Two Emails You Can Send Today in Support of Gender Equity

The end of the legislative session is coming up fast, and today we wanted to highlight one email that you can send to your state senator and one to your state rep to advance a more equitable commonwealth.

One Email to Your Senator

Your senator needs to hear from you about two simple but transformative steps MA can take to advance gender equity.

(1) We Need Wage Equity Now

In 2016, the Massachusetts Legislature passed an equal pay law, aimed at closing the gender wage gap. But without good data and tracking, the law is hard to implement: indeed, some numbers point to a widening of the gap since then.

That’s why passing the Wage Equity Now bill (S.2721) is so important. The bill would require all employers — private, non-profit, and governmental — with 100 or more employees to report the average wages by gender, race, and ethnicity for the entire organization, and to publish wage ranges in job applications and postings. This data would offer a vital tool for creating accountability and measuring progress.

The bill is currently sitting in the Senate Ways & Means Committee, and your senator needs to hear from you about the importance of bringing it to the floor.

(2) Gender Justice & Housing Justice

The Senate is taking up an economic development bill later this week. Last session, the Legislature passed a version of the HOMES Act, which would create a process for sealing eviction records. Governor Baker vetoed it, and the Legislature didn’t have the time to override him.

The housing crisis is a gender equity issue. Studies have shown that women, and especially women of color, face higher rates of eviction than men, and households headed by single mothers have some of the highest eviction rates.

Currently, in Massachusetts, even if a tenant wins in eviction court, their eviction record is public and permanent, creating a lasting impact on their ability to find housing and jobs.

That’s why State Senator Lydia Edwards filed Amendment #18 to the Senate’s economic development bill. Amendment #18 will protect tenants from being unfairly marked with an eviction record and establish a fair process for tenants to petition the court on a case-by-case basis and provide that:

  • Tenants can petition to seal immediately after a case is dismissed or there is a judgment in their favor.
  • Tenants facing a no-fault eviction can seal their records after the conclusion of the case.
  • Tenants facing a non-payment eviction can seal their record within 14 days of satisfying a judgment.
  • Tenants facing a fault eviction can seal their records after 3 years.
  • Tenant screening companies cannot report and landlords cannot use a sealed court record to screen tenants.

Can you email your state senator in support of both of these measures?

One Email to Your State Rep

On July 7th, the Senate voted unanimously to pass bill S.2973, An Act to Expand Access to High-Quality, Affordable Early Education and Care. This bill is a significant step forward in transforming the child care system in MA, including more affordability for families, early educator raises, and stability for child care providers.

Join the Common Start Coalition in calling on the House to advance their version of the bill, H.4795, and to bring it to the floor for a vote by the end of the legislative session on July 31st.

Can you email your state rep about the need for action on affordable child care?

Take Action: The MA Legislative Session Ends in TWO WEEKS

Did you know that the current legislative session at the MA State House ends in just two weeks?

That’s right: any bills that don’t pass between now and July 31st are done until next year (at the earliest).

That means that there will be a flurry of activity in the coming weeks, and we want to keep you in the loop.

Stop the MA Legislature from Giving Massive Tax Breaks to the Wealthiest Estates

The Massachusetts tax system hits the wallets of lower-income people harder than high earners, with the bottom 20% of earners paying a higher percentage of their income in state and local taxes than the top 1%. An exception is the Commonwealth’s relatively robust estate tax. The estate tax is one of the main policies we have focused on reducing the gaping racial wealth gap in Massachusetts.

Nonetheless, the Massachusetts House voted last week to roll back the estate tax, to the cost of $207 million. This lost revenue means money isn’t available for important investments or for tax relief for the struggling residents of the Commonwealth.

Even worse, the estate tax rollback was designed in a way that disproportionately benefits the largest estates, namely those over $3 million. This would be the biggest increase in the racial wealth gap in decades.

If legislators want to help comparatively smaller estates, they should design their design their policies to do so, not advance a costly giveaway to the wealthiest estates.

Can you write to your state senator to urge them to reject the House’s estate tax proposal?

Turn up the Heat: MA Needs Climate Action

A climate bill is in the works, but it hasn’t reached the Governor’s desk yet. Together, the provisions laid forth in the House and Senate proposed bills put Massachusetts in a good position to implement strategies to reduce our emissions 50% by 2030 – as required by law – and create healthier communities.

But these strategies cannot wait two years more to be passed into law! Let’s ensure that lawmakers finalize a climate bill that moves us toward our shared climate and justice goals.

The conference committee and House and Senate leaders must send a bill to the Governor’s deskby Thursday, July 21 to avoid the chance of a pocket veto by Governor Baker.

Your legislators need to hear from you: no climate bill is not an option! Advocates are circulating a public sign-on letter for legislators to show their support for moving this forward swiftly. Your legislators need to hear from you that it’s important they demonstrate support!!

Take action!

  1. Check if your legislators have signed onto the letter
  2. If not, send your legislators a message asking them to sign on – either by emailing them or calling them.

Email

Dear _________

I am alarmed to hear that, in the final days of the legislative session, a comprehensive climate bill is still not on the governor’s desk. We have very little time before the end of the session.

[why passing a climate and justice bill is important to you]

We must get a climate bill to the governor’s desk by Thursday. Please join me in voicing your support for swift passage by signing on to this public “Dear Colleague” letter.

Thank you,

Call

I’m calling to voice concern that the legislature has still not passed a climate bill this session. Climate advocates are circulating a public sign-on letter for legislators in support of quickly moving a bill. Has the Representative/Senator seen the letter? You can view the form and the letter at bit.ly/maclimate22. Will the Representative/Senator sign on?

If yes: Wonderful, thank you. They can use the sign-on form found in the letter

If not sure/need to get back to you: Please let me know what the legislator says.

If no: Can you explain why not?

Two More Asks from Our Allies

Time is Short: The Legislature Can Take Action to Rein in the Costs of Child Care and Housing

The national discourse around inflation tends to leave out major sources of rising costs facing individuals and families across the Commonwealth and the whole country: the spiraling costs of child care and housing.

Fortunately, the MA Senate is planning to vote on a bill this Thursday that represents a substantial step toward implementing a vision of a high-quality early education and child care system that is affordable and accessible for all families. You can read the Common Start Coalition’s statement on the bill here.

Let’s talk about housing for a moment too. There are less than four weeks left in the Legislative Session, and we need action–fast.

The Housing Crisis Requires Every Tool in the Toolbox

QUICK VERSION: Urge your state legislators to advocate for the inclusion of legislation to increase affordable housing production, preserve affordable housing stock, and protect tenants in the upcoming economic development bill.

CONTEXT: At the end of the last legislative session, the MA Legislature passed an economic development bill that included several key provisions to address the housing crisis in Massachusetts:

  • Reducing the voting threshold to a simple majority for smart growth zoning and affordable housing
  • Requiring cities and towns served by the MBTA to create at least 1 district of reasonable size in which multi-family housing is permitted as of right because transit-oriented development is good for equity and for the environment (“MBTA communities”)
  • Allowing municipalities the option of providing tenants in multi-family buildings the right to match a third-party offer when their homes are being sold, a key tool for preserving affordable housing stock (“tenant opportunity to purchase”)
  • Creating a process to seal eviction records for no-fault evictions, as eviction records can stay with tenants for life and make it prohibitive to find stable housing

But, on all four fronts, the work is unfinished.

  • A 2/3 majority approval threshold is still required for municipalities to adopt inclusionary zoning ordinances that would require a certain percentage of new construction be affordable.
  • The MBTA communities requirement lacks an enforcement mechanism, and it is too limited in application.
  • Charlie Baker VETOED the two pro-tenant proposals, and because the legislative session had already ended, the Legislature could not override him.

OPPORTUNITY: The Legislature is going to be passing another economic development bill in the final weeks of the session, and it’s essential that that bill finish the work of last year’s bill. And it’s essential that the Legislature doesn’t wait until the last minute to pass it.

REQUEST: Can you email your state legislators to urge them to prioritize a pro-housing, pro-tenant agenda in the economic development bill that includes the following?

  • H.1448: An Act Relative to Housing Production, which would lower the threshold for municipalities to approve inclusionary zoning ordinances, require multi-family zoning around public transportation and other suitable locations, and facilitate the conversion of underutilized public land and vacant commercial properties for housing
  • H.1426: An Act to guarantee a tenant’s first right of refusal, which would let cities and towns adopt “tenant opportunity to purchase” ordinances that can preserve affordable rental housing stock, provide a mechanism for tenant associations to collectively purchase their buildings, and stabilize low-income households.
  • H. 4505: An Act promoting housing opportunity and mobility through eviction sealing (HOMES), which would create a process for the sealing of no-fault eviction records

This Week: Take Action on Juvenile Justice Reform

What do eggs, lotion, and Slurpees have in common?

All of them have been deemed “dangerous weapons” in courts that made young people ineligible for judicial diversion to community supervision instead of incarceration.

This Thursday, the MA Senate will be voting on an important juvenile justice reform bill (S.2942) to expand opportunities for judicial diversion for youth, as well as another bill (S.2943) that eliminates the requirement that youth pay an $40 administrative bail fee as a condition of being released on bail.

The Senate also has the opportunity to strengthen these reforms by including an amendment (#4 to S.2942, filed by Sen. Pat Jehlen) to preserve the right to education of students who are accused of a felony offense allowing them to remain in school as long as their case has not moved towards an arraignment and that the felony be a “serious violent felony” before a student is suspended from school.

Can you contact your state senator in support of these reforms?

TOMORROW: Fair Share Canvass with Elizabeth Warren

Join Fair Share for Massachusetts and Senator Elizabeth Warren TOMORROW at 5:30 PM to canvass voters and spread the word to vote YES of Fair Share this November!

The kickoff will be at Lincoln Commons Park, Bryant and Cross Street, Malden.

RSVP HERE.

Tell Your Legislator: Pass Child Care Legislation This Legislative Session!

In early 2021, the Common Start Coalition drafted legislation, originally filed by Reps. Gordon & Madaro and Senators Lewis & Moran, that would establish a framework for delivering increased access to affordable, high-quality early education and child care to Massachusetts families, over the course of several years. On May 18, the Legislature’s Education Committee approved a landmark bill, H.4795/S.2883, titled An Act to Expand Access to High-Quality, Affordable Early Education and Care.

Major sections of the Education Committee’s legislation are heavily based on the Common Start bill. Now, we have until the end of the current legislative session on July 31 to pass H.4795/S.2883 and make progress this year on transforming the childcare system in Massachusetts!

Contact your legislators here!

Actions, not just words, on the last day of Women’s History Month

Today marks the end of Women’s History Month, which should remind us of how far we’ve come and how far we have to go to achieve gender equity.

Gender inequities, especially at the workplace, are a result of policy or lack thereof. And by being intentional, legislators can—through policies, rules, and culture—remove systemic barriers that women face and build a better, more equitable world for all.

Everyone Deserves a Safe Workplace…And Yes, That Includes the State House

In 2018, amid the #MeToo reckoning, the Massachusetts House of Representatives created a new position, an “independent” Equal Employment Opportunity officer to examine allegations of harassment or discrimination while protecting the confidentiality of accusers and witnesses. They filled the job in June 2019, but the officeholder left for an new job in November 2020. It has been vacant ever since.

That’s right: for 15 months, this office, which remains essential in ensuring that the MA State House is a safe and welcoming workplace for all, has remained empty.

The House cannot run out the rest of the legislative session without filling this position. Let your state rep know that this isn’t acceptable–and that such an office needs more than just nominal independence.

Contact your state rep today.

RSVP Today! Saturday, April 9: Spring into Action for Common Start

Join the Common Start Coalition to celebrate the milestones of our campaign and to hear how YOU can help us ensure a stronger future for every child! For more information about the Common Start Coalition, please go to: www.commonstartma.org
Date: Saturday, April 9
Time: 11:00am – 1:00pm

Place: Boston Common at the Parkman Bandstand

RSVP at https://bit.ly/csrallyrsvp The rally is family friendly and free to attend. Bus transportation with snacks and beverages will be provided from key locations across Massachusetts. With state Covid-19 mask requirements still in place on public and private transportation, including buses, please plan to wear a mask, except while eating snacks or drinking beverages provided to passengers.

Common Start Coalition

Your Calendar, Marked

It’s time to spring into action. Here are some upcoming events to put on your calendar.

Saturday, 3/26: Progressive Mass Spring Statewide Candidate Interviews

2022 is a busy year, with open AG and Auditor races and a contested Secretary of the Commonwealth race.

Join fellow activists across Massachusetts on Saturday, March 26, from 1 pm to 4 pm, as we interview candidates for these offices about how they will advance a progressive agenda.

RSVP here.

PM Spring Candidate Interviews

Tuesday, 3/29: Immigrants’ Day at the State House

Immigrants’ Day at the State House is an annual tradition from our ally MIRA, the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. Each spring, MIRA brings together hundreds of immigrants and refugees to the State House to hear from public officials and advocate for legislative and budget priorities.

The event will be held in a virtual space for safety and public health reasons, with a speaking program with built-in digital advocacy opportunities, followed by regional “roundtables” with legislators co-hosted by MIRA member organizations.

Join us to advocate for our pro-immigrant budget and legislative agenda. The event will focus on the Safe Communities Act, the Work and Family Mobility Act, the Language Access and Inclusion Act, the COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Act, and several budget line-items.

RSVP here.

Immigrants' Day (virtually) at the State House 2022

Saturday, April 9: Spring into Action for Common Start

Join the Common Start Coalition to celebrate the milestones of the campaign and to hear how

YOU can help us ensure a stronger future for every child!

Saturday, April 9, 11 am to 1 pm, Boston Common

In addition to learning more about our next steps, the day will include opportunities for child and family fun! Buses to the Boston Common will be provided from certain areas. Stay tuned for more details!

“Policy is my love language.”

Policy is my love language

“Policy is my love language.” This is a quote that Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley often uses, and it rings so true. If we want to build a society where people truly love, care for, and respect each other, then we need policies that reflect that, rather than policies that dehumanize and marginalize.

Tell Your State Rep to Vote YES on the Work & Family Mobility Act!

Last Friday, the Work & Family Mobility Act was reported out of the Joint Transportation Committee.

This bill would enable all qualified state residents to apply for a standard Massachusetts driver’s license or identification card regardless of immigrant status.

Many MA residents depend on a car to get to work, to school, to the hospital, etc., and immigration status shouldn’t be a barrier to getting a license.

Moreover, the Work & Family Mobility Act would make us all safer. If all drivers have passed the same test and know the same rules of the road, and are properly insured, we all benefit.

The House is expected to vote on the bill soon—possibly as early as this week.

Can you write to your state rep to urge them to vote YES?

Valentine’s Day Rally to Pass the Jail and Prison Construction Moratorium Bill!

Let’s show love to incarcerated women and love for our communities! Come to the State House with Families for Justice as Healing on Monday from 12-1pm to push the Legislature to pass the Moratorium Bill and free women from Framingham and invest money in what communities really need to thrive! Please wear masks to keep each other safe. Feel free to bring signs with messages like FREE HER, STOP THE NEW WOMEN’S PRISON, or PASS S2030/H1905. RSVP HERE.

Hearts Broken on Slow Solutions, Love is Strong for our Movement

Every day that passes without action breaks our hearts, knowing that Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Immigrant, and all oppressed people are harmed by the status quo. Our frontline movements have worked for years for urgent social change, with some priority bills delayed by our legislature for over a decade. It is with our broken hearts and fierce love for each other that we will gather at the statehouse, united in calling for action.

We will be joining allied organizations in gathering at 3pm on Monday in front of the State House (and on Zoom) to lift up our priorities together. Will we have another year of immigrants in MA denied access to a driver’s license? Will tens of thousands more face needless COVID-19 evictions and foreclosures?

Healthy Youth Act Lobby Day

For over 10 years, the Healthy Youth Act has been our Commonwealth’s opportunity to ensure that public schools that choose to offer sex education provide lessons that are inclusive, comprehensive, and medically accurate.

This Monday, February 14, from 12 pm to 2 pm, the Healthy Youth Act Coalition will be hosting a virtual lobby day to urge the Legislature to pass the bill. RSVP here (and you can email your state rep here if you can’t make it.)

Fighting for a Fair Share from Our Wealthiest Institutional Neighbors

Tuesday, February 15, 6pm – 7:30 pm

Across the Commonwealth, towns and cities are wrestling with the challenges and fiscal burden of expanding nonprofit property tax expansion from some of the wealthiest education and medical institutions in our country. Without a framework for institutional contributions, critical services for residents are threatened. From Western Mass to Greater Boston, from North Shore to South Shore—this issue demands state action. Join us for a discussion on necessary state legislation on payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) programs and how advocacy organizations and state and local legislators are fighting to win it.

The PILOT Action Group is hosting a discussion with Davarian L. Baldwin, college professor and author of In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower and How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities. Baldwin’s book provides an excellent analysis of the role of large nonprofit institutions in our communities, and presents a vision of a more equitable relationship between communities and these institutions. Register here.

Common Start Coalition Roundtables

The Common Start Coalition is a statewide partnership of organizations, providers, parents, early educators, and advocates working together to make high-quality early education and child care affordable and accessible to all Massachusetts families.

Over the next few weeks, the Common Start Coalition will be hosting a series of roundtable discussions about why long-term investment in child care and early education infrastructure is so critical. Sign up today!

Wednesday, Feb 16, from 6:30pm – 7:30pm: Roundtable discussion on racial justice and Common Start, hosted by Neighborhood Villages and Coalition for Social Justice

Thursday, Feb 17, from 4pm – 5pm: Common Start Roundtable discussion on wraparound services, hosted by Horizons for Homeless Children

Thursday, February 24, from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm: Common Start Roundtable discussion with religious leaders on affordable childcare

Tuesday, March 1, from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm: Common Start Roundtable discussion on Building Blocks for a Healthy Future

Child Care Is Essential Infrastructure

Common Start

By Jan Soma, Progressive Needham

The Common Start Coalition hosted a Round Table Event January 24th to underscore the importance of the Common Start bill (S.362/H.605), a comprehensive, innovative bill that will transform the lives of many families as well as the Massachusetts economy by guaranteeing affordable, high-quality child care and early education for all. Check out this visual to see how many benefits radiate out of this one piece of legislation.

Colin Jones from Mass. Budget and Policy Center gave an overview of recent federal funding. The upshot is that federal relief has not offset the total losses of our child care system during the pandemic.  More federal funds are expected but they will constitute a bridge for a couple years until we can develop state funding for the universal child care program.

Representative Katherine Clark spoke of child care as a PUBLIC GOOD. She has been a consistent supporter of accessible child care even before being elected to the U.S. House of Representative in 2013. She explained that lack of available child care costs the U.S. economy $57 billion dollars a year because 30% of families can’t find care for their children. Other developed countries spend about $14,000 per year to subsidize child care while the U.S. spends about $500. She emphasized that our legislators are continuing to fight for adequate funding for child care initiatives.

Parents and educators provided real stories about the realities they face these days. The additional stresses of the pandemic make their needs especially clear.

Naomi Meyer, an attorney at Greater Boston legal Services who helped develop and write this bill, explained that it may take five years to fully implement the legislation but would start by covering the families with the lowest incomes first.

Over the past few years, the Common Start Coalition has done an impressive job of bringing together stakeholders across the state to work on the bill. As Meyer explained, we can’t solve one piece of the puzzle by itself: we will only succeed by bringing parents, teachers, providers, and community members together around a shared vision.

THIS WEEK: VOTES Act, Common Start Roundtable, & More

Last week was a bad week for voting rights in the US Senate, as Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema refused to support rules changes that would allow for important voting rights packages to pass amidst Republican opposition.

But this week—with your help—might be a good week for voting rights in Massachusetts.
Last October, the MA Senate passed the VOTES Act, which not only makes vote-by-mail and expanded early voting permanent but also goes further by eliminating our arbitrary, exclusionary voter registration cutoff and strengthening protections for jail-based voting.

The MA House is expected to take up this bill this week: on Thursday, January 27.

It’s important that the House pass the VOTES Act in full, especially the provisions on Same Day Registration and strengthening Jail-Based Voting.

Tell your state rep to support the VOTES Act in its entirety.

Driving Families Forward Virtual Briefing Series Continues

Join the Driving Families Forward Coalition for part II of the Driving Families Forward Coalition Virtual Briefing series! Over the last year, the Driving Families Forward Coalition has worked tirelessly gaining the support of more than 270 endorsing organizations, including community, health, faith, labor, business, and law enforcement for the Work and Family Mobility Act, which would ensure that immigration status is not a barrier to obtaining a driver’s license.

Tune in on Facebook Live at the Driving Families Forward page Tuesday, January, 25th to hear from law enforcement leaders supporting our legislation across the state.

Common Start Roundtable: Tuesday @ 6:30 pm

Tomorrow at 6:30 pm, the Common Start Coalition will be hosting a virtual roundtable–featuring Congresswoman Katherine Clark–about the child care crisis and the solutions for it, especially the Common Start bill.

Common Start Roundtable

Massachusetts Power Forward Day of Action

Climate Justice can’t wait! Massachusetts needs decision-makers to act fast and move more climate justice policy now!

Join the Massachusetts Power Forward coalition this Thursday for a day of action. 9AM – 10AM : Action Hour, call your legislators https://fb.me/e/1i7OF5oNc
12pm- 1pm: Action hour, take a selfie photo petition and post on twitter to push our legislators https://fb.me/e/3lr4Lo33T

Lifting up MA’s Families with the Common Start Bill

Common Start MA logo

Today, the Joint Committee on Education held its hearing on the Common Start bill. Read our testimony below — and find out how to take action at progressivemass.com/common-start-2021.

Testimony of Progressive Massachusetts in support of H.605 and S.2362: An Act providing affordable and accessible high quality early education and care to promote child development and well-being and support the economy in the Commonwealth

October 23, 2021

Chairman Lewis, Chairwoman Peisch, and Members of the Joint Committee on Education:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the chair of the Issues Committee of Progressive Massachusetts. Progressive Massachusetts is a statewide grassroots advocacy organization that fights for a more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic Massachusetts. We are urging you to give a favorable report to H.605 and S.362: An Act providing affordable and accessible high quality early education and care to promote child development and well-being and support the economy in the Commonwealth, jointly known as the Common Start bill.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the weakness of our child care infrastructure, but families were already struggling before. According to the Economic Policy Institute, Massachusetts has the most expensive infant care in the country, after the District of Columbia, with the annual cost for infant care or child care of a four-year-old higher than that of college tuition. [1] The $20,913 average annual cost of child care and $15,095 average annual cost for care for a four-year-old is more than half what a minimum wage worker would earn in a year. These costs are prohibitively expensive for low- and middle-income families, who are forced to choose between making ends meet and saving for the future on one hand or affording child care on the other.

The Common Start bill will lift up Massachusetts families by providing child care and early education that is affordable for everyone.  It is most essential to lower-income families, but it will also aid middle-income families who must cope with the highest cost child care in the nation.  We need the quarter million workers who have left the workforce to return to their jobs so they can have income stability and we need them employed for our economy to prosper.

Investments in child care and early education are not only good for the economic security of parents: they are also highly beneficial for children. High-quality early education programs get results. Children benefit with enhanced resiliency and employment opportunities over their lifetimes. Providing children with high-quality early education and child care is one of the most effective ways to further a child’s success in grades K-12 and beyond.

With resources coming in from the federal government through the American Recovery Plan, we have an opportunity to build a child care and early education infrastructure worthy of our Commonwealth. We urge you to take it and to pass the Common Start legislation.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Chair, Issues Committee

Progressive Massachusetts

[1] https://www.epi.org/child-care-costs-in-the-united-states/#/MA