 One, I am James Milan. This is Talk of the Town. We are here for a legislative update with our state senator. We're so happy to see her as always. She is Cindy Friedman, and thank you so much for being here. Hi, James. Nice to see you. Cindy's district, the fourth middle sex, as you may know, includes five communities in this area and Arlington, you know, among them. So we are here to discuss mostly Arlington-focused stuff, but of course we want to talk to you about what's happening in the statehouse generally. We always like to get a sense of what the pulse is there. By the same token, I am talking to you near the end of June, and we have to start in a place that had both of us shaking our heads in kind of chagrin as we sat at the desk. And that is the recent Supreme Court decision, which is going to have an effect in Massachusetts as yet undetermined, I'm sure. But you know what I'm talking about. I'm going to let you speak about it in whichever way you want, from reacting to the decision itself to then, but also please talk about what's happening in the statehouse, what's happening as far as your concern. I know you yourself are responsible for an amendment that it directly pertains to this. Let's start there. Okay. That's a big start. So a decision came down from the Supreme Court to basically repeal Roe v. Wade. We were not surprised. It was still a shock. And you know, for somebody like me who, you know, marched in the women's movement in the 70s and made what I believe made progress in allowing women to have control over their own bodies, it's been difficult. You know, I think one of the very difficult parts of it, whether you support a woman's right to choose or you don't support a woman's right to choose, a lot of what laws are being passed in different states, really don't only have to do with what happens in the state, in that state, but they have to do with what happens in other states. And a lot of these laws that we're seeing Texas and Oklahoma have provisions in them that allow a regular citizen to sue somebody in another state for providing legal healthcare. So somebody in Texas can sue somebody in Massachusetts, a provider, for providing a woman an abortion. Legal in Massachusetts, it's not legal in Texas, but they get to sue people in Massachusetts. And whether or not you believe in a woman's right to have control over her body or not, the notion that some law in another state can affect what we in Massachusetts debate, bring to the floor, pass, the way we carry out our business can be influenced by somebody in another state like Texas or Oklahoma, I find that the most problematic of what's going on at this moment. Now there's a lot of, we've now stopped a lot of women from having access to healthcare, that's hugely problematic, but there's also this other piece where the states are trying to encroach on us, put their values on our laws and that's... Yeah, you're talking about not only a public policy crisis for those of us who are concerned about preserving women's ability to control what happens with their own bodies. There is that separate, there is this question of basic federalism, just what are the relationships that pertain within and between states. That's a whole different level of magnitude. And I think that's actually what the amendment that you sponsored addresses. What I sponsored does, it protects providers, it protects family members, it protects people who are seeking care in our state, it protects them from being sued by somebody in another state that's just decided to sue them. And so it's very important that I think we as a state set our boundaries and also that we keep all reproductive care available to all women. Because this is just the beginning, I mean, Justice Thomas said it, let's go back and look at our contraception laws, let's go back and look at our gay marriage or right to marriage laws, we should all get rid of them all. And that is so deeply concerning, it's hard to know where to start. Yeah, and here we are in Massachusetts, as we know, a progressive Commonwealth that is generally around within which there's general consensus around a number of the values that are being implicated here. And I cannot imagine what it's like to again be in the state house participating in these debates working through the legislation as you do with that sense, perhaps a sense of foreboding that, again, this is only the first of a number of blows that we may have to absorb. So tough, tough stuff. Alright, anything else you want to say about that at the moment or maybe not, right? Let's move on to cheerier topics and usually the budget wouldn't necessarily be that, right? It's amazing. Exactly, set that bar low enough, you know, yeah. But actually we do have some really good stuff coming out in the current budget which needs to be passed within the next week, alright, so here we are. It's a good budget, it's good to have money. We've fully funded local aid, in fact, we added money to local aid, so cities and towns are getting more than they had thought. We have fully funded the Student Opportunity Act, so that's where we are over the next, by 2027 we're going to increase our contributions to education, to bring it up to where we believe it needs to be in order to fund appropriate education for kids, so we've put money into that. We have money for, lots of money for workforce that we've put in, we have addressed mental health substance use recovery and we have funded that, kept a lot of really important programs that started during COVID, we've kept those alive through the funding and we are putting and continue to put a lot of money into the stabilization fund so that we can continue to fund these really important initiatives even when we start to meet economic headwinds that cannot be bring in. Let's remind people when you say the stabilization fund, what it is you're talking about, it's also called the rainy day fund. The stabilization fund is the rainy day fund, it's money that we put away to save for rainy day and it really has a big effect on your bond rating, so the higher your stabilization fund is, or the rainy day fund, the better your bond rating is because what the bond rating is looking at, the bond raiders are looking at it saying they have money in the bank, they have reserve and so if something happens they're going to be able to weather it and that's really important and there's actually limits on how much money you can put into the stabilization fund so we're finding other ways to develop trusts or funds so that we can put money in so that we can continue to fund these really important programs. And somebody like me who really wants to spend money on programs that help people get housing and food and education and healthcare, those are really important to me and I know that we do need to be prudent because you know that it always goes up and down and so I feel really comfortable about what we're doing. Yeah I just want to say as an aside that you've seen it go up and down because you were ten years as Chief of Staff for Senator Donnelly and now you are close to five years in another month or so. And you will have been in this job or have been elected for the first time five years ago. That's amazing isn't it? Yeah so but again you do, you are cognizant therefore of the fact that the money ebbs and flows as well as political will can sometimes etc so you need to both take advantage of the fact that there is money to spend on programs right now and at the same time like you said. And a lot of these programs especially when you get into healthcare and the healthcare space and the housing space, they work over time and so if you infuse money and then you take it away you are really preventing us from addressing problems over the long term so it's really important that we be able to sustain what we're doing. Yeah and in addition to, well I wanted to ask you about, you've said that there is a number of different ways in which the news is just simply it's good news because there's more money now. Is that the whole story with the budget by which I mean? Is it simply that with the federal funding that we got through ARPA etc that there's just more money now than there has been at previous times so therefore more good things can happen? Or is it also that there are policies that you have promoted and causes that you have championed that are coming into prominence now that you're seeing? Well I think it's more an alignment because if you don't have the money you can't spend it and we have, you know our revenues have come in well above projections and we've gotten ARPA money, a lot of the ARPA money though remember is to make up for things that really got affected and hurt over the course of the pandemic so hospitals, healthcare really took a hit, childcare really took a hit, food security and insecurity took a hit so a lot of that money really is to be making up for things that we really need are really important. The budget funds the priorities of the state and I think what's happened is that we've gotten this, our revenues have come in much stronger and we now have alignment around what we need to focus on like mental health like substance use and recovery like housing, childcare, those are things that we agree are important and so we now have the money to fund the policy and I think that's what's happened I mean the senate has been a huge champion of mental health and substance use and recovery which is huge and we've also been very very active around housing and healthcare and so we get to now fund those things in a way that we don't often have a chance to. Right and I really like that explanation too that it really is the alignment of the fact that there is broad consensus and agreement that these things need to be addressed and the ability to do that with some of that. And we're looking at you know tax packages like how can we reduce the tax burden on people and that's you know something that I think you're going to see coming out of the legislature in the next month. That might, some people out in the audience might have fricked their ears up when they hear that because it's not something that frankly we talk about a whole lot is tax relief. Right, right, we don't get an opportunity, that's another opportunity that we have because of the revenues that are coming in. Yeah I think a lot of folks might have the impression that the Massachusetts state legislature doesn't prioritize tax relief in a lot versus a lot of these other things. But what you're saying is a reminder that yes you guys are aware of that and you want to make moves in that area as well. Well often people will say to me I you know my taxes pay for your salary and I have to respond so to mine pay for my salary. So we all have a vested interest in taxes and how we use them and what we pay it's not you know we are not exempt over there in the legislature but we're paying them too. So yes so that's an important piece and we're very aware of you know it is very expensive to live in this state and it's a deep concern for all of us. It's very expensive to buy a house in Arlington and certainly not something that you or I quite had to experience when we moved here, certainly when I moved here. And now we look around and we say who's moving here, how can they afford it and that's something that I'm very much aware of and I think my colleagues are and we want to address it. It's not an easy fix but we put more money into housing, we want to put more money into tax relief for people who build, we're talking about moderate housing, talking about housing for people like you know our firefighters, our police, our teachers, our DPW workers, I mean people who make a decent living and yet having trouble buying a house in the greater Boston area. We really have to pay attention to that. Yeah you're sure right about that I was thinking as you were speaking that the fact that I you know we moved to Arlington 27 years ago now and at the time I was, I have reached an outreach that we were paying as much money as we were for the house and it's orders of magnitude different now, it's so inconceivable like you said who can actually afford that. Speaking of who can actually afford that, you're always very careful I've noticed in your communications and it makes a lot of sense to even when you are celebrating something great you're mindful to let people know that you know that there's lots more to be done and that we are not you know we are not done in any sense. Childcare, child care seems to be a, we are in a crisis it feels like in this state around that. A major crisis. Is there, what can you tell us about what is right now being looked at to provide relief in that area? So there's a couple of things that are out there that are on the table I mean one of them is to increase the subsidies for child care so it's more available for people they can afford it. I mean right now good child care can cost you twenty seven to three thousand dollars a month I mean that is huge that's a, that's a, it's a salary. Yeah it's a mortgage, it's a mortgage yeah. So trying to get more subsidies in that area but it also the workforce is a major issue and again it's all tied together if you pay somebody fifteen dollars an hour to do one of the most important jobs that there is in you know which is to take care of children so parents can work because they have to. It's really hard to make fifteen dollars an hour and make ends meet you certainly can't pay for health, for child care and it's hard to get people to work in that because it's a tough job it's very low wage and there's not a ladder that you're going to. So we really have to look at how much we're paying and that kind of work is something that we have to look at how do we raise the rates for child care how do we raise the rates that we pay people for all of this human service work that we care so much about who takes care of your mother who took care of my father people taking care of children with special needs all of the people who work in our hospitals who you know make sure that there's stocked cabinets and that our floors are being cleaned and these are all such critical jobs and yet we pay very low wages for them and we're having a very hard time filling those jobs so we're trying to look at how can we increase access to child care and also how can we support the workforce basically support and therefore grow the workforce so that people have more options right because my understanding is that again that's another place just just the lack of options the fact that somebody has to take you know it's again not dissimilar to housing as we were just talking about you know you see a house you you you maybe like a day to think about it right but you don't have that luxury these days the same thing I'm sure when it comes to essential services like child care right and women don't have the option and and families need to income earners they need the option of child care they don't have it they can't go back to work and the family then is losing important income plus I've always believed that good child care is great good good daycare is great education so yeah no doubt about it well I guess we will leave it at this we will hope that we that you have more news and more concrete news to share around this as we you know as we continue these updates into the future we have put I think over a billion dollars into early child child education in this budget so hopefully we'll start to see some right and that again how that refracted into actual programs that we can talk about you know that we will look forward to that for sure we we're we don't have a ton of time left I do want to throw something in here just just because I think it's a lovely little bit of news and I want to find out more about it and that is there was press release I think it was last week here in town that our director of health and human services Christine Bonjourno through sponsorship of yours I think in some way or through your nominating her is a heroine of the Commonwealth what it what is that I mean I can imagine why Christine's getting this but tell us about it so I don't remember exactly when it started but it started as this idea that there were many women in the Commonwealth that do a lot of work and they don't get very much acknowledgement for and sometimes they're volunteers and sometimes there are people working in jobs that you know don't have a lot of publicity and so this was started and this this unsung heroin award and so every year you get to a legislator gets to nominate somebody to be an unsung heroine and when it came out they send a know it out and say it's time to nominate somebody it told me about six nanoseconds to think of Christine Bonjourno and right you could have even done right it might not have taken you very long even five years ago before no but it just I don't think the town people in town really understand what she did and how she led her departments to provide the care and the access and just the and and not only that not only in Arlington but be so willing to help everyone else around you know all the other communities I mean it was just amazing and it was dogged and her a lot of people in her office could have gotten an unsung heroin award because of all the work they put in and and it just was extraordinary and I just you know I if everybody were like Christine we would have had a very different overall experience so anyway it was a real real honor for me to be able to do that and well I know she was was is thrilled about it understandably so and kudos to you Christine from from ACMI as well as from from our state senator so in the few minutes that we have left I just wanted to get a sense of obviously the legislative session that the budget as you say has to be passed imminently yeah and then the legislative session itself is is over and at the end of July formal sessions or formal session yeah so what give us a preview of what kinds of things if you've got any energy left to think about what's what's coming in the next month yeah well either in the next month but I'm actually thinking a little bit just a little preview of things that you once you hopefully get to the end of the session get a little R&R get your you know read regenerate and tack and get ready to tackle anew what are the things that you want to tackle when you get there well I want to I want to keep supporting my district you know I want to make sure that we are they are well represented that is if I get elected right so I want to keep doing that I really want to keep working on the health care pieces and the you know pharmacist pharmaceuticals pharmacy benefit managers bringing down the cost of care making care accessible and really focusing on on equity so that it's it's fair across the board everybody has access to keep the care that they need we did an we did an extraordinarily good pharma bill I don't know how much of that's gonna happen this year but we'll get right back into it and make sure that and keep plugging away and you know so that's sort of been my focus and I want to do some things around criminal justice because I really believe that a lot of criminal justice a lot of what we're seeing people coming into the criminal justice system our people with mental health and substance use disorder and I think we've got to start moving we have to keep moving to treatment and getting away from incarceration because it's not working so I think we'll pick up at some of those pieces I want to make sure that we do a lot of if we can to continue to do the infrastructure pieces to build our infrastructure and that's very much in our district you know roads and bridges and I will continue to support climate change actions I'm not a leader in that but it's something that matters very much to my constituents in my district and so that's something that that I'll support but I hopefully I'll be able to continue on the health care piece because it's so big there's so much to do right and we've spent a lot of time looking at that yeah last time we had you in was you know months six weeks ago or so to talk about the packed act and kind of dig in a little bit deeper on that particular piece of legislation and so I know that that again these are all iterations of the work that you do you know and I think it's very important to remind everybody that the work that you're doing in the state house the work you're doing as our legislators here in Arlington is work that you have to continue to return yeah to all the time right and that takes place over years right you make take a step and then you take another step and in a perfect world you would you just continue to make to make strides and sometimes like we saw you know from the Supreme Court you go way back way back you have to start again well hate to wrap up where we started but really hard to hard to escape that and we will be looking to talk to you about you know how things unfold in the state house and in for Massachusetts citizenry in the wake of this decision and maybe let's good let's hope not others to come we will see anyway much happier to see you and to talk with you then the content itself might might might have indicated so just appreciate you taking the time we know that you're even in late June when some of us are starting to settle into somewhere a little bit you're good luck with that thanks thank you thanks for me and I just want to let people know that we continue to have virtual office hours which seems to work really well for people and if you want to have an office if you want to meet at office hours if you go to my website it'll there'll be a place for you to sign up to to join an office hours and will post when they are and and I'm always happy to hear from people great thank you for that reminder I'm glad you got that in yeah I have been speaking of course with our state senator Cindy Friedman and Arlington resident as well as representing various communities in the Arlington area as I mentioned earlier this has been a legislative update for talk of the town and I am James Milan thank you Cindy for her time and thank you for yours as well we'll see you next time