As the new legislative cycle begins on Beacon Hill, Rep. Adrian Madaro has filed a slate of legislation in the House of Representatives that will address important issues in East Boston and across the Commonwealth. Among the proposed bills is legislation that will establish a framework for universal childcare, ensure language access at state agencies, offer incentives for lower rents through tax credits, and address air and noise pollution from Logan Airport. The bills filed by Representative Madaro build on efforts from previous sessions and introduce new solutions that will be considered for the first time this year.
“With a new legislative session before us, I am excited to continue working on the issues that impact residents in East Boston and across Massachusetts,” said Representative Madaro. “From universal child care to environmental justice, I have introduced a slate of bills that will help create a more just and equitable Commonwealth. I am honored to have the privilege of representing East Boston, and I look forward to working with my colleagues and our community to move these bills forward,” said Representative Adrian C. Madaro (D-East Boston).
Child Care
HD.2794 – Common Start Legislation
As a new parent, Rep. Madaro has personally experienced how expensive and challenging it is to get care for a young child. Without child care, parents cannot get to work, and children experience fewer opportunities to thrive. Building on efforts that began in 2020, this bill, filed by Rep. Madaro and Rep. Ken Gordon, will establish a framework for universal child care across Massachusetts, ensuring that care is high quality and affordable for families, and that child care providers are being paid fair wages for their hard work.
Housing Affordability
HD.3349 – Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program
The Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program is a state-run service that provides rental vouchers to low-income families. Rep. Madaro’s bill will enshrine this program into law, and make changes that will make the program more efficient and reliable for current and future participants.
HD.3988 – Housing Affordability Tax Credits
Renters and small property owners alike have struggled during the housing affordability crisis. This bill will provide tax relief to small property owners who rent below-market to seniors, families with children, and low-income households. Small property owners are some of the largest providers of affordable housing in the unsubsidized market. It is time to give them the relief they deserve. Additionally, this bill gives municipalities more flexibility in dealing with back-property taxes, allowing more vulnerable groups such as seniors the ability to remain at home.
HD,3786 – Preventing Housing Discrimination
Research by local Boston-area housing experts show that discrimination by real estate brokers on the basis of race or rental voucher status remains a significant barrier to renters. This bill strengthens existing protections against renter discrimination by introducing increased requirements, safeguards, and penalties aimed at real estate brokers who engage in discriminatory behavior.
The Environment
HD.4024 – Energy Facilities Siting Board Reform
East Boston residents have experienced firsthand how the Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB) is unresponsive to local residents during the community process for the Eversource Substation on Condor Street. This bill takes the lessons learned from that process to reform the EFSB by requiring a stronger community process, making environmental justice a factor in the Board’s decisions, and adding environmental justice and indigenous community representation through new seats on the Board.
HD.3997 – Airport Environmental Justice
Logan Airport continues to be one of the largest contributors to pollution and adverse public health outcomes in the area. This bill will require Massport to adopt a comprehensive plan to address air and noise pollution at Logan, to conduct regular health studies of the East Boston population that evaluate the impacts of pollution on certain health risks, and measure and report regularly on levels of air pollution in East Boston, including ultrafine particulates.
HD.3342 – Measuring Ultrafine Particulates
Ultrafine particulates are a type of extremely small particle pollution produced by sources such as highway traffic and airports. While they potentially pose significant health hazards, levels of UFP pollution are not currently monitored by any government agency. This bill requires the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to monitor ultrafine particulates at all of their air quality monitoring stations, including those in East Boston.
HD.3994 – Environmental Justice and Designated Port Areas
Designated port areas, such as those in East Boston, require certain waterfront property to be reserved for marine industrial uses, limiting other ways in which communities and property owners can utilize those parcels. This bill establishes a board to study and report on how these restrictions impact environmental justice communities like East Boston, and ways that these uses might be changed to mitigate such impacts.
HD.3316 – Addressing Combined Sewage Overflows
Combined sewage overflows are when drains release sewage directly into major waterways during major storm or flooding events. Drains for these events exist in East Boston and nearby communities, and impact the waterways surrounding our neighborhood, such as the Chelsea Creek and Boston Harbor. This bill will require the MWRA to update their systems to eliminate these overflows or restrict them to the most extreme, rare weather emergencies.
Soon to be Filed – Airport Climate Resiliency Trust Fund
Our office is putting the final touches on a bill that creates an Airport Climate Resiliency Trust Fund for Logan Airport. The Trust Fund will be financed by a new jet fuel tax that bridges the gap between the current jet fuel tax (currently a little over $0.17 per gallon) and the Massachusetts gas tax ($0.24 per gallon). This new revenue ensures that airlines are paying their fair share just like Massachusetts drivers, and makes more funds available for Massport to reach their net-zero emissions goals, reducing pollution and improving climate resiliency at the airport and in our community.
Economic Justice
HD.3417 – Low Income Fares
Mobility is essential for accessing opportunity and meeting our basic needs. People need to be able to get to work, run errands, make appointments, and meet friends and family. Yet many low-income individuals struggle with access to transportation due to cost. This bill will require the MBTA and regional RTAs to set up low income fare programs to ensure that every resident is able to get where they need to go at an affordable rate.
HD.3826 – Digital Right to Repair
When issues arise with our electronic devices, such as phones and laptops, there are often no solutions besides expensive manufacturer repairs or replacing the device entirely. Digital Right to Repair will require electronics manufacturers to increase access to repairs for their devices, such as through local independent repair shops. This is similar to what we accomplished recently in Massachusetts with automotive right to repair. These are our devices, and Massachusetts consumers deserve to be able to repair them at an affordable cost whenever and wherever we choose.
HD.3366 – Food Justice with Jobs
This bill creates access to local, sustainably-grown food through supporting the creation of local community farming organizations, like Eastie Farm here in East Boston, as well as providing resources to help people grow food in their own backyards. Incentivizing more locally-grown food makes our neighborhoods healthier and creates more well-paying jobs in our communities.
Helping Seniors
HD.3338 – Increasing awareness to PACE programs
PACE is a program that runs across many communities in Massachusetts, including in East Boston through EBNHC, helping seniors remain at home by providing them with access to care and services. This bill will ensure that more seniors are informed about this helpful program that allows them to age in place.
Furthering Educational Opportunities
HD.3806 – AP Exam College Credit
For many students, taking AP classes in high school is an important way to earn college credit, allowing them to get ahead and even save money when they arrive at their universities. This bill will resolve discrepancies between acceptable AP exam scores for public colleges and universities in Massachusetts by requiring them to adopt a uniform policy.
HD.3624 – Tuition Equity
In-state tuition levels should be accessible to every Massachusetts youth who lives in our communities and goes to high school here. However, immigration status often means that youth who attended school in our community are hit with out-of-state rates. This bill will guarantee that Massachusetts youth receive in-state tuition rates regardless of immigration status.
Language Access
HD.3616 – Language Access
In East Boston and across Massachusetts, many families speak a primary language other than English. These individuals frequently struggle to communicate with and receive services from state government agencies whose materials and forms are often only available in English. This bill will increase language access across Massachusetts state government, starting with agencies the public interacts with most, by making information and forms available in the most common languages other than English in Massachusetts.