Buying from local farms provides a boost for the economy, protects the environment, and is healthier for our kids

March 9, 2010

In 2008 the town of Lunenburg was faced with a decision whether to purchase a 50 acre plot of land on Howard St. for $575,000. The land had once been Aro's Poultry Farm, a local farm which had gone out of business. The difficult choice for Lunenburg was whether to spend precious resources to protect open space and the rural character of the town, or allow the land to be sold to a developer for subdivision. This is a familiar story in Massachusetts communities as family farms struggle to compete in a culture where most foods are purchased at giant supermarket and restaurant chains.

The family farms that have survived in New England have found innovative ways to compete in this new world. Some farms have focused on higher end and higher margin products. Others have removed the middle man and now produce, process, package, and distribute their product themselves. A good example of this is Stillman Dairy Farm in Lunenburg which milks, processes, bottles, and distributes milk to its customers. This has shielded the Stillman Dairy from the ups and downs of the wholesale milk price, allowing them to survive in this difficult economy. But these farms still need your help.

January 26, 2009 — Worcester Telegram

LUNENBURG — An online petition asking the Legislature to make new municipal electric companies possible was launched one week ago and has already collected more than 1,200 signatures.

The Get-Rid-of-Unitil group of Central Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Alliance for Municipal Electric Choice have joined in this endeavor with an online petition.

"I cosponsored this legislation and am working aggressively to ensure its passage," said Representative Benson. "The bill will allow municipalities to more easily form their own municipal utility companies and provide competition which is missing in our current system, making it harder for utility companies to ignore or mistreat their ratepayers. I have sent information about this petition to the Chairman of the Public Utilities Committee to show the high level of public support for the legislation. I want to thank Cathy Clark and everyone who signed this petition for helping us move this process along."

January 7, 2009 — Press Release

BOSTON - After intensive lobbying from state representatives in the Regional School Caucus, including Representative Jennifer Benson (D-Lunenburg), as well as school and teachers advocates, Governor Patrick has fulfilled his promise to restore cuts he made three months ago to regional school transportation. Last week, the Governor had announced his intention to come up with a plan to restore the funds; yesterday his office announced he had followed through and restored the full $18 million.

Benson joined a bipartisan group of 63 members of the General Court in co-signing a letter to Governor Patrick asking him to reconsider his 9c cut to Regional School Transportation Reimbursement. The account was cut nearly 50% by the Governor and represented a 63% reduction in regional school district aid since Fiscal Year 2009.

January 7, 2010 — Press Release

BOSTON — State Representative Jennifer Benson (D-Lunenburg) today announced that the town of Harvard has been awarded $35,707.26 from the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust for a project that furthers the Commonwealth's clean energy goals.

This grant will go towards installing a 5.3 kW solar photovoltaic array at the Bromfield school. The system will both reduce the school's energy costs and serve as an educational tool to teach students about clean energy technology.

The funding comes as a result of efforts by citizens of Harvard to purchase clean energy through their electric utility bills, which generated matching funds from the Trust for use toward clean energy projects.

"This grant will go a long way in helping Harvard reduce their energy bills and their carbon footprint" said Benson. "That the system will be installed at the Bromfield school will help remind students of the importance and benefits of clean technology."

November 5, 2009 — Press Release

BOSTON — State Representative Jennifer Benson (D-Lunenburg) joined her colleagues in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in passing legislation that provides veterans of the Commonwealth with improved services and support as they return from war during these difficult economic times. The bill establishes the Massachusetts Medal of Liberty to honor fallen service members and offers increased housing opportunities for veterans.

"With Veterans Day around the corner, this bill recognizes the sacrifices veterans and their families make for our Commonwealth and our country," said Benson. "This bill provides the support our veterans deserve and eases the transition from combat to civilian life."

November 3, 2009 — Press Release

BOSTON — Representative Jennifer Benson (D-Lunenburg) strongly disagrees with the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) decision not to impose fines on Unitil for its lack of adequate response to the devastating ice storm of December 11th, 2008. While the DPU confirmed that the Unitil response was inadequate and put in place recommendations for preventing the situation from happening again, the department stated that it did not have the authority to impose monetary penalties against Unitil.

"There needs to be a mechanism to protect utility consumers," Benson said. "If the DPU cannot hold utility companies accountable, who can?"

October 22, 2009 — Press Release

BOSTON — Representative Jennifer Benson (D-Lunenburg) wants her constituents to know about the Mass Law Reform Institute's Emergency Assistance Advocacy Guide. With a record number 3,000 families in state funded shelters, the MLRI created a guide to answer families' questions about access to emergency shelter and rehousing resources. The Guide has contact information for the Department of Housing and Community Development, emergency assistance eligibility requirements, disability accomodations, and information on emergency assistance placements and termination procedures. The Guide can be accessed at http://www.masslegalservices.org/emergencyassistanceadvocacyguide.

October 1, 2009 — Press Release

BOSTON, MA &mdash The Acton Democratic Town Committee and Representative Jennifer Benson (D-Lunenburg) are hosting an education forum Monday, November 9th at 7:30pm. Education Committee Chairwoman Marty Walz (D-Boston), Jeffrey Wulfson, Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and Acton School Committee member Jonathan Chinitz will speak on education issues facing the Commonwealth and North-Central Massachusetts region today.

The forum will be held in the R.J. Grey Regional Junior High School auditorium, located at 16 Charter Road in Acton. The panel will take questions from the audience and discussion will end by 9pm. "This is a great opportunity for residents to ask questions and present ideas directly to key education policy-makers for the Commonwealth" Benson said. Acton Town Democratic Chair, Bob Ferrara added that "this is the third in a series of Issues Forums sponsored by our Acton Committee this year, and the one that will likely garner the most local interest, given the value our community places on education."

July 28, 2009 — Jen Benson was profiled as a Woman Legislator to Watch by the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus:

On December 11, a severe ice storm devastated a number of communities in central Massachusetts. The inadequate response by certain utility companies in the period that followed left some residents without power (and heat) for weeks.

For incoming State Representative Jennifer Benson (D - Lunenburg), the storm was a call to action. She met locally with elected officials and residents before she even took office to try to make things better and ensure a faster cleanup and response by utility companies.

Upon taking office, Rep. Benson filed "An Act regarding accountability of public utility companies."

June 26, 2009 — Press Release

BOSTON — Thursday night, Representative Jennifer Benson (D-Lunenburg) joined her colleagues in passing landmark legislation that strengthens current ethics, lobbying and campaign finance laws, enhancing the integrity of the political process and helping to restore public trust. This completes an historic cycle of legislative reform, which includes recent approval of landmark pension and transportation reforms. The consensus bill not only bans gifts to public officials, but also increases the authority of the Ethics Commission to investigate and prosecute alleged ethics violations.

"I am proud to have contributed to these landmark reform bills in my first session," said Benson. "The public needs to know that we are serious about ethics in the legislature, and this bill goes a long way in restoring public trust in our state government."

June 19, 2009 — Press Release

BOSTON — Friday night, Representative Jennifer Benson (D-Lunenburg) joined 45 of her colleagues in voting against the House and Senate Conference Committee's budget for fiscal year 2010. Due to falling state revenue projections, the $27.4 billion budget represented a $1.5 billion decrease from the House budget passed earlier in the year. The budget included a number of new revenue sources, including raising the state's sales tax to 6.25%, removing the sales tax exemption on alcoholic beverages and allowing towns to increase meals taxes by 0.75%.

Despite this new revenue, the towns in Benson's 37th Middlesex District would still see a 41% decrease in non-Chapter 70 local aid. "While I commend the Conference Committee for presenting a reasonable budget in this difficult economic time, the local aid decreases would mean deep cuts to important town services," said Benson. "Creating a budget is a matter of setting priorities, and I feel that local aid was not prioritized highly enough in this budget."

June 3, 2009 — Press Release

BOSTON — Representative Jennifer Benson (D-Lunenburg) rose before her colleagues in the House today to give her maiden speech in favor of "An Act regarding accountability of public utility companies." The bill, which passed unanimously, came in response to the December 11th ice storm that devastated much of Benson's district. "Unitil's inadequate response to the December ice storm highlighted the need for more regulation" said Benson. "My constituents lived through a nightmare, and I don't want to see this happen to anyone in Massachusetts again."

The bill strengthens oversight of public utilities, requiring companies to seek approval of their emergency management plans and mutual aid agreements from the Department of Public Utilities. Privately owned utility companies must also undergo annual reviews of their service quality by the DPU, and are subject to penalties if they do not meet industry standards. Finally, the bill increases fines to act as a disincentive for failure to follow emergency plans, and as the maximum penalty, allows the DPU, in conjunction with the Attorney General, to replace failing management by putting the company in receivership.

June 4, 2009 — Press Release

BOSTON — Wednesday night, Representative Jennifer Benson (D-Lunenburg) joined her colleagues in passing a supplemental budget for the 2009 fiscal year. Benson and other local colleagues successfully lobbied to have critical funding for ice storm relief included in the budget.

"I am glad that my colleagues recognized the importance of providing storm cleanup relief to towns that are struggling to provide basic services like public safety, schools, and road maintenance in this difficult economic climate," said Benson. "I will continue to advocate for the remaining 12.5% in next year's budget."

May 20, 2009

BOSTON, MA &mdash Rep. Jennifer Benson, 37th Middlesex, has filed a bill exempting child car seats from the sales tax. The current sales tax law includes many exemptions for necessities such as food, clothing, and home heating oil. As state law also requires proper restraints for children under five in automobiles, Benson wanted to make sure families would not have to pay extra for a legally required item.

"These hard economic times have driven everyone to look for savings wherever they can," said Benson. "I want to make sure that families can still afford necessary equipment, like car seats, and hopefully this exemption will help."

April 15, 2009 — Today the House Ways and Means Committee released the following preliminary budget.

• Preliminary House Budget for 2010
• Executive Summary

Quote from the Executive Summary:

Faced with a rapid and substantial decrease in tax collections, the Committee chose to balance the budget through a careful analysis of the Commonwealth’s core programs and services.  This document outlines a balanced budget reliant on existing tax revenue streams and will not further encumber the citizens of the Commonwealth with increased spending levels.

Although the loss of revenue has led to many difficult choices, the Committee felt it fiscally prudent to refrain from utilizing reserve funds.  Although the state projects to close out Fiscal Year 2009 with a relatively strong Stabilization Fund balance of $1.3B, there is still reason for concern.  To finish Fiscal Year 2009 in balance, the Commonwealth is likely to draw on close to $1 billion from the state’s “rainy day fund.” This fact, coupled with the state’s projected reliance on funding made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will lead to a structurally imbalanced state budget.  To account for this, the Committee has resisted the “quick fix” solution of tapping reserves, and has realigned spending to more sustainable levels, consistent with the amount of revenue the state expects to collect.  The balance of the state’s “rainy day” fund will be useful to minimize further budget cuts in Fiscal Years 2011 and 2012.

February 24, 2009 — Press Release

BOSTON, MA - Rep. Jen Benson, State Representative for the 37th Middlesex District, has been named to serve on three committees for the 2009-2010 legislative session. Benson will serve on the Committee on Education, the Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy, and the Committee on Personnel and Administration. Benson was also elected by her peers as Vice President of the incoming class of freshmen representatives.

Rep. Benson will use her experience as former member and Chair of the Lunenburg School Committee to work for stronger schools on the Education Committee. She has already introduced a special education reform bill for this legislative session. "I proposed a system for tying funding to students rather than school districts during my campaign and this legislation is the first step toward achieving that goal," said Benson.

February 21, 2009 — Sentinel and Enterprise

LUNENBURG — State Rep. Jennifer Benson will donate a portion of her legislative raise to the Lunenburg Eagle House Senior Center during a Mardi Gras celebration on Tuesday.

"(Benson) is taking the lead in putting her raise back into the local towns," Senior Center Director Doreen Noble said Thursday. "We are going to receive a portion of it, and she is giving the rest to other groups in her region."

Noble said the money will go toward programs that help seniors maintain their independence.

January 16, 2009 — Press Release

BOSTON, MA - Jen Benson, State Representative for the 37th Middlesex, has filed two major pieces of legislation for the 2009-2010 legislative session, a special education reform bill, and an environmental protection bill.

Benson has introduced a special education reform bill that works towards identifying administrative efficiencies and cost savings for schools districts, while providing more consistency for special education students with high needs. The bill proposes tying funding to students rather than school districts. "Our current special education funding system is overly complicated and is problematic to both school districts and children," said Benson. "I proposed a system for tying funding to students rather than school districts during my campaign and this legislation is the first step toward achieving that goal."

Benson's environmental protection bill will require customers to pay a surcharge of five cents for each plastic bag used at grocery stores. Customers would pay no surcharge for paper bags, reusable bags, or plastic bags brought from home. The surcharge would go to the Clean Environment Fund to be used for environmental projects. "Plastic bag surcharges have been shown to produce real benefits to the environment, reducing plastic waste and greenhouse gas emissions," said Benson.

• Draft of Benson Special Education bill
• Draft of Benson Environmental Protection bill

January 9, 2009 — Press Release

BOSTON, MA - Rep. Jennifer Benson, 37th Middlesex, has decided to donate her 5.5% pay raise to local charities throughout the district. On January 8th, Governor Deval Patrick announced that the base pay of legislators would increase $3,203 to $61,440. The raise came as part of a Constitutional amendment approved a decade ago which disconnected the legislative pay decisions and the political process.

Recognizing the difficult fiscal situation across the state, Rep. Benson decided to donate her raise to charities in the district. "Our Nation is going through a very difficult time and there are those who need help," said Benson. "This is why I've decided to support charitable organizations which serve our communities. These organizations are struggling as well, even though their services are needed now more than ever."

January 5, 2009 — Sentinel and Enterprise

LUNENBURG — The ice storm that battered the region on Dec. 11 also wound up influencing one of State Rep.-elect Jennifer Benson's committee requests at the Statehouse.

"The storm and the response to the storm has helped me think about some legislation I haven't thought about before as far as how utilities operate in the state," Benson said during a recent interview.

"I'm very interested in helping investigate exactly what happened and what went wrong with Unitil's response to this storm. I want to take it head on."

Benson has requested a seat on the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy, where she hopes to play a lead role in overseeing the state's public utilities. Many residents and state officials are blaming utility provider Unitil for not responding quickly enough to the ice storm, which left thousands of residents in the dark for nearly two weeks.

Letter to the Editor — January 5th, 2009 — Sentinel and Enterprise

I had a birds-eye view of Lunenburg's response to the prolonged power outage crisis after the ice storm, and I am profoundly grateful for the dedication of our town leaders.

The Board of Selectmen, fire and police chiefs, CAFO, DPW director and superintendent of schools coordinated their response, and were tireless in their efforts to restore service and protect residents throughout. Their entire staffs were exceptional in execution of their duties, while apart from their own families for long shifts.

Jen Benson, not yet even sworn in as our representative, took our need to the governor in person when it became apparent that Unitil's response needed his help. She and Jen Flanagan were on the job every day, making sure the resources we needed were delivered. And the many local volunteers who left their unpowered homes to create and staff an emergency shelter for 11 days demonstrated the best human qualities.

In particular, Sue Glenny, Sue Deming and Jerri Sampson made a safe haven for our most vulnerable, with heart and soul in it. Even in the darkest storm, Lunenburg was lit from within.

Milree Keeling
Vice-Chair, Lunenburg School Committee

• June 4, 2009 – Press Release: Storm Funding Bill Passes
• June 3, 2009 – Press Release: Utility Accountability Bill Passes
• May 26, 2009 – Op-Ed: Demanding assurances for the future
• May 7, 2009 – Op-Ed: Best option to prevent drastic cuts
• May 20, 2009 – Press Release: Benson files bill to exempt car seats
• May 4, 2009 – Press Release: Jen Benson Urges Pension-Reform Passage
• April 15, 2009 – Press Release: House releases preliminary budget
• March 23, 2009 – Press Release: Jen Benson Discusses Transportation Reform with Governor
• February 24, 2009 – Press Release: Jen Benson Named to Education and Utilities Committees
• February 21, 2009 – Sentinel and Enterprise: Benson to donate part of pay raise to senior center
• January 23, 2009 – Worcester Telegram: AG joins Unitil ice storm probe
• January 16, 2009 – Press Release: Rep. Jen Benson Files Special Education and Environmental Legislation
• January 9, 2009 – Press Release: Rep. Jen Benson Donates Pay Increase to Local Charities
• January 9, 2009 – Sentinel and Enterprise: Unitil hearing scheduled in Lunenburg
• January 8, 2009 – Sentinel and Enterprise: New faces arrive at Statehouse
• January 5, 2009 – Sentinel and Enterprise: Benson's first order of business: Examine ice storm response
• January 5, 2009 – Sentinel and Enterprise Letter: Response to storm devastation in Lunenburg
• December 11, 2008 – Acton Beacon: Lawmakers hear from area voters