 Hello, everyone. Welcome to this edition of Talk of the Town. I'm James Milan, and this is a legislative update with our state senator, Cindy Friedman, who represents the 4th Middlesex District. That's Arlington and a number of communities in the area. We may talk about them, but we're certainly going to talk about the story here in Arlington as reflected through Cindy's work at the State House. So, you have been busy and productive. I know that. We've certainly been busy. And thank you very much, therefore, for joining us. And we don't get to see you in the flesh all that often. I haven't gotten to. No, this is the first time in a while, yeah. Yeah, so I'm very glad to welcome you here back to the ACMI studio, where we hope you will continue to be a regular visitor. Thank you. I really mean that. So I want to just start with the place we can never escape from. And that is, of course, the current situation with COVID. As we are now deeper into the holiday season, we have Delta running, you know, seemingly wild still in the country and Omicron now. Recent announcements out of the governor's office and etc. Just wanted to get your take on what you see from your perspective, you know, as a state senator, but also your perspective as an Arlingtonian on what's going on with COVID and what you anticipate. Sure. Well, I think we're all anxiously waiting to get more consistent news on Omicron or Omicron. You know, right now looks like it's very transmissible, but doesn't seem seems to be on the milder side. So if you're vaccinated and you're boosted, you know, they it looks like it's it's holding that that protection is holding, but we're learning more every day. It's really new. So we have to keep vigilant. I took my PCR test before I came here. I've been boosted and I, you know, just can't encourage people enough to do that, to make sure that they get that they get vaccines that you get boosted. And I know the governor has an announcement today about releasing some at home tests, a number of them to high impact communities, which is good because testing and testing the tests at home are quite reliable. And and so we really want to try and get those out to people and so that people can test on a regular basis. I think this is with us and we're going to, you know, we're going to figure out how to live with COVID so that it becomes endemic and not a pandemic. But it's just very, very important that people get vaccinated and and, you know, wear masks in public places where there's a lot of people and follow the guidelines. And that not only protects them and not only protects me to do that for me, but it also protects everybody around us. And I'd like to see a little more civic engagement and civic, you know, care for all of us. And part of what you're doing is keeping yourself safe, but you're also keeping other people safe. So I really, really encourage the vaccines. And I think, you know, to people who are concerned about the vaccines, what I would say is there are millions and millions of people who've gotten a vaccine. And they've gotten it as far as a year ago. And it's it's pretty well vetted. And so I think when you compare the risks of getting COVID without a vaccine and and getting a vaccine, it clearly right now, the vaccine is, I mean, the data is pretty irrefutable. And there's a lot of it now, as you were saying. And well over 70, 70% of the people in hospitals in Massachusetts right now who are in, you know, are in hospitals because of COVID have not been vaccinated. And so if you care about your, you know, sister who's a nurse or your sister who's a doctor or any, any one of your family members or friends who are working in hospitals, get vaccinated for them. Because can you imagine having to go through what they've gone through for the past almost two years, taking care of people nonstop in incredibly difficult conditions to have people come in who just haven't been vaccinated. Right. It's very yes. And it's incredibly dispiriting. I've been noticing from the, you know, increasing volume of healthcare workers who are coming out and just saying that this is really, really difficult when you're dealing with people who have gotten the message and simply refused to do it. Can I just ask you a follow up quickly on one thing. And that is the governor's announcement this morning about rapid tests being made available. You said to high impact communities. I know that they said something like it's about around 100, a little bit more than 100 communities. But I assume that none of those necessarily as our communities from the fourth district. I don't believe that we'll see these are free at home. I don't believe that we will that my communities will see that the fourth middle sex. I think we're been pretty well protected. We're also fairly well vaccinated. So Arlington is just amazing. And I need to give a shout out to the to the Arlington Board of Health to Christine Bungiorno and that group. I mean, they've just done an amazing job at getting people vaccines and and setting up clinics and just being dogged at at their job. So we think we're very lucky. And my my communities overall are well, you know, they're well on their way to being vaccinated at over, you know, 670%. Right. Yeah, that's partly why I was asking is that, you know, in a sense, these tests are meant to go to communities in which there's a high degree of vulnerability. The fact that none of the five communities you represent would be among them is really actually good news, right? Absolutely. Good sign. And having said that, I think it's really important that we as a state look into how we can reduce the cost of rapid test and get rapid tests available to everybody. Because even though we're not a high impact community and we're a relatively well offset of communities, $23 for two tests is, you know, at I mean, it's fine if you've to maybe do it once in a while. But if we're asking people to be safe and to, you know, to test a lot, that's that's quite a burden, $23. You are so right. I agree with exactly that point, especially having thought of it and discussed it with my family members recently. You know, if that if you're doing that regularly, it's going to start to mount up, for sure. Yeah. So hopefully something can be done about that. All right, we should let me just say one thing adding to what you have already said. And that is, I think people need to understand I as a vaccinated in, you know, fully vaccinated person about to get my booster. I still need to understand. And so do a lot of others in my situation. We should be masking. We should still be masking and in all public places or places where we were coming in to, you know, regular contact with other folks. And again, that's something that I have, you know, wanted to not have to know it's people to worry about, but we clearly do tired. Yeah, we're all tired. We're six feet apart, by the way. Yes, that's right. Exactly. We were careful to do that. We had, we had Dave Rogers, our state rep, one of our state reps in here recently, and he was very clear that we needed to do that as well. So that's fine. And we'll continue to practice those things, of course. But yes, let us all stay masked. We may not want to we need to. All right, moving on. I got notice, as did the rest of your constituents recently, about, you know, some some good news coming out of the statehouse that I invite you to share. It has to do with the combination of surplus funds from the state and ARPA funds that came from the federal government. And together, that's a $4 billion pot, right? And you guys have figured out how to allocate that. And I believe it's just kind of waiting for the government's or the governor's tacit approval. Right, right. Exactly. Yeah, we did. Finally, we passed the ARPA and surplus spending bill, $4 billion. I know that what we tried very hard to do with the ARPA money, which is the money that's come from the federal government for states to use and is available over the next now, I think, five years. And we'll just say American Rescue Plan Act. ARPA. Thank you. And so we've gotten we've done a two and a half of about a four point something billion dollar money from the government. So we've spent about half of it now. And what we tried to do is spend it on things that we could do in the, you know, that that wouldn't add to our kind of bottom line of sustainability and everything trying to keep these this money going. But what could we do now that really would help people over the next couple years and maybe kickstart some things or fill in some gaps? And so that's what we did. And I think everybody's aware of the incredible, credible workforce problem that we're having in Massachusetts and frankly across the country. It's really, really hit our health care system. And and our schools education people are really having a difficult time. I mean, all businesses are having trouble finding people. But we are especially feeling it in health care where so many people are burnt out. They've left because they just you can't work. You can't work 80 90 hours a week for two years taking care of people and not just needing to stop. And so there's been a lot of early retirements and people aren't coming into the into the field. So what we've done is we've done a lot of focus on workforce and giving people hazard pay, getting people bonuses. We've done a over $123 million just in loan forgiveness for behavioral health and primary care. We've focused on our essential workforce, health care workers, health service, so people who work in group homes or personal care tends giving them some hazard pay. And again, looking at scholarships and loan forgiveness so that we can get people into the system. And so that we can keep these services going because they're they're critical and people aren't getting the care that they need because there aren't people that are coming into the workplace. It's kind of an unusual thing, right, for the government to be doing is really trying to get incentives and rewards in a sense to people who are on the front lines of this particular war. And you know, this is a problem that's been a long time coming. I mean, if you just look at behavioral health care, we've so underfunded behavioral health care, we've so the rates that we pay people to do these to deliver these services has been so low for so long. And then the pandemic comes, it exacerbates things because people are sicker, more people need care. And the people who are providing that care are just saying, I can't do this. I can't do it anymore. I can't make enough money to make ends meet because the rates are so low. So we really have to address that problem. It's something that the Senate has done and is doing a couple of times has done a couple of times is continuing to do. But one of the things we're doing now is saying, come into this, come into these programs, and we're going to pay your loans. And, and, you know, significantly pay your loans, not just here's $1,000, but, you know, up to $100,000 for a nurse practitioner or $80,000 for real money that could make a real difference to people's lives. And, and, you know, you, you have aptly described what these, what the folks that we're talking about are up against. And what you are able to do with the government in this case is able to do is address one of those needs, right? And let's hope that that is kind of successful enough to, you know, keep people in or get people to come in to these, these positions and these professions. Because clearly the rest of the demands are going to, are going to continue to be there for a long time. And we have to figure out how to fill the pipeline. You know, this is great for people who have a degree, who, you know, have been trained. But now we have to figure out how do we train the next generation? How do we continue to get people into these, into these programs that you do because you love and you do because you care very much and are passionate about the subject, you're not necessarily going to get rich. But we need to make sure that you can earn a living and, you know, take care of yourself. And we need to start valuing those kinds of jobs. And we just personal care attendants, people who take care of people who are a homebound, you know, of the folks that work in our group homes for people with developmental disabilities. I mean, all of these, all of this human service space that we're so dependent on, but we just don't pay for it. And now we're reaping. Right. What we, yes, reaping what we've said. Yeah, I mean, as you've just described it, basically, there's clearly an element of dealing with the pandemic and the current emergency circumstances of that, thinking about how to, as you said, fill the pipeline into the future, but also, you know, acknowledging we're backfilling here, right? We're, we're, we're just trying to make up ground that we've lost in an insidious way over, you know, quite a, quite a period of time. So, all right, well, that's a good start or a good way to address that. Tell us, you know, more about what's in that package, because I know, for instance, you have some programs that you and some policies that are now going into law that, that you have long championed and you were, you know, just had a lot to do with this stuff. Yeah. Well, we've, so within the ARPA bill, my kind of role in the Senate was the health care piece because I'm the chair of health care financing. So, a lot of that behavioral health, the monies and, and what we've done in terms of loan forgiveness has been our, you know, sort of been the work that we've been doing. We also, in the Senate, passed a mental health bill yet again, which focuses on parity, making sure that insurers treat behavioral health equally to medical surgical, which, by the way, is the law of the land, but we haven't seen to get there yet. We've got some, so we've got parity. We address ED boarding. So, emergency department boarding, I'm sure you've heard about it is a huge problem right now. Many people are showing up to emergency departments who need care in terms of behavioral health. It's mental health, substance use disorder, and there's no place to send them, and so they're sitting in EDs, especially children, for very long periods of time. So, we have a very focused piece of this bill is on moving people out of the emergency department and getting, especially children, getting care more, more quickly. We've got some great collaborative care, which allows for primary care and behavioral health, and all of the pieces that represent a true treatment for somebody coming in to their primary care, we now have the bill allows for that to be paid for so that we can start to build these team-based models. So, there's some other things in the bill that we've been working on for a very long time, and we're pleased to see it, and now we just have to get a house to take it up. I'm just getting the sense from you that you're anticipating that that's not a smooth ride. Well, we haven't heard anything, and we certainly, we did this last year, and the house did not take it up. Now part of that could have been COVID, but we're just anxiously waiting to see if they'll do it. And we have a lot to do in the healthcare space, so we're also hoping that we'll get some movement there. And then we've gotten done a better job of getting money out to the district. We've got, I think, and along with my reps, we've gotten a lot of money for infrastructure. Yeah, so this is money now coming to Arlington and the other four communities are Lexington, Burlington, Billerick, and Wuburn. So we've gotten a lot of money to food programs that are doing food security, like Billerick Food Pantry, Arlington Eats. We've gotten money for FoodLink. We've gotten some money for some affordable housing, some in Arlington. There's a project in Lexington that we've looked at. Another thing that I'm actually quite pleased about, and not just because we got some money, but because they're doing it, there's a partnership between the Burlington Schools and the Wuburn Schools to provide primary care for kids who are coming in as immigrants and who don't have access to primary care. And so we've got some funding for them to set up a program within the community so that these kids can get a strep test, get their vaccines, get just really basic services. But I really was so pleased that this was something that they were doing and something that we could help with. So just alone, just in our kind of what we call local priorities, we've gotten over $2 million for the district. So along with all the ARPA money that the schools have gotten and the towns have gotten. It's kind of a flood of funds. It really is. And I know that I've been speaking with local officials and town manager Adam Chapterlane for months about the designation of the 30-some-odd million dollars of ARPA funding for Arlington alone. And obviously it's a great problem to have, but you have to do it right. You really have to do it right, it seems like. And I think the idea that you were describing earlier about that whole pot of ARPA funds for the state and how you have allocated in the current budget, at least for about half of that, leaving. And that makes sense, right? Because there are things that need to be addressed now. But in a lot of ways, we need to be very careful about how we spend the totality of these funds, right? Yeah. And I think I do want to say that when you're hearing about all this money coming in, and I know that people are talking about, well, why then do I have to pay taxes? And why don't you know, this is money that's going to things that we have ignored for 30, 40, 50 years. This is roads and buildings and air vents for our schools and people who haven't had access to food for a long time. I mean, these are the kinds of things that we're putting the money toward. This isn't, think of it as a maintenance, that finally some monies come in to get us, to allow us to shore up some things that we frankly have ignored for a very long time, because it's hard to spend money on them. And so this is really what I think the state is trying very hard to do with this money. Can I ask you something, which is not on script, so to speak. But as you were just talking, I'm realizing, do you think it's a, what do you think the impact of having this kind of somewhat of a flood of money come in and having, and being in this peculiar position of being able to say, oh, we can now spend, we have the money to spend on these things that we've never allocated the money enough money for before. Doesn't that, what do you think about the impact of that going forward in terms of, you know, will you guys as legislators, you know, be able to say, to follow up on this from now on, to say, okay, we planted the seeds to start to deal with this, these, all these things that we've never adequately funded before. And let's keep that ball rolling. How do you see that playing out, or do you think it's going to go back to business as usual, where there's just not enough political will to actually make the funding available to keep these programs built, building? Well, I think why it took the legislature a while to deliver these funds. We remember when it came in, the governor had all the control, and the legislature passed a bill that said, no, no, no, we're gonna, we're gonna have some control over this, and then the governor, you know, slammed all of us for taking a while. Well, the reason why we took a while was because we had to figure out, first of all, what the highest needs were, and we did that through a whole series of public, public hearings. And, but the other thing is, is we had to figure out what money, how do we use this money, so that we're not on the hook to continue to need this money, right? And that was why this was, what can we do now? So, can we put over a billion dollars into housing, right? Can we do, what can we do in housing, which is so critical, that we can, that will get us to a place where we could start to build more affordable housing, or we can fix the, fix our, like, the housing authority buildings in Arlington, what can we do? Oh, we can put in new windows finally, we can fix the air, you know, we can fix the heating. So part, a lot of what we did was to try and use the money in that way, so we're not, quote, on the hook, at least we're, we've got some breathing room for the next 25 years, until you have to do that again. The other thing that we did with the surplus, which I think is really important, is we put money into the rainy day fund, right? So we we refilled the coffers of the rainy day fund to be ready for the next, for the next time, right, or next time, you know, our revenues go down. We funded, we did a huge funding for the pension system. Well, the pension system costs us lots of money when it's not funded. And, and so we put money in to shore up the pension system for people who are going to be retiring. So I feel like we did a pretty good job in both of those spaces of using, using our money wisely. Now, you know, it's a huge system. It's 40, our, what is our, our budget is $48 billion. Is someone going to come to me and say, well, this $200,000 got spent this way? Well, yeah. Okay. That's a lot of money to make sure that every single cent of it is going to, it's going to be something that you're going to be happy about us spending, or I'm going to, you know, but I think we did a pretty good job. And, and I think we were really cognizant of making sure that we didn't, that we didn't start building things or paying for things that we couldn't continue to pay for. That's great. That's great news. And, you know, I guess I just want to, you know, wanted to get out on the table that you, as you have already described yourself, a certain amount of the, the issues that you are addressing through these, these, this bill, this legislation, are things that just were ignored or, or underfunded or whatever, for a long period of time. This is not going to solve all of that. No. There's going to be a period, whether it's the 25 years that we're buying in terms of infrastructure for some buildings or whatever, or whatever the breathing room is, there's going to be a point which we're on the other side of that. And I'm just hoping that the legislature, you know, can step up and realize, okay, we planted the seeds to keep this, to have this healthy. Let's keep moving forward. And I'm really, really aware of the fact that we still have a healthcare system that so many people can afford or access. Our property taxes are, are skyrocketing. And for a lot of people, that means that they don't feel like they can live in their homes anymore. I mean, there are still structural issues that we have to deal with. And, and, and we can't let down our guard because we've gotten some money that will, you know, we just have to figure out how to make things less, less expensive and how to have a feeling that we have enough, you know, that, and we can share and we can, you know, focus on things that keep people healthy and, and safe and productive. So. Cindy, no surprise that time has flown. And we are, we are right near the end of our allotted time. But I am, I definitely want to just ask you, hey, is there anything major that we should have talked about or should that that we missed as far as you're concerned? I didn't think of, but, you know, as I always say, we are available to our constituents. We, I still do virtual office hours so people can go on my website and, or call our office and find out if they want to talk to one of the talk to us. And I just want to shout out to my fabulous staff who's just been working nonstop and we are, we've never stopped working. We may not be in the state house, but we have been working and, you know, so and it's, it's. Right. In fact, you don't get to leave your workplace these days. So yeah, I'm sure you and your staff have been, you know, putting in the hours big time. I have praised you, praised you for this before, but I can't not say, really appreciate your straight talk. Just the fact that you come in here, you're willing to address whatever it is that I have to ask you, you know, straight to the facts. And again, not with any political puffery. And I, I, and I'm sure the audience really appreciate that. So thanks. I want, you know, I told you we were happy to welcome you back into the studio at the top of the broadcast. Let me just repeat that. And I do look forward to our next conversation. And I wish you happy holidays, safe holidays, and a little bit of rest. Yes. Thank you. Well, it's always great to talk with you. And the time always goes fast. And I really appreciate you and being able to do this. So right back at you. All right. Well, thank you. I have, of course, been speaking with Cindy Friedman, who is our state senator. And this has been Talk of the Town, a legislative update. Thanks so much to Cindy for joining us. Thank you for joining us. I'm James Milan. We'll see you next time.