LETTER: Local State House Delegation Discusses Pending Bills, Housing, Transportation & More

Last Sunday, Progressive Watertown held its All Member Meeting at the Apartments at the Coolidge School. The event included a discussion and Q&A with State Senator and President Pro Tempore William Brownsberger, seven-term State Representative John Lawn and two-term State Representative Steve Owens. 

The discussion was moderated by Progressive Watertown co-chair Susan Falkoff, and the initial intention was to learn where the Progressive Mass priority bills are in the legislative pipeline. This was a substantive discussion in which housing, the Watertown Square re-design, MBTA issues, the Make Polluters Pay initiative, and transparency in government were among the topics covered.  The audience saw a delegation that  is very aligned and has a very good working relationship with one another. The two representatives had just finished working long and hard on the state budget. The budget is now with the Senate.

After introductions, the legislators were asked to talk briefly about an issue they are excited about working on. Representative Lawn, Chair of the Joint Committee on Healthcare Financing, has been consumed with protecting healthcare facilities in the wake of the Steward Healthcare scandal. Seven hospitals primarily serving Mass Health and Medicaid patients, St. Elizabeth being the largest, were bought by a doctor who sold the land to a REIT. Lawn’s goal is to stabilize the situation, work closely with the Governor to remediate it, and prevent such private equity purchases in the future. It is currently tied up in court as the owner, who will face serious criminal charges, is trying to sell the physician network to avoid declaring bankruptcy.

Representative Owens talked about his work on energy efficiency, particularly in promoting ground source heat pumps. There is a large Networking of Ground Source Heat Pumps project happening in Framingham, and smaller ones in Lowell and Boston. There’s a feasibility study occurring in Cambridge. Owens’ goal is to approve, permit and launch these projects. He will be participating in a program entitled The Future of Clean Heat: Beyond Gas on May 15th at 7 PM at the Atrium School. This will be a great opportunity to learn more about clean energy.

Senator Brownsberger talked about the serious challenges facing us with the climate, housing, traffic and transportation. He is concerned about meeting the 2050 goal to build energy efficient buildings and green housing.  He also said traffic was very problematic and that we need to electrify more vehicles to prevent its effects on the environment. The senator mentioned the astronomical cost of housing and the need to increase the labor supply through immigration in order to bring down labor costs. Brownsberger said the Brighton Public Housing Project near Market Street will cost $800,000 per unit to rebuild, partially due to labor costs.

Then the rifting off one another began.  Lawn is adding an amendment to the Housing Bond Bill to give veterans a preference in the inclusionary zoning process. He noted, many in public housing are over-housed, and we need more public housing because it is very effective and key to keeping costs down. He wants to build up more on currently acquired public housing land, by upzoning the land to include more units. He’s also concerned with traffic. Lawn thinks better transit and providing ways to downsize will help. He thought the Shuttle service was a good idea but it needed to be multi-connected to have impact. Walkability is important, he said. He supports mixed use housing and parking garages because they take up less land. He sees many buildings in the square that are underutilized. Owens who is Involved with the Willow Park re-development and a private-public project for Ridge Commons in Cambridge agreed.  Representative Owens wants to re-house his own in-laws to create a multi-generational living situation for his family, but cannot find anything in town that is affordable for them. Owens also added he is very familiar with the problem of business not having enough labor due to the housing crisis. He mentioned a chocolate company in Cambridge had shuttered because the owner could not find employees nearby. He also thinks transit will help curb sprawl which increases land cost.

Lawn has signed onto Owens’ Make Polluters Pay bill. However, he said more legislative coalitions would help to create a coalescing situation. Owens explained that the bill faced constitutional challenges and then corporate attorneys. They mentioned the Bottle Bill is part of the Omnibus Bill that is with the senate. The PFAS Bill arrived on Lawn’s desk two weeks ago and he needs to review it.

All three had positive feelings about the new General Manager of the MBTA. The GM has real management experience. Weekend shutdowns to remove slow zones are moving in the right direction. They think adding more Commercial Licensed Drivers will help a lot as will training up more drivers per batch. They agreed that this is the time to add funding because the MBTA can spend and absorb the money. According to them, we’re probably looking at a two year timeline for fixing the MBTA.

During a question on the legislative process, Lawn said bills move to study and disappear or sometimes get folded into larger massive bills. The Housing Bond Bill is an example. He explained that given time constraints and different committee assignments, sometimes it is better for different bills to merge into one. Lawn reminded the audience that the legislation can provide the funding for studies and projects. They just need to ask. The state delegation can also work with the federal delegation to get things done. The only point of contention between the legislators and audience was The Sunshine Act, an act to record votes from committee meetings. The act was not supported by any of the three. Brownsberger said they were not subject to public records law because all related information is public via website and recordings. He also added the size of body was a factor. Owens said the website could be improved so that it is easier to follow, but all information was there.

For more info go https://malegislature.gov/

Rita Colafella
56 Cuba St.