Testimony: Our Investments Can Advance Our Values

Tuesday, November 18, 2025 

Chair Feeney, Chair Murphy, and Members of the Joint Committee on FInancial Services: 

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

We urge you to give a favorable report to S.736/H.1114: An Act to establish a Massachusetts public bank and H.1264/S.767: An Act promoting responsible investment. These bills help ensure that our commonwealth uses our financial resources to align with our values. 

Why a Public Bank (S.736/H.1114)

A Massachusetts public bank would help advance the goal of equitable economic development. Here are a few key ways. 

A Massachusetts public bank would strengthen local economies, especially those in underserved communities. A public bank would not be competing with the existing banking system. It fills in the gaps and creates new opportunities for existing banks. Such a bank would help provide cost-effective financing for small businesses and municipalities, land trusts and cooperatives, and projects for climate change adaptation and mitigation–taking on projects that may have more difficult access to early capital due to lack of connections or higher risks. 

A public bank would be good for our cities and towns. Cities and towns, constrained in how they can raise money, often lack the resources for necessary long-term investments. A public bank would offer cities and towns an affordable and flexible alternative to the bond market for important local infrastructure projects.

A public bank would be good for our small businesses. Although it can seem like a long time ago already, the COVID-19 pandemic was brutal for our small businesses. A public bank would be able to extend loans to small businesses, helping them to weather such difficult times as well as to grow and expand to better serve the community. The bill would specifically target rural communities and underserved neighborhoods, where entrepreneurs often face significant obstacles to securing seed funding for new businesses, and it can help encourage the flourishing of cooperative businesses and worker-owned coops, business models that exemplify shared prosperity.

A public bank would address long-standing economic inequities. We know that women and communities of color have faced longstanding barriers in securing access to capital. A public bank can help to level the playing field.

A public bank would be good for the environment. A public bank could support initiatives to mitigate the dangers of climate change, and it could help local farms adopt and promote sustainable agricultural practices. As the federal government retrenches its support, increased state resources will become critical. 

Responsible Investment (H.1264/S.767)

Our Commonwealth’s investments should align with our values and our priorities. Funding weapons of mass destruction that are causing countless deaths right now and will continue to cause harm into the future. 

Funding these weapons is also antithetical to our state’s environmental and climate commitments: few things are as environmentally destructive as war. 

By divesting our public dollars from these pernicious investments, we can make a strong statement, redirect our resources to creating the better world we want to see, and — also important from a financial perspective — eliminate any liability or entanglement with war crimes committed through our public dollars. 

Sincerely, 

Jonathan Cohn 

Policy Director 

Progressive Massachusetts

It’s Time to Raise the Minimum Wage Again

Labor unions have always been a driving force behind every minimum wage increase in Massachusetts and across the US. Let’s continue to honor Labor Day by acknowledging recent gains and continuing the fight for fair wages.

We’ve been proud to fight alongside labor for a fair and just economy in coalitions like Raise Up Massachusetts, and we’ve had some big victories, such as winning a $15 minimum wage and paid family and medical leave.

From 2013 to 2018, RUM worked to bring the statewide minimum wage closer to a minimum wage, and given the stagnation of the federal minimum wage, that $15 is something to be proud of. But it’s still not a living wage.

And given the rising costs of health care, housing, child care, and basic goods, it doesn’t stretch as far as it did in June of 2018.

That’s why it’s time to raise the minimum wage again.

New legislation, filed earlier this year by Sen. Jason Lewis and Reps. Tram Nguyen and Dan Donahue would raise the minimum wage to $20 and index it to inflation so that it doesn’t lose value over time.

Can you write to your state legislators in support of raising the minimum wage?

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: How to Make the MA House’s Economic Development Bill More Equitable

Yesterday, the Massachusetts Legislature released their economic development bill, a mix of investments and tax reforms. While there are many parts of the bill that are welcome and overdue, the Legislature misses the mark on others.

No Excuse for Excluding Those Most in Need from Rebates

The economic development bill includes a provision to send one-time taxpayer rebates of $250 (or $500 for married couples) to individuals who reported between $38,000 and $100,000 in income (or up to $150,000 for joint filers) in 2021 as a way of blunting the impact of inflation on households.

But what about those with less than $38,000? Speaker Mariano argued that such individuals already received support through essential worker bonuses earlier this year, but if anyone could benefit from additional money right now in our increasingly unaffordable state, it is those who have the least.

Rep. Tami Gouveia’s Amendment #813 would eliminate this income floor.

Regressive Tax Cuts

All in all, the bill spends $523.5 million through tax policy changes. $207 million of that (almost 40%) will go to more affluent residents—an estimated 2,500 taxpayers.

That’s because of a change to the estate tax in the bill. Currently, the estate tax kicks in for estates valued $1 million or more (with a graduated rate above that), with a “cliff” effect leading to the whole value of the estate being taxed after that $1 million.

Cliffs can be bad policy designs, but what’s even worse is cuts to vital programs and services that would result from lost revenue. The Legislature could have chosen clear, readily available ways to fix this without costing so much money but chose not to.

Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven’s Amendment #621 would eliminate the estate tax language entirely and send the House back to the drawing board for a better proposal and Amendment #630 would would eliminate the cliff effect while preserving the progressive nature of the estate tax.

A Whiff on Housing Policy

In last year’s economic development bill, the Legislature included important zoning reforms and tenant protections. The economic development bill is one of the last chances for the Legislature to continue that work, and they missed that opportunity — a stunning decision as this state becomes increasingly unaffordable.

Rep. Mike Connolly filed several amendments to address this gap in the bill:

  • Amendment #26: Increase rental deduction to $5,000, which increases the rental deductions from $4,000 to $5,000.
  • Amendment #113: Simple-majority approval standard for inclusionary zoning ordinances, which would enable municipalities to approve inclusionary zoning ordinances by simple majority vote
  • Amendment #176: Local Option Real Estate Transfer Fee for Housing Affordability, which would enable municipalities to pass locally appropriate transfer fees on high-end real estate transactions to create dedicated funds for affordable housing

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