Tell Your State Senator: Fight for Economic Justice in the Economic Development Bill

Two weeks ago, the MA House passed its economic development bill, a policy and spending grab-bag bill that included some wins for affordable housing.

The Senate is voting on their bill this Wednesday and Thursday. The economic development bill, as a “must-pass” bill each session, becomes a critical vehicle for passing policy. Between now and Wednesday, take a minute to call or email your state senator in support of these three amendments:

  • Amendment #12: Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), filed by Sen. Jehlen, which would enable tenants to band together to purchase their building when it goes on the market
  • Amendment #14: Countering Fiscal Uncertainty, filed by Sen. Jason Lewis, which would repeal the state’s harmful and outdated investment cap​
  • Amendment #193: Data Centers, filed by Sen. Vanna Howard, which would ensure that data centers cover their energy needs with clean energy and do not increase water and electric bills
  • Amendment #511: Requiring Automated Criminal Record Sealing, filed by Sen. Cindy Friedman, which would take away unnecessary bureaucracy in the criminal record sealing process

What Passed in the MA House’s Economic Development Bill?

The MA House voted on Wednesday for its economic development bill, a bill that every two years can become a catch-all bill for various policy priorities and earmarks.

The House went through 688 amendments in the non-transparent Consolidated Amendment process. House Leadership grouped these 688 amendments into five categories to create five Consolidated Amendments, but little, if anything, of the content of most of these amendments remained. Rather than rejecting amendments (by voice or recorded vote) or having lead sponsors withdraw amendments, the House has increasingly taken to this strategy, which reduces the ability for the public to see what is happening and pushes even more discussion behind closed doors.

Consolidated amendments also erase opportunities for accountability by bundling measures together rather than allowing for clear up or down votes on individual priorities.

One of the amendments that we had supported did, however, make it in: the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), which would allow cities and towns a local option to provide tenants in multi-family buildings the right to match a third-party offer when their homes are being sold.

TOPA passed the Legislature more than five years ago, vetoed by Republican Governor Charlie Baker when the legislative session had run out and there was no time for veto overrides. Two years ago, the House passed it as part of the housing bond bill, but it did not survive final negotiations. Let’s make it the session it finally happens.

The House’s bill also took other steps to address the housing crisis, such as authorizing municipalities to adopt commercial conversion zoning to transform underutilized commercial properties into housing and mixed-use developments through streamlined local approvals and allowing multifamily housing as of right on qualifying land owned by religious institutions, with a requirement that at least 20% of units be affordable.

The MA House and MA Senate Are Voting on Key Bills This Week. Here’s What They Should Hear from You.

In the last month sprint of the formal legislative session, expect to see an increased pace of action in the MA State House.

Today, the MA House is voting on its economic development bill, and tomorrow, the MA Senate is voting on a bill to address addictive design from social media companies.

Read on for more information about what your state rep and state senator should be hearing from you.

Tell Your State Rep: Support Amendments to Expand Economic Opportunity and Access to Affordable Housing

The MA House is voting TODAY on its economic development bill. Our allies are supporting a number of amendments to strengthen the bill in ways that promote economic opportunity and increase access to affordable housing.

Email Your State Rep

Email your state rep to urge them to support amendments that strengthen the bill.

  • Amendment #25, which would eliminate the requirement that a household provide a notice to quit or utility shutoff notice for a household to be eligible for Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT), removing a significant barrier to accessing this critical homelessness prevention resource
  • Amendment #71, which would allow cities and towns a local option to provide tenants in multi-family buildings the right to match a third-party offer when their homes are being sold
  • Amendment #136, which would ensure worker-owned businesses are recognized in economic development program selection criteria, helping broaden access to state economic development tools for cooperative and shared-ownership models
  • Amendment #155, which would allow qualified, job-ready people to fully participate in the workforce by automating the CORI-sealing process to seal records that are already eligible after the required waiting periods
  • Amendment #226, which would provide $15,000,000 in bonding authorizations for a pilot program to fund the construction of small to medium sized (1-25 unit) permanently affordable home ownership developments
  • Amendment # 438, which would ensure that the executive order-created Office of Access and Opportunity is codified into Massachusetts statutes to uphold the Governor’s commitment to language access in our state agencies
  • Amendment #636, which would ease access to Massachusetts IDs for people experiencing homelessness by waiving the $25 fee for standard Mass IDs and easing residency verification requirements for youth and adults experiencing homelessness

The MA Senate Is Voting on a Bill to Regulate Teen Social Media Use. Here’s How It Can Be Better.

A couple months ago, the MA House advanced a harmful bill that would ban minors from social media, force social media platforms to enable parental surveillance of teenagers’ online activity, and subject everyone to privacy-invading online ID checks in order to access information or speak out online. We joined groups from across the state in opposing this language.

The Senate’s bill (S.3164), which will be voted on this Thursday, takes a smarter approach, targeting addictive design.

Our friends at Fight for the Future are urging senators to support several amendments that would protect privacy, protect youth, and help the bill better accomplish its stated goals  (read more about them here).

Email Your State Senator

  • Amendment #2, which closes a loophole in the definition of “user” that would have allowed platforms to continue providing addictive features to minors so long as the minor does not use an account to access the platform
  • Amendment #3, which updates the definition of social media so that it would cover Snapchat and exclude sites like GitHub and Wikipedia that have valuable educational purposes
  • Amendment #4, which clarifies that the attorney general will be regulating interoperability of age signals and not mandating that all operating systems implement age signals
  • Amendment #19, which prevents companies from manipulating users into using addictive features
  • Amendment #24, which voids the privacy and security issues that come with obtaining parental consent, while increasing the protections for minors
  • Amendment #25, which clarifies that platforms can use interaction data to generate feeds when that data functions to allow users to control the amount and types of content they receive from users they subscribe to
  • Amendment #27, which expands the ban on tech companies’ ability to use design tactics, such as repeated nudges and grouping of settings controls, to manipulate users into choosing less protective settings
  • Amendment #29, which adds important protections to minors’ data by requiring the attorney general to address issues of re-identification that could expose minors’ personal information to the public

Here’s What You Should Ask Your State Legislators If You See Them This Holiday Weekend

It’s the first week of July, and that means two things.

(1) We’re now in the last month of the formal legislative session, which tends to feature a flurry of activity as long-awaited priorities emerge, deals get cut, and more.

(2) Lots of July 4th activities, especially for the 250th.

So across this weekend, you might end up bumping into your state representative or state senator. Here’s what you should ask them.

(1) Protecting Our Immigrant Communities: Tell them to ask Legislative Leadership to ensure that the final version of the PROTECT Act contains a clean ban on new 287(g) agreements, without exception; contains strong and clear limitations on communication and collaboration with ICE; and bans courthouse arrests, including on courthouse grounds. Email Your State Legislators

(2) Protecting Our Privacy Rights: Tell them to ask Legislative Leadership to ensure that the final version of the Data Privacy bill completely bans the sale of sensitive data and location data, creates strong statutory limits on data collection and processing, and includes a private right of action to hold companies accountable. Email Your State Legislators

(3) Keeping Momentum for Rent Control: Urge them not to abandon the momentum for a rent control deal. Real progress was made to protect communities from displacement, and we shouldn’t let the SJC ruling on the ballot question to get in the way. Email Your State Legislators.

There’s a Key Way Your State Legislators Can Help with Prison and ICE Oversight

Fires with no functioning sprinklers to put them out. Tear gas used against individuals in confinement. Individuals being denied access to basic medication. Amputations due to a lack of care and supplies. Year-long delays in access to recommended treatment. Retaliation against individuals who submit grievances.

All of these happen in Massachusetts’s prisons, regularly with little scrutiny or corrective action.

There are many steps needed for robust accountability and a top-to-bottom rethink of the criminal justice system.

But there’s one that can happen now: your state legislators can start actually visiting prisons themselves.

State legislators, who vote to provide funding for the Department of Correction, should view it as incumbent upon themselves to follow up about how that funding is being used, not used, and misused. And they should be willing to listen to and meet with their constituents who are behind the wall when they raise the alarm about inhumane conditions.

Can you ask your state rep and state senator to commit to visiting a Department of Correction prison at least once before the end of the session?

Only a few state legislators visit prisons at all. Even fewer do so unannounced, a statutory right that all state representatives, senators, and governor’s councillors have and a more potent tool for accountability.

Massachusetts also allows ICE detention in our state. Your legislators can be doing more.

The Plymouth County Correctional Facility, which maintains a detention contract with ICE, has been rife with systemic abuses for decades, well before the current administration.

Since Trump took office, the number of detentions have gone up, and the standards and conditions are getting worse.

Our state legislators should not be looking away from what is happening.

Write to your state legislators and tell them to visit Plymouth as a vital tool for accountability.

The MA Senate Released Its Energy Bill. What’s In It?

Yesterday, the MA Senate released its energy bill (S3143), to be voted on next Wednesday.

So what is good, what is bad, and what’s left out? The following is adapted from a Mass Power Forward action guide.

GOOD:

  • Preserves funding for Mass Save: This is in contrast to the House bill, which cut $1 billion from Mass Save. The Senate bill caps administrative costs at 5% and removes gas companies from administering the program. It also adjusts the scope of the program to include solar, battery storage, and other clean energy technologies that save customers money. 20% of Mass Save is designated for LMI programs, codifying in law a recent equity allocation win in the latest Mass Save 3 year plan.
  • Phases Out the Gas System Enhancement Program (GSEP): Instead, utilities would be required to do advanced leak repair where feasible, as opposed to costly and unnecessary full pipe replacements.
  • Increases Clean Energy Procurement: DOER (Department Of Energy Resources) is authorized to procure 20 GW (Gigawatts) of renewable energy, including 10 GW of solar and 10 GW of wind, by 2040. 
  • Regulates Predatory Third Party Suppliers: The bill enables municipalities to ban scammy third party electricity suppliers, who often rip off vulnerable communities with misleading offers. Third-party supply prices are capped for discount rate customers with bans on automatic renewals, cancellation fees, and variable rates.
  • Expands Geothermal: The bill authorizes gas companies to create thermal energy networks (networked geothermal) with worker protections. 
  • Reins in Utility Profiteering: The bill bars the use of ratepayer funds for promotional and political advertising; trade-association dues; charitable giving; lobbying; board/officer travel, lodging, entertainment, gifts, food/beverage, aircraft; tax penalties; non-regulated product marketing.
  • Bans Heat Wave Shut Offs: The bill bans electric shutoffs during heat waves, similar to the heating shutoff ban we have during cold weather. 
  • Promotes Gas Transition Planning: The bill requires DPU to conduct integrated energy planning to facilitate transition off gas and requires disclosure of how infrastructure investment decisions (e.g. substation constructions) are made and reduce them. 

BAD

  • Income Verification: Mass Save programs must verify household income for moderate-income rebates. This creates further bureaucratic hurdles for low and moderate-income customers, who can currently qualify for programs via self-attestation — which has been hugely successful. 
  • Mass Save Budget Caps: Mass Save budgets are capped for each 3 yr. Plan, preventing mid-budget increases. 
  • Corporate Representation in Mass Save Governance: The bill adds business representatives to the Mass Save Energy EfficiencyAdvisory Council) 
  • Short-Term Decrease in Renewable Portfolio Standard: The bill reduces the state’s annual RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standards), i.e., the requirement for utilities to build renewables, increase from 3% to 1%, for the next three years (the bill, however, increases the RPS in the long term).
  • Counts Biomass as Renewable Energy: Woody biomass (trees, shrubs, etc), a highly polluting source of energy, are included as a clean energy source under the eligible Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standard for Municipal Lighting plants. 

MISSING:

  • Preventing Gas System Expansion: No ban on large gas pipeline expansions by gas companies.
  • Stopping Ratepayers from Paying for LEA (Line Extension Allowances):  No ban on ratepayers subsidizing line extensions for new construction/new customers.
  • Protections from Data Centers: No inclusion of protections from data center development (the House included modest protections around clean energy and increases in costs to ratepayers)

The Mass Power Forward Coalition is backing several amendments to strengthen the bill:

  • #1 (Comerford): Protect Constituents From Unreasonable Utility Profits, which studies studies the amount of profit utilities are being allowed to get from ratepayers
  • #25 (Gomez): Addressing Biomass, which removes highly-polluting woody biomass as an eligible fuel under the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standard for Municipal Lighting plants
  • #26 (Gomez): Halting Gas Expansion, which prevents the expansion of gas infrastructure near EJ communities and plans for a just transition away from fossil fuels 
  • #37 (Creem): Prohibition on Charging Ratepayers for Goodwill or Institutional Advertising, which prevents utilities from charging their customers for institutional advertising, which is public relations aimed at enhancing the company’s image
  • #62 & #162 (Howard): Data Centers & Data Center Tax Credits, which establish safeguards around data center development for energy, water, health, and people’s bills
  • #77 (Eldridge): End Gas Line Extension Subsidies, which stops charging of all ratepayers for new gas line extension allowances
  • #78 (Edwards): Labor Peace for Thermal Energy Networks, which would require management to stay neutral in unionization efforts on publicly owned network geothermal projects
  • #82 (Rausch): DPU Clarification, which would remove section allowing “renewable natural gas blending” in the gas distribution system for commercial customers
  • #106 (Eldridge): Self-Attestation of Income, which keeps self-reporting for low and moderate-income households in Mass Save 

Mass Power Forward is also opposing two amendments:

  • #114 (Fernandes): Relative to energy rebate checks, which takes money from crucial programs low-income housing decarbonization and local clean energy
  • #139 (Brady): Preserving Gas System Enhancement Plan Statutory Authority, which removes critical reforms to the GSEP program

Write to your state senators here.

The Billionaires Lost in the Supreme Judicial Court Today. Here’s What’s Next.

This morning, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued a decision barring the proposed income tax cut ballot initiative from appearing on the November 2026 ballot because of its fraudulent ballot summary.

This is a massive victory that will protect Massachusetts from billions of dollars in budget cuts. However the fight isn’t over.

That’s because it was just one of two tax cut ballot initiatives that wealthy investors and CEOs have been attempting to qualify for the 2026 statewide ballot.

The dark-money Massachusetts Opportunity Alliance (MOA) is still backing a ballot initiative that would tighten the state’s revenue cap, known as “62F,” and slash funding for classrooms, hospitals, and first responders across the state.

What would this question do?

  1. Trigger devastating cuts to public services, forcing Massachusetts to slash billions of dollars in public spending over the next decade.
  2. Severely limit our ability to recover from recessions by triggering the largest budget cuts in the years following an economic recession
  3. Give billions to the rich while the rest of us suffer from budget cuts

But Beacon Hill can take action now to neutralize this ballot question. The revenue cap itself is the result of an outdated, misguided 1986 ballot question. It was not about improving the well-being of the Commonwealth then, nor is MOA’s question about that today. The goal has always been weakening investment in and support for public services.

The best way to defeat this ballot question is to do away with the 62F revenue cap once and for all.

Can you contact your state legislators today?

TODAY: Tell Your State Rep: Pass a Strong Data Privacy Bill

The Massachusetts House of Representatives will be voting TODAY, on a data privacy bill.

Your precise location data – showing which doctor’s office you visited last month, which NO KINGS rallies you’ve attended, and when and where you drop your kids off every day – is currently for sale on the open market. The shadowy collection and processing of your data by Big Tech and data brokers consistently exposes your private life to bad actors, including Trump’s ICE — just one of many buyers of our precise geolocation data.

Over the past year, civil liberties advocates have been pushing for a robust data privacy bill that does three things:

  1. Data minimization: Organizations should only be able to collect, use, and retain the minimum amount of personal information necessary to fulfill a specific, authorized purpose (Lay terms: If it’s not essential, you can’t collect it, and you certainly keep it.)
  2. Ban on the sale of sensitive data: This includes location data, but also health data, data on immigration status, data on gender identity and sexual orientation, biometric data, etc.
  3. Private right of action: If your rights are violated, you should be able to sue.

The House bill contains some major wins, but also some clear areas for improvement.

What’s good in the bill: strong protections to ban the sale of location data; private right of action

What needs improvement: data minimization language; protections for sensitive data other than location data

Can you write to your state rep today about the importance of passing a strong bill? Read on for what that means.

Here’s what a strong bill looks like.

Join us in supporting the following amendments backed by our allies in the civil liberties, civil rights, and labor advocacy community:

  • #3 to reiterate that use of employer owned devices is a mandatory subject of collective bargaining, filed be Rep. Field
  • #7 to restrict employer ability to disclose employee data without express employee consent, filed by Rep. Montaño
  • #8 to limit the transfer of employee data outside of operationally necessary reasons, filed by Rep. Montaño
  • #10 to ban surveillance pricing for groceries, filed by Rep. Sabadosa
  • #13 to strengthen the definition of “affirmative consent,” filed by Rep. Sabadosa
  • #16 to fix the data minimization language, filed by Rep. Decker
  • #21 to strengthen the private right of action, filed by Rep. Cataldo
  • #33 to clarify the definition of “transfer,” filed by Rep. Rogers
  • #36 to protect LGBTQ youth data, filed by Rep. Montaño
  • #38 to strengthen the data minimization language, filed by Rep. Kilcoyne
  • #40 to strengthen the data minimization language, filed by Rep. Owens

Join us in opposing the following amendments:

  • #11, which weakens privacy notification, filed by Rep. Phillips
  • #15, which creates a wholesale exemption to the bill for banks and financial institutions, filed by Rep. Chris Markey
  • #17, which creates a wholesale exemption for insurers, filed by Rep. Biele
  • #18, which eliminates the PRA, filed by Rep. Biele
  • #19, which creates an exemption to the LSA for “mobility” data, filed by Rep. Kilcoyne
  • #20, which creates a loophole in the non-discrimination protections, filed by Rep. Cusack

Rent Control and Same Day Registration Are in the Mass Dems Platform. Beacon Hill Should Pass Them.

It’s ballot question signature collection season. When going to the grocery store or the farmer’s market, you may have started seeing people collecting for various questions. Maybe you are even doing it yourself. We’re on track for a record number of ballot questions this fall.

But there’s something Beacon Hill could do to make that ballot more manageable: pass policies already in the Massachusetts Democratic Party platform.

The Massachusetts Democratic Party platform supports rent control and supports Same Day Registration. It recognizes that curbing the growth of rent is a critical tool to fight displacement, and it recognizes that voters should be able to register to vote or update their registration at the polls (almost all of our neighboring states already allow it).

So, as Massachusetts Democrats get ready for their annual party convention in Worcester this weekend, it’s a good time to write to your Democratic state legislators and tell them: let’s make our platform mean something.

Already emailed your legislators recently? Why not try calling for follow-up?

My Top Five Favorite Songs about Data Privacy

Today, technology has far outpaced privacy law. Data brokers and Big Tech are free to do almost anything they want with our personal information, including selling our cellphone location data on the open market.

That’s why we have been working with groups from across the state to push for stronger data privacy protections.

When I was thinking recently about this push for data privacy at the State House, I got to thinking about a really important question: What are the best songs about data privacy?

So I put together my top five favorite songs about privacy and surveillance (🥁🥁):

5. “Secret Agent Man” by Johnny Rivers

4. “Our Lips Are Sealed” by The Go-Go’s

3. “Somebody’s Watching Me” by Rockwell

2. “Every Breath You Take” by The Police

1. The sweet sound of people calling their legislators to demand action on data privacy (It’s music to my ears)

That’s right: nothing beats the sound of people putting pressure on their elected officials to take overdue action.

Can you call or email your state rep today in support of taking action to protect data privacy?

Here’s what you need to know:

  • The MA Senate passed a bill to ban the sale of sensitive data (like location data) and curtail what companies can collect back in September.
  • The MA House’s Advanced IT Committee advanced a bill (H.4746) in November.
  • The clock is ticking, and we need the House to bring it up for a vote.

And here’s what you can do:

In solidarity,
Jonathan Cohn
Policy Director
Progressive Massachusetts

PS: When you call or email about data privacy, it can’t hurt to add a note about why the House should also back down from its push for online age verification policies that are filled with privacy landmines.