Legislative Priorities

Education

Nothing can be more important for our democracy and society than renewing our commitment to revitalizing our Commonwealth's public education system. To this end, Jay directed an eighteen-month grant-supported effort, "A New Public Education," based at Brandeis University, to "reinvent" public education. He continues this work as director of the Center for Leadership and Public Life at Northeastern University. His bills in this area include:

AN ACT RELATIVE TO BOARD OF EDUCATION REFORM (HOUSE BILL 476)

The proposed Board of Education Reform Act will dissolve the current board and replace it with a 15 member board whose membership must reflect the population of students to be served by the Commonwealth’s public schools. The current board reflects ideological interests rather than the pedagogical interests of the Commonwealth. This bill will create a geographically, ethnically, racially, economically, and politically diverse board that will include representation from students, teachers, principals, superintendents, and experts in educational policy, as well as local officials, business leaders, higher education administrators and educational policy experts.

AN ACT TO ENCOURAGE EXCELLENCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE COMMONWEALTH'S PUBLIC EDUCATION SYSTEM (HOUSE BILL 477)

This bill establishes a state secretary of education to administer the educational affairs of the Commonwealth. The secretary will oversee the Department of Education and all other state agencies within that department, including the Board of Higher Education, the Massachusetts School Building Authority, the University of Massachusetts Building Authority, the State College Building Authority, the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority, the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability, and the Board of Trustees of the University of Massachusetts.

AN ACT RELATIVE TO PROVIDING FREE TUITION FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS (HOUSE BILL 1182)

This bill would entitle public school teachers to the same tuition-free access that legislators have to take courses at the Commonwealth’s colleges and universities on a space available basis.

AN ACT FURTHER PROVIDING FOR REIMBURSEMENT TO CITIES AND TOWNS FOR EXTRAORDINARY SPECIAL EDUCATION COSTS (HOUSE BILL 478)

This bill adds special education transportation costs into the equation as one of the special education costs for which cities and towns are reimbursed.

Tax Equity/Social and Economic Justice

The ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor is the greatest threat to the core values of our democracy. Our society is increasingly polarized as opportunities for jobs, income, and education are more available to some than others .These inequalites have enormous implications for nearly every aspect of our shared lives, from public safety to economic vitality, from racial and economic segregation to public health, from the quest for a qualified work force to the qualities of our political process.

Jay's tax equity/social and economic justice legislation for this session includes:

AN ACT RELATIVE TO BROADENED ELIGIBILITY FOR RELIEF FROM DISPROPORTIONATE PROPERTY TAX BURDENS (HOUSE BILL 2982)

Jay's signature issue in the State House is the need to find alternatives to the property tax to fund public education. Historically, public schools have been financed primarily by local property taxes, causing the inequities we see between richer and poorer communities. In a cruel irony, homeowners in "poorer" communities pay proportionately more of their income in property taxes, yet send their children to schools less well funded than those in wealthier communities. Jay's maiden speech on the House floor proposed a special commission to explore this issue and make recommendations. The commission completed its report in 1998.

Working with Arlington Representative Jim Marzilli and Lexington Selectman Peter Enrich, Jay introduced legislation that led to the implementation of the property tax circuit breaker. This property tax relief, passed as part of the FY01 budget, provides a refundable state tax credit to qualified senior citizens whose property taxes exceed 10% of their income. The circuit breaker is designed to moderate the most regressive elements of the property tax.

The new bill would expand the property tax circuit breaker to citizens regardless of age.

AN ACT RELATIVE TO WORKPLACE DISCLOSURE (HOUSE BILL 3210)

Encouraged by anti-sweatshop activists, Jay has filed a bill to require the disclosure of production sites and working conditions in workplaces that manufacture goods and services purchased by the Commonwealth. Rather than creating a new state bureaucracy, the bill relies on independent organizations to monitor and report serious deficiencies. Such information would guide consumer choices, and in particular, the state's purchases.

AN ACT INCREASING THE AMOUNT OF PROPERTY TAX DEFERRALS (HOUSE BILL 3906)

With rising property values, residents on fixed incomes are finding it more difficult to meet their property tax obligations. This bill would raise the income threshold for seniors who wish to defer their property taxes from $40,000 to $75,000.

Health Care/Environmental Protection

Much of Jay's work before entering the legislature was in the areas of environmental education and environmental policy. Largely because of this background, he was able, in his first term in the State House, to break a six-year logjam, reframing the debate about protecting the Commonwealth's water resources and building a coalition to write and pass the Rivers Protection Act of 1996.

While the climate on Beacon Hill has not been ideal for major environmental protection initiatives, Jay has continuing interest in environmental issues in general and in the following areas in particular.

Jay’s priority bills in environmental protection and health care for this session include:

AN ACT FOR A HEALTHY MASSACHUSETTS: SAFER ALTERNATIVES TO TOXIC CHEMICALS (HOUSE BILL 783)

The state's pioneering Toxics Use Reduction Act began to move us from managing toxic waste in manufacturing to avoiding it in the first place. This strategy has had enormous environmental and economic benefits. There is still a looming problem, however, with the use and proliferation of toxic chemicals in products we use and come in contact with at home or work every day. Scientific evidence increasingly indicates that a wide array of toxic chemicals we use in our everyday lives are contributing to an epidemic of chronic diseases and disorders, including asthma, birth defects, cancers, developmental disabilities, diabetes, endometriosis, infertility, Parkinson's disease, and others. Other states and countries have gone much further in their efforts to reduce the use of toxic chemicals, and we need to reclaim our leadership position in the field of toxics reduction. We have the talent, expertise and experience in Massachusetts to do so, and it is only the absence of will and leadership that has kept us from the additional environmental health and safety, not to mention economic vitality and market advantage, that are as possible as they are desirable.

The Safer Alternatives bill will establish a pragmatic approach to reducing health and environmental impacts from many of the toxic chemicals we are exposed to in everyday life. It mandates a careful process to identify such chemicals for which there are reasonable alternatives, and then creates a program of transition from the dangerous to the safer chemical.

AN ACT TO PREVENT USE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS PESTICIDES (HOUSE BILL 781)

This bill will require the Department of Public Health to compile a list of pesticides known to be carcinogenic, mutagenic, or toxic to development or reproduction. These pesticides will then be prohibited for use by the state, municipal government, schools, daycare centers, hospitals, health care facilities, or public housing buildings or grounds and by licensed pesticide applicators. This would limit sensitive populations’ exposure to the most dangerous pesticides.

AN ACT TO REDUCE SOLID WASTE IN THE COMMONWEALTH (HOUSE BILL 782)

This bill addresses the lack of recycling receptacles in public and high-traffic spaces. It would require recycling receptacles in public buildings, outdoor public spaces, high traffic facilities such as stadiums and museums, and transit stations.

AN ACT RELATIVE TO ACCESS TO EPINEPHRINE IN SCHOOLS (HOUSE BILL 2130)

This bill would make sure that students have safe, easy access to epinephrine in public schools. It amends the current statute so that this life-saving medication accessible in secure locations throughout the school and regulated in a similar fashion to inhalers.

Additional Health and Environment Topics:

Health Care Reform

With the passage of sweeping health care legislation, we have taken an important step towards good, affordable health care for all. But there is still much work to be done. Delivering on the promise of the new law will be our greatest challenge in 2007. We need the political will and financial way to address unanswered questions about the law. Physicians and policy-makers who came together to pass the law must stay together to implement it.

Our public health system, too, needs serious attention in 2007. In the past years, the state’s public health budget has stalled, while needs have ballooned. Without critical state support, we will not be prepared for natural stresses like a flu pandemic or for potential manmade stressors, such as bio-terrorism.

Jay also continues to see a need for state laws and regulations to respond to the growing marketplace of health care providers. More than ever, consumers are expressing a desire for choice, seeking out naturopathic, homeopathic, and other non-traditional practitioners and treatments. We must respond by both facilitating the availability of options that do no harm and ensuring that they are provided in a way that protects the public from fraud, malpractice and unqualified providers.

Medical Records and Patient Confidentiality

In this age of managed care, computerized record keeping, national databases, DNA research, and life-threatening public health issues, privacy and the confidentiality of the doctor-patient relationship are being tested and redefined. There are growing pressures to release information we historically have regarded as private, and a growing debate in state capitals and in Washington about the meaning of privacy. Patients who worry about the betrayal of trust and confidences may avoid medical care or withhold critical information, thus compromising their own well-being, not to mention the efficacy of our health care system.

Jay has led efforts to help restore trust by clearly defining the rights, responsibilities and limits of privacy in the modern medical landscape. Jay led the effort to pass AN ACT RELATIVE TO GENETIC TESTING RESULTS, which was enacted into law in the 2005-2006 session. This bill deleted the sunset provisions of the state’s recently enacted genetic testing law to provide increased privacy protection for citizens undergoing genetic testing.

Environmental Audits

Although the accounting profession, left unregulated by failures of policy in Washington, has become more worthy of our derision than our confidence, the basic concept of professional, certified accountants, working within accepted and agreed-to principles, is sound. Our complex web of tax laws and business regulations work because CPAs help us to self-police and we know that we are subject to government audits to assure compliance.

This same concept might be applied to enforcement of our complex web of environmental regulations. We cannot, or should not, create a major government bureaucracy to enforce our environmental laws, yet they should be enforced. Working with environmental professionals as well as officials in our public agencies, we need to begin to explore, and perhaps invent, a new field of Certified Public Environmental Accountants so that we can move the public role from rowing to steering, placing primary responsibility where it belongs, with the people in businesses and communities across the Commonwealth.

Good Government

Democracy cannot long endure if the governed lose confidence in their government. While cynicism and skepticism about government are not new, Jay continues to place a premium on electoral and governance reform. His legislation in this area for this session includes the following:

AN ACT TO ENHANCE PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY (HOUSE BILL 668)

Nearly half of the Massachusetts citizens who are qualified to vote don't do so, and many do not even register. Too many people think that their votes don't matter, and, more and more, important decisions that affect us all are being made by fewer and fewer people. Jay has led the legislative fight for campaign finance reform. This bill would establish a commission to study the Commonwealth’s system of campaign finance, in order to give recommendations to the Governor for possible reform.

AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR COMPREHENSIVE VOTER INFORMATION PAMPHLETS (HOUSE BILL 669)

This bill would make the current voter information pamphlets that Massachusetts residents receive at their homes more comphrensive by adding candidate biographical information and candidate statements, information on the roles and responsibilities of each elected office, an application for an absentee ballot, a sample ballot, and other pertinent information.

AN ACT ESTABLISHING A COMMISSION TO ENCOURAGE CANDIDATE DEBATES AND INFORMED VOTING (HOUSE BILL 667)

This bill would establish a Voter Education and Voter Empowerment Commission to consider legislation and other non legislative actions to encourage candidate debates and more informed voting.

AN ACT TO ENSURE SECURE VOTING EQUIPMENT (HOUSE BILL 670)

This bill would prohibit the use of electronic voting machines that internally count and tabulate votes and require that all votes be cast on official paper ballots that can be audited.

AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR MANUAL AUDITS OF ELECTION RESULTS (HOUSE BILL 671)

This bill requires that audits take place at elections for state and federal offices to confirm accurate counts.

AN ACT RELATIVE TO VOTING BY THE INSTANT RUNOFF METHOD (HOUSE BILL 665) and AN ACT RELATIVE TO VOTING BY THE INSTANT RUNOFF METHOD IN PRIMARIES (HOUSE BILL 666)

These bills would create an Instant Runoff Voting system in the Commonwealth for statewide and legislative offices. Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) is a voting system that ensures that in a contest with three or more candidates, the winner is the one who has the support of the majority of the voters, not just a plurality. It provides the benefits of a runoff election without the expense and lower turnout of a second round of voting.

PROPOSAL FOR A LEGISLATIVE AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION RELATIVE TO A VACANCY IN THE OFFICE OF GOVERNOR OR LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR (HOUSE BILL 664)

Twice during Jay’s tenure at the State House, Lieutenant Governors have assumed the office of Governor. There are no provisions in our state Constitution to fill the resulting vacancy in the Lieutenant Governor's position. Jay has proposed a Constitutional amendment modeled on the succession amendment to the federal constitution. It provides for the Governor to nominate a new Lieutenant Governor who assumes office when confirmed by the House and Senate. The proposed amendment also eliminates the inaccurate and demeaning term "Acting Governor" when the Lieutenant Governor moves to the corner office because of the death or resignation of the Governor.

IN ADDITION, JAY CONTINUES TO LOBBY FOR A TWO YEAR BUDGET CYCLE.

Annual budgeting does little to encourage strategic and long-term planning. It takes only a simple change in the law to require all public agencies to institute a rolling two-year budgeting protocol, shaping the coming year's budget in the light of anticipated numbers for a second year.

Community Empowerment

State Representatives are, at once, engaged in shaping laws for the entire state and elected to advance the interests of their constituents and communities. Occasionally these dual goals are in conflict. Happily, Jay has been successful in pursuing two goals of enormous consequence to his district.

THE STATE BUDGET AND LOCAL PRIORITIES.

Jay has fought successfully for continuing and expanded state funding for local schools, senior services, public safety, roads, and water and sewer rate relief. In particular, his efforts have led to annual increases in the allocation for METCO, the state's premier racial desegregation program, including the largest one-year increase in METCO’s history.

HANSCOM

Hanscom Field, abutting Bedford, Concord, Lexington and Lincoln, is both a restricted military installation and a public airport. As the former, it is the site of the Electronic Systems Center, a research and development enterprise that is of profound significance to our national defense. It is also home to related academic and commercial research facilities. These undertakings contribute mightily to our nation's intelligence and communications capabilities. They also represent over 10,000 jobs and $4 billion annually in the regional economy. Supporting Hanscom in the face of recurring downsizing by the U.S. military has become an ongoing and essential battle. Working collaboratively and cooperatively with local, state and federal officials, we beat back an attempt to close the military base several years ago and are hard at work to do so again in the current round of base closures scheduled for 2005.

Collaboration and cooperation with Massport, owner and operator of the public airport, has been much more problematical. For years, Massport ran the field as a general aviation airport, serving primarily private pilots with occasional charter and corporate planes. Then, without the consultation required, and over the objections of both the governments and citizen groups from the four surrounding communities, Massport undertook a series of steps to expand flights and to allow regularly scheduled commercial flights and possibly cargo services. These threaten to alter the delicate balance between the field and its environment. Hanscom abuts historical, cultural and environmental treasures that are at risk as the airport grows, and Massport has both failed to consider these and violated the rights and responsibilities of neighboring towns. Jay has been working with - and in many cases leading - efforts to make sure that the four towns and their citizens have a place at the table as decisions about Hanscom's future are made.

This session’s bills in the area of Community Empowerment include:

AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE MASSACHUSETTS PORT AUTHORITY BOARD (HOUSE BILL 2981)

This bill adds voting representatives from the Hanscom communities (Bedford, Concord, Lexington, and Lincoln) to the Massport Board of Directors.

AN ACT RELATIVE TO LOCAL ZONING REGULATIONS AT THE LAURENCE G. HANSCOM FIELD (HOUSE BILL 1319)

This would reserve to Bedford, Concord, Lexington and Lincoln the rights and responsibilities for local zoning for all non-aviation related development at Hanscom Field.

AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MUNICIPAL LIGHTING AUTHORITIES (HOUSE BILL 3319)

This bill allows cities and towns to “municipalize,” that is to acquire the distribution plant from the electric utility company and operate it as a municipal function. This generally offers consumers improved reliability and reduced rates. The bill clarifies the municipalization process and eliminates some of the barriers to municipalization.