Happy almost Sunshine Week, friend!
NEXT WEEK IS Sunshine Week across the country — a tradition among journalists and good governance advocates to highlight the importance of public records and government transparency. Here in Massachusetts, the clouds are hanging low — and we aren’t just talking about the drizzly weather.
2023 was a bad year for good governance on Beacon Hill. The Senate eliminated the Senate president’s term limits, Gov. Healey walked back her promise to comply with the state’s public records law, and the House shot down an amendment that would have made legislative committee votes public without a public vote. And that was just February.
Wow, what sparkling prose, what a daring editorial. Who are the bold truth-tellers (voices of their generation, perhaps?) that penned such powerful words?
Well, your humble Act on Mass staffers, of course! Read the full opinion piece, Sunshine Week casts light on Beacon Hill’s democratic decline, that Brenna and I published in Commonwealth Beacon on Tuesday:
But this is about more than one piece; we want to take advantage of Sunshine Week by using the power of the press to call attention to the state of our democracy on Beacon Hill, and whip up support for the bill best poised to fix it: the Sunlight Act (S.1963).
We are calling on all supporters of transparency and accountability on Beacon Hill to write and submit your own letters to the editors. A deluge of pro-transparency LTEs in the papers during Sunshine Week will get the message across to our legislators, loud and clear: their constituents care about this issue.
We’ve already done the hard part for you; from talking points to local paper submission guidelines, we’ve put everything you need in our handy dandy LTE Hub:
All right, enough about how we can take action to fight for democracy on Beacon Hill. Now, on to exactly why we need it.
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State House Scoop
House passes Healey’s funding bill, placing time limit on emergency shelter stays
The House passed a supplemental budget bill on Wednesday that allocates an additional $245 million to the state’s emergency shelter system. The bill passed 121-33, with eight Democrats voting against it. Why the rare display of disapproval from some members of the majority? Likely because the bill would also impose a new nine-month time limit on families staying in these shelters — on top of the shelter cap of 7500 families already in place. The average stay time in the shelters is currently 13-14 months.
“Whenever you limit time, it begs the question: What happens when that time expires?” What a great question from radical lefty bomb-throwing activist checks notes Senate Ways & Means Chair Michael Rodrigues?
The ball is now in the Senate’s court, and it remains to be seen whether the Senate will similarly propose a limit on shelter stays. And even after that it will remain to be seen what the conference committee appointed to hash out any differences decides, which as a reminder, happens entirely behind closed doors and is unable to be amended upon emerging. Let’s hope the Senate continues their current progressive streak and omits the potentially disastrous time limit from their version of the bill. It could make all the difference for thousands of our most vulnerable, new Bay Staters.
Mariano not interested in Healthy Youth, again
As predicted in the last edition of the Scoop, the Senate just passed the Healthy You Act, the crucial bill to update our sex and relationship education standards, for the fifth session in a row. The bill has now been sent to the House Ways + Means committee where the Speaker of the House has already said he has no intention of letting his chamber touch the bill.
In a statement, Mariano expressed that he was not inclined to act on HYA since the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) recently adopted new guidelines for curriculum, saying: “it is important that we give school districts adequate time to implement them, rather than rush to potentially amend or codify them into law.”
Remember, these DESE guidelines are not standards or requirements for curriculum, and can be changed by any future governor’s administration. For a state that has a lengthy history of Republicans in the corner office, this means that when Massachusetts elects their next GOP governor, these guidelines could disappear in an instant. So why would Speaker Mariano, who is very aware of the precarious nature of the DESE guidelines, and the fact that HYA has been around for 13 years, use them as an excuse not to pass the bill?
It’s just that: an excuse. For years, advocates have connected the House’s unjustifiable opposition to this bill to a "disinclination to vote on issues relating to sex, to sexuality to gender identity." Don’t believe the advocates? Take it from the bill’s lead House sponsor, Rep. Jim O’Day, right before another ill-fated attempt to pass the HYA in the House in 2018: "There are some of my colleagues who are still skittish about this issue [...] It blows my mind. But it is what it is."
Massachusetts lags behind other states on this issue; the Bay State is not among the 39 states that currently require any form of sex ed or HIV education. The HYA wouldn’t even change that fact; it merely requires that the schools that do teach sex ed use a medically-accurate and LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum. To put it mildly, friend: we’re not asking for a lot here.
House Ways + Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz and Speaker Mariano have the sole power to bring the Healthy Youth Act to a vote this session, and we’re not falling for their excuses. Tell them we want to see the Healthy Youth Act passed this session, and that it’s imperative that we codify the DESE guidelines into state law:
CALL YOUR REP IN SUPPORT OF HYA >>
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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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Advocates flag Healey’s proposal to slash reentry program funding in half
This week, advocates for decarceration convened at the State House to urge lawmakers to reinstate adequate funding for the Community Empowerment and Reinvestment Grant Program which finances reentry programs for formerly incarcerated people in Massachusetts. In her proposal for the FY25 budget, the governor allocated $7.5 million — a mere half of the $15 million they were awarded in FY24. The Governor’s Office insists that the drop in funding is adequate “to meet projected need,” but advocates disagree. In fact, MassAction for Justice has requested $17 million to meet the program’s growing needs.
In addition to the Community Empowerment and Reinvestment Grant Program cuts, Healey is also recommending level-funding other initiatives that advocates say would reduce recidivism rates, including rental assistance and reentry programs for young adults.
Incarceration rates in Massachusetts have dropped by 34% since 2017, meaning nearly 6,000 people are being reunited with their families and communities. With more people eligible for reentry programming and a shrinking prison population, it’s imperative that these systems are funded adequately to maintain progress on criminal justice reform and decarceration. We will be closely watching the House and Senate budget proposals to see whether they differ on cutting this funding.
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Take Action
Write a LTE for the Sunlight Act this Sunshine Week!
Sunshine Week, a time when journalists and advocates emphasize the importance of open government, is just around the corner: March 10-16th. And you KNOW we can’t let that pass us by…
That’s why we’re launching our Sunshine Week Letter to the Editor Campaign to turn up the volume about the Sunlight Act! If everyone writes and submits their letters in the next week, we’ll see a deluge of pro-transparency LTEs in the papers during and just after Sunshine Week, and more importantly, so will our legislators. I can practically feel the sunburn already!
WRITE AN LTE FOR TRANSPARENCY >>
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That's it for this week. Enjoy the upcoming fickle early spring weather and remember to turn your clocks forward tomorrow! That's right — we made it through another Massachusetts winter.
Until next [daylight saving] time,
Erin Leahy
Executive Director, Act on Mass