Rep. Erika’s statement on the end of session
After a marathon 21-hour-long session, we voted into law: 1) a landmark housing bill that will invest nearly $5.2B in housing, more than we’ve ever invested in housing in our state’s history, 2) the Parentage Act, which expands protections for LGBTQIA+ parents and their children, and 3) the Hero Act which increases benefits and boosts services, including mental health for disabled veterans, active-duty service members, and their families.
However, like many of you, I am deeply disappointed that we left so much unfinished work on the table at the end of session on July 31st. We should have passed a climate bill and the economic development bill which included hundreds of millions in clean energy investments, because we need to be continuing to accelerate our work on climate, every session. We left unfinished an important maternal health bill and reproductive justice and LGBTQIA+ protection bill, the location shield act, which is critical in the post-Dobbs world we live in. With respect to healthcare in general, it's unbelievable the wreckage Steward Healthcare has inflicted on our state, two hospitals are at imminent risk of closing, prescription drug prices need to be brought under control, and the opioid crisis is destroying our communities. These are all the bills we voted in favor on in the past few weeks, but did not become law.
What is deeply frustrating about this end of session is that most of these bills, we have established a consensus on what to move forward on because both chambers (the House and Senate) voted favorably on them. But they didn't become law because House and Senate leadership couldn't agree on the finer details and differences in their respective drafts of the legislation. What I can say is that I'm urging leadership to bring us back in a special formal session so we get this work done. I'll keep pushing for that because we cannot bring legislation so close to the finish line and not deliver for our communities.
Following this, you might be asking yourself, so what did the legislature get done this session?
That's a great question and I’ll start by highlighting The Fair Share Amendment which I shared in my letter to you that directly impacts schools and transportation both state-wide and directly to Somerville.
Thanks to our work together, the Fair Share amendment is projected to increase the state budget by about $2 billion overall. This means that we were able to reallocate funding and increase other investments that weren't directly earmarked to schools and transportation too, most notably we made the largest investment in housing ever of $5.2B, which includes $2.3B in public housing and $1.2B in affordable housing construction (this was accomplished after I printed and sent you the letter you received).
With education funding, I fought for and secured:
Over $54M to Somerville Public Schools, this is up from $47M prior to Fair Share and the Student Opportunity Act, which brought in an additional $1.5B for more equitable K-12 funding, plus funding for special ed and English Language Learners.
In childcare and early ed, we made another historic investment statewide of $1.55B. This is unprecedented grant funding that we will have more data on once the funding is allocated but a very rough approximation based on the K-12 funding formula is that ~$11M will be going to Somerville families.
$3M for special education. Somerville has a higher proportion of students with special needs than many other districts, which is something we should be proud of because it is thanks to the intentional investment of our community schools to support all students.
Approximately $900,000K in universal free school meals, or $170M statewide, which was piloted last year and we've made it permanent this year.
$117M in free community college across Massachusetts, this is a very important step towards debt-free public higher education
With transportation, we invested in:
$3.8M for road repair, a $2.6M of which is a new increase from our advocacy this year alone. Some of this new funding came directly from the Fair Share Amendment
$383M increase in the MBTA which is within a $540M increase overall in public transportation (including regional transit authorities and water transit) per year. This the greatest increase in investment in public transportation in one year in our state's history.
Other legislative highlights and wins:
With respect to legislation that I worked on there are three issue areas I'm particularly proud of because it is the outcome of nearly a decade of my work as an advocate and your legislator, which are reproductive justice, addressing the climate crisis, and gun control.
For reproductive justice, this includes two pieces of legislation: the ROE Act, which was passed shortly after Ruth Bader Ginsberg passed away and we expected the Supreme Court to lurch to the right with a Trump appointee, and An Act expanding protections for reproductive and gender-affirming care, which was passed within a week of the Dobbs decision. I am committed to you in ensuring that we always act swiftly to protect our bodily autonomy and fundamental human rights regardless of what happens in DC.
For climate, we passed An Act Creating A Next-Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy and Act Driving Clean Energy and Offshore Wind, both under Governor Baker in my first term after nearly 13 years of excruciating hiatus and inaction by the State House on climate. The prior significant legislation passed was the 2008 Global Warming Solutions Act. I am proud to have worked on putting pressure on the State House to change its course on this, both as an advocate and activist (prior to holding office) and as your legislator.
I hope this was a helpful and informative update on where things stand this legislative session. And thank you for making it this far! I'm also happy to discuss further on the phone or in person if that would be helpful. Feel free to call or text my cell at 857-264-1096.