Updates and Announcements
Save the Date: Office Hours
I am excited to share my office hours for all four towns this November. If you have any questions, please contact Alex Trantos (alexandra.trantos@mahouse.gov)
Meet My New Legislative Aide—Alex Trantos!
Alex is a recent graduate from Stonehill College with a B.A. in Political Science. She is deeply committed to advancing equitable policy solutions, supporting constituents, and driving meaningful change through public service. As many of you know, the Legislative Aide serves as the lead on constituent cases, policy/legislation, as well as overall office coordination; if you need to be in touch, Alex can be reached at alexandra.trantos@mahouse.gov.
I am looking forward to working with Alex in the months and years ahead! In the NewsRESIDENTS AND COMMUNITIES FACING MANY CHALLENGES: AFFORDABILITY, SNAP, LOCAL TAXES/UNFUNDED STATE MANDATESAs we go to press with our fall 2025 newsletter, it feels like so many issues facing residents that I am working on are at key inflection points. We all find it increasingly challenging to be able to afford to live in Massachusetts. I love our state; the Commonwealth is first in the nation in so many areas, and last session we passed the biggest state tax cut in a generation, but we must continue addressing affordability and housing costs in the years ahead. In the winter newsletter, I will provide a broad legislative year-end update, but I wanted to touch on a few specific areas now that have an immediate impact.
UTILITY PRICESAs many know, there has been considerable news about utility costs (I share the “sticker shock” many of you experienced when I got my bill). The debate, however, is who is responsible and what we can do. I have spoken to our Committee Chair with oversight on utilities, as well as the State Auditor. I’d like us to start with clear and easy-to-understand electric and gas bills themselves. I am reasonably smart, but I still can’t understand parts of my bill! And now we have the utilities saying that the up to 100% increases we are seeing are mostly because of state energy savings programs (yet the data shows it is about 10-15% of our bill). We can certainly debate the investment in MA energy savings programs, but let’s debate the same figures! And while we live in a free market, to what extent should government have greater control of a private industry that serves a public interest? And how much profit is enough? Clearer utility bills will help us address this situation.
SNAP NUTRITION BENEFITSI am very concerned about SNAP benefits being suspended by the federal government. SNAP is a lifeline to over 1800 residents of the towns I serve. We in the Massachusetts Legislature have provided millions of dollars for food assistance, and we will continue to see where we can help. But SNAP benefits are 100% funded by the federal government; coupled with the ongoing onslaught of federal cuts, there is no way we could cover the whole gap.At the community level, I am in the process of engaging our local food pantries on what I can do to promote their efforts; both how local residents can get needed food assistance, and also how local residents who want to donate or volunteer can help (see graphic below) In late October, I stood with Attorney General Campbell, who had Massachusetts join/file a national lawsuit against the federal government to release SNAP funds (a partial win so far). The emergency funds are there; in 2013, I was leading the Northeast Region for USDA Food and Nutrition for the Obama Administration, during what was, until now, the longest federal government shutdown. Despite the ongoing shutdown, President Obama released emergency funds for SNAP. President Trump says this situation is “not an emergency” … tell that to the people whose food will run out and will be stressed trying to feed their families! The President could help make addressing hunger a non-partisan issue by releasing emergency funds to cover all SNAP benefits (helping blue and red states alike). The feds could also help by guaranteeing a reimbursement of funds if states made a temporary loan from state reserves to fund the SNAP program during the shutdown. James speaking at SNAP rally on State House steps
AND WHAT ABOUT THAT AUDIT OF THE LEGISLATURE? NEW HOUSE RULESTo be clear, I support a full independent financial audit of how the legislature spends every public dollar, and that the results of the audit should be made public and available. To try an accommodate the ballot issue passed last year, the House ceded authority to the State Auditor to set the framework for the financial audit and to choose an independent auditing firm to conduct the actual audit, and to make the audit available to the public.The sticking point with the State Auditor is not the financial audit, but what we see as tantamount to a political audit. One stated issue is how the House chooses chairs of committees, but that is within our purview as the Legislature. As a democratically elected legislature that publicly votes for our leadership, we give leadership that decision-making authority. (I sometimes note it would be like arguing that the Legislature should have oversight of who the State Auditor selects for Deputies, but that is within her purview, not ours.) Many see this disagreement as a separation of powers/constitutional issue. We do have a Judiciary branch of government to rule on these disagreements. The House Speaker has said he will abide by any court decision in this matter, but the State Auditor has chosen not to take the issue to court – why?Some of this stems from legacy concerns around transparency. I think we have more work to do, but we have made good progress and, for the first time, have new House rules that I supported as a candidate: committee votes will be made public, all testimony will be made public (with reasonable privacy protection by request), and timelines have been established requiring committees to report out legislation. And though it doesn’t impact me personally (I serve full-time), July 31 may serve as a guideline, but not an automatic close/ 4-month recess with so much work to do.
PROGRESS ON UNFUNDED STATE MANDATESAt the local level, I continue to hear about community costs, especially as related to unfunded state mandates. We made some progress in the 2026 budget, as communities are finally receiving the full 75% circuit breaker reimbursement for special ed. I actually support 90% reimbursement, but the bigger problem is that the state, which is supposed to fund at 75%, has been woefully low in previous years. A 45-55% SPED reimbursement is extremely difficult for small towns to absorb, so I am glad we made good on the 75%. Long-term, I continue to look at ways to reduce the tax burden on local communities. Before I was even elected, I heard from town officials in several towns about rates of out-of-district SPED tuition that had gone up almost 20% in 2 years. Every child should get what they need, but the state should pay more for state-mandated programs. I filed legislation that would limit the town’s share of the SPED tuition increase to 2.5%. Why can the state charge towns beyond the 2.5% with impunity, when communities can only raise taxes higher than 2.5 if they go to the voters? |
