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Greetings!
Although every individual in our state deserves the opportunity to build a safe, healthy, productive life, twenty-eight of our State Representatives are even now urging budget negotiators to support the Senate's anti-immigrant budget amendment. ![Immigration Rally Participants [openmediaboston.org]](http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs037/1101662827233/img/273.jpg?a=1103480489370) That is why the ONE Massachusetts Leadership Team has voted to join the efforts of statewide immigrant service and advocacy organizations and unions, all working together in opposition to anti-immigrant laws, regulations, and budget amendments, that suppress and discourage individual immigrants from participating in public life in Massachusetts.
Stay tuned for public opportunities to demonstrate your opposition to these amendments.
If you are interested in becoming more active in these or other efforts, or in hosting a free training in your organization or neighborhood, please feel free to contact me today!
Sincerely,
Yawu Miller
Project Manager, ONE Massachusetts
yawu@realclout.org | 617-275-2918
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REVENUE
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. |
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State Aid
U.S. Conference Committee Talks Over Aid to States.
One of the Senate's three state budget conferees on Wednesday described talks in Washington over nearly $700 million in threatened state aid as "day to day." Sen. Stephen Brewer told the News Service he hasn't heard a definitive answer on whether the funds will be delivered, given disagreement in Washington over whether to include the money in legislation pending before the U.S. Senate. Just before Memorial Day, the U.S. House opted against including extended health care assistance to the states in its version of the so-called tax extenders bill now before the U.S. Senate. Legislative leaders in Massachusetts opted to include the funds in the budget bills the House and Senate approved for the fiscal year that begins in 14 days... [State House News Service]
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Casinos
Finding Common Gambling Ground.
According to a Boston Globe article, "The gambling debate has shifted. The question is no longer whether but how.
A House bill would legalize two casinos, as well as slot machines at the state's two horse tracks and two former dog tracks. A Senate bill calls for three casinos. Governor Deval Patrick supports casinos, but not slots at the tracks."
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CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
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. |
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CORI Reform
Passed in House and Senate, Conference Announced.
After passing with an overwhelming margin in both the Senate and House, CORI Reform advocates now urge constituents to reach our to the Conference Committee, including the following legislators: State Senators Bruce Tarr, Senator Cynthia Creem, Steven Tolman, and Representatives Eugene O'Flaherty, Christopher Speranzo, and Daniel Webster.
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Youth Jobs
Hundreds Rally, Test Vote Fails.
The mother of the 17-year-old youth-jobs advocate fatally stabbed on Memorial Day urged hundreds of teens gathered at City Hall Tuesday to make summer job funding her son's legacy...
The rally was staged just days before a crucial U.S. Senate vote - expected Friday - on legislation that would bring about $20 million to the Bay State for summer jobs for teens from low-income families. Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry has announced his support for the legislation. Republican Sen. Scott Brown has not announced his stance, saying the legislation, which also includes measures that would extend unemployment benefits, would expand the federal deficit.
[Full Article in the Boston Herald]
Today, proposed federal legislation that would have extended unemployment benefits for people without jobs failed to muster even a majority in a test vote in the US Senate, much less the 60 votes that would be required to defeat a GOP filibuster.
Tens of thousands of Massachusetts workers could have benefitted from the extension. The bill also included a provision to set aside millions of dollars to fund the summer jobs programs for local teenagers.
[Full Article in the Boston Globe]
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Anti-Violence Programs
Teenagers Create a Campaign For Their Peers.
Wednesday, Mayor Thomas M. Menino officially launched [Boston's latest teen-violence awareness and prevention campaign, created for and by teens], which consists of posters on MBTA buses and elsewhere in the city, the use of social media networks, and public-service announcements on television and before movies. It begins amid a flurry of youth violence, including the fatal shooting of two 14-year-olds, which have caused outrage across the city...
"They have a much deeper understanding of the connections between all the kinds of violence than we, as adults or professionals, tend to think about it,'' said Dr. Barbara Ferrer, executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission, which helped direct the project. "They've got a ton of talent and really great ideas.''
A team of about 30 young people will be dispatched to the city's most affected neighborhoods to promote the campaign to their peers. City officials said that entrusting the entire campaign to teenagers was a gamble, but that it has paid off. "Usually, we go to a high-priced ad agency and say, 'Put together a campaign on antiviolence,' '' Menino said. "It just impressed me how these kids, when you give them the opportunity, they rise to the challenge.' [Full Article in the Boston Globe]
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Immigration
Hundreds Gather for Rally.
![SEIU President Mary Kay Henry with Immigrant Activists [SHNS]](http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs037/1101662827233/img/276.png?a=1103480489370) "Flanked by student protesters and other immigration advocates, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry called for supporters to continue fighting for immigrant and workers' rights at a rally on the State House steps Tuesday morning. "The union movement joins hands with the student movement, the immigrants' rights movement, all different kinds of movements, to fight for quality jobs," Henry said at the event." [SHNS]
Over 200 immigrant, labor, religious and community advocates held a rally in front of the Grand Staircase in the State House on Thursday, June 3rd to protest anti-immigrant legislation that was recently passed by the Mass. Senate, and to demand that Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) start speaking out on immigration issues. [Full Article: Open Media Boston]
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Environment
Help Build a Better Water System.
Advocates and experts from every sector are coming together at SmartCleanGreen.org to find a better way to plan, design, and manage our water infrastructure. If you have ideas and would like to join in this statewide community effort, please visit today!
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GOVERNMENT REFORM
By 2013, a transparent, accessible and accountable state and local
policy-making process will be in place. |
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Transparency
Senate Aims to Clear Up State Contracts.
State Senator Patricia D. Jehlen's Tax Payer Transparency Amendment to the Senate Budget aims to show taxpayers their tax dollars at work. Because much of the state's work is now delivered through private contractors, constituents often don't know that the services they receive are paid for by taxes.
 Jehlen remembers "a caller to a talk show asking why the state needed to pay for day care for former welfare recipients. 'Catholic Charities does that; why should the state pay for it too?' Of course, Catholic Charities day care IS paid for by the state. The concept is the same as the requirement by Mass. Cultural Council and local arts councils that grant recipients acknowledge those grants in all materials."
As we face efforts to cut the sales tax this fall, it's important that people have a good sense of what their tax dollars buy:
SECTION 320. An entity receiving funding, grants or contracts under this act shall acknowledge such funding in all written and electronic materials. This provision shall not apply if such acknowledgment would result in any additional cost to the entity or to the commonwealth.
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Ethics and Lobbying
Nonprofit Lobbyist Registrations Climb.
With a July 15 reporting deadline looming, nonprofit staff that have registered as legislative or executive agents under the six-month-old state lobbying regulations are finding their ranks increasing, due in part to demystification of the new rules...
Wilmot, a presenter at a recent Public Policy Institute briefing on the lobbying regulations, said that "people are calmer" about the issue as more information has become available about the law's definition of lobbying. "You are not a lobbyist if you simply talk to legislators about topics unrelated to legislation," she said in response to an attendee's concern about chatting with a State Representative at a community event. The key is whether there is an attempt to influence a bill, rules, or regulations... [Full Article from massnonprofit.org]
This training from the Public Policy Institute, featuring Pam Wilmot of Common Cause Massachusetts will take place this coming Monday, June 21st. See Upcoming Events for more details.
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