Policy & Advocacy Updates

June State House Briefings 

In early June, MACDC co-organized two legislative briefings at the State House. One presented the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), helping to dispel myths and to educate new lawmakers and their staffs on the benefits of this policy that has come so close to passage multiple times over the past few legislative sessions. See a post about the briefing here. The other briefing walked legislators and their staff through various options for raising revenue to invest in climate justice. MACDC’s Director of Public Policy presented at this hearing on behalf of the AHEAD Act. See here for some information about the event, and you can find the slide deck from the presentation here, with what was presented on AHEAD and the other two great bills.  

July Hearings on MACDC Priority Bills 

On July 15th, MACDC testified at two important State House hearings. In the first, the AHEAD Coalition rolled out 3 panels before the Joint Committee on Revenue, highlighting how raising our uncompetitively low deeds excise fee should be a crucial tool in our toolbox to fight our interrelated housing and climate crisis. You can watch the hearing here – our portion starts at the 42 minute point in the video. Big thanks to our coalition partners MAPC, Fairmount Indigo CDC Collaborative, CHAPA, Better Future Project, Conservation Law Foundation, the Boston Climate Action Network, and the MA Alliance of HUD Tenants for joining the panels. The hearing was a great success, and the coalition is now meeting with individual members of the committee to lobby for support of the bill. And if you wish to submit testimony in favor of the bill yourself or on behalf of your organization (or both!), you can use these templates or for a super quick click-and-send version use this Action Network link produced by our partners at FICC.  

Later that day, we also joined our friends at LISC and Power Options to testify before the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, to testify in favor of adding a Zero Carbon Renovation Fund to the new environmental bond bill that the Governor has filed (the Mass Ready Act). You can view the (very long!) hearing here, and if you want to skip right to us, our panel comes in right around the 3 hours and 2 minutes mark.  

What’s Ahead in the Fall 

The coming fall promises a lot of Beacon Hill activity. There are still a few of MACDC’s priority bills awaiting their public hearings – Local Option Real Estate Transfer Fees, TOPA, and the stand-alone Zero Carbon Renovation Fund bill. In addition, there is likely to be a continued revisiting of our state budget, depending on how deep an impact the impending federal cuts make on our fiscal landscape here. So stay tuned for opportunities to advocate! 

Lobby Day Photos 

Thank you to everyone who joined us for MACDC Lobby Day in the spring. Please see here for photos that were taken at the event. You’re welcome to use them in your materials, and if you do we just ask that you give photo credit to Liese Jones Photography.