Jonathan Cohn

If Cities and Towns Want to Deepen Democracy, We Should Let Them.

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Chairman Keenan, Chairman Ryan, and Members of the Joint Committee on Election Laws:

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.

At a time when democracy is under attack in many states, municipalities across Massachusetts are instead seeking to strengthen democracy by expanding both who can participate in our elections and how reflective of the electorate the outcomes are. We ask you to allow them to take the lead by giving a favorable report to several enabling bills:

H.725: An Act ensuring municipal power over whether elections are reformed
S.438: An Act ensuring municipal participation of the widest eligible range
H.706/S.415: An Act extending voting rights in municipal elections to noncitizen voters of the Commonwealth
H.711/S.433: An Act providing a local option for ranked choice voting in municipal elections

Enabling Municipalities to Expand the Local Electorate: S.438, H.706, S.415

Cities and towns across the Commonwealth have also sought to expand representation in local elections, by extending the franchise to 16- and 17-year-olds or legal non-citizens. The case for both is clear.

With the voting age at 18, many experience their first time voting when they are away at college, often voting by absentee back home if at all. 16 and 17-year-olds, by contrast, know their local polling locations well: they are the elementary schools, the middle schools, the high schools, the town halls, the libraries. They feel the impact of a school committee election directly. And they can get a powerful experience of democracy in action, which is the best civic education.

Similarly, voting and civic engagement are ways of integrating new community members and strengthening the whole community. Non-citizen parent involvement in school affairs (through school committee elections) can increase students’ academic performance, and democracy works best when all communities are reflected in governance.

Moreover, both teen voting and all-resident voting embody the basic principle of no taxation with representation.

Ranked Choice Voting Local Option: H.711/S.433

When voters get to the ballot box, they can face complicated choices. Our first-past-the-post system forces ordinary voters to weigh whether they can vote for their preferred candidate or whether doing so would lead to a “spoiler effect” that gives a candidate they like less a clearer path to victory. This same dynamic can lead candidates and their supporters to try to force similar candidates out of a race due to a fear of “vote splitting.”

Within the current system, the ultimate winner may command less than a majority support, a contradiction of a basic tenet of democracy and a far too common occurrence in Massachusetts elections. Ranked Choice Voting would eliminate these problems by enabling voters to rank the order of their preferences on the ballot and ensuring that whoever wins does so with majority support.

Although the ballot initiative to implement Ranked Choice Voting for state and county elections did not pass, the measure did pass in 78 municipalities in varying parts of the Commonwealth. If such municipalities wish to adopt Ranked Choice Voting for local elections, they should not have to face undue hurdles to doing so.

The number of cities and towns passing home rule petitions on these three issues grows every year, and yet such petitions continue to die in the Legislature. We urge you to stop being a roadblock to democracy and pass these enabling bills.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

election modernization voting rights

We Need a Siting Reform Process That Isn’t Buried in the Past

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

Chair Barrett and Members of the Senate Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and the Environment:

We urge you to give a favorable report to S.2113/H.3187: An Act Relative to Energy Facilities Siting Reform to Address Environmental Justice, Climate, and Public Health (DiDomenico/ Madaro).

Our state has strong climate goals, but goals are only as good as the plans to meet them. If we want to meet our emissions targets, then we need to be accelerating the transition to renewable energy and building the sustainable, distributed grid that can make that a reality.

Our current energy facility siting system is an obstacle to achieving these goals. Utility companies like Eversource and National Grid exploit our outdated siting system to maximize their profits at the expense of communities and ratepayers. They build expensive, heavy-polluting facilities based on fuels that need to be left in the ground, and against the will of environmental justice communities.

We need a process that works smoothly and one that engages communities before projects get started. Engaging community at the start in an intentional way lowers costs and produces better outcomes for all, as does providing early attention to the climate and public health impacts of a siting decision.

That’s where the Siting Improvement bill comes in. It updates the Siting Board to incorporate public health and climate into approval criteria and adds seats for a representative of environmental justice populations and an Indigenous representative. Moreover, it recognizes that effective process starts early by requiring upfront community engagement and analysis, and it prohibits projects that increase pollution in already overburdened communities.

We need to be scaling up our deployment of renewable energy, and we need a siting reform process that works to achieve that, rather than one that keeps us buried in the past.

We additionally urge a favorable report for S.2150/H.3225: An Act to Encourage Solar Development on Buildings and Disturbed Land (Mark /Sabadosa – Garballey). This bill would incentivize new community solar projects in the built and disturbed environment, allowing more renters to access the benefits of solar and helping us; the bill is a win-win proposal that helps us accelerate clean energy, reduce pressure on natural lands, and create economic opportunities.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

climate

Take Action: How to Support a Progressive Budget

In the FY 2024 budget, both the House and the Senate embraced the opportunity to include forward-thinking proposals that strengthen our commitment to equity, but, with differences between them, the work is not done.

In the coming weeks, a Conference Committee of three senators and three representatives will be finalizing the details for next year’s budget, and they need to hear from you in support of key provisions:

Tuition equity language, which would ensure that all MA high school graduates have access to in-state tuition at our Commonwealth’s public colleges and universities, regardless of immigration status, as 23 other states and DC provide
Permanent School Meals for All, which would ensure healthy nutrition for all students, increase educational performance, and support working families
No Cost Calls language, as outlined in the Keeping Families Connected/No Cost Calls Coalition’s letter, namely, making all communication services free in 2023, including a strong guarantee of access to calls, and laying out clear language to ensure successful implementation

Can you write to your senator and representative to ask them to fight for the inclusion of all three in the final FY2024 budget?

Mark Your Calendars

State House Hearings This Week

Wednesday, 6/21 @ 9:30 AM: Energy Facilities Siting Reform
Wednesday, 6/21 @ 1:00 PM: Local option bills for teen voting, all-resident voting, and ranked choice voting
Thursday, 6/22 @ 1:00 PM: PILOT reform

If you are interested in testifying (written, in-person, or virtual) and have questions, just reach out!

Thursday, 6/22: Gun Violence Awareness Month Action at the Massachusetts State House @ 10am in front of the State House

The Mass Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence will be gathering on the steps of the State house with local and national partners including Stop Handgun Violence, Moms Demand Action, Giffords, and Brady, to honor June as Gun Violence Awareness month and to mark the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision. Join for a press conference featuring survivors, violence prevention workers, and others impacted by gun violence to address the impact of gun violence in the Commonwealth and call for continued action.

Sunday, 6/25: Progressive Mass Activist Afternoons Continues @ 3:30 PM

Join Progressive Mass for an Activist Afternoons series! We’ll be reaching out to members across the state to reach out to their legislators about key issues at the State House. On 6/25, we’ll be focusing on the Transfer Fee bill. RSVP here!

Tuesday, 6/27: Hearing at the State House for the Prison Moratorium Bill @ 11 am, Rally @ 10 am

Massachusetts does not need new prisons and jails: we need to be investing in communities, not in expanding the carceral system. So make sure that the Legislature hears loud and clear by showing up to support the Prison Moratorium in Gardner Auditorium on the State House and a rally before, RSVP here.

Thursday, 7/13: Common Start Rally at the State House

Please join the Common Start Coalition for a family-friendly rally at the State House on July 13 at 11:00 AM! As we head into the summer months, this is an incredible opportunity to keep up the momentum for high-quality, affordable, and accessible early education and care in Massachusetts.

Following a brief speaking program, children and their families will lead a march through the State House to demonstrate the power of our coalition and to highlight solutions to the child care crisis. Art and other activities for children will be a part of the event.

Common Start Family-Friendly Rally for Child Care

Time: Thursday, July 13 at 11:00 AM
Location: Grand Staircase, Massachusetts State House, Boston
Travel: There will be buses from across the state. More info to come.
Interpretation: There will be Spanish interpretation for the event.
Make sure to RSVP here: https://bit.ly/csrally7-13

budget Common Start decarceration education gun violence housing immigrants rights no cost calls

We Already Know Mandatory Minimums Don’t Work

Friday, June 16, 2023

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

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I’m the policy director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide, member-based grassroots advocacy organization fighting for a more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic Commonwealth.

We urge you to give a favorable report to S.1051/H.1800: An Act restoring judicial discretion in controlled substance cases, filed by Sen. Liz Miranda and Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven.

In 2018, the Legislature took bold action to turn the tide on mass incarceration and address the disparities created by our criminal legal system; however, the Legislature also misguidedly decided to create new mandatory minimums for certain drug-related offenses.

The research about the flaws of mandatory minimums is well-known by the Legislature: that is why you eliminated many of them.

Mandatory minimum sentences do not deter crime: numerous studies have shown that increasing penalties is not a serious deterrent to criminal activity.

Mandatory minimum sentences do not reduce drug use or addiction: the Legislature chose to expand mandatory sentences for opioid-related offenses, but a real response to our opioid crisis would need to address the failures of our health care system and other service gaps.

Mandatory minimum sentences exacerbate racial inequities, as studies have shown that Black defendants are much more likely to be sentenced to crimes that carry mandatory minimum sentences.

Mandatory minimum sentences helped fuel the era of mass incarceration. We know that era failed, creating broken communities and broken people. We have taken steps to move past it, but we must go all the way.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

decarceration

Here’s How Your State Senator Voted in the Tax Reform Debate

Earlier tonight, the MA Senate passed a $586 million tax reform package. As I noted earlier today, the MA Senate’s tax reform package was a much better proposal than the House’s:

The Senate bill rejects the proposed $117 million tax cut for day traders and speculators proposed by Gov. Healey and passed by the MA House in April. Notably, both chambers rejected this idea last year when Governor Baker proposed it.
The Senate bill rejected a $79 million corporate tax giveaway that the House back in April with no public debate.
The Senate bill offers a less expensive and less regressive cut to the estate tax than either Governor Healey or the MA House. Unfortunately, every estate tax proposal includes tax cuts for the largest estates rather than limiting them to more modest estates subject to the tax.

During the debate, the Senate voted to protect the Fair Share victory from last year by closing tax loopholes and defeating attempts to give more tax cuts to the rich; however, the Senate unfortunately also rejected an attempt to improve our state’s response to the affordable housing crisis.

THE GOOD

The Senate voted 33 to 5 for an amendment from Sen. Jason Lewis to close a joint filing loophole that could have led to the loss of $200 million of Fair Share revenue each year. It would have required couples that jointly file their federal taxes to do so in Massachusetts as well. Without this technical change, Massachusetts would remain the only state with an additional tax code for higher incomes without either an incentive for couples to file jointly or a prohibition against their filing separately. Such a loophole would encourage tax avoidance through the illegal misattribution of income.

Two Democrats–Sen. Barry Finegold of Andover and Sen. Michael Moore of Millbury–joined the 3 Republicans in voting no.

The Senate defeated, by a vote of 32 to 5, a proposed Republican tax giveaway to day traders and speculators. Only Barry Finegold (D-Andover), Walter Timilty (D-Milton), and the three Republicans voted for it.

The Senate defeated, by a vote of 33 to 5, a regressive and fiscally irresponsible Republican attempt to raise the estate tax threshold to $5 million, which would have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to such multi-million-dollar estates. Only Nick Collins (D-South Boston) and Walter Timilty (D-Milton), and the three Republicans voted for it.

The Senate defeated, by a vote of 32 to 6, a second Republican effort to erode the revenue raised by the estate tax. Only Nick Collins (D-South Boston), Walter Timilty (D-Milton), John Velis (D-Westfield), and the three Republicans voted for it.

THE BAD

The Senate’s tax package expands the Housing Development Incentive Program, which provides millions in state tax credits and local tax breaks for developers of market-rate housing in Gateway cities. However, the units built through these incentives can be shockingly expensive, and incentives often go to areas that are already attractive to developers.

According to an analysis from the Mass Law Reform Institute, more than half of HDIP funds go to only five of the 26 Gateway cities, only 2% of HDIP units are affordable, and rents routinely exceed prevailing wages and prices. We need to build more housing, but our public dollars should be going toward affordable housing if we want to meaningfully address our housing crisis.

In response, Sen. Jamie Eldridge (D-Acton) offered an amendment to create basic affordability standards for HDIP projects: a requirement that at least 20% of the units created in any HDIP-funded project be permanently affordable.

Despite our large Democratic supermajority, the commonsense amendment was defeated 30 to 9.

If your senator was one of the 9 who stood up to Senate Leadership to vote yes, make sure to thank them.

revenue tax fairness

This Bill Can Help Us Wean Our State off Plastics

Thursday, June 15, 2023

Chair Rausch, Chair Cahill, and members of the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources:

We urge you to give a favorable report to H.882/S.570: An Act to reduce plastics (The Plastics Reduction Act), filed by Rep. Ted Philips and Sen. Becca Rausch.

Many of us are familiar with the mantra “reduce, reuse, recycle.” We too often focus on the third command and ignore the first. Indeed, when it comes to plastics, a focus on reduction is vital, not simply because “reduce” should always be the first part of the hierarchy, but because plastics recycling lacks the success of paper (especially cardboard) and metal recycling, where clear markets for repurposing materials exist. Many plastic items put into recycling bins end up in landfills because of such a lack. I personally own a number of shirts that are made from polyester from recycled plastic, but that is a niche market. Melting down and recomposing plastic is expensive, and plastic degrades each time it is used.

Moreover, as plastic is a petroleum-based product, we need to wean ourselves off it—and do so quickly—if we are to meet climate goals. Fossil fuels need to be left in the ground, not dug up to be turned into products that end up buried under the ground in landfills.

These bills take a comprehensive approach. They would enact a statewide plastic bag ban: more than two-thirds of our state’s population live in municipalities where such a ban already exists, and we are the only Northeastern state other than New Hampshire not to have passed a statewide law yet. To ensure that people in environmental justice communities who already bear the burden of pollution do not face undue burden from a new fee on paper bags, the bill would create a fund to cover the costs of reusable bags in such communities. The bill would limit disposable food service packaging (bowls, plates, cuts, cartons, straws, etc.) to biodegradable or compostable products; limit the sale and public purchasing of smaller plastic water bottles; and take other important steps.

When we keep our parks, streets, and rivers clean; reduce the trash that goes into landfills that leak methane and pollute groundwater; and leave fossil fuels in the ground, we all benefit.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

environment

What to Say to Your State Senator about Today’s Tax Vote

Since last year’s Fair Share victory, our state’s super-rich and their allies in the media have been pushing a myth that we need to cut taxes on the rich to prevent people from leaving Massachusetts. Even though this has been widely debunked, Governor Healey heeded such demands by proposing a tax reform package skewed toward the very rich. The House, back in April, followed suit.

The Senate is taking up its own tax package this afternoon. So take some time this morning to email your state senator about protecting the Fair Share victory and better responding to our housing crisis — then read on for more.

Saying No to Tax Cuts for the Super-Rich and Large Corporations

Let’s start with some good news:

The Senate bill rejects the proposed $117 million tax cut for day traders and speculators proposed by Gov. Healey and passed by the MA House in April. Notably, both chambers rejected this idea last year when Governor Baker proposed it.
The Senate bill rejected a $79 million corporate tax giveaway that the House back in April with no public debate.
The Senate bill offers a less expensive and less regressive cut to the estate tax than either Governor Healey or the MA House. Unfortunately, every estate tax proposal includes tax cuts for the largest estates rather than limiting them to more modest estates subject to the tax.

Voters last year were clear that they wanted the super-rich to pay more so that we can invest in our schools and infrastructure, so it’s important that senators hold the line here in today’s vote and in negotiations to come.

Housing: The Real Reason Why People Are Moving out of MA

High-ranking senators have rightly noted that the reason people are moving out of MA is not taxes–it’s the high cost of housing. However, the Senate’s proposals on housing are mixed. Although the expansion of the low-income housing tax credit can help our state address a growing housing crisis, increasing the Housing Development Incentive Program (HDIP) without accountability or affordability measures is a false solution.

The HDIP program provides millions in state tax credits and local tax breaks for developers of market-rate housing in Gateway cities. However, the units built through these incentives can be shockingly expensive, and incentives often go to areas that are already attractive to developers. Moreover, the program lacks basic monitoring and oversight to ensure that it is achieving desired ends. Only with affordability and accountability requirements can the program be part of the solution to our housing crisis.

How Your Senator Can Make the Bill Better

Your senator can better protect Fair Share and better respond to our housing crisis by supporting these three amendments:

Amendment #16 (Sen. Eldridge): Improve HDIP to create affordable housing, which would ensure that HDIP funds support badly needed mixed income housing by requiring developments funded under the program to have at least 20% permanently affordable housing.
Amendment #19 (Sen. Eldridge): Improve transparency of HDIP program, which would establish regular reporting on the awarding of such tax incentives
Amendment #26 (Sen. Lewis): Reducing high income tax avoidance, which would protect the revenue raised by the Fair Share Amendment by ensuring that couples who file jointly on their federal taxes do so in Massachusetts as well.

Can you email your state senator this morning about supporting these three amendments?

revenue tax fairness

News Roundup — June 14, 2023

Andrew Brinker, “Two decades later, public housing is once again coming to Boston,” Boston Globe, June 13, 2023.

“Until now. Through a new but little-known federal program, some municipalities in Massachusetts are building the first new public housing units since that cap was passed, a moment many in the housing world thought might never come.”

Amy Dain, “Zoning in the Boston suburbs is stacked against families with children,” Boston Globe, June 12, 2023.

“This is why the new MBTA Communities zoning law requires Massachusetts municipalities served by the transit system to reform their zoning to allow multifamily housing “suitable for families with children.” The region has perhaps not seen local zoning reform taking place at this scale since The Boston Globe concluded in 1960 that “suburban Boston is zoned to the eyeballs.””

Jarone Lee, Angie Liou, Raymond Liu, and Audrey Nguyen, “High rents are bad for your health,” CommonWealth, June 6, 2023.

“High rental prices lead to adverse health effects. When rent becomes a source of financial strain, other universal needs like healthcare become secondary. Money allocated to rent cannot be used for crucial medical treatment. Once rents surpass families’ ability to pay, they risk eviction and homelessness, which is associated with poor birth outcomes, higher rates of suicide and mental health hospitalizations, and higher rates of all-cause mortality.”

Ellen Fleming, “Bill could help fund affordable housing in Massachusetts,” WWLP, June 6, 2023.

“The idea here is this is just to empower and enable municipalities to do what they think is best, so a lot of flexibility in this bill. The baseline really is those that are profiting the most off of this crisis should be able to contribute just a little bit to solving it.”

Jennifer Smith, “State moves to bring sex education out of the ‘90s,” CommonWealth, June 6, 2023.

“Planned Parenthood reviewed all 50 states plus Washington D.C. and ranked their sexual health curriculum and their level of abortion protections. Massachusetts is somewhat of an outlier among states that are “protective” or “very protective” of abortion care, Hart said, because the state standards for sex ed do not require education to be medically accurate, cover birth control options, include LGBTQ+ identities, or affirm abortion access.”

Erin Tiernan, “Massachusetts Senate tax relief plan earns progressive stamp of approval — to conservative chagrin,” MASSterList, June 9, 2023.

“Jonathan Cohn, policy director of Progressive Massachusetts, praised the Senate for “rejecting the flawed trickle-down economics that believes that tax cuts for the super-rich and large corporations, rather than investments in our state’s commonwealth, are what make our state ‘competitive.’””

Jonathan Cohn, “Letter: Mass. lawmakers have two bosses, heed one (hint: it’s not the voters),” Boston Globe, June 8, 2023.

“With Massachusetts having the least competitive elections in the country, it’s no surprise which “boss” speaks loudest to legislators, but we all lose out from the lack of urgency around the many crises our state faces, from the growing costs of child care to the affordable housing crisis to a transit system in desperate need of care.”

Bahar Amkan Imboden, Rich Levy, and Ian Rhodewalt, “Congratulations Mass. grads, but watch out for that $400m in debt,” CommonWealth, June 3, 2023.

“This spring, the graduating class of 2023 from our Massachusetts public institutions alone, which comprises both community college graduates and individuals receiving bachelor’s degrees from public higher education institutions, collectively carries a staggering debt of approximately $400 million.”

“Letters: Can MCAS be improved? Curbed? Learned from? All of the above?,” Boston Globe, June 3, 2023.

“As a parent in Lawrence, I’ve seen how state takeover disrupts students’ education with a revolving door of administrators and educators. I’ve seen how students’ learning experiences are limited by a narrow focus on test prep. But because there’s no role for local democracy in the state takeover system, there’s no way for parents to make our voices heard on these issues.”

Katie Lannan, “Supporters of sex ed bill say it’s time for Massachusetts to act,” WGBH, May 30, 2023.

“Young people across the country witness their rights and access to care and education eroding before their eyes,” Hart said. “Passing the Healthy Youth Act is one way we can step up right now to ensure that our youth today, tomorrow and in the future have the access and the means to make the best decisions for their own health and safety.”

Doug Arnett and Laura Crimaldi, “‘Are you guys going to shoot me?’ Police encounters with mentally ill people increasingly turn deadly.,” Boston Globe, June 3, 2023.

“A Globe analysis ofpolice confrontations since 2016 shows that the majority of those shot by police in Massachusetts — 51 out of 88 — were people in the throes of a mental health crisis or who had been diagnosed with mental illness. That rate has risen significantly in the years since a 2016 Spotlight Team report, “The desperate and the dead,” on police shootings of people with mental illness.”

Yvonne Abraham, “Let’s make representatives more representative of us,” Boston Globe, May 31, 2023.

“That prohibition helps keep some excellent candidates from seeking public office. And it’s embarrassing, especially in a state like Massachusetts, where we like to think of ourselves as progressive. On this particular point, we are behind Texas, Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas, Montana, and some 20 other states, all of which allow candidates to claim child care costs as campaign expenditures.”

Addario Miranda, “It’s hard to learn when you’re hungry. ‘I’m living proof’,” WBUR, May 23, 2023.

“Currently, 1 in 5 households with children in our state report that they have difficulty affording food, with BIPOC families being affected the most. If Massachusetts fails to make the pandemic-era program permanent, it means 400,000 students in the commonwealth could lose access to school meals.”

Sen. Pat Jehlen, “Letter: Cries to keep the state competitive overlook data on just who’s leaving,” Boston Globe, May 30, 2023.

“Our housing crisis is largely because we have gained so much population. Competition for housing has driven up housing prices. That’s one of the main reasons cited for the loss of low-income essential workers, as multiple Globe articles have reported.”

Lisa Guisbond, “Time to end the state’s ‘test and punish’ accountability system,” CommonWealth, May 24, 2023.

“But our current MCAS-driven assessment and accountability system, instead of promoting such an education, has become a barrier to opportunity for too many students. A new bill called the Thrive Act would take down some of these barriers.”

Sen. Lydia Edwards, Sen. Adam Gomez, and Sen Liz Miranda, “Time to enact new rules for use of facial recognition software,” CommonWealth, May 24, 2023.

“After all, as senators of color, we represent communities that stand to gain the most from these recommendations becoming law. Our communities deserve safety, both from violence and from wrongful targeting by police.”

Jonathan Hecht, “Letter: House leaders made a mockery of the process in ramming through tax package,” Boston Globe, May 26, 2023.

“That tax cut’s inclusion in the tax package shows how House leaders’ complete control of the legislative process gives powerful people a back channel to advance their interests with none of the public scrutiny and participation that democracy demands.”

Editorial Board, “An unfinished piece of criminal justice reform business: Raising the age for juvenile offenders,” Boston Globe, May 25, 2023.

“Raising the age for juvenile defendants is one of those bits of unfinished business from a trailblazing piece of legislation now five years into its implementation. Today, given the state of scientific research on developing brains, the case is even stronger to keep young adults out of a prison system ill-equipped to provide the education and the rehabilitation they need. Today it’s time to try something different, something better.”

Editorial Board, “It’s time to restore legislative democracy on Beacon Hill,” Boston Globe, May 22, 2023.

“Yes, but it requires both voters and lawmakers to demand more. Legislative bodies, after all, set their own formal rules and establish or accede to their own norms. At present, both rules and norms surrender too much power to the leaders of the legislative chambers. But what’s been given could and should be taken back — if lawmakers make that, and not internal turf battles, their goal.”

Kara Miller, “Public Colleges Should Be Truly Public Again,” Boston Globe, May 18, 2023.

“We have been steadily “shifting the cost burden to students and their families,” argues Tom Harnisch, vice president for government relations at the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. “There’s a real intergenerational equity issue here that I don’t think gets talked about nearly enough.””

Editorial Board, “Give in-state college tuition to undocumented immigrants,” Boston Globe, May 20, 2023.

“There are 23 states that offer in-state tuition to immigrants without legal status who graduated from their state’s high schools, according to the National Immigration Law Center. Some are liberal-leaning like California and New York, but others vote conservative, like Kansas, Texas, and Utah. Seventeen states offer state financial aid to students without legal status.”

The Solution to Homelessness Is Homes, Not Criminalization.

Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Chair Kennedy, Chair Livingstone, and Members of the Joint Committee on Children, Families, and Persons with Disabilities:

We urge you to give a favorable report to H.211/S.1112: An Act establishing a bill of rights for individuals experiencing homelessness, filed by Representatives Smitty Pignatelli and Frank Moran and Sen. Becca Rausch.

The solution to homelessness is clear: giving people homes. But too often, municipalities see the solution as criminalization and punishment instead, worsening the underlying problems and forcing individuals into vicious cycles of incarceration and housing instability.

As rents and housing prices skyrocket in Massachusetts, an increasing number of families face housing instability, experiencing short-term or long-term homelessness. According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, 18,471 people in Massachusetts were counted as homeless in January 2019, more than two-thirds of that population consisting of families with children.

We desperately need comprehensive action to address our housing crisis and to secure housing for those currently without it. However, we also need to ensure that misguided and archaic laws do not make it more difficult for individuals to obtain housing.

These bills would rectify this status quo by extending anti-discrimination protections to persons experiencing homelessness, including protections when seeking employment, housing, voter registration, and access to public spaces and places of public accommodation. They would also ensure that individuals experiencing homelessness are not being criminalized for existing in public space, protecting their right to rest, seek shelter from the elements, occupy a legally parked car, pray, eat, and avoid needless harassment in public spaces.

H.211 and S.1112 are essential to ensuring Massachusetts is a state that treats all residents with dignity and respect, and we urge you to give it your support.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

housing

Everyone Needs ID. Here’s Why, and Here’s What the Legislature Can Do.

Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Chair Crighton, Chair Straus, and Members of the Joint Committee on Transportation:

We urge you to give a favorable report to H.3388, H.3360, and S.2251: An Act to provide identification to youth and adults experiencing homelessness (the Everyone Needs ID bill), filed respectively by Rep. Jim O’Day, Rep. Kay Khan, and Sen. Robyn Kennedy.

Individuals experiencing homelessness face significant obstacles to obtaining an ID, but IDs can often be essential to securing employment and even accomplishing everyday life tasks. Without an ID, it can be difficult, if not outright impossible, to apply for jobs, enroll in education programs, get a library card, pick up a package from the post office, receive a prescription from a pharmacy, and more. So many of us take such tasks for granted, but for individuals experiencing homelessness, they become complicated endeavors and roadblocks on the path toward stability.

The aforementioned bills offer a solution by requiring the Registry of Motor Vehicles to waive the $25 fee for an ID for people experiencing homelessness and by allowing applicants to support alternative documentation to prove Massachusetts residency, such as allowing individuals to provide evidence of receiving services from a state agency under the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

Massachusetts must take comprehensive addition to ensure housing for all; however, in the interim, we must ensure that our policies are not exacerbating the obstacles faced by individuals experiencing homelessness. We urge you to make a difference this session by advancing these bills.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

housing