© 2024
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
An update has been released for the Android version of the WAMC App that addresses performance issues. Please check the Google Play Store to download and update to the latest version.

Sen. Comerford looks to make state's PILOT program fairer for western Massachusetts

State Senator Jo Comerford of the Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester district. The Northampton Democrat is now starting her third term.
malegislature.gov
State Senator Jo Comerford of the Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester district. The Northampton Democrat is now starting her third term.

Northampton Democrat is named chair of Higher Education Committee, assigned leadership role on Ways and Means

With committee and leadership assignments now in place, lawmakers on Beacon Hill can get to work.

The thousands of bills that were filed at the start of the legislative session last month can be referred to committees and public hearings can be scheduled.

State Senator Jo Comerford, now beginning her third term representing the Hampshire, Franklin, and Worcester district, is the dean of the Senate delegation from the four western counties.

Comerford filed 65 bills for consideration this session. The Democrat from Northampton spoke about her legislative priorities with WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill.

Jo Comerford
One of the major frames we use when we were thinking about the kind of slate of bills we wanted to put forward is whether or not the bills would make a significant difference in the lives of the people that we represent in the 25 cities and towns whether or not there was an organic connection to an individual or group of people or community. You know whether or not they were significantly embedded in some of the core issues that drive Western Massachusetts, everything from a focus on public education, to climate, to health care, to regional economic development, to care for municipalities and beyond. So each of the 65 bills has a bright line connection for our team, to advocate, researchers, individuals, whose stories and ideas and urging, you know, cause us to focus on the bills, or focus on the issues and create legislation or reintroduce legislation that was based on their call to action.

Paul Tuthill 
Give me an example or two.

Jo Comerford
Well, here's one. Cities and towns have long talked to us about payment in lieu of taxes or pilot formulas. And, you know, the delegation, the Western Mass delegation has now for years been focused on ratcheting up the amount of money for state owned land that would that would basically come back to communities throughout Western Massachusetts, as a recompense saying, Hey, you're stewarding this land or this building, but it's not paying taxes on your role. So we're going to do a payment in lieu of those taxes. That's pilot. However, the amount paid by pilot has been lower than we ever wanted it to be. And so again, we've been ratcheting that up. And and this is significant. And the formula through which the PILOT payments have been determined, have disadvantages, disadvantaged, Western Mass communities, it's based on land value in relative terms. So if a community in Western Massachusetts has a lower land value than a community in eastern Massachusetts, it gets less of the money proportionally. So if we ratchet up the money in pilot, it's going to get less of the more and that's not okay. We have to our land has to not be penalized for having a lower land value in relative terms to Eastern Massachusetts. So I introduced a bill. And again, I had great partnership here with (State Rep. Natalie Blais) and with the auditor, outgoing auditor, Suzanne Bump, to rectify the formula through which PILOT payments get distributed, and this will have a direct impact on communities. Another bill that, you know, made great gains and actually passed the legislature last session was a bill to transform local and regional public health. This was the state action for local public health excellence. It was the second we called it the two Dotto, so it was the second bill in a line of bill that was taking the recommendations of a bipartisan commission that said, basically, hey, we have 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth. And we have 351 ways of executing on public health. That's not okay. It means your zip code determines the kind of public health protections an individual community has. And so this bill actually would transform the face of public health in the Commonwealth it would provide and I was able to get $200 million dollars in ARPA funding, with the help of, of course, the leadership of the senate president and the chair of ways and means to help do this, it would, for the first time, collect data so that we could measure the efficacy of the work, it would be for the first time the state would take over training of local public health officials for the first time, we would set standards based on understood practices nationwide around public health, and it would help communities share services and regionalize. So we've been I've been focused on this like a laser for the last four years. And it's we've made some significant gains during the COVID pandemic. The bill got over the line went to the governor's desk and then Governor Baker made some really unfortunate decisions that the legislature could not live with. So the bill did not advance. He refused to let it advance as is. And so we filed it again.

Paul Tuthill 
I don't want this to sound like the you know, ‘what's your favorite child question’ but of the 65 bills you filed what are which are the ones that you really hope we'll get to Governor Healy's desk?

Jo Comerford

By the end of the last session, that's the 2122 session, we had the public health bill, we had a bill that would completely change the MassHealth estate recovery process, which I know you You know about which basically makes folks who are over 55 their estates after they die pay back their health care costs, if they're on MassHealth. And we had a big farming bill, all of which got to the end of the line, and we couldn't get them over. So by virtue of them being nearly finished, I'm hoping these scoot across pretty quickly this session. And then another big focus of mine is going to be on public higher education. There's huge momentum building for transformational investment and public higher ed, you know, it's been, it's been in the wings. Now, for years, the state has under invested in community colleges, state colleges and universities. And the reality is that this under investment, you know, has been part of what's wretched ratcheted up, tuition, and also then, you know, created greater strains on campuses, across the Commonwealth. And here, it's, you know, everything from Berkshire Community College, to Greenfield Community College to the University of Massachusetts, and Amherst to Westfield State, you know, our region is rich in institutions of public higher education. And I do believe it's time that we stop this downward spiral and start to create an upward spiral. The Senate President has called for a free community college, the governor, also called for community college to be free for those over 25. But advocates and researchers in the like are saying, There is no better way to build back equitably equitably from the COVID pandemic, than making public higher education. It's really truly affordable and accessible to the greatest diversity of students.

Paul Tuthill 
This is a good segue to talk about your committee assignments. You've been named Chair of Higher Education, and also Assistant Vice Chair of Ways and Means-- the budget writing committee in the Senate.

Jo Comerford
I wanted to get on Ways and Means I'm a budget nerd, as some folks may know, I believe, numbers, you know, tell us the story of what we value. So I'm excited to be in waiting means I wanted to get there, and I am. It'll help me, you know, further advocate for regional equity. That's what we do in the delegation, all of us. And now I'll have a direct line, I already have proposals in you know, on deck to send in for this budget cycle. And, you know, higher ed, you know, I think, probably the senate president and the chair of Ways and Means agree that I have been a noisy, noisy voice in the Senate for public higher education. In part again, I represent two beautiful institutions. And I represent people who work at many other institutions, and I see it from an equity lens from an economic lens, economic development lens from a job, workforce lens, you know, through so many prisms, there is such a call for a reinvestment in public higher education. And then when COVID hit, and we saw the really blistering statistics that, you know, students of color and poor students were disproportionately dropped out and disproportionately didn't start college and university that just called us to do everything we can to arrest that, because that's how opportunity is created when we have access to an advanced degree. And so now we're saying to ourselves, you know, through advocating for more money, we are going to make sure that our students, our children here have, you know, access to world class education, which is found in our institutions.

Paul Tuthill 
Where do you stand on the issue of tuition free education at community colleges which are proposals that you referenced earlier from the senate president and the governor?

Jo Comerford
I believe that we can do everything possible to break down every single barrier that exists for students. And often that exists through financial means, meaning, you know, they have to deal with tuition, but they also have to deal with living expenses, you know, so room board, other kinds of transportation fees, sometimes childcare. So I really want to look hard at what it means to break down every single barrier to entry in our colleges and universities. And I want to do that equitably. And equitably is really important to me. And, and we have to I have to listen to really smart people and figure out what that is.

Paul Tuthill 
You want to see the details before you commit. It's not here's what you're saying. Right?

Jo Comerford
Well, I want to do the research again. I have, you know, I have a lot of ideas. Clearly I filed the cherish Act, which is a huge blueprint. And now it's chair I get to both talk about that. And I get to look at all the other bills that were filed by colleagues. So I think it's just his chair, I want to make sure that my colleagues know that I'm going to look at every proposal, and I'm going to talk to everybody they tell me to. And I'm going to listen and listen and listen, and all the hearings and all the site visits that were already preparing, so that we can get as informed a plan as possible. But clearly, I have a perspective,which is that I do believe it is time for transformational investment in public higher education without question.

Paul Tuthill 
Senator Comerford, thank you for your time. Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Jo Comerford
Governor Healy and Lieutenant Governor Driscoll and I along with folks like Representative Natalie Blais, you know, we're talking about what it really means to have a rural agenda. And, you know, there are 170 rural communities and in a commonwealth of 351 cities and towns and, and yet, I don't think we have a blueprint yet. That's a solid blueprint that, you know, that looks at policies and spending priorities through a rural lands. And I do think that's the opportunity of this new and incoming administration to say, hey, if we're gonna do housing, how do we do that in this small community? Are all the grant programs working? Well, I can tell you, they're not. Are all the funding streams equitable? I can tell you they're not, you know, are all the parameters, you know, making sense to a community that really needs eight or 10 or 20 units, not 100? No, they don't work. And so, you know, this is a moment for both art and science, and a moment to really step back with great advocates like the planning agencies and the delegation and say, Hey, let's look at every single thing that matters, everything from road funding to housing, to bridges, and culverts, to how we fund arts and culture, to how we fund public health, right and zoom out and say, what works for a small community and what doesn't work. And this goes through, of course, education, public education, rural schools, and low and declining enrollment schools are different than urban or gateway schools. And so we have to fund them differently. And this is a moment for us to really be clear. It's a great opportunity for all of us to reach a governor and lieutenant governor who are listening intently and putting in really smart people into their cabinet. And so that's another piece of work that I'll be focused on with great colleagues.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.