Jonathan Cohn

Your Senator Needs to Hear from You on Gun Safety

Back in October, the MA House passed a comprehensive gun safety bill aimed to build upon and continue MA’s leadership in gun violence prevention. The bill included a more robust assault weapons ban; measures to crack down on ghost guns; prohibitions on firearms in government buildings, polling places, and educational institutions; and more comprehensive data collection — among other key measures.

The action now turns to the Senate. The Senate is expected to release its own bill later this month. It’s time to contact your state senator and let them know that you want to see bold and comprehensive legislation. Join the Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence in calling for a comprehensive bill that includes, among other key provisions: Industry accountability: Victims and survivors of gun violence are rarely able to hold those who have harmed them accountable due to a federal law that provides unique protections for the firearms industry. MA has the opportunity to create an avenue for victims and survivors to seek justice in the civil court system by creating a code of conduct that the firearms industry must adhere to, ensuring that their products don’t end up in the wrong hands and ultimately preventing harm.

Regulating ghost guns: Ghost guns are untraceable, unserialized firearms that can be assembled at home from a kit purchased online without a background check. MA must update our definitions of a firearm and require that all ghost gun kits and parts can only be sold to those with a license to carry firearms.

Gun violence data analysis: MA has been collecting data on guns recovered in connection with a crime for years, and we must use that data to better understand how guns are ending up in our communities. Looking more deeply at data on guns recovered in MA will allow us to close any loopholes in our laws and prevent future violence.

Email your state senator.

gun violence

Testimony on the Affordable Homes Act

Thursday, January 18, 2024

Chair Edwards, Chair Arciero, and Members of the Joint Committee on Housing:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the policy director at Progressive Massachusetts. We are a statewide, multi-issue, grassroots membership organization focused on fighting for policy that would make our Commonwealth more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic.

Massachusetts faces a growing affordable housing crisis. To rent the average 2-bedroom apartment in Massachusetts requires an income equal to $37.97 per hour, more than twice the minimum wage. Home ownership has become increasingly out of reach, as the state’s median home price has passed $600,000. The high cost of housing has led to displacement, and in a growing number of municipalities, the local workforce can no longer afford to live there.

We are glad to see that Governor Healey recognizes the need to use a variety of tools to address our housing crisis and strongly support the comprehensive approach in the Affordable Homes Act, H.4138.

We were delighted to see the inclusion of key provisions like the following:

Creating a five-year housing plan (which should focus not only on supply but also on affordability to different income levels)
Enabling cities and towns to pass inclusionary zoning ordinances by simple majority—a vital tool for increasing affordable housing supply and diversifying communities
Making it easier to use public land for housing development
Establishing an Office of Fair Housing
Launching a Social Housing pilot program
Authorizing $150M for public housing decarbonization and $115 million for sustainable and climate-resilient affordable housing
Permitting Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) of <900 SF to be built by-right in single-family zoning districts in all communities and prohibiting the parking mandates and owner-occupancy requirements many municipalities use to make ADUs harder to build
Enabling cities and towns to pass real estate transfer fees as a tool to raise money for affordable housing production and preservation
Creating a process to enable individuals to seal eviction records

All of these are essential to a three-pronged approach to the housing crisis: protecting tenants, increasing housing production, and investing more in affordable housing. We can do all three, and this bill does.

However, we would like to outline how to make some of these provisions more accessible and effective as well as some additional measures to consider including.

Real Estate Transfer Fee Local Option

Cities and towns across Massachusetts want to take action to address the housing crisis, but they are often unable to do so without state approval. Seventeen communities have now requested the ability to use this tool, beginning with Provincetown in 2010. In the years since this initial request, circumstances have only become more dire, and more cities and towns have passed such home rule petitions or are actively considering doing so.

Our housing crisis is simply too great to leave funding and financing tools on the table. All communities must be able to use this tool that will allow us to generate additional resources for desperately needed local affordable housing.

To ensure that the transfer fee language in the bill can best meet the needs of diverse cities and towns, we urge the following:

Setting the Right Threshold: Home sale prices vary greatly across Massachusetts, with rural communities and Gateway cities often having property values well below $1 million. They should still be able to benefit from this tool. Similarly, communities should be able to set higher thresholds if that is best for local needs and market conditions.
Maintaining Flexibility: Communities should be able to determine whether buyers or sellers of a property bear fees and should be able to create local exemptions that best apply to their community.
Applying Fees to the Full Transaction: Allowing municipalities to apply fees to the full amount of transactions, rather than only the amount in excess of a threshold, will allow communities with higher needs and sales prices to generate more desperately needed revenue.

Sealing Eviction Records

Having an eviction record is creating a devastating barrier for tenants looking for housing. Records are created as soon as a case is filed and are publicly available forever–– regardless of the outcome. These records impact people’s ability to obtain housing, credit, and employment, harming many and disproportionately impacting women and people of color.

Regardless of whether one does anything wrong or is actually evicted, being party to an eviction or housing case is being unfairly held against tenants when they try to rent a new place. Even winning in court hurts tenants.

We are delighted to see eviction sealing language in this bill, but we would recommend several steps to ensure that tenants can best be protected:

Ensuring that dismissals, cases that tenants win, and no-fault evictions be automatically sealed by the court as opposed to a petition process which involves extra steps for the court and all parties.
Ensuring that in non-payment cases, tenants can seal after 14 days of paying a judgment and after 4 years if they were unable to pay because of an economic hardship or other good cause reasons.

Ensuring that in a fault eviction, where one must wait 7 years to seal, that an intervening eviction which prevents one from sealing can only be a fault eviction and not just any type of eviction case, such as a no-fault eviction.
Clarifying that the court has the direction to consider disability and domestic violence issues in fault cases and to adjust the sealing process accordingly.

Additional Measures to Include

We join with over 240 organizations to call for the inclusion of Access to Counsel in the Affordable Homes Act. 9 out of 10 tenants are unrepresented in eviction court, leading to higher rates of displacement and community instability. Evictions negatively affect people’s physical and mental health, and result in job loss and decreased school attainment for children. Guaranteeing legal representation to all tenants facing evictions would have a major positive impact.

We also urge you to use this opportunity to repeal the ban on rent control and enable municipalities to enact local rent control ordinances to stabilize housing costs and prevent no-cause evictions. We have been seeing a growing interest in rent control across the Commonwealth, with multiple municipalities filing home rule petitions to be able to take action. Rent control is an essential tool to combat displacement, and cities and towns should be able to pass such policies as fit their local housing situation.

Cities and towns that want to take action should be able to do so, and we urge you to include a Tenant Opportunity to Purchase local option (along the lines of S.880/H.1350), which would enable cities and towns to pass laws allowing tenants to join together to match a third-party offer when their homes are being sold.

We also urge you to use this bill to establish a statewide Foreclosure Prevention Program to require servicers to participate in pre-foreclosure mediation with homeowners to explore alternatives to foreclosures, an idea put forth in S.653 and H.942.

We also urge you to take additional steps to increase our supply of affordable housing, such as by funding and writing into statute the Small Properties State Acquisition Fund, which would provide subsidies for nonprofit acquisition of homes from the market, and by including funding for the production of affordable homeownership units that can be kept affordable in perpetuity. We also urge you to add an affordability requirement to the Housing Development Incentive Program (HDIP) so that public subsidies to development address the need for affordable housing stock.

Lastly, A Technical Correction

We stand with the Massachusetts AFL-CIO in asking you to address a major concern about Section 35 of the bill. As written, this section would remove the application of prevailing wage laws to certain private development projects on public land. We hope that this was a drafting error and such language can be removed. The state should be using public land to both advance housing goals and create good-paying jobs, and these are not in conflict.

Thank you for all your work on this important bill and vital topic.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

housing

Book Ban Attempts Are Happening in Massachusetts Too

Chair Lewis, Chair Garlick, and Members of the Joint Committee on Education:

We urge you to give a favorable report to S.2528/H.4229: An Act Regarding Free Expression, filed by Senator Julian Cyr and Representative John Moran.

Over the past few years, we have seen attacks on schools and libraries across the country aimed at removing books by and about LGBTQ people, communities of color, and other marginalized groups.

Many people would like to think that Massachusetts is different, but we are not. According to the American Library Association, in 2022 there were at least 45 attempts to restrict access to books in Massachusetts school and public libraries, with 57 titles challenged. This puts us among the top 5 states with the highest book ban attempts.

Students learn best when they see themselves and the issues that impact them reflected in their education. Education should be about opening up students to the world and to themselves, and that requires a focus on inclusivity and equity. And it means not seeking to exclude parts of history or identity.

Beyond being simply a moral issue, this is a constitutional issue. The First Amendment protects the right to share ideas, including educators’ and students’ right to receive and exchange information and knowledge. These bills would ensure that selection of age-appropriate library materials is based on the professional expertise of librarians and educators, and would establish a process and standards for handling book challenges so that books are not taken off the shelves based on political or personal views.

Thank you for all your work on the hearing, and, again, we urge you to swiftly advance these important bills.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

LGBTQ rights public education

PM in the News: Governor Healey defends “absolutely essential” tax cuts (But Are They?)

Chris Lisinksi, “Governor Healey defends ‘absolutely essential’ tax cuts,” State House News Service, January 9, 2024.

Progressive Massachusetts, which describes itself as a grassroots organization with local chapters, called itself “disappointed and disturbed” by the budget cuts, contending they will “disproportionately harm the most disadvantaged members of the Commonwealth.”

“Last year, advocates repeatedly stressed that now was not the time for permanent tax cuts, as signs of lower revenue collection were already coming. The Legislature refused to listen and instead passed a tax cut package that included regressive tax cuts almost equivalent in size to these draconian cuts,” the group said in an unsigned statement. “It should not be lost on us that we never see emergency pauses of regressive tax giveaways; the solution is always one that falls on the backs of the poorest.”

Chris Van Buskirk, “Gov. Maura Healey defends tax cuts as Massachusetts faces $1 billion revenue slowdown,” Boston Herald, January 9, 2024.

Progressive Massachusetts, a policy group, said 2023 was “not the time for permanent regressive tax cuts.”

“We remain disappointed that so many legislators chose not to listen,” the group said on social media in response to the financial headwinds.

revenue

Op-Ed: A New Year’s resolution: Make Mass. affordable

Jonathan Cohn, “A New Year’s resolution: Make Mass. affordable,” CommonWealth, December 28, 2023.

Throughout 2023, we constantly heard elected officials talk about the need for tax cuts to make Massachusetts more “competitive,” pushing a debunked myth that we were about to see an exodus of the well-off due to the Fair Share Amendment and the overall tax landscape. The risk we really face is that our graduates won’t be able to stay here, that young couples won’t be able to make a family here, and that working people will be displaced from one neighborhood to the next before being driven out of the state entirely. All of this is avoidable with good policy.

So let’s hope – and pressure – our elected officials to embrace those policies. And to not give up on a New Year’s Resolution too soon.

Common Start higher ed housing inequality tax fairness

News Roundup – December 7, 2023

Miriam Wasser and Colin Young, “Mass. outlines new strategy for getting customers and utilities off of natural gas,” WBUR / State House News Service, December 7, 2023.

“At its heart, the order is a strategy to help steer the state toward a cleaner energy system that is safe, reliable and affordable for all. It says that utilities can’t charge gas customers for new gas infrastructure if there are viable non-gas alternatives. It changes the existing cost recovery process that incentivizes adding new gas customers. And it prohibits utilities from using ratepayer money to “promote” natural gas.”

Stefanos Chen, “New York’s Millionaire Class Is Growing. Other People Are Leaving.,” New York Times, December 5, 2023.

“Now, a new report based on the latest census and state tax filing data has found a reversal: The ranks of millionaires have come surging back, while lower- and middle-income New Yorkers are heading for the exits, according to the study, published Tuesday by the Fiscal Policy Institute, a left-leaning policy group.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, “Massachusetts can improve equity in higher ed by passing CHERISH Act,” MassLive, December 5, 2023.

“Building on Gov. Healey’s work to expand financial aid access and enable more students to attend college tuition-free, the CHERISH Act would create a path for debt-free college in Massachusetts, expand student support services, provide funding to repair crumbling campus buildings and improve wages and working conditions for staff.”

Andrew Brinker, “Investors snagged 1 in 5 homes for sale in Greater Boston, worsening housing crisis, report finds,” Boston Globe, December 3, 2023.

“Even more challenging though will be figuring out how to pump the brakes on the trend, said Draisen. A real estate transfer tax could help, he said, because it could discourage speculators from buying and selling homes in quick succession. And it would provide funding for more affordable housing efforts.”

Miriam Wasser, “Mass. is on track to meet its near-term climate goals, but the hardest work lies ahead,” WBUR, December 1, 2023.

“So how is the state doing on all of this? On Friday, the Healey administration revealed in its first annual climate report card that the state is on track for its 2025 goals….But, when it comes to meeting the 2030 and 2050 goals, a lot more work (and funding) is needed. And success is far from a sure thing.”

Samantha Gross and Matt Stout, “Mass. Legislature closes out least productive period in decades,” Boston Globe, November 29, 2023.

“In the House, where any spending bill must originate, lawmakers have taken fewer votes at this point in their two-year session than any other going back two decades, a Globe review found.”

Diti Kohli, “With funding challenges looming, Mass. child care could be in jeopardy,” Boston Globe, November 28, 2023.

“But providers said the child-care industry is so broken that it requires a more permanent funnel of government money that goes directly to providers, such as the Commonwealth Cares for Children grants that came through during COVID-19.”

Lisa Guisbond, “Myopic focus on test prep means students are missing out (Letter),” Boston Globe, November 24, 2023.

“If Massachusetts weren’t so myopically focused on prepping students for standardized MCAS exams, there would be more capacity to assess student learning through project-based performance assessments that have been shown to help prepare students for college, career, and civic life.”

Andrew Brinker, “A housing crisis in Massachusetts: A look at single family homes,” Boston Globe, November 22, 2023.

“Roughly 950,000 homes in Massachusetts have large enough yards to accommodate at least one ADU in their backyard…”

Sarah Betancourt, “Massachusetts becomes fifth state in nation to make prison calls free,” WGBH, November 17, 2023.

“Ensuring that individuals in state and county prisons can keep in contact with their loved ones is key to enhancing rehabilitation, reducing recidivism, and improving community safety,” Healey said in a written statement. “I’m proud to sign this important legislation and grateful to the Legislature and advocates for their partnership.”

Rep. Andy Vargas and Sen. Lydia Edwards, “It’s time to protect gig workers and consumers,” CommonWealth, November 15, 2023.

“These are not impossible standards. Most are already the current laws of Massachusetts. Every other company that chooses to do business here has to follow our laws, which include a minimum wage and the worker protections that come with the presumption of employee status.”

“Big College Aid Expansion Will Lift 25,000 Students,” State House News Service, November 15, 2023.

“The governor announced that $62 million in new program funding included in the fiscal year 2024 budget she signed this summer will go toward expanding the MASSGrant Plus program, which her administration says will benefit approximately 25,000 students attending the state’s community colleges, state universities and the University of Massachusetts.”

Gregg Croteau and Mary Gomez, “To reduce recidivism, raise the age of juvenile jurisdiction,” CommonWealth, November 14, 2023.

“Raising the Age does not remove accountability….Rather, it allows for learning and growth in a different setting so that the likelihood of further criminal activity is dramatically reduced as brain development advances. When we do this, we’ll be giving every young person the opportunity for redemption and to be part of the solution moving forward. And our communities will be that much safer.”

Enid Eckstein, Steve Dubb and Lydia Lowe, “Boston’s large nonprofits fall short once again,” CommonWealth, November 12, 2023.

“Yet each year contributions have failed to meet even this modest standard. While some smaller institutions may be financially challenged, many larger institutions also consistently fall short.”

Zeninjor Enwemeka, “How Greater Boston’s zoning decisions reverberate a century later,” WBUR, November 8, 2023.

“Zoning causes us to have areas of concentrated advantage and areas of concentrated disadvantage,” said Amy Dain, who researched and wrote the report for Boston Indicators. “So, if you’re living in an area of concentrated disadvantage, you are missing out on the social networks, the best schools, the access to certain jobs that will help you to advance economically in life.”

A Recent Win + An Urgent Need for Action

Your Voice Needed: Take Action in Support of Families Experiencing Homelessness

That was the good news — and it’s really good news. But here’s some less good news. Last month, Governor Healey announced that the state would cap the number of placements in the Emergency Assistance (EA) family shelter program and related state-funded family shelter sites due to financial, space, and staffing constraints.After hitting the cap earlier this month, the Administration began implementing a waiting list for families approved for EA shelter, without providing families with alternative safe places to stay.

On November 15, the Legislature ended formal sessions for the calendar year without approving a supplemental budget that would provide critical funding to serve families experiencing homelessness.

With winter rapidly approaching, it is vital for the Legislature to take action.Can you write to your legislators today to underscore the importance of passing such funding and requiring that some of it be earmarked for overflow shelters? Email your legislators

housing no cost calls

MA Needs a Strong Regulatory Framework for Facial Recognition Technology

Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Chair Eldridge, Chair Day, and Members of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary:

I am submitting testimony today on behalf of Progressive Massachusetts. We are a statewide, member-based grassroots advocacy group fighting for a Massachusetts that is more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic.

We are appreciative of the work that the Legislature did back in 2020 in passing police accountability legislation. But there is more work to be done, including stronger regulations around the use of facial recognition technology. In that light, we urge you to give a favorable report to H.1728 and S.927: An Act to implement the recommendations of the special commission on facial recognition technology.

After passing limited regulations for facial recognition technology in 2020 (due to opposition to stronger regulations from Governor Baker), the Legislature created a special commission to study and recommend a regulatory framework. That commission, made up of diverse stakeholders, met, held hearings, and researched and discussed the issue. And that commission—including the AGO, the State Police, the NAACP, the ACLU, and CPCS (among others)—agreed on a set of recommendations, reflected in this bill.

From past debates, I expect that you are familiar with the myriad problems posed by facial surveillance, with regard to both use (e.g., its track record of inaccuracy, especially in distinguishing between Black and Brown individuals—and the dangers that poses) and its susceptibility to abuse (e.g., the ease with which officers could take advantage of data for personal reasons having no relation to public safety).

The provision of this bill help to address those problems by doing the following:

Requiring a warrant in order for police to conduct a facial recognition search—a necessary guardrail to protect privacy rights
Centralizing the use of facial recognition at the State Police in order to curb the potential for misuse, abuse, and wrongful arrests
Ensuring due process protections around the use of facial recognition technology in court cases
Prohibiting mass surveillance and emotion analysis in order to forestall the dystopian futures already happening in places like Russia and China

We urge you to give a favorable report to H.1728 and S.927. When the Legislature creates a commission to do the hard work of studying an issue, and that commission puts forth reasoned recommendations, it should be incumbent upon the Legislature to advance them.

Thank you for your attention and consideration.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

police reform

Wanted: Bold Action on the Climate Crisis

Join us and Mass Power Forward in calling on our legislators to wake up and do more for environmental and climate justice!

Every day, we see new evidence of the dire state of the climate crisis: whether it’s record heat waves, storms, droughts, wild fires.

Your legislators need to hear from YOU that climate justice can’t wait.

RSVP for Mass Power Forward’s decentralized lobby day on Dec 5.

Rather than asking you to travel to the State House for a meeting, this lobby day is focused on in-district meetings with your legislator — at a coffee shop, a library, a community center, or maybe just on Zoom.

The in-district meetings will be focusing on Mass Power Forward’s priority bills.

Putting a moratorium on new gas infrastructure
Making big polluters pay for the costs of climate adaptation
Scaling up our investment in green retrofits
Improving indoor air quality
Advancing environmental justice through siting reform and through strengthening civil rights

Want better prep before the lobby day? You can attend a training on Nov 29.

Sign up here to participate!

climate