PM in the News: On Healey’s Hiring Freeze

Colin A. Young, Michael P. Norton, and Chris Lisinski. “Healey Plans To Reduce Gov’t Hiring, Critics Say It’s Coming Too Late.” State House News Service. April 3, 2024.

Blowback came from the left, too. Progressive Massachusetts Policy Director Jonathan Cohn castigated Healey and the Legislature for having approved a series of targeted tax cuts last year after voters in 2022 “made clear that they support higher taxes on the rich and greater investment in our commonwealth.” He said the governor’s January budget cuts and her hiring restrictions “are the result of such decisions.”

“The Legislature should not operate from a standpoint of scarcity. Whether that means putting a pause on the regressive tax cuts from last year’s bill or finding new ways to raise money (e.g., by closing corporate loopholes or ending misguided corporate tax incentives), the Governor and Legislature can’t pretend there isn’t money available,” Cohn said. “Even more, the rainy day fund remains flush, and adding more money to it each year is not a badge of honor if it can never be used.”

He added, “When voters gave Massachusetts a Democratic trifecta, it was not out of a desire for tax cuts for the rich and hiring freezes; it was to make the Commonwealth better for all.”

Lisa Kashinsky, Kelly Garrity, and Mia McCarthy. “The fallout from Healey’s ‘hiring controls’.” Politico. April 4, 2024.

“If the governor believes that the commonwealth is facing an economic downturn that would necessitate such a freeze, she should communicate to the public what she believes is the cause of the revenue shortfall and outline how the commonwealth will protect critical investments,” Progressive Massachusetts’ Jonathan Cohn told Playbook.

A Budget is a Moral Document

Yesterday, the Ways & Means Committee, aka the budget writers, in the MA Legislature held a hearing about priorities for the next fiscal year.

A budget is more than just numbers: it’s a moral document. It shows what we, as a commonwealth, value and what society we wish to build together.

If you want a budget that reflects core progressive values, then write to your legislators in support of key investments in education and economic security.

Here’s what a budget that reflects our values would do:

  • Incorporate key provisions of the Cherish Act, such as increasing investment in public colleges and universities, ensuring that students are able to graduate without debt, strengthening student supports, and guaranteeing good pay and benefits for all faculty and staff
  • Fully fund the Student Opportunity Act to keep the promise made to our students in 2019 of a high-quality public education for all and increased funding to high-need school districts, and ensure that we are not underfunding needs due to an outdated calculation of inflation
  • Fully fund School Meals for All because universal school meals have proven a policy success and hungry children can’t learn
  • Continue the state’s operational grants to child care providers to offset their operating costs, including higher educator pay, and implement other recommendations from a recent early education & child care commission
  • Provide funding for an Access to Counsel program because no tenant facing eviction should go without legal representation
  • Increase cash assistance grant levels for low-income families because we must ensure that everyone’s basic needs are met

Email your legislators

Testimony: Investing in Our Commonwealth and Our Shared Prosperity

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

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

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director at Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group fighting for a more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic commonwealth. Thank you for your work on the FY 2025 budget.

In the following, we outline several key priority areas for the budget to ensure that it builds on recent progress in investing in our commonwealth.

Strengthening Our Commitment to Public Higher Education

Our public colleges and universities are essential vehicles for economic mobility of our commonwealth’s residents and economic vitality of the commonwealth itself. Studies have shown that college graduates are more likely to be healthier, earn significantly more on average, and are less likely to face job loss during an economic recession, and graduates of our public colleges and universities are more likely to stay in Massachusetts to live and work, contributing to our commonwealth and common wealth.

However, our state has been disinvesting from public higher education for the last two decades, with funding for public higher education still below its (inflation-adjusted) value in 2001. When the state reduces funding to public colleges and universities, the result is higher tuition and fees, and a growing debt burden faced by students and families.

The published in-state tuition and fees increase at public 4-year institutions in MA increased 135 percent from 2001 to 2021 after adjusting for inflation, and for two-year institutions, 81 percent, but real Median Household Income in Massachusetts only increased by 8 percent. Just between 2009 and 2021, the average student debt rose 52% for four-year graduates and 62% for community college graduates. When we close off opportunities like that for our students, we are all worse off. 

As you craft the FY 2025 budget, we urge you to incorporate key provisions of the Cherish Act and the Debt-Free Future Act, such as

  • Instituting fair and adequate minimum funding levels for public higher education
  • Ensuring that students are able to graduate from our public colleges and universities debt-free
  • Ensuring that adjunct faculty and part-time staff are eligible for state health care and retirement benefits
  • Reducing wage disparities on campuses
  • Increasing funding for student supports
  • Investing in green and healthy buildings on campus

Fully Funding Our Public Schools

The passage of the Student Opportunity Act in 2019 was a major win for education justice in the commonwealth. We are very appreciative of recent comments that the Legislature will fully fund the Student Opportunity Act’s fourth year of implementation, keeping the law on track to be fully funded by the 2026-2027 school year. Importantly, maintaining that commitment includes fixing the Chapter 70 inflation calculation glitch that, if left unsolved, could permanently reduce school aid and prevent the Commonwealth from meeting the real-dollar targets in the Student Opportunity Act.

Full Funding for School Meals for All

We also urge you to support full funding in support of School Meals for All (Line Items 1596-2422 and 7053-1925).

The research on universal school meals is clear: participation in school meals improves academic achievement, attendance, and student behavior at school; decreases childhood food insecurity; leads to children eating more fruits, vegetables, and milk; and reduces visits to the school nurse.

With the implementation of School Meals for All, more than an additional 100,000 students participated in school lunch in October 2023 compared to October 2019 in schools not previously serving universal free meals. This program has been a success all around, and we must ensure it continues to be so.

Advancing the Common Start Vision

As a member of the Common Start coalition, we would also like to amplify the common Start coalition’s asks:

  • $510 million to continue operational grants to child care providers (line item 3000-1045)
  • Increased funding that makes substantial progress towards the Economic Review Commission’s recommendation of raising early education and care financial assistance reimbursement rates (line items 3000-1041 & 3000-1042)
  • $75 million to increase access to child care financial assistance (line item 3000-4060)
  • $20 million for the Head Start Supplemental Grant (line item 3000-5000)

The Governor, Senate Leadership, and House Leadership have all expressed a commitment to strengthening our child care and early education system, and these investments would help to do that.

Access to Counsel

Without legal representation, many tenants risk becoming homeless. Indeed, most tenants are unrepresented and face eviction alone. It doesn’t have to be that way, and an Access to Counsel program is a proven solution.

We urge the House and Senate Committees on Ways and Means to include in your respective FY25 budgets $3.5 Million (Line-item 0321-1800) to start a Access to Counsel program in tandem with the full Access to Council bill language in S.864/H.4360, which provides the framework for a statewide program.

Increasing Assistance to Families in Deep Poverty

We also urge you to include a 20% increase in cash assistance grant levels (line items 4403-2000 and 4408-1000.

The maximum grant for a family of 3 with no income is only $783 a month, far below even half the federal poverty level – known as Deep Poverty – which is currently $1,076 for a family of 3.  The maximum grant for an elder or person with a disability is only $401 a month.  In January, Governor Healey cut the 10% grant increase that the Legislature had scheduled to go into effect in April.

Deep poverty hurts kids.  It causes health and emotional damage, toxic stress, impaired school performance, and homeless and housing instability. We must do right by our neediest families.

A budget is a moral document, and we urge you to include such investments to advance a vision of a commonwealth that works for all residents.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

Tell Gov. Healey to Stop the Cuts

Earlier this month, Governor Healey responded to a revenue shortfall by making $375 million in unilateral 9C cuts to the budget, including cuts to cash assistance to the lowest-income families in the Commonwealth.Please help keep up the pressure on the Governor to rescind the cash assistance cuts that eliminated the 10% grant increases slated to take effect in April. We should not be balancing the budget on the backs of our lowest-income children and families, elders, and people with disabilities.

Call and/or e-mail Governor Healey to urge her to reverse the cuts to cash assistance:

Call (888) 870-7770

Suggested script:  “This is [name] from [city/town].  I’m calling to urge the Governor to rescind the 9C cuts to the TAFDC and EAEDC cash assistance programs.  The grant amounts are still far below even half of the federal poverty level.  It is unconscionable for Massachusetts to fill gaps in the budget by cutting cash assistance for our lowest income families with children, elders, and people with disabilities.”

Click here to send an e-mail.

PM in the News: “Midyear budget shortfall raises questions about Healey’s tax cuts”

“Midyear budget shortfall raises questions about Healey’s tax cuts,” WGBH, January 12, 2024.

Have Gov. Maura Healey’s tax cuts backfired?

That’s the argument coming from some on the left as Healey makes hundreds of millions of dollars in midyear budget cuts, just a few months after she signed off on the state’s first big tax-break package in two decades. But not everyone thinks the state’s current fiscal duress means the cuts were a bad idea.

Adam Reilly is joined by Mass. Taxpayers Foundation president Doug Howgate and Progressive Mass policy director Jonathan Cohn, who discuss the impact of the cuts and what they might portend for the future of budget-making in the state.

📣Good News in the State Budget — and Next Steps

On Monday (a month past the deadline), the MA House and Senate came to an agreement on the budget for the next fiscal year.

We wanted to highlight some of the important victories in it:

  • Tuition equity for all students regardless of immigration status
  • Permanent funding for universal school meals
  • No Cost Calls, keeping incarcerated individuals and their families connected
FY 2024 budget victories from the surrounding text (Graduation cap, school meal, mother with child on phone)

These victories came because of people like you reaching out to your legislators (and then reaching out to friends to do so too) and keeping the momentum going.

The budget also contained transformative new investments because of the Fair Share amendment, which you voted for and organized for last year.

Raise Up MA @RaiseUpMA · Jul 31 With the state budget released last night, voters can now see exactly how the first billion dollars from the #FairShare Amendment will be spent. Legislators are delivering on the promise of the Fair Share Amendment by making new investments in transportation & public education. Raise Up MA @RaiseUpMA This year, Fair Share funding will help: 🚃Upgrade the MBTA 👩‍🎓Make public college more affordable 🌉Repair bridges 🍱Provide free school meals for all students 🏫Build green schools 🚍Expand local bus service 🚸Increase access to early education ⛴️Support new ferry service

But the fight is not over yet…..

Call Gov. Healey to urge her to sign the budget

The budget doesn’t become law until Gov. Healey signs it.

Can you call her office at (617) 725-4005 to urge her to support Tuition Equity, Permanent Universal School Meals, and No Cost Calls without changes?

The call can be short and sweet: it just needs that simple message.

Urge Your State Legislators to Reject Tax Cuts for the Ultra-Rich and Large Corporations

Although the Legislature came to an agreement on the budget, they are still in negotiations about a tax reform package.

Massachusetts needs to prioritize spending on what will make our state truly affordable, equitable, and competitive: programs that support working people and ensure a labor force adequate to our economy’s needs. That, in turn, requires that families have affordable housing, childcare, educational opportunities, and reliable transportation to make it possible for them to work, gain skills, and earn a good living.

We need to act NOW to protect the Fair Share Amendment from tax avoidance, and ensure that Massachusetts can invest more in our schools, colleges, roads, bridges, and public transit systems. At the same time, we need to make sure our legislators don’t give away billions of dollars to the ultra-rich.

Can you write to your state legislators to thank them for the budget victories and urge them to protect Fair Share revenue?

Email Your Legislators

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

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

Take Action: The MA Senate is Voting on a Budget This Week

The MA Senate will be voting on a budget this week. Though there are clear reasons to celebrate (such as the inclusion of in-state tuition for all Massachusetts high school graduates and robust funding for regional transit authorities, including funding for fare-free bus pilots), there are ways to make it better.

Take a moment to contact your state senator in support of Amendments #819, #856, and #941 to the Senate budget this week.

These amendments would protect the Fair Share victory, build on past progress on juvenile justice reform, and strengthen No Cost Calls language.

Want to be quick? Call their office and just say “Please co-sponsor Amendments #819, #856, and #941 to the Senate budget this week. These amendments would protect the Fair Share victory, build on past progress on juvenile justice reform, and strengthen No Cost Calls language.”

Prefer to email?



Amendment 819 (Sen. Jason Lewis): Reducing high income tax avoidance

Amendment #819 would require that couples who file jointly at the federal level also file jointly at the state level, as other states do. Right now, Massachusetts is the only state that has a separate income tax rate for high-income filers without either designating lower tax rate thresholds for single filers than married filers or requiring federal joint filers to file jointly on their state taxes. As a result, under current law, some high-income couples who file jointly at the federal level may be able to avoid up to $40,000/year in Fair Share tax by filing singly at the state level. This loophole creates an incentive for illegal misattribution of income between the two members of the couple, necessitating additional tax audits and causing a loss in vital state revenue.

Amendment #856 (Sen. Adam Gomez): Youth Bail Fees
This amendment eliminates the $40 administrative bail fee imposed on justice-involved youth, paying the bail magistrate fee from state indigency funds. The Senate already passed this last session, so this is an opportune moment to do so again.

Amendment #941 (Sen. Liz Miranda): No Cost Calls

I was grateful to see that the MA Senate’s budget proposal includes “No Cost Calls” language that would end the practice of private corporations charging incarcerated people and their families huge fees to make phone calls to and from jail and prison.

This amendment strengthens the language to guarantee access to voice communications for people and ensures that technology like tablets, if they’re already equipped for phone call, can be used under the new law.

Less Than Six Weeks Before the End of the Session. But This Happens Before.

The Legislative session will be over in just under six weeks, but there’s one key deadline that’s earlier than that: the state budget deadline, which is just around the corner on June 30.

The Legislature doesn’t always meet that deadline (pushing things into July), but it still exists. And that means action has to happen quick.

Here are three key areas to contact your legislators on:

*Equitable Approaches in Public Safety: The Senate budget included language to increase funding to $3.5M for the Equitable Approaches to Public Safety (EAPS) program (line item 4512-2020). This language and funding will allow municipalities to create community-based alternative crisis response models centered around social and emotional health professionals like social workers and peer support specialists.

*Early Education and Child Care: The House and Senate both included new funding for early education and child care in their budgets. They increased funding in different ways, but, as the Common Start Coalition has argued, if the priorities of both chambers make it into the final budget, it would represent a substantial step toward implementing the coalition’s full vision of a high-quality early education and childcare system that is affordable and accessible for all families.

*No Cost Calls: Both the House and Senate budgets included language to provide persons who are incarcerated with access to free phone calls or similar forms of communication. It is unconscionable that prisons and jails have been price-gouging incarcerated individuals and their families for years, and it’s important that this provision is a part of the final budget.

Can you contact your state legislators in support of these three budget priorities?

TONIGHT: Community Forum on Suffolk & Plymouth County DA Races

We’ll be joining community partners from the Justice for Massachusetts coalition for a forum with the Suffolk and Plymouth County DA candidates TONIGHT from 6 pm to 9 pm.

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm: Kevin Hayden (Suffolk County)

7:00 pm – 8:00 pm: Rahsaan Hall (Plymouth County)

8:00 pm – 9:00 pm: Ricardo Arroyo (Suffolk County)

RSVP here.

TOMORROW: The ‘Segrenomics’ of Education

Many of the educational issues and controversies we face today — state takeovers, standardized testing, charter schools, many more — have interconnected historical roots and mutually reinforcing current impacts that result in huge gaps in school quality and huge gaps in student opportunity. Understanding that history is crucial for finding solutions.

Tomorrow at 7:00 pm, join the important discussion with Dr. Rooks about her research on segrenomics, connecting the dots between economics with segregated schooling and community organizers from across the state on their work.

RSVP here.

WEDNESDAY: Education Budget Briefing

On Wednesday at 4 pm, join the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance, MassBudget, and the Massachusetts Teachers Association for a briefing on the education budget, including discussions of the state budget, budget supplemental, the American Rescue Plan (ARPA), and the Fair Share Amendment.

RSVP here.

Education Budget Briefing

In solidarity,

What’s in the MA House Budget….And What Could Be.

First of all, happy Earth Day! This Earth Day, I’m thinking about how the investments from the Fair Share Amendment will help us improve our public transit systems, a vital part of our response to climate change (as well as reducing air pollution and expanding economic opportunity). The Fair Share campaign recently launched new social media accounts, so if you haven’t followed them yet, make sure to do so on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

A Budget Is a Moral Document

Last week, the MA House Ways & Means Committee released its budget for the next fiscal year.

The Good: The budget avoids the regressive tax cuts for the rich proposed by Republican Governor Charlie Baker, includes the new investments in public schools required by the Student Opportunity Act, and ends the exploitative practice of charging incarcerated individuals for phone calls to loved ones.

The Bad: At the same time, the budget continues our chronic underfunding of public transit and fails to deliver on the investments in child care necessary for true affordability and accessibility.

How the Budget Could Be Better: The House will be considering various amendments next week to improve the budget and better deliver on the promise of shared prosperity and justice for all.

Can you contact your state rep in support of these amendments?

Voting Access for All

Amendment #47 (New American Voters Fund), filed by Reps. Ultrino & Donato: Would allocate $4 million to municipalities and community organizations to hire bilingual election workers, pay for professional translators and interpreters, and train elections departments.

Justice for All

Amendment #902 (ACES), filed by Rep. Sabadosa: Would ensure that every call to 911 gets the best response by providing funding to communities that want to develop alternatives to police response for calls better handled by mental and community health providers, like social workers and peer specialists.

Amendment #936 (Community Empowerment and Reinvestment Grant), filed by Rep. Mary Keefe: Would provide $15 Million for the Community Empowerment Reinvestment Grant Program, which funds reentry and intervention programs.

Amendment #1346 (Youth Bail Fees), filed by Rep. Fluker Oakley: Would (1) eliminate the statutorily-required $40 administrative bail fees charged to juveniles when they are arrested overnight and (2) shift the decision to release a child to their parent or to impose cash bail decisions from the police officer on call to the Bail Magistrate, a neutral 3rd party.

The House budget remains poised to earmark millions of dollars for the incarceration of men civilly committed for treatment of substance use disorder under the statute known as “Section 35” (M.G.L. c.123 s.35).

  • Amendment #332 (Section 35), filed by Rep. Balser: Would eliminate the Governor’s proposed funding for correctional section 35 facilities.  
  • Amendment #333 (Access to Addiction Services), filed by Rep. Balser: Would ensure sufficient bed space in DPH or DMH facilities for men committed under section 35.

Economic Security for All

Amendment #181 (Lift Kids Out of Deep Poverty FY23), filed by Rep. Decker: Would raise cash assistance grants for very low-income families with children, elders, and persons with disabilities by 20% for FY 23.

Amendment #640 (Excluding Temporary COVID Relief Income from FY23 Means Testing), filed by Rep. Elugardo: Would ensure that economic assistance from the CARES Act does not count against anyone’s eligibility for means-tested public assistance programs.

Amendment #802 (Including underemployed and unstably housed youth in “at-risk”), filed by Rep. Elugardo: Would add a focus of creating economic opportunity for youth experiencing homelessness to the YouthWorks Youth Jobs program.

Amendment #881 (Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program), filed by Rep. Madaro: Would cap tenant rent share to 30% income instead of 40% and expand mobile vouchers to cover tenant-paid utilities, among other measures.

Amendments #1068 (RTA Funding) & #1070 (RTA Funding Distribution), filed by Representative Sarah Peake: Would make $101 million in base funding available to the RTAs (an increase from $94 million).

Amendment #1268 (Housing Protections), filed by Rep. Moran: Would extend Chapter 257 eviction protections to cases where landlords seek to recover arrears for non-payment of rent – effectively closing the non-payment loophole – and require landlords to participate in the rental assistance process in good faith before being permitted to file an eviction case in court.

Amendment #1371 (Rental Assistance for Families in Transition), filed by Rep. Decker: Would expand eligibility for RAFT to households with incomes from 50% of the area median income (AMI) up to 60% AMI.

Safe & Welcoming Schools for All

Amendment #1133 (Targeted Intervention to Enhance the Learning of Students in Early Grades), filed by Rep. Uyterhoeven: Would provide funding for student specific supports and interventions that enhance learning during preschool through the third grade and that support the elimination of disciplinary sanctions for this population of students

Amendment #1138 (Student Wellness School Support), filed by Rep. Uyterhoeven: Would provide funding to reduce school exclusion for students in prekindergarten through the third grade by utilizing best practices, increased parent engagement and community-based services to support teachers and school staff to employ alternatives to suspensions and expulsions to address student misbehavior in the early grades

Amendment #1321 (Holistic School Health and Safety Practices Grant Program), filed by Rep. Khan: Would create a grant program, administered by the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, to support public schools and school districts in transitioning to safety models that do not rely on stationing police in schools.

Can you contact your state rep in support of these amendments?