Budget Debate Process — Nobody said it was going to be easy.
It was a lousy process for fans of transparency who long for the time we had 10 full days (and nights) of televised debate one line item at a time. Never mind there were huddles of legislators in the corners of the Chamber or (gasp) behind closed doors developing arguments and and counting votes in relative...
A Compelling Alert — Another Front on the War on Women? .
from Mass Law Reform and the Coalition for the Homeless The House Waysand Means Budget Would Erode the Shelter Safety Net for Homeless Children with Nowhere Else to Go! Support Rep. Wolf and Rushing’s Amendment #603 to Ensure Homeless Children Are Not Left on the Streets! For more information, contact the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute 617-357-0700 (Ruth...
Budget Amendments What’s Next #2 Leaving No Stone Unturned.
Leave no stone unturned. You’ve got through the weekend to contact Reps and ask them to get down to the Clerk’s office, sign up as cosponsors and send a little note to the Speaker and Chair of Ways and Means telling them they support your amendment. On Monday and Tuesday and throughout the week, savvy...
Your Amendment is Filed — What’s Next #1
Congratulations!! You got through the first step –finding sponsors to file your amendments. Here is where you can find them all neatly numbered with a list of cosponsors Now remember there is still time to get more cosponsors. Reps can go down to the Clerks office and sign on to co-sponsor your amendment until just...
What House Leadership is Doing on April Vacation Week & CW Mag’s Study
They are poring over the amendments to the House Ways and Means Budget that’s what they’re doing. Thanks to the Globe for this nice picture of Speaker Bob DeLeo and Chairman of HW&M Brian Dempsey doing the poring. A very well researched article in Commonwealth Magazine documents the so called “drop off ” in legislative...
A Model Memo to Grassroots Activists
It doesn’t have to be fancy with a constant contact layout or on a letterhead, but it does need to be clear and specific. Please find here in its entirety a memo from from Lew Finfer to his grassroots activists working on youth development, violence prevention and youth jobs. There are 2 main asks to...
First Look – House Ways and Means Budget
This Morning we salute our friends and colleagues at the Mass Budget and Policy Center for the rapid response analysis on the House Ways and Means budget. Find it here. Trust me, its really really good. Faced with a significant budget deficit for Fiscal Year 2013, the House Ways and Means Committee (HWM) proposes to...
What Would Frances Fox Piven Do?
When she found out that a special Legislative “Commission” had, after much public debate and little or no real data had proposed some punitive, unrealistic, unenforceable new laws to limit the use of EBT cards by welfare recipients? She’d say Please Urge Your Representative NOT to Sign Onto the O’Connell-Holmes Impractical, Costly and Unconstitutional EBT Bill. And...
Resisting the Advocates
The folk at at Spare Change News are the ones who got the State House News story out first about the tinyest possiblity that the Governer’s budget may — just may — include some revenue measures. We particulary appreciate the image of the our good, decent hardworking Secretary of Admininstration and Finance “warding off ” advocates who want...
