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Weekly Roundup
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May 12th, 2009
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Greetings!
 Many Massachusetts Representatives have already been asked by their constituents to support an "adequate, balanced tax package."
They know that Massachusetts has worked for decades to build a system of public structures that keep our communities safe and healthy, educate our children, and draw businesses to our state.
The House has already passed its version of our State Budget. [Budget Process] [Analysis]
Now is the time to ask your Senator to support our public structures with an "adequate, balanced tax package."
HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THE VIRTUAL RALLY:
- Contact your Senator. Tell your Senator that you support an adequate, balanced tax package that both addresses our structural deficit and stabilizes the public programs that we depend on!
Customize your message, telling why restoring these public programs is important to your local community! [Sample Script]
- Pass this on to your personal and professional networks via Facebook, mailing lists, or dining room table - and recruit five of your friends and neighbors to do the same.
- Let us know how it went! Once you've called each of your legislators, Twitter about it with the tag: #MassRevenues
QUESTIONS?
Here is a look at what else has been going on across Massachusetts: |
Goal: By 2013, the voice and input of the state's multi-racial, multi-ethnic communities will create a counterweight to the currently dominant voice and will be tangibly reflected in the public decision making process.
Updates:
 Regional ONE Massachusetts Trainings! If you are interested in becoming more actively involved in any of the issues in today's newsletter - or in becoming more effective in advocating for your own specific issues - we are ready to help! ONE Massachusetts staff is currently reaching out to advocates statewide to build a series of issue-based and skill-based trainings.
Please let us know if you are interested in hosting either a public regional training or a customized training for your community or organization!
Topics Include:- Basic Budget Literacy - The importance of Budget Priorities and Tax Policies
- Building on Our Budget History - How decades of policy decisions in Massachusetts have shaped our state's budget, and a look at our options moving forward.
- Talking About Our Government - How to communicate about public policy issues in ways that better engage your community, increase confidence in out ability to work together towards goals, and more effectively advocate and all levels of government.
- Nonprofit Lobbying - These trainings will likely be in two tracks:
 1) How to utilize the information made available by the Secretary of State's new Lobbyist Public Search System.
2) How nonprofit organizations can comply with the new Lobbying Reform law and maximize their advocacy rights at the same time!
Plain Talk on the State Budget - This is a five-minute taste of our budget presentation focusing on public structures and how we want to pay for them. Anyone can download the PDF - With Notes today. Powerpoint versions will be provided to ONE Massachusetts network members who go through a fifteen-minute on-site or phone 'Train the Trainer Session.'
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Goal: By 2013, a fair, adequate, and stable tax system will be implemented. It will raise sufficient revenue so that state and local governments can fund the array of services needed.
Updates:
- Senate Budget Schedule. The Massachusetts Senate filed their budget order Monday, announcing that the Senate Ways and Means budget recommendation will be released tomorrow, Wednesday, May 13th. Amendments must be filed by Friday, May 15th at 5:00pm.
- Budget News. The Senate will likely ratify Gov. Deval Patrick's proposal to close the remaining fiscal 2009 gap with $461 million in reserve funds, $412 million in federal stimulus aid, and a battery of other solutions, [according to] Senate President Therese Murray. [State House News Service]
The Herald reported today that sources in the Senate are considering various new revenues , including the sales tax, gas tax, and alcohol tax. [Boston Herald]
Upcoming:- Stop the Cuts - Lobby Day. The Stop the Cuts Coalition will be holding a Lobby Day at noon on Monday, May 18th. Grassroots coalition members plan to ask their Senators "to raise significant new revenue above and beyond what the House did so we can strengthen our economy and our communities! Senators have told us that unless they hear from us, massive cuts will go forward!" For more information, please contact Harris Gruman - 617-316-0443.
- Local Options Taxes - Youth Lobby Day. A coalition of youth groups will be heading to the State House on May 20th for a rally in support of Local Options taxes. Their rally will be at 3:00 by the front steps, across from the Common. For more information, please contact Mark Pedulla - 617-524-8303 x314.
- Local Options Taxes. A bill based on the findings of a Special Commission on Municipal Relief will likely be filed early next week and sent to the Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government for review. The committee plans to hold hearings on the bill [today] and Friday [May 15th]. The most anticipated aspects of the proposal include a 2 percent local option tax hike on meals, a 4 percent local option tax hike on hotel and motel stays, the elimination of a property tax exemption on telecommunication and satellite TV properties, and a plan to require municipal health insurance to bring costs down to the level of the state Group Insurance Commission. [State House News Service]
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Goal: By 2013, a transparent, accessible and accountable state and local policy-making process will be in place.
Upcoming:- Lobbying Reform. The Ethics and Lobbying Bill is likely to move quickly through the Senate, with debate occurring on or before Thursday, May 14th. ONE Massachusetts will be working with partner Common Cause to develop training on how nonprofit lobbyists - and nonprofit watchdog groups - can utilize the new information called for within this legislation.
Not often allied, the Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts, have jointly voiced their concerns over what they consider the too broadly-reaching definition of "Lobbyist" within the Lobbying Reform legislation. [Boston Herald Op-Ed]
- Pension Reform. Both houses of the Legislature, reacting to a series of stories in the Globe, filed bills earlier this year to rein in public pensions. On the subject of termination pensions, the Senate would make the proposed change applicable to existing employees, including the Legislature's incumbents, while the House version would not. All members of the Legislature filed one-page disclosures of financial interest forms with the Ethics Commission in anticipation of voting on the pension-change bill. The forms are required when any public official takes an action "which would substantially affect such official's financial interest." [Full Globe Article]
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