The Scariest Part of Any Horror Movie Is Inaction 🎃🎃

Witches, vampires, ghosts–they are all scary in movies. But the threats faced in real life are much scarier.

🎃Threats to Health Care and Food Assistance: Massachusetts faces deep cuts in health care access, food assistance, and more due to the Big Ugly Bill passed this summer, and we face looming cuts to SNAP given President Trump’s illegal decision not to spend emergency resources. Massachusetts has a higher GDP than Sweden: we are a rich state with ample resources, and we should be raising new revenue and tapping into our flush rainy day fund. (When it’s raining, you take out the umbrella.)

🎃Threats to Privacy Rights:As Big Tech behemoths like Facebook and Google become accomplices to Trumpist authoritarianism, we need to rein in their ability to buy and sell our personal data in an unregulated market place. The State Senate took action last month, but the House needs to as well. And the clock is ticking.

But we can prevent these frights with good policy.

When you watch a horror film, you know that one of the scariest things can be inaction. That sense that the outcomes were not inevitable at all, that opportunities were missed, that voices were unheeded, all of them empowering whatever villains lurk.

We have seen far too much inaction from Beacon Hill this year.

On the last day of the 10th month, only 49 bills have been signed into law. Of those 49, 21 were home rule petitions for one city or town, 13 were personnel matters about individual people, and 8 were budgets and supplemental budgets.

Let’s change the ending of this scary movie.

Email Your State Senator

Email Your State Rep

Letter: “State Needs to Step In”

Steve Leibowitz, “Letter: State Needs to Step In,” Cape Cod Chronicle, October 16, 2025.

Editor:
The recent cuts and shutdown at the federal level threaten essential programs that Cape Cod families rely on — everything from food assistance to housing support. While Washington retreats, our state must step forward. The Massachusetts Legislature has a responsibility not just to cushion these blows, but to act boldly and proactively to ensure no resident is left behind.
We cannot wait for federal funds that may never come back. Massachusetts has the resources and ingenuity to protect its most vulnerable communities, but it requires the political will to prioritize people to do so. A more aggressive response — through targeted state funding, innovative partnerships, and stronger safety nets — is not optional; it is a moral obligation.
If we fail to act decisively, the burden will fall hardest on our children, seniors and working families already struggling to make ends meet. This is not the time for incrementalism. Massachusetts should lead by example, proving that even when Washington pulls back, we move forward.

Steven Leibowitz
Brewster

“Massachusetts Has a Higher GDP Than Sweden…”

Friday, October 3, 2025

Chair Eldridge, Chair Madaro, and Members of the Joint Committee on Revenue:

I am writing today on behalf of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide, multi-issue, grassroots membership organization focused on fighting for policy that would make our Commonwealth more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic. We urge you to give a favorable report to H.3110/S.2033: An Act combating offshore tax avoidance.

Massachusetts residents have been feeling hopeless this year in light of the never-ending barrage of chaos, cruelty, and corruption in the second Trump administration, and they are also looking to you in the State Legislature for leadership.

Fortunately, you have wide latitude for action. For example, although Trump and Congressional Republicans passed disastrous legislation this summer that could lead to up 350,000 people in MA losing health care, 104,000 losing access to food assistance, and harmful cuts to our schools, we do not need to accept these cuts as inevitable.  

Massachusetts has a higher GDP than the country of Sweden, a place known for its generous welfare state. It is clear that we can do more than we are, and we will need to in the coming years. These bills offer a sensible and popular way to raise additional revenue in order to prevent these looming cuts.

Massachusetts loses hundreds of millions of dollars each year to offshore corporate tax dodging — money that would otherwise support local families and communities here in Massachusetts. That’s because billionaire global corporations like Apple, Amazon, McDonald’s, and Walmart conceal their profits in offshore tax havens to avoid paying their fair share in Massachusetts taxes. These bills would ensure that such corporations pay our state’s corporate income tax on a greater share of these offshored profits, raising essential new revenue. They would correct the grave error when Massachusetts chose to leave this revenue on the table several sessions ago as a result of backroom negotiations and no public discussion.

Let’s do right by the name of “Commonwealth” that our state has and ensure that we are fighting for the common good of all when that is under attack each day. Your constituents depend on it.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

TOMORROW: Corporate Fair Share Hearing at the State House

The Trump administration is taking away healthcare from working families and seniors so they can put more money into the pockets of billionaires and big corporations. Here in Massachusetts, we could lose as much as $3.5 billion in federal aid that pays for health care, education, and food access for hundreds of thousands of people. We simply can’t afford the harm that will cause.

That’s why we’re supporting Raise Up Massachusetts’s Corporate Fair Share campaign. The Corporate Fair Share bill would raise critical new revenue by requiring large multinational corporations like Amazon and Walmart to pay our existing corporate tax rate on more of the profits they hide overseas.

The bill has a hearing tomorrow at the State House at 10 am in Gardner Auditorium and a press event at 9:30 am right before. Can you join us?


Date: Friday, October 3, 2025 @ 9:15 AM (Action); 10 AM (Hearing)

Location: Massachusetts State House: Room 222 (Action); Gardner Auditorium (Hearing)

Hearing Notice: LINK

RSVP HERE

CAN’T MAKE IT TO THE STATE HOUSE? THERE’S MORE YOU CAN DO.

(1) Attend a Town Hall: Raise Up Mass coalition is holding a series of regional Protect Our Care Town Halls across the state to tell our legislators: it’s time to make big corporations pay their fair share in taxes—and stop the cuts. Chances are we’re holding one near you!

FIND A TOWN HALL NEAR YOU

(2) Email your state legislators: Whether they have co-sponsored or not, they should be hearing from you about the need to take action.

EMAIL YOUR LEGISLATORS

(3) Submit testimony: Let the Joint Revenue Committee know why this is important to you with this testimony template courtesy of Raise Up Mass.

SUBMIT TESTIMONY

LTE: “LETTER: Mass. Deserves Better — Support the Corporate Fair Share Act & Close the Tax Loophole”

Rita Colafella, “LETTER: Mass. Deserves Better — Support the Corporate Fair Share Act & Close the Tax Loophole,” Watertown News,” September 22, 2025.

Dear Editor,

Massachusetts is facing a critical moment. Federal budget cuts are threatening to devastate essential services — Medicaid, SNAP, education, mental health care, and more. These cuts could strip healthcare and food assistance from up to 350,000 residents, blow a $3.5 billion hole in our state budget, and harm over 1 million students. We must act now to protect our communities.

A powerful solution is the Corporate Fair Share Act (An Act Combating Offshore Tax Avoidance, H.3110/S.2033), a proposal that would raise over $400 million in new annual revenue by closing a loophole that allows billionaire global corporations to hide profits offshore and avoid paying their fair share in Massachusetts taxes.  

Right now, Massachusetts only taxes 5 percent of these offshored profits — far less than neighboring states like Rhode Island, Vermont, and Maine, which tax 50–60 percent. The Commonwealth even taxes a smaller share of offshored corporate profits than New Hampshire does. The Corporate Fair Share Act would simply bring us in line with these states and the federal government, increasing our share from 5 percent to 50 percent.

This isn’t a tax hike on small businesses. In fact, only 0.5 percent of all C Corporations report any offshore profits. Most small businesses — LLCs, S-Corps, sole proprietorships — aren’t affected at all. This bill targets the wealthiest multinational corporations that exploit tax havens while our local businesses and families pay their fair share.

And here’s the truth: Massachusetts voters (of which 50 percent are Republican) overwhelmingly support this change.

  • In an August 2020 poll by Echo Cove Research, 84 percent of likely Massachusetts voters supported closing the loophole that lets corporations slash taxes by hiding assets offshore.
  • In an August 2024 poll by Data for Progress, 75 percent of Massachusetts voters agreed that the state corporate income tax should be updated to prevent multinational corporations from using offshore tax havens.
  • In an April 2025 poll by Lake Research Partners, 78 percent of Massachusetts voters supported closing corporate tax loopholes for large, profitable, multinational corporations.

The message is clear: Massachusetts residents want fairness.  We pay our taxes. Our local businesses pay their taxes. It’s time the mega-corporations do the same.  The Corporate Fair Share Act will:

  • Level the playing field for local businesses
  • Protect essential services like healthcare, education, and mental health care
  • Ensure financial stability for future generations

Let’s stop leaving hundreds of millions of dollars on the table. Let’s prioritize the taxpayers of Massachusetts over multinational corporations’ profits. Say no to devastating cuts. Say yes to fairness. Tell the State House to close the loophole ad Support the Corporate Fair Share Act. For more information, visit raiseupma.org/corporate-fair-share.

Rita Colafella
Watertown Resident

When Big Corporations Pay Their Fair Share, We All Win

The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have been rolling back critical funding for climate initiatives at the state and local level. But the fact that they deny the realities of climate change to appease their billionaire backers doesn’t make the climate crisis any less severe.

With such federal retrenchment and sabotage, we need states to step up. Here’s one way: make sure the major polluters who caused the climate crisis start paying up to fund the solutions.

The very companies who lied to the public for decades about climate change are benefiting while all of us, especially the most vulnerable, bear the cost.

The Make Polluters Pay bill (H.1014 / S.588), which just had a hearing on Tuesday, would require these major polluters to pay a one-time fee based on their historic emissions to fund climate-resilient infrastructure upgrades.  

That means more money for restoring coastal wetlands; upgrading roads, bridges, subways, and transit systems; preparing for extreme weather; energy efficiency upgrades and retrofits; supporting the creation of self-sufficient clean energy microgrids; and addressing urban heat island effects through green spaces and urban forestry.

New York and Vermont have already passed such a bill. Let’s make MA next.

Can you write to your state representative and state senator in support of the Make Polluters Pay bill?

Email Your Legislators

Protect Our Care with Corporate Fair Share Town Halls

It’s time to Protect Our Care with Corporate Fair Share. The Trump administration is taking away healthcare from working families and seniors so they can put more money into the pockets of billionaires and big corporations. Here in Massachusetts, we could lose as much as $3.5 billion in federal aid that pays for health care, education, and food access for hundreds of thousands of people. We simply can’t afford the harm that will cause.

That’s why the Raise Up Mass coalition is holding a series of regional Protect Our Care Town Halls across the state to tell our legislators: it’s time to make big corporations pay their fair share in taxes—and stop the cuts. Chances are we’re holding one near you! Can you join us?

Find a Town hall near you

Here’s what’s at stake. Up to 350,000 people in MA could lose their health care and/or food assistance because of cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. More than one million students could be hurt by cuts to PreK-12, colleges, and child care. The money from these cuts to state funding is flowing directly to big corporations and billionaires, while our communities are stuck with the cost of hospital closures, hungry students, and long ER lines.

Help Get Rent Control on the Ballot

The Homes for All Mass coalition is spearheading an effort to get rent control on the 2026 ballot. Want to help collect signatures? Attend an upcoming signature collection training.

Editorial: How Mass. Must Respond To Trump’s Big Ugly Bill

Jonathan Cohn, “How Mass. Must Respond To Trump’s Big Ugly Bill,” Fenway News, September 2025.

In time for July 4, Trump and Congressional Republicans celebrated the passage of their policy wish list, a massive tax cut for the rich and large corporations combined with the biggest rollback of healthcare access in U.S. history, cuts to food assistance and public education, and escalated funding for ICE that puts it on par with the size of other countries’ militaries. It was the most regressive bill passed by Congress in decades.

This all raises the question: how is Massachusetts going to do to respond?

Here are some critical first steps.

First, Massachusetts needs to better protect our essential services from federal cuts. The extreme cuts to health care access, food assistance, education, and other vital programs will hit the state budget hard.

Massachusetts is an affluent state, with a GDP per capita in the top five of states and a total GDP on par with Sweden’s (if only we had their welfare state
). Rather than making cuts that will fall on the backs of the most vulnerable, we should make  sure that the most profitable corporations in our commonwealth are paying their fair share. That’s why we need to pass the Corporate Fair Share bill (H.3110 / S.2033), which would ensure that large multinational corporations like Amazon and Walmart pay more in taxes on the profits they hide in offshore tax havens in places like Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. This bill would make a simple change to the tax code that would put us in line with the federal government and the state of New Hampshire (yes, New Hampshire) and bring in significant new revenue.

Second, Massachusetts needs to better protect our immigrant communities, and that means not being complicit with Trump’s mass deportation agenda. Trump’s $45 billion infusion into ICE means that the administration will be looking for more people to work as immigration agents. Scaling up means that they will want states to offer existing personnel to do their dirty work. We must be clear that we won’t. The Safe Communities Act (H.2580 / S.1681) would ensure that our state and local law enforcement are not being deputized as ICE agents and shore up other vital protections.

Where is Fenway’s delegation on these priorities? Good question. Sen. Liz Miranda, who has a sliver of Fenway along with adjacent neighborhoods of Roxbury and Mission Hill, is the co-filer of both the Corporate Fair Share and the Safe Communities Act, and Sen. Lydia Edwards, who represents Back Bay and East Fenway, is a co-sponsor of both. Rep. Chynah Tyler, who has the Longwood Medical Area as well Roxbury and Mission Hill, joins them on the Corporate Fair Share bill. But Sen. Will Brownsberger, Rep. Jay Livingstone, and Rep. Dan Ryan have yet to do so.

Massachusetts prides itself for its role in our country’s democracy and as a beacon to other states. At this moment, we should do that by making clear that we don’t leave people behind when under attack by a hostile administration.

Jonathan Cohn, Policy Director, Progressive Mass; Secretary, Boston Ward 4 Democratic Committee

Letter: “Don’t Cut Care. Close Tax Loopholes for Large Corporations Instead.”

Al Blake, “Letter: Don’t Cut Care. Close Tax Loopholes for Large Corporations Instead,” Berkshire Eagle, July 30, 2025.

Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the Republicans in Congress have made it their mission to cut funding for essential government services on which we all depend. Their priorities are clear. And so should ours in Massachusetts.

Unfortunately, Governor Healey’s proposed budget would halve the number of mental health case workers, limiting access to essential care. Thankfully, she put a pause on her plans to close two of the state’s mental health hospitals, but more funding will be needed

And we know how to raise such funds. It’s not by giving tax cuts to rich people and large corporations as our Legislature did two years ago. It’s by ensuring that large corporations are paying their fair share.

That’s why I strongly support Raise Up Mass’s Corporate Fair Share campaign to ensure that billionaire global corporations like Apple, Google, and Walmart pay their fair share and can’t get away with tax-dodging antics.

Did you know that Massachusetts taxes a smaller share of offshored corporate income than New Hampshire? An Act Combating Offshore Tax Avoidance (H.3110 / S.2033) would fix that, bringing us in line with the federal government and other states and raising hundreds of millions of dollars in new annual revenues.

MA needs to combat offshore tax dodging and make the world’s most profitable mega-corporations pay their fair share in state taxes, instead of cutting public services like healthcare and education that we all rely upon.

Letter: “How MA Must Respond to Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”

Heather Ford, “LETTER TO THE EDITOR: How MA Must Respond to Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”,” Westwood Minute, July 31, 2025.

To the Editor:

A month ago, Trump and Congressional Republicans passed the Big Beautiful Bill. But this bill is ugly: containing one of the biggest rollbacks of health care access in US history, cuts to food assistance and public education, and escalated funding for ICE.

Through this bill, the Trump administration wants states like Massachusetts to do their dirty work for them. Bay Staters need to be clear that we won’t.

Massachusetts needs to better protect our essential services from federal cuts. The extreme cuts to health care access, food assistance, education, and other vital programs will hit state budgets hard. Indeed, we are already seeing the impact of the unilateral cuts that Trump made earlier this year.

Rather than making cuts that will fall on the backs of the most vulnerable, we should be making sure that the most profitable corporations in our commonwealth are paying their fair share. That’s why we need to pass the Corporate Fair Share bill (H.3110 / S.2033), which would ensure that large multinational corporations like Amazon and Walmart pay more in taxes using a federal formula called Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (GILTI).

Fun Fact: if Massachusetts started charging these corporations fifty percent of their GILTI, it would be the same percentage of their GILTI that Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire already do.

Beacon Hill also needs to tap into the state’s $8 billion rainy day fund. The looming cuts that Bay Staters face under the “Big Beautiful Bill” are why the rainy day fund was created.

Second, Massachusetts needs to better protect our immigrant communities by not being complicit with Trump’s mass deportation agenda. Trump’s $45 billion increase in ICE funds means that the administration will be looking for more people to work as immigration agents. Scaling up means that they will want states to offer existing personnel to do their dirty work. We must be clear that we won’t. Bills like the Safe Communities Act (H.2580 / S.1681) and the Dignity Not Deportations Bill (H.1588 / S.1122) would ensure that our state and local law enforcement are not being deputized as ICE agents.

Our legislators on Beacon Hill speak of doing the best for their constituency. Bay Staters should push for them to pass these three bills to help them do their best and reject the President’s agenda.

Heather T. Ford
Westwood, MA

Thanks to Heather Ford, Westwood resident, for sharing these comments and opinions with Westwood Minute. 

Letter: “It’s Time for Beacon Hill to Lead, Not Linger”

Jason Brown, “It’s Time for Beacon Hill to Lead, Not Linger,” West Roxbury/Roslindale Bulletin, July 30, 2025.


To the Editor:
Seven months into President Trump’s second term, the harm has been swift: rollbacks of civil rights, environmental protections, and safety net programs. ICE raids are tearing families apart, and Congress has aided these efforts. Meanwhile, Massachusetts has been slow to respond. There has been some progress, like immigrant legal defense funding and laws pro-
tecting abortion and gender-affirming care, but we can and must do more.

We need to better protect immigrants. Trump’s $45 billion expansion of ICE means federal agents will pressure states for help. Massachusetts must draw a clear line by passing the Safe Communities Act (H.2580/S.1681) and the Dignity Not Deportations Bill (H.1588/S.1122), which would ensure that local law enforcement is not deputized as ICE agents.

We also need to shield essential services from deep federal cuts to health care, education, and food assistance. Massachusetts can lead with fair and direct revenue policy. The Corporate Fair Share bill (H.3110/S.2033)
would close offshore tax loopholes, ensuring that large multinational corporations like Amazon and Walmart pay their fair share. This would be an overdue fix with meaningful impact.

And let’s not forget our $8 billion rainy day fund. These federal assaults on our communities are precisely the “rainy days” it was designed for.

Massachusetts has the wealth, the tools, and the moral imperative to act. When the Legislature returns from recess, we need them to meet the urgency of the moment—not just with words, but with action. Constituents must demand bold leadership.
Jason Brown
West Roxbury