November 1, 2011

October has been a busy month at the State House and around the district. We also experienced our first snowstorm of the year, leaving many without power for up to a week. I have already called for oversight hearings of our public utilities and will work to hold them accountable. Hopefully, this is not a harbinger of the winter to come. Aside from the storm, I have also been to numerous events across the district and worked with my colleagues to pass a supplemental budget, a pension reform bill, and a plan creating new legislative districts. This newsletter contains a snapshot of these events.

This month, the House and Senate passed supplemental budgets including important funding for our cities and towns. Due to increased revenue collections, we were able to reinvest $350 million in the state's Stabilization Fund, and allocate $23 million to keep our local courts open. Most important for the towns in this district, we secured $6.2 million to cover the final expenses for towns related to the 2008 ice storm. I have fought for this funding since the storm, and am extremely pleased that our towns will now have been reimbursed 100% for the cleanup costs stemming from the storm. The supplemental budget also included a provision that released $65 million in local aid payments to cities and towns, including $394,910 for the towns in the 37th Middlesex District. The funding was disbursed to towns after the state met certain revenue benchmarks, bringing the state's local aid funding back to FY'11 levels.

In order to further address our unfunded pension liability, the House passed another round of pension system reforms this month. The anticipated changes also led Standard and Poor's to raise the Commonwealth's bond rating from AA- to AA+. The bill contains many important reforms, including setting the minimum retirement age at 57 for Group 1 employees, and having new employees' pensions based on an average of 5 years of regular compensation instead of 3.The bill also pro-rates retirement allowance for future employees who have served in more than one Group by taking into account the number of years of service in each Group. The proposal is expected to save an estimated $6.4 billion.

As part of the decennial census process, the House and Senate adopted proposals redrawing the state's 200 legislative districts. The Joint Committee on Redistricting held 13 public hearings, heard 31 hours of testimony from over 400 groups and individuals, and received more than 10,000 hits on their website. The new plan doubles the number of majority-minority districts in the House to 20, and increases the number in the Senate to 5. In order to meet the ideal population of 41,923, the 37th Middlesex District will see some changes, losing precincts in Lancaster and Lunenburg and picking up a precinct in Ayer. The district will now consist of precincts 3,4,5 in Acton, precincts A, C, D in Lunenburg, precinct 2 in Ayer, and the towns of Boxborough, Harvard, and Shirley. The complete maps can be seen here.

As a member of the Joint Committee on Education, I have attended a series of oversight hearings regarding Educational Collaboratives in the past few weeks. Recent incidents of misused funds and abuse of power have prompted us to investigate the state's legal ability to hold the collaboratives accountable. During the hearings, we heard from Auditor Suzanne Bump regarding her report on the collaboratives, DESE Commissioner Chester, Executive Office of Education Secretary Reveille, and other interested parties. The Committee is now working on legislation to help address these issues that we hope to bring to the House in the new year.

This month, I attended a number of events across the district. I hosted a day at the Acton-Boxborough Farmers Market, and looked for hidden treasures at the Harvard Flea Market. I had the opportunity to meet the members of Acton's Boy Scout Troop 284 and help present their merit badges, and walked with a number of you in Lunenburg's Miles for Myles event. I also met with clean energy advocates at Senator Eldridge's Green Advisory Council meeting.

October also saw a number of ribbon cutting events in our towns. Senator Flanagan and I joined the Leominster Housing Authority in celebrating the end of renovations at the Pearl Brook Housing Complex. I also celebrated with the town of Shirley as they reopened the Shaker Road Bridge - now named The Maritime Veterans Memorial Bridge. Harvard also held a groundbreaking ceremony to kick off a project to bring sewer lines to the town center businesses and residents. I happily attended a ceremony in Littleton to celebrate the release of federal funding for work on the Fitchburg Commuter Rail Line.

Recently, I toured a number of businesses and institutions across the state. In my backyard, the owners of P.J. Keating took me on a tour of their new Asphalt Plant in Lunenburg. This locally owned business has been a large employer and staple in the area for decades. I also toured the new manufacturing facility at Bristol Myers Squibb in Devens. BMS has invested a billion dollars in the region as they expand their manufacturing capabilities in Massachusetts.

The Legislature's Women's Caucus also joined me for a tour of MCI-Shirley, to learn more about the prison's health care unit. This was part of an effort to learn more about legislation addressing the cost and quality of treatment of elderly and infirm prisoners. I finished the month with a tour of the UMass Lowell campus as a member of the Public Higher Education Caucus Steering Committee. I spent the day at the campus, meeting with Chancellor Meehan, dedicating their new Katen Learning Commons, touring the construction site for the Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center, and watching the UMass Lowell River Hawks take on the Boston College Eagles in hockey.

In the last week of October we were reminded what living in New England entails: snow, early and often. Unfortunately, many of us experienced another extended power outage and were feeling very frustrated. I worked to keep many of you updated through twitter and facebook as I called utility companies to get updates and to advocate for faster restoration. I believe we need to not only hold hearings to get to the root of the problem yet again, but also use that information to review how we expect investor owned utilities to prepare for future storms.

After the 2008 Ice Storm, I, along with my regional colleagues, worked to pass new measures to hold these companies accountable. However, that legislation used the existing definitions and expectations of preparedness as the measure for that accountability, but now, after a tropical storm and nor'easter months apart, it is clear those plans are not effective. I will be working to encourage the DPU to rethink our system of preparedness and to improve communication and coordination.

As Co-Chair of the Legislature's Elder Caucus, I help educate my colleagues on budget and policy issues impacting elders in our communities. I also work to connect with elders in my district to hear about the issues affecting them.

This month, I hosted breakfasts at both the Acton and Boxborough Senior Centers. The Boxborough event also included a SHINE presentation with information on healthcare changes with Medicare. I will continue working with the Councils on Aging in my district, and if you have any suggestions on events I should attend or issues I should be aware of, please let me know.

I was honored to be named an Emerging Leader to represent Massachusetts at the National Conference of State Legislatures Conference for Emerging Leaders in Chicago this month. Over the three-day conference, I met with legislative members from all over the United States. Speakers and Senate Presidents from numerous states spoke about their terms as leaders, what qualities they looked for in new leaders and ways to address conflicts and difficult issues within their legislative bodies. We also discussed the importance of good communication both within state houses and with the public. I will keep the information and skills I learned at the conference in mind as I continue to represent the people of the 37th Middlesex District.