PM in the News: Housing Bill Leaves a Lot on the Table

Sam Drysdale, “Guv Signs Housing Law, But Advocates Say It “Left So Much On The Table,” State House News Service, August 6, 2024.

“Inclusionary zoning is something that could have helped lower-income and working class communities,” Progressive Mass Director Jonathan Cohn said. “Legislators love the Housing Development Incentive Program, which is basically how do we build more high-end housing to gentrify Gateway Cities. They seemed to leave ideas that could have helped working or
middle class people living in expensive cities.”

Cohn said he would have liked to see more robust tenant protections in the bill….”The Senate’s language on broker’s fees — it was never that clear how much they were willing to fight for it. It didn’t seem to be something the governor cared about, the Senate had other priorities; it ended up on the chopping block as well,” he said.

“Having it be a $5.2 billion authorization means more money will be spent, and it’s an increase from what Baker did, but with all bonding, there’s so much that needs to happen for it to yield results. And unlike Baker, I think Healey wants to act ally spend that money. But now all these priorities that actually made it into the bill will be competing with each other for actual spending,” Cohn said.

Cohn, Park, Chou and other advocates said they hope lawmakers and Healey don’t put housing legislation on the backburner after the signing of Tuesday’s housing bond legislation….”If you build a nice affordable development in 10 years that’s great, but by then Massachusetts’s low-income residents will be living in Rhode Island,” Cohn said.

PM in the News: “Beacon Hill faces calls for culture change after chaotic end of session”

Chris Van Buskirk, “Beacon Hill faces calls for culture change after chaotic end of session,” Boston Herald, August 4, 2024.

“Jonathan Cohn, the policy director at Progressive Massachusetts, said there is a “real downside” to having a permanent supermajority in both branches “that never feels the urgency of any issues.”

“For them to change, I think ultimately, some people will have to lose their seats because of it. I think that too often, the House and Senate operate like incumbent protection rackets,” he told the Herald.”

Eagle Tribune: “Mass. legislative process is out of whack”

The Editorial Board, “Mass. legislative process is out of whack,” The Eagle Tribune, August 3, 2024.

“The Legislature ran out the clock on passing meaningful legislation on climate change, despite our living through a summer that continues to break heat records,” said Progressive Massachusetts policy director Jonathan Cohn.

“The Legislature whittled away at the policy components of Gov. Healey’s housing bond bill, caving to real estate interests and ignoring public opinion. We have a housing crisis and a climate crisis, and our Legislature is in clear denial about both,” he said.

WGBH: “Why does the Massachusetts Legislature wait so long to do so much?”

Adam Reilly, “Why does the Massachusetts Legislature wait so long to do so much?,” WGBH, August 2, 2024.

“Jonathan Cohn, the political directorof the group Progressive Massachusetts, argues that this dynamic creates a structural problem that naturally leads to a slowed-down pace.

“In any system … if you have too few people in charge of too many decisions, you get a bottleneck effect,” Cohn said. “And you have that with the Legislature, where you know that the decision making is ultimately Ron Mariano’s decision about what’s in the bill, Karen Spilka’s decision about what’s in the bill … If it’s all just coming through one person, that just slows everything down even more.”

But Cohn also believes there’s a tactical consideration at play. By finalizing key legislation at the last minute, he says — and packing individual bills with a sprawling array of provisions on a particular topic — the House and Senate pave the way for marathon negotiating sessions just prior to the session’s end, in which each side defers to its counterpart in some areas and has the favor returned in others.

“Almost to a person, they’ll just all be back in January,” Cohn, of Progressive Mass, said of state lawmakers. “A handful of retirements. Maybe somebody might lose a seat in a primary or general. But they’ll all be back. And there’s often a way in which they just see it as, ‘Well, we didn’t finish now. We’ll come back in a few months and maybe we’ll pass it then.’ … It flattens the sense of time, because if it happens now, if it happens next year, it’s all the same.”

The Eagle Tribune: “Lawmakers recess, leaving many loose ends”

Christian Wade, “Lawmakers recess, leaving many loose ends,” The Eagle Tribune, August 2, 2024.

“Rather than advancing a robust, shared legislative agenda throughout the past year and a half, our Legislature pushed so many important priorities off to the very end of the session, creating bottlenecks and setting themselves up for failure,” said Jonathan Cohn, policy director at the group Progressive Massachusetts. “It does not have to be this way.”

CommonWealth Beacon: “Why are so many amendments being withdrawn on Beacon Hill?”

Gintautas Dumcius, “Why are so many amendments being withdrawn on Beacon Hill?,” CommonWealth Beacon, July 30, 2024.

“It’s an idiosyncrasy that drives some crazy, while others say it’s just pols being pols. The quirk isn’t limited to the Senate. Progressive Massachusetts noted that the House’s version of a climate bill drew 107 amendments, and 91 ended up withdrawn. “Our great deliberative body,” the advocacy group sarcastically posted last month to X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.

According to Jonathan Cohn, the group’s policy director, the strategic case for moving a policy issue forward by taking to the floor via an amendment, even if it gets withdrawn, rests on the idea that enough people see or hear the speeches. “I don’t mean to burst the bubble of legislators, but people don’t watch it,” he said. Writing an opinion piece has more impact than a floor speech, which he likened to “fan service.”

“Filing an amendment, getting a handful of supporters and then saying, ‘I’m done, I’m withdrawing it,’ doesn’t move the ball forward,” Cohn added.

It also highlights the decline of debates. As the State House News Service summary of the Senate’s passage of a housing bill noted, “There was little disagreement and few divided votes.”

Beacon Hill observers say some lawmakers would prefer not to be put on the record about a topic that could cost them support, or even worse, reelection. That amounts to an “incumbent protection racket,” Cohn said.”

PM in the News: “Business groups cheer, progressives knock House axing transfer fees”

Jennifer Smith, “Business groups cheer, progressives knock House axing transfer fees,” CommonWealth Beacon, June 4, 2024.

“Jonathan Cohn, policy director of Progressive Massachusetts, cited the poll in critiquing the House’s proposed bond bill. He said axing the transfer tax option was “taking tools off the table.”

“Let’s be clear: members of House leadership are being dishonest when they claim that they oppose a local option real estate transfer fee because it is a ‘piecemeal’ solution that doesn’t help every city and town,” Cohn wrote in a statement. “Such concerns were nowhere to be found during the budget process, when those very same representatives had no problem stuffing the budget full of outsized perks for their own districts.”

PM in the News: Earmarks in the Senate Budget

Matt Stout and Samantha Gross, “$1.5m for a wedding venue and conference center. $250,000 for historic ships. Here’s what top Senate brass put into the budget.,” Boston Globe, May 17, 2024.

“It really is a fundamentally broken process where you have pet projects of specific legislators getting designated funding outside any kind of rationale or equitable analysis of whether or not that is a worthy use of public funds,” said Jonathan Cohn, policy director for the group Progressive Massachusetts. The approach, he said, means that earmarks are doled out “not based on need, but rather on power and proximity to power.”

PM in the News: “Are Massachusetts politics on immigration changing? Strategists, activists weigh in”

Cassandra Dumay, “Are Massachusetts politics on immigration changing? Strategists, activists weigh in,” The Sun Chronicle, May 12, 2024.

Jonathan Cohn, policy director of the activist group Progressive Massachusetts, said Democrats who choose to “appease” “the most stridently anti-immigrant voter” pose a more important threat to their party than Republican campaigning.

“Too many Democrats have adopted a conservative framing of an increased number of immigrants and refugees as being a terrible burden — rather than viewing them as people who we should feel so blessed want to live here,” Cohn said. “The bigger issue is Democrats demoralizing their own base by abandoning them than Republicans being energized.”