Happy rainy day, friend.
Sometimes the weather accurately reflects the current mood, and that is certainly true of today; this was a dark and dreary week in Massachusetts politics.
Childcare providers, student loan grantees, local fire departments, and more, learned that their funding was being cut in this year’s budget due to lack of revenue. But thank goodness we cut taxes for multi-state corporations in October! (More on that below.)
Luckily, it wasn’t all gloom and drizzle: criminal justice reform advocates won a long-fought battle this week. No thanks to the Legislature for that though – this victory came from a Supreme Judicial Court decision after years of legislative inaction.
Remind me, what are we paying our legislators for, again?
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State House Scoop
Governor Healey announces $375 million in cuts to social services
I hate to say I told you so, friend. I mean, really, really, actually hate it: in last week’s Scoop, we predicted that budget cuts were on their way due to the state’s lower than expected tax revenue, never mind the egregious tax cuts passed in the fall. But even we didn’t guess how bad it would be.
On Monday, Governor Healey announced a series of "9C" cuts, i.e. cuts to an approved budget due to lack of funds, totaling $375 million. These cuts affect 66 budget line items including, but certainly not limited to: MassHealth, behavioral health services, loan forgiveness, housing support, child care, emergency aid to the elderly and disabled children, community college grants, and transportation.
I’m no math wiz (I was a philosophy major, French minor ✌️), but maybe if we didn’t just throw away $1 billion in annual tax revenue, we wouldn’t have to cut a single one of those line items. More math for you: the three regressive cuts in the tax cut bill, i.e. the cuts that specifically benefit the rich and corporations, cost $347 million per year – almost as much as the total 9C budget cuts. That’s roughly $350 million out of our social programs, into the pockets of the wealthiest Bay Staters. Gee, I wonder who our lawmakers feel more accountable to?
In the wake of the 9C cuts, Healey defended her tax cut bill, calling it “absolutely essential” and saying it makes the state “more affordable.” But it’s worth asking: more affordable for whom? Certainly not for the 27,000 families in Massachusetts living below “deep poverty” whose monthly cash assistance was affected by the 9C cuts, according to the Lift Our Kids Coalition during their protest of the cuts on the State House steps earlier this week.
We at Act on Mass stand in solidarity with the Lift Our Kids Coalition in calling for these budget cuts to be rescinded. A spokesperson for the coalition put it mildly: “We really need to be doing better than this in Massachusetts.”
Hold our elected leaders accountable by telling Governor Healey and your legislators how you feel about these budget cuts today:
- Governor Healey: (617) 725-4005
- Find contact info for your Rep and Senator here
Revenge porn bill passes House for the second session in a row
Massachusetts may soon become the second-to-last state in the union to ban revenge porn – the act of sharing sexually explicit images or videos of someone without their consent. Yay?
This issue was a longtime priority of former Governor Baker, who lamented the Legislature’s failure to get the bill to his desk during his tenure. While accepting crumbs from the Legislature is pretty much all we can ever do, celebrating is still premature; last session, the House unanimously passed the bill only for it to idle in the Senate for seven months. In the final week of the term, the Senate passed it with some changes, sending the bill back to the House. Ultimately, the bill died during the chaos of the end of session crunch, meaning it had to be refiled this session so it could go through the whole legislative process, yet again. Round and around we go!
SJC rules that life sentence without parole for 18-20 year olds is unconstitutional
In other slow-churning legislative news, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled this week that 18-20 year olds cannot be sentenced to life in prison without option for parole. (Read the full decision here). While this is a huge win, it’s yet another example of our Legislature’s harmful inaction, and how advocates often have to use unconventional measures, like court decisions or ballot petitions, to make changes outside of the legislative process; this same victory could have been achieved years ago by the passage of one of two long-time legislative priorities of ours: raising the age of criminal majority to 21 and eliminating the mandatory sentence of life without parole. Instead, these have both consistently been sent to study.
As one of just 10 states that has a mandatory life sentence without possibility of parole for certain crimes, this ruling states that imposing such a sentence on emerging adults (18-20 year olds), whose brains are “not fully developed and are more similar to juveniles than older adults,” would be cruel or unusual punishment. It’s believed that we are the first in the nation to implement such a ban.
At least 100 people currently incarcerated in Massachusetts could be immediately eligible for parole due to the ruling. But if the Legislature had swiftly acted upon either of the above bills, that could have meant years more that people who were unconstitutionally punished under that law could have spent with their loved ones and reintegrating into society.
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Missed a Scoop or two? You can find a full archive of all past Saturday Scoops on our blog.
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Take Action
Fight for your Rights Lobby Day: January 23rd
It’s finally happening: we’re going under the golden dome! Join Act on Mass and Indivisible Mass Coalition on Tuesday, January 23rd at 9:45am, for our first ever Lobby Day! We’ll be meeting with our legislators to lobby for a slate of pro–democracy bills, including the Sunlight Bill, S.1963.
What: Lobby Day
Who: Indivisible Mass & Act on Mass
When: Tuesday, January 23rd, 9:45am-2:00pm
Where: State House, Room 428
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Write a letter to the editor for the Healthy Youth Act on January 17th
We’re teaming up with the Healthy Youth Act Coalition to lead a training on writing a Letter to the Editor! Join us on Wednesday, January 17th from 6-7PM to hear more about the fight to make sex ed in our state medically accurate, consent-based, and LGBTQ+-inclusive, and how to take action in your local news outlet. No experience necessary, we’ll train you from drafting all the way through to publication.
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That's all from me on this drizzly, rainy, windy, no good very bad day. Yes, this was a frustrating week. Heck, most weeks on Beacon Hill are frustrating. But you know what's the best way to relieve that frustration? Doing something about it. Call Governor Healey, call your legislators, and if you can, come to our Lobby Day! Our Fight for your Rights Lobby Day will be a perfect opportunity to advocate for structural reforms, like increased transparency and voting access, that can help us hold our elected officials accountable in the long term so they can't keep getting away with this GOP-esque behavior. These 9C cuts are a great example of the material consequences of a government that is accountable to the wrong people. It's up to us to remind them who they work for.
Ok ok, I'm stepping off my soapbox. But hey, it's a nice view from up here. I think the rain is letting up.
Until next week,
Erin Leahy
Executive Director, Act on Mass