Government

OP-ED: State Senator’s Long Effort to Pass Non-Compete Agreement Reform Comes to Fruition

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The following piece was provided by State. Sen. Will Brownsberger, D — Belmont, who represents Watertown:

Ten years ago, a friend in Belmont told me how her career had been derailed by an unfair contract.  She asked for a legislative remedy — not for herself, but to protect others. I agreed to work with her. The project became a central focus for me across five sessions of the legislature. Finally, last week, the Governor signed legislation limiting the use of “non-competition agreements.” The legislation is not the complete remedy she sought 10 years ago, but it is a big step forward.

Government

OP-ED: End of Session Crunch in the State Legislature

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State Sen. Will Brownsberger (D – Belmont) who also represents Watertown and parts of Boston, provided the following piece:

It has already been a productive legislative session, but negotiations underway have the potential to make it especially significant. In April, we enacted  a transformational set of criminal justice reforms. Last month, we settled a major package to reduce economic inequality — raising the minimum wage, providing paid family and medical leave and also resolving a dispute over the sales tax. Several measures that have significant resonance in the current national political climate have crossed or should shortly hit the Governor’s desk: Extreme risk protective orders to reduce the risk of gun suicides, automatic voter registration and the repeal of archaic anti-abortion laws. Another measure that resonates nationally is still up in the air — “safe communities” legislation that would assure that local police focus on maintaining order and protecting residents rather than doing the immigration enforcement work of ICE. The safe communities measure is pending as part of the state’s budget for fiscal 2019which is now a couple of weeks late.

Bicycling

OP-ED: State Sen. Brownsberger Pushing to Make Roads Safer for Bicyclists

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(The following piece was provided by State Sen. Will Brownsberger (D – Belmont) who also represents Watertown and parts of Boston)
When I cycled across the country in 2011, I saw a lot of roadkill. I was constantly aware that all it would take was one mistake by me or by one of those caffeinated guys in big rigs and I’d look about the same. On the open road, I developed a profound gratitude towards the tens of thousands of drivers who did not hit me. The Senate just approved a safety package that would require a clearance of at least three feet for vehicles passing vulnerable road users like highway workers, cyclists and pedestrians.  It would add an additional foot of required clearance for each ten miles per hour of speed.

Government

OP-ED: Mass. Senate Passes Act to Reduce Pedestrian/Bicycle Fatalities

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State Sen. Will Brownsberger released the following piece on legislation, of which he was the lead sponsor, to increase bicycle and pedestrian safety:

The Massachusetts State Senate voted Thursday, July 28, 2018 to pass legislation that aims to create safer streets for all road users. Developed in collaboration with a coalition of bicycle, pedestrian and transportation advocates, S.2570, An Act to reduce traffic fatalities, includes several measures to improve road safety, lessen the severity of crashes, and standardize the collection and analysis of crash data. The bill classifies several groups, including pedestrians, utility workers, first responders and cyclists, as “vulnerable road users,” and requires motor vehicles to apply a “safe passing distance” of at least three feet when traveling 30 miles per hour or less with an additional foot of clearance required for every 10 miles per hour over 30 miles per hour. Current law only requires motor vehicle operators to pass at “a safe distance and at a reasonable and proper speed.” The bill would further require a vehicle that is overtaking a vulnerable road user to use all or part of the adjacent lane, crossing the center line if necessary, when it cannot pass at a safe distance in the same lane and only when it is safe to do so. “We need to keep working year after year to achieve a future in which traffic fatalities get as close as possible to zero,” said Senator William N. Brownsberger (D-Belmont), lead sponsor of the bill in the Senate.

Environment

OP-ED: State Senate Passes Energy Bill Aimed at Addressing Climate Change

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{The following piece was provided by State Sen. Will Brownsberger (D – Belmont) who also represents Watertown}

After a long day of debate, the Senate passed the Barrett-Pacheco omnibus energy bill on Thursday — significant legislation to continue movement in Massachusetts towards a cleaner energy future. Addressing climate change is a core priority for me and I am glad to move this legislation forward. The next step will be action by the House of Representatives.   After that, the branches will need to reconcile their differences and get the bill to the Governor’s desk.  We should expect the bill to continue to evolve. As mentioned in a previous post, I am most enthusiastic about the provisions that will lead to carbon pricing in the transportation sector. A summary of the major provisions appears below, excerpted from the Senate press release on the bill:

Increasing the percentage of Class I renewable energy that must be purchased by retail electric suppliers under the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard from an additional 1% annually to an additional 3% annually. Requiring the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs to establish market-based compliance mechanisms to maximize the ability of the Commonwealth to achieve its greenhouse gas emission limits for: (i) the transportation sector not later than December 31, 2020; (ii) the commercial and industrial building sectors not later than December 31, 2021; and (iii) the residential building sector not later than December 31, 2022.

Government

OP-ED: Details of Gun Control Legislation Being Considered on Beacon Hill

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{The following piece was written by State Sen. Will Brownsberger (D – Belmont) who represents Watertown in the Massachusetts State House}

The House and Senate have both now given initial approval to legislation to make it easier to take guns away from people who are a risk of harming themselves or others. It will likely be finalized and enacted before the end of this session. We already have strong laws that allow a person to seek protection of the court, including removal of firearms, when he or she fears violence from a partner. And school shootings are hard to predict. The best argument for the new legislation is that it will reduce the dominant but least visible category of gun death: suicide.

Government

OP-ED: Criminal Justice Reforms About Lifting People Up, Not Locking Them Up

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(The following piece was submitted by State Sen. Will Brownsberger, who represents Watertown)

Last week, the legislature sent a broad reform of the criminal justice system to the Governor with a unanimous vote in the Senate and a near-unanimous vote in the House. The bill is about lightening up on the little guy – the person who has made some mistakes but wants to turn a corner and live right. If possible, we want to lift that person up instead of locking them up. And we want to cut away the web of bureaucratic entanglements that makes it hard for them to get back on their feet. For the most dangerous offenders though, the focus has to be on public protection and the bill also gives police and prosecutors a number of useful new tools.

Government

Comprehensive Criminal Justice Reform Legislation Moves Forward in State House

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State Sen. Will Brownsberger, from Belmont who represents Watertown, announced that House and Senate have released legislation that would reform the criminal justice system in Massachusetts. Brownsberger included a detailed summary of the legislation on his website. Some of the changes would be:

Strengthen mandatory minimum penalties for opiate trafficking offenses
Reducing minimum mandatory penalties for non-opiate drug offenses
Creating alternatives to prosecution or incarceration for minor offenses
Decriminalizing some minor offenses
Strengthen protections for public safety, including penalties for some types of crime, including corporate manslaughter, homicide by motor vehicle, unlawful possession of a credit card scanner, and high number of repeat OUIs. Improving prisons, and reducing the use of solitary confinement

(Read the entire summary on Brownsberger’s website by clicking here)

Below is the press release from legislators who worked on the legislation:
House and Senate legislators filed their final criminal justice reform conference report with the Senate Clerk on Friday. The consensus legislation is a comprehensive review of the Commonwealth’s criminal justice system.