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THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, July 15, 2022 Page 17 BHRC | FROM PAGE 16 munities. No dollar figure will ever bring these families their loved ones back. That anguish and grief will always be there, but this settlement does ensure that the families no longer need to suffer the painful and long process of continued litigation.” (A “Yes” vote is for the bill.) Sen. Jason Lewis Yes EARLY EDUCATION AND CHILD CARE (S 2973) Senate 40-0, approved and sent to the House a bill designed to expand access to high-quality, affordable early education and care. Provisions include increasing over time from the current $65,626 to $164,065 the maximum income allowed to qualify for subsidy eligibility for a family of four; requiring the Department of Early Education and Care to evaluate and eliminate barriers to subsidy access for families on an annual basis; strengthening the recruitment of early educators; establishing early educator scholarship and loan forgiveness programs to provide greater access to higher education and professional development opportunities; allowing subsidized providers to offer free or discounted seats for the children of their own staff; and creating a commission to study and recommend to the Legislature ways that employers could provide more support to their workers to help meet their early education and child care needs. “There are numerous benefits from expanding access to high-quality, affordable early education and childcare,” said Sen. Jason Lewis (D-Winchester), Senate Chair of the Committee on Education. “It enhances the cognitive and social emotional development of young children; it enables parents to work and improves families’ economic well-being; and it helps employers that are struggling with a workforce shortage. This legislation makes major strides in improving affordability and accessibility of care for families, stabilizing early education providers which will improve program quality and expand capacity and supporting the early educator workforce, many of whom are women of color.” “This issue has been a top priority of mine for many years, and I am thrilled to pass this transformative piece of legislation alongside my Senate colleagues,” said Sen. Sal DiDomenico (D-Everett), a member of the Special Legislative Early Education and Care Economic Review Commission. “As a father of two children, I know that affordable and quality early education and care is indispensable for families and their economic security. This bill will increase childcare access and help thousands of families obtain care at lower costs. Just as importantly, these investments will provide support to childcare providers and ensure people working in this field can earn a living wage, acquire higher education and support their own families.” (A “Yes” vote is for the bill.) Sen. Jason Lewis Yes ALSO UP ON BEACON HILL $250 OR $500 TAX REBATE TO SOME TAXPAYERS – The House and Senate leadership unveiled legislation that would use some of the state’s estimated $3.6 billion surplus to give one-time tax rebates to an estimated 2 million eligible people. The package is estimated to cost $500 million. A $250 rebate would go, by September 30, to individual taxpayers and a $500 rebate to married taxpayers. Eligibility will be determined by annual income reported in 2021, with the minimum income required to be $38,000, and the maximum $100,000 for individual filers and $150,000 for joint filers. “Whether it is the rising price of gas, groceries, or summer clothes for kids, the Massachusetts Legislature has heard loud and clear that increased costs due to inflation have cut into family budgets,” said speaker of the House Ron Mariano, Senate President KarenSpilka, House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz and Senate Ways and Means Chair Mike Rodrigues, in a joint statement. The statement continued, “These rebates represent the Legislature’s commitment to delivering immediate financial relief directly to residents of the commonwealth, rather than to large oil companies that continue to profit off economic uncertainty and international conflict and follow our efforts to provide $500 in premium pay for lower income front-line workers during the pandemic. As we recognize the need for structural change as well, we continue to work on potential changes to the tax code with the goal of providing additional relief to residents.” “The Legislature’s ‘Taxpayer Energy and Economic Relief Fund’ proposal is a good start in reimbursing taxpayers for the muti-billion-dollar over-taxation revenue surpluses bonanza of the past two years,” said Chip Ford, executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation. “Anything that reduces taxpayers’ burden especially in this economy is welcomed, but this will only reduce the pain for a few weeks in the fall. Gov. Baker’s tax relief bill offers broader and long-overdue structural tax reforms. It also needs consideration and adoption. Clearly there is sufficient surplus revenue for both.” “This is a poorly thought-out gimmick being done right before the election simply to score points with voters, plain and simple,” said Mass Fiscal Alliance spokesman Paul Craney. “Meaningful relief should be broad based and focused on lowering taxes on the people they most effect. Picking winners and losers through arbitrary brackets, as well as penalizing married couples more likely to have families depending on them, is a poor way for our out of touch Legislature to show solidarity with the privations their ill-conceived economic policies are currently forcing Massachusetts families to contend with.” Critics also took a swipe at the measure because it doesn’t provide a rebate for lower-income taxpayers earning less than $38,000. Marie-Frances Rivera, president of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, said that rebates that exclude people earning less than $38,000 is not targeted tax relief to people who need it the most and are struggling to pay rent every month. Mariano responded at a press conference and pointed out that the Legislature several months ago had already spent $490 million on low-income folks who were adversely affected by the COVID loss of jobs. “So we felt we had addressed a lot of the needs there,” said Mariano. “The next step was to move up and take care of the folks who are in that middle income area that so often is neglected.” Some opponents said it is also unfair to exclude people earning over $100,000 from the rebate. They noted that if you have three children and earn $100,000 you are not exactly rich. $400,000 FOR FARMS – The Baker Administration announced the granting of $400,000 in grants to several Bay State farms to improve their operations. “[The] administration remains committed to the Massachusetts agricultural industry to ensure our local farmers continue to succeed and have the support they need to provide invaluable products for the public to enjoy,” said Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Beth Card. “These Agricultural Preservation Restriction Program Improvement grants will further strengthen the commonwealth’s food supply system making it more resilient now and well into the future.” “The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) is steadfast with its commitment to our commonwealth’s farming families,” said MDAR Commissioner John Lebeaux. “Through the … program we have been able to conserve critical farmland, preserve Massachusetts agricultural history and provide support to help keep these farm businesses sustainable now and for future generations.” SOME COVID-19 POLICIES EXTENDED (H 4978 AND S 2559) – The House approved a bill that extends the authority for remote participation for all public bodies and the authority for representative town meetings to meet by remote means through March 31, 2023. Other provisions authorize the use of electronic communication technology in real estate property closings by attorneys; require landlords, when sending tenants a notice to quit for nonpayment of rent, to include information regarding the tenant's legal rights; require all public notices be posted to a website; require that the meeting of a state public body must have at least one of its members physically present at all meetings; and permit notary publics to select a tamper-evident technology for notarial acts with electronic record. “This legislation makes permanent the flexibility permitted under the Open Meeting Law during the COVID-19 State of Emergency while keeping with the Open Meeting Law’s objectives of transparency, convenience and access by the public,” said Rep. Tony Cabral (D-New Bedford), the chair of the Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight. “The ability to participate remotely has significantly increased and promoted access and participation in our democratic process throughout the commonwealth. There is no reason to move backwards from this new era of public access. Now that we have experienced the benefits of remote access to public meetings, we cannot go back.” Advocates for the bill include the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, Boston Center for Independent Living, Common Cause Massachusetts, Disability Law Center, League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association, MASSPIRG, New England First Amendment Coalition, and New England Newspaper & Press Association. Those groups released a joint statement. “We applaud the Legislature for consistently appreciating the importance of remote access to public meetings,” read the statement. “Across the commonwealth, remote access to public meetings has significantly increased public participation in state and local government, and has lowered longstanding barriers for people with disabilities, people with limited access to transportation and people with work and family obligations.” The Senate has already approved its own version of the measure and a House-Senate conference committee will likely craft a compromise version. LOTTERY FOR LOW LICENSE PLATES - The Registry of Motor Vehicle announced that applications for the 2022 Low Number License Plate Lottery are now being accepted and must be submitted online by 5 p.m., Friday, September 2. This year's goodies are 199 low license plates including F7, 36, 78K, X44, 1S, and 6666. Applications are available online at http://www.mass.gov/RMV There is no fee to apply. However, If the applicant is selected as a winner, there is a special plate fee that will be required, in addition to a standard registration fee. Prior to the establishment of this lottery several years ago, these low-number plates were given away under the old-school system which gave the plates to “well-connected” drivers who "knew someone" in state government. QUOTABLE QUOTES “These toxic chemicals don’t belong anywhere, let alone in food packaging. Kudos to Rhode Island for taking this important step to protect the public from PFAS. I hope Massachusetts will soon become the next state to act.” --- Ben Hellerstein, state director for Environment Massachusetts, on Rhode Island’s passage of a new law banning PFAS (per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances) in food packaging. Supporters say that PFAs are dangerous chemicals which have been linked to a wide variety of health problems including immunosuppression, low birthweight, liver disease and testicular and kidney cancer. “The Legislature’s move, driven by Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka, to give driver's licenses to people in this country illegally resonated like no other issue before with the people of Massachusetts. MassFiscal set a record with the number of people who used our website to contact their legislators opposing this vote. ---Paul Craney, spokesman for the Mass Fiscal Alliance. “I look forward to working with you and your team and our team as we hopefully quickly and successfully settle the differences between both of our bills. It’s the first time we’ve attempted to update and modernize the cannabis laws since they were enacted by the voters in 2016 and modified by us in the Legislature in 2017.” BHRC | SEE PAGE 22

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