It was a slow post-Thanksgiving week on Beacon Hill*–*well, about as slow as a week can be with visits from the president and a couple of British monarchs. 

When they weren’t causing a traffic jam for Somerville Market Basket shoppers, the prince and princess of Wales praised Massachusetts for its leadership in science and innovation during the Earthshot Prize Awards–the main reason for their visit. 

It’s true that the Commonwealth has made significant contributions to science and technology, but it is hard to feel like a leader when in so many ways, our state government limits our progress; our established goal for reaching 100% renewable energy is to do so by *2090–*decades later than many other states. And according to the Commission on Clean Heat’s final report released this week, we’re going to have to take dramatic action to even reach that. 

Alas. Let’s dive in.

State House Scoop

Boston home rule petition on 16+ voting heads to State House

Big news for 16- and 17-year-olds in Boston this week: in a 9-4 vote, Boston City Council passed a petition to allow them to vote in municipal elections. This is a huge step towards enfranchisement for young folks in the city who may already pay taxes, participate civically, and use public goods without being able to vote. The bill currently sits on Mayor Wu’s desk for her approval. But that’s just the beginning of a much longer battle; it must then be approved by the State House.

 “We know what happens at the State House: most things go there to die,” said Councilor-at-large Julia Meija in an interview with State House News Service. Well put, Councilor!

This petition would head to the State House as a “Home Rule Petition.” Here in Massachusetts, this is the process through which municipalities seek approval from the legislature to enact a policy that diverges from established state law. Home rule petitions are notoriously difficult to pass, and especially on the issue of voting age. Several communities, including Ashfield, Brookline, Cambridge, Concord, Lowell, Northampton, Shelburne, Somerville, and Wendell have all attempted to lower their municipal voting age, only to see their petitions die without action or be sent to “study.” Beacon Hill ignoring the clearly-demonstrated will of an electorate? I don’t know, that doesn’t sound like them…

Baker signs “no net loss” land conservation bill

Governor Baker signed into law a land conservation bill that finally hit his desk this past week after being tied up in closed-door conference committee negotiations for months. The bill, backed by environmental groups, requires that any loss of preserved public lands be compensated for with the conservation of new, equally environmentally-valuable lands. This positive yet modest environmental protection was stuck in the legislature for 20 years before passing. As the international community saw from the bleak yet unsurprising reports from the COP27 climate summit, climate change is happening at an extreme rate, and our leaders need to take extreme action, well, yesterday. At the very least, it should not take the Massachusetts legislature 20 years to pass such minimal protections. 

Source: UC Berkeley via BBC

In Memoriam: The Graveyard of the 192nd Session

Now that our legislature is through with major business for the rest of the year, it’s time to take a look back through the 192nd legislative session and pay our respects to some of the popular progressive bills that died, yet again.

Lower Municipal Voting Age to 16

The EMPOWER Act (S.448) would allow all municipalities in Massachusetts to lower their voting age to 16 or 17 without a home rule petition. This lower voting age requirement is already in place in a number of jurisdictions across the country, and has been shown to increase generational civic participation; 16- and 17-year old first-time voters turn out at higher rates than 18- and 19-year-old first-time voters for the rest of their lives. Our democracy only works when people across ages and generations participate. And especially as climate change wreaks havoc and creates dramatic uncertainty for life on earth after 2050, young people deserve to have a say in the stewardship of the planet they will inherit.

Last session, the bill had tremendous support; 45 co-sponsors in the House, 11 in the Senate, unanimous support from Boston City Council, plus the endorsement of just about every pro-democracy and youth-led organization in Massachusetts.

Despite this widespread support, it died in committee. It never even came to a vote. It was filed again this past session, and was sent to “study.”

Housekeeping

Watch our Fall Membership Meeting!

Missed our Fall Membership Meeting on Tuesday? We’ve got you covered! You can catch up on all things Act on Mass and learn about our plans for the next year and how to get involved by watching the recording:

Last, I want to extend a huge THANK YOU to movement leaders Raul Fernandez (former Brookline Select Board Member and State Rep candidate) and Jonathan Cohn (Policy Director for Progressive Mass) for being our special guest speakers at the meeting! I'd recommend watching the recording for their speeches alone.

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That’s all for this week!

Erin Leahy

Executive Director, Act on Mass

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