Important Call to Action for Massachusetts Residents
This week the Senate debates its budget and we need as many Massachusetts residents to contact their State Senators.
How to find out who your State Senator is:
http://www.malegislature.gov/
(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.)
Please contact your State Senator and ask them to do the following:
[colorbox title=”TO SUPPORT” color=”#546cf6″]Amendment #47 to the Senate Budget – Senator Wolf’s budget amendment for the Massachusetts Cultural Council This amendment increases the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s budget to $12.5 million – a $3 million increase from last year (the House Budget has increased the MCC budget to $12.5) (*note 23 Senators signed on to this amendment – the list is at the end of this call to action)[/colorbox]
and
[colorbox title=”TO OPPOSE” color=”#f42d59″]Amendment #233: ELIGIBILITY FOR COOPERATIVE HOUSING CORPORATIONS. filed by Senator Bruce Tarr, the Senate Minority Leader.
If passed, amendment #233 would require 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.
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.
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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.
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[note color=”#ffcc00″]Boston Residents, Important!
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.
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*Co-Sponsors of Senator Wolf’s Amendment
[list icon=”tick”]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[/list]