesday, March 31, 2026

Chair Friedman, Chair Peisch, and Members of the Special Joint Committee on Ballot Initiative Petitions:

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 have been advocating for Same Day Registration since the early years of our organization, and we hope that you take the opportunity to pass this important reform this session (NO. 25-08 An Act relative to election day registration/H.5001).

Tenants moving to a new apartment after getting priced out or evicted by an unscrupulous landlord. Senior citizens looking to downsize and move into a retirement community. Under MA’s current law, if these moves happen too close to an election date, these people—and countless others like them—could lose their right to vote.

That’s because we have an arbitrary and unjust 10-day voter registration cutoff. And shockingly, we’re an outlier in New England for having a cutoff at all. In Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Connecticut, eligible voters can register to vote or update their registration at the polls. It’s a simple reform (indeed, NH and ME have done it for decades), and it can boost engagement and improve the efficiency of election administration.

People are more likely to become lifelong voters when they have positive experiences voting. Being turned away because of a clerical error or having to cast a provisional ballot that you are unsure will be counted leaves a voter—who took the time out of their day to go to their polling location and educate themselves about what is on the ballot—feeling demoralized. Same Day Registration ensures that such voters can seamlessly update their registration and have a voting experience they can be confident in.

When democracy is under attack, MA should be taking every step we can to strengthen our democracy. Let’s show our commitment to democracy and improve the voting experience for everyone.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

Let’s Protect Our Commonwealth

March 30, 2026

Chair Friedman, Chair Peisch, and members of the Special Joint Committee on Initiative Petitions;

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director at Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group fighting for a more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic commonwealth.

We are submitting testimony in opposition to Petition No. 25-17 / H.5006: An Act relative to limiting state tax collection growth and returning surpluses to taxpayers, as well as IN OPPOSITION to Petition No. 25-18 / H.5007: An Act relative to reducing the state personal income tax rate from 5% to 4%. 

In 2022, because of your help, Massachusetts did something transformative: we—you, the legislators who placed it in on the ballot; us, the organizations and activists who campaigned for it; and the voters across the Commonwealth—passed the Fair Share Amendment, securing a more progressive tax code and new investments in public education and transportation. 

That new revenue has helped our Commonwealth do great things. It has provided stable funding for universal school meals, ensuring that no children are going hungry during the school day. It has provided funding for free community college, creating new pathways for economic mobility. It has provided more money for child care, to boost stability for child care providers, better pay for educators, and greater affordability for families. It has expanded scholarship programs, increased investments in school facilities, provided new investment in the MBTA and our roads and bridges, and guaranteed better hours and free fares on regional transit authorities. It has made our state more affordable, more accessible, and more welcoming. 

These ballot initiatives want to wipe that—and more—away in order to give more money to the richest residents of the Commonwealth. Only for those richest residents of the Commonwealth will the tax cuts from this question outweigh the likely financial burden of lost public services. 

The idea of a commonwealth is based on the idea that when we pool our resources and all chip in (and those who have more chip in more), we can do much more than we could do just by ourselves. The gain from a small tax cut quickly disappears for regular people if public school quality goes down, public transit becomes unreliable, health care becomes more expensive, and child care options disappear. 

It is clear why this question exists: the corporate titans of the state are unhappy that, for once, the people won, and they want to wrest power back. Having already received massive tax cuts from the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress last year, they want even more. 

The loss of more than $5 billion to the state budget would be damaging in any year. It is catastrophic when we are facing severe funding cuts from the federal government, as well as a federal government that wants to sabotage the foundations of economic prosperity. 

We make our state more affordable through the investments we make and the services we provide to ensure a stable foundation on which all can thrive. We need to do even more than we already are. These questions would undo recent progress and make those goals even further out of reach. 

Sincerely, 

Jonathan Cohn 

Policy Director 

Progressive Massachusetts 

194th House Scorecard: 2025-2026 Session

194th House Scorecard: 2025-2026 Session

About the Scorecard:

A scorecard serves its purpose if it tells a story and informs advocacy.

As such, we prioritize votes that are contentious over those that are unanimous: unanimous votes neither tell a story nor inform advocacy. We prioritize bills and amendments that relate to our Progressive Platform and Legislative Agenda over those that do not, and we make a point of including bills and amendments for which our members lobbied their legislators.

Since legislators’ jobs are to vote, we count absences as the same as votes against the progressive position when calculating scores. HOWEVER, when legislators submit letters to the Clerk detailing how they would have voted had they been present, we will count these intentions, so long as their vote would not have alone decided the outcome of a bill or amendment. This helps us better achieve one of our main goals — informing advocacy — and acknowledges that there are extenuating circumstances behind some absences.

194th House Scores *

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* What you see in our Scorecards and accompanying materials and analysis are the result of many, many hours of hard work by dedicated volunteers. Research, interviews, coding, data input, reviewing, designing, coordinating, investigating, editing, and intensive consideration and deliberation. Our scorecards are unique and are having the impact we seek: giving voters access to obscure info that is necessary to keep legislators accountable.

Please support this work with your contribution. With more resources, we can make improvements on many fronts, including design and interactivity. You can also support our work by sharing it, with attribution to Progressive Mass: progressivemass.com/scorecard

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