From an early age, I knew I wanted to help people from all walks of life. My first opportunity as a community advocate was at the age of 17 when threats of cuts to the North Attleboro education budget were discussed. I reached out to the town’s Finance Committee and advocated for the importance of the programs on the chopping block. Fortunately, the Finance Committee agreed to restore the funding for these vital programs. I realized the importance of President Kennedy’s words, “Anyone can make a difference, and everyone should try”. I believed that it was time for a new perspective in leadership, someone with new bold ideas. In 2017, I announced my intentions to run for School Committee.
Our Commonwealth must be ready to face the economic challenges for our future. Workforce development through career technical education is the key ecnomoic driver our region needs to move our community forward. I have been one of the Commonwealth's major leaders on advancing legislation to open up more opportunities for students through vocational education. Our residents are demanding more vocational education and there is simply not enough capacity to meet the demand; there is also not currently an adequate mechanism to address these capacity shortfalls. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) released a Massachusetts Career Vocational Technical Education Waitlist Report shortly after the current legislative session commenced. The report found that there were nearly 2 applicants for every 1 available seat at a Vocational school. This report shed light on admissions practices leading to disparities, admissions practices that were automatically triggered due to severe shortcomings in capacity, largely putting students with intellectual disabilities at a disadvantage of getting a seat. I have fought to establish the office of career and technical education and expand opportunities for CTE building capacity and expansion grants as well as ways to promote stronger collaboration between comprehensive high schools and vocational schools to build non-duplicative programs at comprehensive schools that meet the quality standards and meet the workforce demands of the district. The newly created office ensures that DESE allocates sufficient time, expertise, and financial resources to career technical education. The space will offer resources for our vocational schools, comprehensive schools, and academic schools to tap into to provide the highest quality vocational education programs and build our workforce of the future. I will keep fighting for vocational education as not every student is destined to go to college.
North Attleboro became a designated district for innovation pathways funding. Innovation Pathways give students coursework and experience in specific high-demand industries. Pathways create strong partnerships with employers to expose students to career options and help them deliver knowledge and skills related to chosen field of study before they graduate high school. In FY22, Rep. Scanlon advocated for the establishment of a $600k line item to support Innovation Pathways. In FY23 that line item was increased to $4,830,000 in a single fiscal year thanks to our advocacy.
I have supported legislation that allows cities and towns to make the small business or commercial property tax exemption more effective to business owners. Another area that is a huge concern for me is that there is a lack of affordable housing, I will champion bills and budgets to improve this infrastructure in our district through increased housing production plans. I have been an advocate and supporter for rental relief through rental assistance programs as well as legal protections for people facing evictions that are awaiting on a status update on their application for rental assistance.
Supporting our small businesses in the district is a major priority for me. I regularly speak to our business owners to understand what they are facing as well as provide assistance when needed. I will continue to support millions of dollars in grants being distributed to small businesses across the Commonwealth, including in our own district. I have advocated for increased local aid to the communities in our district. I am a strong supporter of unions in our Commonwealth and will support measures to protect them and working class people.
Providing a quality education to all students has always been a close ideal of mine. The district has seen large increases in Ch. 70 funding as well as increases to our charter school reimbursements while also keeping down the costs of school choice. The FY23 budget includes $9,689,521 to provide an additional $30 per pupil in minimum aid beyond the required $30, for a total of $60 per pupil. This funding acknowledges the effects of inflation on minimum aid districts. The charter school reimbursement line item was also increased to accomodate covering 100% of a district's cost to send a student to a charter school for their first three years of enrollment. I have been a big proponent of supporting early college programs with additional funding that way our students can save on the costs of higher education by enrolling in an AP class in high school. I have also fought for more student representation in governing authorities that oversee charter schools. I have supported the efforts of other legislators to reshape the assessment process (MCAS) that it is more conducive to the everyday teachings in the classroom. Teachers and staff know more than anyone else on what is best to educate our kids, not government bureaucrats. North Attleboro has been very successful in embedding social and emotional core competencies into the curriculum. This is an area that should continue to be explored on the state level. Additionally, I will continue to fight for debt free community college in our Commonwealth so that everyone has access to an associate’s degree. I will advocate and fight for funding for our public universities and colleges to support professors and students. I have fought for making our state colleges and universities test-optional for admissions purposes. Our office also supported the continuation of the universal school meals program to ensure that every student recieves access to a free lunch or breakfast at school. No child should leave school hungry.
I have also brought funding back to our district such as funding for a robotics program at North Attleboro High School and for air ventilators to ensure that our students and staff have clean air in their schools. We also worked to include funding for the School Nurse Liasion Project to help address the mental health needs of students. We were also able to secure a bonding authorization to build a playground at Amvet Boulevard Elementary School as well as funding for a design study for a playground at the Robinson Elementary School in Mansfield. I have also been one of the leading advocates on getting North Attleboro High School in the pipeline with the Massachusetts School Building Authority to either build a new or renovate our high school. We were very pleased with the progress we had made when we learned that North Attleboro made it into the eligibility period for getting a feasbility study. We will continue to support this project to get it across the finish line.
As an Eagle Scout, protecting our outdoors and being conservation minded have always been sincere priorities for me. For me, the area that I am most passionate about is ensuring that our residents have access to clean drinking water and that our local bodies of water are protected from pollution. Our office has fought for millions of dollars in funding for local projects to ensure we are addressing the issue of PFAS in our water, for example we were sucessful in getting $9,000,000 in financing to improve infrastructure at the McKeon treatment facility in North Attleboro to addres the spread of PFAS. The legislature also fought to expand access to off-shore wind and solar energy throughout the Commonwealth. We have also worked to improve our grid readiness as well as invest in decarbonization efforts to to become net-zero in our state by 2050. Dredging the Ten-Mile River is very important to me as it has affected economic development and public health in our region. We have built strong relationships with our federal designation to secure funding for this project as well as support from the Army Core of Eningeers. This project will continue to remain a focus of ours for years to come.
Massachusetts has been a leader in healthcare reform as being the first state to take steps to move towards universal healthcare. There is more work to be done on this front to keep healthcare costs down. For me, supporting access to mental health services has been a priority for me. Massachusetts now has some of the strongest mental health parity laws in the country thanks to a recent passage of major mental health reform bill, meaning that our healthcare providers must treat mentall illnesses the same as a physical illness from a billing perspective. We also established the 988 phone number for people who are experiencing suicidal thoughts, guaranteed mental health exams expanded access to mobile crisis units, clarified that 26 year olds can stay on their parent's insurance if they have a disability and made large investments in the mental health workforce while also expanding youth behavioral services. However, there is much more work to be done. I have also been a strong supporter of our community hospitals and will continue to support Sturdy Memorial Hospital in whatever way I can.
We also passed a reproductive rights access bill in the Commonwealth that guaranteed that reproductive procedures are a right and that no co-pay or deductible can be charged for these services. We also guaranteed amnesty for those seeking these procedures from other states where a woman could be prosecuted for receiving these services. We will continue to support a woman's right to choose.
We have also offered legislation to allow spouses to serve as independent care givers and have worked with the AARP on this bill. The current system for providing and funding long term services and supports (LTSS) is largely uncoordinated, fragmented, and costly. The majority of services are provided by unpaid family caregivers. We know families and friends need access to assistance so they are not unreasonably burdened and can continue to provide care. Caregiver assistance should include education and training, counseling, legal consultations, respite care, adult day services, programs that help individuals pay relatives and friends who provide care, and other types of help. As the country continues to age, the need to support caregivers as the cornerstone of society will only become more and more important. Today, more than 1 in 5 Americans are caregivers, having provided care to an adult or child with special needs at some time in the past 12 months. This totals an estimated 53 million adults in the United States, up from the estimated 43.5 million caregivers only five years ago in 2015. More than 844,000 Bay State residents are caring for aging parents or loved ones, helping them live independently in their own homes and communities, which is where most want to live. The total value of unpaid care provided to individuals in need of long-term services in Massachusetts amounts to more than $11 billion every year and is $470 billion nationwide. We must provide for our caregivers.
We as a Commonwealth owe so much to our senior citizens and veterans, and we must do a better job of taking care of them. I have been a champion on expanding the senior circuit breaker tax credit by doubling the cap. The senior circuit breaker is the best way to provide relief to property taxes and rental relief that affect our seniors. Seniors should not have to worry about being priced out of their home as they have helped build the community to what it is today. The senior circuit breaker helps over 100 million seniors in the Commonwealth, it ensures that low to middle income seniors are not paying more than 10% of their income is not being spent on their property taxes and half of their utility bills whereas it also ensures that seniors who are renters aren't paying more than 25% of their income in rent. Expanding the credit by doubling the cap on the credit ensures that the credit keeps up with inflation. Additionally, I have fought for additional relief for low-income seniors and veterans by allowing communities to waive local excise taxes as well as expand property tax deferral for low-income seniors. I have also fought for our Prisoners of War by trying to make them exempt from paying state income taxes as well allow communities to secure parking spaces for veterans in large retail parking lots.
The Commonwealth also passed a major veteran relief bill known as the Speed Act. Key provisions of this bill included in-state tuition continuity for military-connected college students: ensures that a member of the military stationed in the Commonwealth, their spouse, or their children are deemed an in-state resident after their acceptance at one of the state’s higher education institutions. Establishing Massachusetts National Guard family education program: establishes a Massachusetts National Guard Family Education Program to allow National Guard members to transfer their unused education benefits under the National Guard Education Assistance Program to their dependents. Establishing a tax credit for employment of National Guard members to support small business: establishes a tax credit for businesses that employ members of the National Guard. We will always fight to support our veterans.
Massachusetts’s tax system continues to widen inequity by maintaining a “regressive” tax infrastructure. Middle and lower income earners are paying a much higher share than those at the top 1%. While a majority of taxes in Massachusetts have a single, uniform rate—for example, regardless of income, people all pay the same 5.05 percent income tax rate and 6.25 percent sales tax—different income groups nonetheless pay very different portions of their incomes in state and local taxes. On average, Massachusetts families with the lowest incomes contribute a larger percentage of their incomes in state and local taxes than do households in the top 20 percent of incomes. In fact, those with the highest incomes contribute the lowest percentage of their incomes. This is not equitable. Our working-class people are the backbone of our economy whom we must protect from this inequity. Taxpayers in the lowest-income 20 percent in Massachusetts pay the largest share: 10.0 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes. The highest-income 1 percent of taxpayers pay 6.8 percent of their incomes, the smallest share of any group. Those in the middle pay amounts in between. In order to protect working class people, I would advocate for more tax credits and exemptions while making sure those in the 1% pay their fair share. This would keep revenue intact while taking care of the people whom have already given so much.
I have been a huge supporter of tax relief for our residents, the House passed a comprehensive tax package that included expanding the rental deduction, expanding the depedent tax credit, making adjustments to the "no tax status" provisions to protect low-income earners, expanding the senior circuit breaker and increasing the threshold before the estate tax is triggered. This tax relief plan is permanent statutory changes to ensure that people are provided necessary relief every year. The House also passed legislation to provide relief to middle income earners through a $250 rebate. I will work to ensure that our residents get the tax relief they were promised.
Despite living in the 21st Century, Massachusetts’ transportation system continues to not be able to provide adequate services for our citizens. The number of derailments has continued to climb over the last few years. We must expect more and demand more of our public transportation.
There have been 9 different General Managers of the MBTA since 2010, more accountability is needed. I supported the transportation bond bill this session which called for billions of dollars in future investments in public transportation as well as green transporation initiatives. The legislation also called for increased oversight of the MBTA by mandating that the MBTA establish and maintain a three-year safety improvement plan with measurable safety objectives for the agency, and it directs the MBTA to contract with an independent third-party auditor to conduct annual safety audits. To ensure transparency around the MBTA’s safety, the bill directs the MBTA to submit a monthly, publicly available report containing all the incidents, accidents, casualties, and hazards affecting any of its modes of transit. In addition, the MBTA is required to develop and implement short-term, medium-term, and long-term plans for how each line of the commuter rail system can be fully integrated into the Commonwealth’s transportation system and contribute to the productivity, equity, and decarbonization efforts of the MBTA as a whole. The state delegation for Attleboro has also worked hard to secure bonding authorizations to repair the South Attleboro Train Station. We must continue to make these investments in our public transportation.