Bringing Beacon Hill to You

With so much happening in the Norfolk & Plymouth District and on Beacon Hill, it felt like a good idea to keep constituents informed with a new, monthly newsletter.

Each newsletter will highlight the issues of legislation, committee, and local communities we are focusing on each month, as well as some of the other interesting topics that come through my office.

LEGISLATION..................................

One of the biggest issues happening on Beacon Hill in June was the $590 million tax relief package recently passed by the Senate. It includes tax breaks for a variety of Massachusetts’ residents and boosts income tax credits for low-income families, and provides increased tax deductions for all families with children. I appreciate my colleagues adopting an amendment that I filed to make individual MBTA and ferry fares, including the one serving Quincy, tax deductible.  

Senate Tax Bill

Unfortunately, the public hearing on S.761, An Act relative to hospital closures and health planning, proved particularly timely. I filed this bill to require networks closing hospitals or terminating certain services to give appropriate notice to the local community and the state, with the goal being to minimize disruptions in patient care. If they fail to meet certain notification requirements, they would lose access to funding and be subject to sanctions from the state. In my written testimony submitted in the wake of the recent closure of Compass Medical, I suggested to the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing that it might wish to modify my bill to place the same notice and process requirements on medical service providers such as Compass. 

Notably, on June 26 I testified on four different healthcare bills I filed before a Joint Committee on Financial Services hearing: An Act providing access to full spectrum addiction treatment services, a Resolve establishing a commission to encourage acceptance of insurance by outpatient mental health providers, An Act providing continuity of care for mental health treatment, and An Act relative to removing barriers to non-opioid pain management. 

Serving as Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Election Laws represents a fascinating new responsibility.

The issue of ranked choice voting received a great deal of discussion at our June 21 hearing with statewide and local options having been discussed. Unlike traditional ballots, ranked choice voting would have participants rank candidates in order of how much they support them rather than just choosing a single candidate.

Proponents assert that ranked choice elections, used in cities like Cambridge and states like Maine, better reflect the views of the voters than traditional elections. I look forward to closely reviewing the voluminous testimony the committee has received before working with my colleagues to decide whether to advance all, some, or none of the ranked choice bills.

Working with Senator Walter Timilty and Representatives Mark Cusack, David DeCoste, and Alyson Sullivan-Almeida, we secured over $1 million in funding for Abington, Braintree, Holbrook, and Rockland for general economic development efforts and water system improvements. 

DISTRICT ........................................

Staying with the theme of promising young people, this June once again saw some terrific graduation ceremonies for schools in the Norfolk & Plymouth District. Congrats to all! 

So much work this June was focused on a local environmental issue. In collaboration with several legislative colleagues, I authored letters to the Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Public Health, and the Emergency Management Agency addressing concerns we share regarding the aftermath of the February fire at Clean Harbors’ facility in Braintree. My fellow legislators and I have also been attending local meetings regarding the impact of the fire and are working together to ensure we minimize the chances of having repeat incidents in the future.  

This past month also featured a successful series of coffee hours my office organized to connect with hundreds of seniors living in the district.

These free, public gatherings help me better understand what issues are not just locally impactful but consistently affecting those living in the district. The most frequent topics of conversation included MBTA services like the Ride, the RMV, and gun control. I look forward to scheduling more district coffee hours in the fall and talking more with constituents.

MISCELLANY OF NOTE ..................

The conversation around the issue of revenge pornography continues for a second consecutive legislative session as survivors, advocates, and I await a public hearing date for a bill on this topic that I filed in January.

Massachusetts and South Carolina are the only two states that do not have a criminal charge for the sharing of explicit images or video without the consent of the depicted subject. I sat down with some of the journalists at Boston25 news to discuss this issue last week and am cautiously optimistic that the increased attention will spread awareness of the bill and result in it becoming law during this legislative session.  !

Last week also featured a really great event at the State House to educate legislators on the importance and practicality of naloxone, the nasally-deliverable treatment commonly known as Narcan that can counteract the effects of an opioid overdose before they become fatal.

This event brought together legislators and medical professionals to continue the urgent conversation of how we can continue to save lives during the ongoing opioid epidemic.