Key Update for Massachusetts Residents in Regard to Two Senate Budget Amendments:

The State Senate approved their budget on the evening of May 23rd, 2103. We have great news for the Arts Community on the two Senate amendments we were all following! Please thank your Senator for their support! (To see how all the proposed amendments faired see this page: http://www.malegislature.gov/Budget/FY2014/Senate/ChamberActions)

How to find out who your State Senator is: http://www.malegislature.gov/People/Search

(Special note for those who do not have a State Senator (ie First Suffolk/former Senator Hart's seat), you can contact State Senator Stephen Brewer - Senate Chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means (617-722-1540 email: Stephen.Brewer@masenate.gov) and also Senate President Therese Murray (617-722-1500 email: Therese.Murray@masenate.gov). Please let them know you are calling due to the Senate vacancy in your district.

THANK them for their support of Amendment #47 to the Senate Budget - Senator Wolf’s budget amendment for the Massachusetts Cultural Council. This amendment increased the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s budget. The amendment passed on Tuesday, May 22nd! The Senate FY14 budget will allocate just over $11 million for MCC, a 17 percent increase that roughly matches the figure approved last month by the House of Representatives.

(*23 Senators signed on to this amendment - the list is at the end of this call to action)

AND

CONTACT AND THANK SENATE LEADERSHIP (The Senate President, the Senate Majority Leader, and the Chair of the Senate Ways and Means) AND YOUR SENATOR FOR OPPOSING Amendment #233: ELIGIBILITY FOR COOPERATIVE HOUSING CORPORATIONS- Filed by Senator Bruce Tarr, the Senate Minority Leader. (Note if your State Senator is Senator Tarr or Senator Finegold - they are in strong support of this change to Coop Law- so don't call to thank them on this issue-Senator Finegold did, however, support the Wolf Amendment for increasing funding for the MCC).

At around 9:30pm on May 23rd, 2013, ON a Voice Vote, the Senate rejected Amendment #233 which would have required co-ops to be the only form of housing in the Commonwealth to accept any applicant that meets financial criteria, changing the fundamental principles of cooperative living as they now exist in Massachusetts. Several Senators were ready to speak in opposition on the floor against the Amendment if it made it to a floor debate.

The same language, which makes unnecessary changes to the housing co-op law, was rejected by the Joint Committee on Housing in both the 2009-2010 and the 2011-2012 legislative sessions, and by the FY13 Budget Conference Committee after it was filed as a Senate budget amendment.

Since 2007, both ArtistsUndertheDome.org and the Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition (MALC) have been fighting to keep our Commonwealth’s artists coops and our coop housing of all kinds safe from unneeded and harmful regulations.

This legislation and budget amendment were introduced at the request of one individual who believes that he was unfairly denied admission into a co-op. There has never been any evidence that there has been an abuse in the co-op system and there is no record of anyone else having proposed similar legislation.

The legislation would not protect Massachusetts’ residents from discrimination as they apply for housing. Rather, this language would in fact discriminate against housing cooperatives and the many Massachusetts’ residents who enjoy cooperative living and invested their life savings into this choice of housing. Co-ops follow the same fair housing laws as all other forms of housing and are prohibited from denying sale of their co-op shares to an applicant on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or handicap. However, like all forms of housing, co-ops can select not to sell to students, sex offenders, or those with poor reports from prior landlords or neighbors, etc. If passed, co-ops would be the ONLY form of housing in Massachusetts subject to different standards.

More info/taking points: http://www.artistsunderthedome.org/CoopBills.html

(Note if you live in Boston -this same language was filed for the City of Boston to change the City’s coop laws! We need Boston residents to call their City Councilor and the four Councilors at Large to tell them to oppose this City Home Rule Petition: http://www.artistsunderthedome.org/BostonCoops.html)

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*Co-Sponsors of Senator Wolf’s Amendment for the MCC
Senator Michael Barrett
Senator William Brownsberger
Senator Gale Candaras
Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz
Senator Katherine Clark
Senator Cynthia Creem
Senator Sal DiDomenico
Senator Eileen Donoghue
Senator Benjamin Downing
Senator Jamie Eldridge
Senator Barry Finegold
Senator Jennifer Flanagan
Senator Patricia Jehlen
Senator Brian Joyce
Senator Michael Knapik
Senator Joan Lovely
Senator Mark Montigny
Senator Kathleen O’Connor Ives
Senator Michael Rodrigues
Senator Michael Rush
Senator Karen Spilka
Senator Jim Timilty
Senator James Welch

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