On November 20th we held our General Assembly which was filled with lots of lively discussion. Here are some of the highlights.
Results of ballot questions we worked on.
We had targeted several of the ballot questions for our work. Here are the results.
Question 1 Fair Share -Millionaires Tax Franklin County 21,052 Yes 9,859 No 66% yes
Question 4 Drivers Licenses for All 19451 yes, 11443 No, 61% yes
Question 5 Medicare for All 2nd Franklin State Rep district 9367 yes, 5383 no, 57% yes
Question 5 Medicare for All 7th Hampden State Rep district 9859 yes, 6820 no, 53% yes
Medicare for All passed in all 20 State Rep districts that it appeared on the ballot.
Question 6 Transparency on votes in the Massachusetts House of Representatives:
2nd Franklin district 11623 yes 2977 no, 71% yes
The General Assembly voted to send $500 to the Warnock campaign in Georgia via Movement Voter Project. This has been done.
Discussed the situation of Police and Mayor in Greenfield and agreed to keep having discussions with FCCPR, Racial Justice Rising and Greenfield Peoples budget campaign.
There was a report from the newly formed Reproductive Justice Task Force and people signed up to help with the task force.
It was reported that ballot referendums supporting abortion rights won in all 5 states where they were on the ballot, and suggested that the Democrats did better than usual in the mid-term elections nationally in part because more women and young people turned out to support abortion rights as a way to oppose the SCOTUS Dobbs amendment. One legislative priority of the new RJ task force is MA Medicare for All, since we want to connect reproductive rights with economic and social rights.
What legislation do we want our delegation to propose and strive for in the new session?
There was a very good discussion for what kind of legislation we want our State Reps. and Senators to support. Here are the results. We will be trying to set-up meetings with our Reps to discuss all these issues.
Items in bold considered highest priorities by FCCPR Coordinating Committee
Climate
- Restructure MassSave to eliminate utility control
- Incentivize (publicly owned) solar along side highways and over parking lots and not industrial solar via clearcutting forests or by removing productive farmland
- Add climate education to state standards
- Close the Northfield pump and storage facility as it’s an energy sink and hurts our river and fish
- Build state-owned and run electric car charging stations
- Fund electric school buses
Housing
- Amend the law about funding for housing construction only when its near public transit to be appropriate for rural communities that do not have public transit
- Allocate more funding for community land trusts for housing – Small Properties State Acquisition Funding Pilot: this legislation was passed; we need to lobby our reps for some of the money
- Create enabling legislation for regional housing trusts
- Allow building codes to allow for tiny houses
- Fund energy efficiency and conservation
- Make funds available for collective/neighborhood geothermal
- Give tenants first right to buy building being sold by owner (TOPA)
Reproductive Justice
- Amend the MA Constitution to codify abortion rights (and reproductive justice) in MA
- Truth in advertising re “fake clinics”
- Mandate that Massachusetts not cooperate with extradition requests from other states (already done?)
- Fund an abortion action corps of staff and volunteers
- Establish a fund to support out of state abortion travelers to MA
Medicare for All
- Pass the Medicare for All bill (which would also promote reproductive justice)
- Have our legislators join M4A caucus
Education
- Eliminate MCAS as a graduation requirement; replace it with alternative assessment
- Guarantee that Fair Share funds are above and beyond existing funding (supplement, not supplant) and re-examine the MA funding formula with rural districts in mind
- Establish funds for green and healthy school buildings
- Increase transportation funding for schools
- Reimburse teachers and parents for out-of-pocket school supplies
- Restructure DESE – e.g. elected board members (delete Pioneer Institute influence)
- Divest the teacher (and state worker) pension plan from fossil fuels
Racial and Social Justice
- Increase transparency in House of Representatives
- Provide alternative social services funding (separate from police funding)
- Extend the timeline for new state flag and seal
- Support the landback initiative to local Indigenous people
- Ban MA police departments from accepting federal military supplies
- Expand gun control
- Pass Death with Dignity
Transportation (Question 1 funds)
- Implement East-West rail through Franklin County and North Quabbin to North Adams
- Expand local public transportation
- Provide public transportation to Bradley Airport