 I am James Malan and welcome to this edition of Talk of the Town. We have a legislative update for you and we have it with our buddy, Sean Garberley. Sorry, he's not our buddy. He's our rep. But nonetheless, Sean is in the house. So glad to see you as always, Sean. Great to be here, James. Really enjoy these conversations and I know that they are just good content for our viewers as well. So let me start by just a little recognition. I was, you know, preparing for our interview and I noticed that you're just a couple of weeks away from an anniversary of sorts and that you're going to be 15 years in the house pretty soon here. So just tell us your thoughts. I mean, that's a good long tenure. You're a young man still. So you've got plenty of things in front of you, no doubt. But you must be a senior member in the house at this point. Well, first of all, James, thank you for having me and thank you to ACMI for always doing these important legislative updates. It's a great way for me to get as close to my constituents as possible and I really appreciate that kind of service that you and the other volunteers here provide. Happy to do it. So good research. You really nailed it. Yeah. In March I'll be celebrating my 15th anniversary serving the people of Arlington and Medford in the House of Representatives. It's been the greatest honor of my life to be the representative here. I am shocked to say that it's been 15 years when I ran at the age of 22 for this seat. I never would have imagined that I would be here for 15 years and looking back at it. I can't believe it's been 15 years, but just like that I've learned a lot. I've worked with a lot of good people in the house to really try to deliver for the people of Massachusetts and for the people of our community. I think together we've partnered on a whole host of issues that have been really important and really transformative and improving the quality of life for people here in our community. In the city of Medford and across the Commonwealth, you know, I love my job. I love doing it. Every constituent I have has my cell phone. They call me on a regular basis for issues that are small or large. You know, it doesn't matter to me. It's what's important to the people I represent and I just love doing this job and will continue to do it until the people decide that they want somebody else. Well, or, you know, until you finally get tired of all the work that is involved in getting legislation passed. But I just want to follow up very quickly on one thing and that is, I mean, that's a good solid tenure in the house and that means you've learned a whole lot of stuff that, you know, that 22-year-old, 23-year-old you just wouldn't have known. Just pick one or two things that, you know, you really know now that you didn't know then about the way that the state house works. You know, looking at it from the outside, it can be very frustrating when you as a constituent see a piece of legislation that is so critically important, but it just can't get passed for a whole host of reasons. And for me, it's really all about unintended consequences. It's how important it is to vet a bill to really pay attention to the details. And as a state representative for the past 15 years, when trying to pass legislation that's taken a little longer than I would have liked for it to take, to finally get it passed, looking back at it, it's really all about building relationships and really working with other legislators to get something done. You know, you have a house of 160, you have a Senate of 40, and then you need to withstand a governor's veto and get it on his or her desk. And that's not easy, and it shouldn't be easy. Not every bill is a good one, right? Legislation can be complicated. You need to go through it line by line, and that's important. And that, you know, not everyone can be a good or effective legislator. You have to be patient. You have to care about the details, and you have to be a good listener above all. And so in any piece of legislation I've worked on, probably starting more in the latter year of my tenure than in the beginning, you need to bring everyone to the table, all parties, and really look through a piece of legislation and vet it from the beginning to the end. And that's really what makes a good piece of legislation. And that's working with 159 other colleagues. So when I'm trying to pass a piece of legislation, I literally have to meet with 159 individuals and convince them that this is the right approach for Massachusetts. And that I've done my due diligence and research and getting the bill vetted and ready to get passed. And it takes a long time. Right. So that's probably, you know, the point of that is you might have entered thinking, hey, if I have good ideas, if I know that this is the right thing to do, if I know that everybody agrees that it's the right thing to do, that's probably enough. Now you know. It's not at all. No. Not necessarily. Every issue is different. You know, the second thing I will say, and I think I've known this from the very beginning, I don't think this is something I have learned, is I get calls from constituents all the time. It can be in the middle of the day. It can be in the middle of the night. And as you pointed out, James, I give out my cell phone number to everybody that wants it. Most people don't want it. But for everybody who wants it, when they're calling me, it's not necessarily because they want to. We went through a pandemic that literally changed the landscape of public health, literally changed life for many, many people in our community, whether it was employment, whether it was losing a loved one. It changed a lot of people. And when I get a call from a constituent, I really try to drop everything to help that individual because they're not calling me because they necessarily want to. Some do, but they're calling me because they have to. And it's not necessarily a call they want to be making. I just got a call this morning that took an hour of my day around housing. Somebody who is unfortunately going through the eviction process and is trying to keep her kids in the Arlington Public Schools, trying to keep food on their kids' tables and trying to stay housed. And right now I'm trying to help her do that. So when people call me, they're calling me because they need help. And that is something that I have never taken for granted these past 15 years and just becomes more important to me every time I get a phone call or an email. Well said. And yeah, I just want to recognize for each person who's on the other end of that line when you pick up that phone, it's probably the biggest thing in their life at that moment. And it's not the biggest thing in your life, but if you can make it that for an hour or whatever it takes to resolve, it's good on you. It's important. Good. So we're speaking at the beginning, well, middle of February at this point, and that means that a new legislative session started not too long ago, but we haven't had really a chance to hear from you about the most important stuff that came out of the last session. So let's do that relatively succinctly and then like to move right into what you are anticipating to be the big things you want to do in the current session. Great. It's a great question. We had a great legislative session the last two years that ended officially. Global session ended on July 31st. The official end of the session ended at the end of the year and we just started a brand new session on January 6th. As the chair of global warming and climate change, I really focused my attention on climate change where we passed a really comprehensive climate change piece of legislation really addressing dirty sources of energy and to try to address that issue on a whole host of ways, trying to make Massachusetts the epicenter of the offshore wind industry here in the United States of America, making up at least a third of President Biden's goals for offshore wind nationwide. That's pretty important and that's pretty inspiring. And then as well as offshore wind, making Massachusetts a hub for electric vehicles, really trying to create the necessary, I don't want to say energy because it's no pun intended, but the infrastructure necessary in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to allow electric vehicles to thrive, to have the infrastructure here that will allow it to thrive. So I bring that bill up because it was a really important bill. And as the chair of the committee, it was something that I was directly involved in. This past session was also one of my most successful. I believe James, every time I come before you, I give a legislative update and you graciously give me the opportunity to talk to you about bills I've been filing, bills I've been working on, and some of those bills, literally we've been talking about for 10 years. A few of them got passed this past session. And I just want to kind of run through them real quickly. One is during the pandemic, we talked about the importance of my bill around emergency paid sick leave, sick days. That got passed that allowed so many across the Commonwealth get access to sick days so they couldn't, so they could take care of a loved one, take care of themselves, but without risking being fired. Really, really important. And I was proud to file that bill. The Macy Bill, the Massachusetts Inclusive Concurrent Enrollment Legislation that we've been talking about for 10 years, finally passed and makes Massachusetts the first state in the country in statute to allow students with autism and down syndrome and other learning disabilities to be able to access college, public universities for the first time in the country to put it in statute. And I'm just going to interrupt you for one second and say, I flash back, as you were talking, as you were saying that, I flash back to our very first conversation in the studio, different configuration in which you were talking about that. Right. So sorry about for the interruption. No James, I appreciate it. It's one of those bills, right, that took a lot of time to get right, to kind of bring everyone to the table to really look at each sentence of the bill. But we finally got it passed and it is the, I think, the most significant law related to special education since IDEA passed at the federal level. It's going to transform lives, students with autism and down syndrome and other disabilities will be able to attend college and learn just like their peers. And that is tremendously important. So I just wanted to talk about that real quick. Congratulations by the way. Thank you very much. Yeah, it's a big one. Adoptees in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts weren't able to access their original BERT certificate, their document that tells them who they are, their identity. Now the bill that I've been filing for 10 years finally got passed last session. So all adoptees born within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, within our 351 cities and towns will each be able to now, right now, because it's implemented, will be able to gain access to their original BERT certificate, the document that tells them that they are they, right, who they are, really, really important. And the other piece of legislation that we had talked about for a long time that finally passed this past session was those living with multiple sclerosis, that they cannot under law be kicked off their drug that's been working for them. Hundreds of those in our Commonwealth living with multiple sclerosis live in fear. And it does happen where they get a letter in the mail from their insurance company that their insurance company is not going to cover their prescription drug that's been working for them to help prevent flare-ups and help prevent them from having to go to the emergency room. Now in state law, no one living with multiple sclerosis that's been on a drug for 30 years that's been working for them, controlling flare-ups, keeping them out of the emergency room, will ever be living fear of being kicked off, kicked off their drug that's been working because of bureaucrats within health insurance tell them to. So that to me is really, really important. The last bill that we got passed was around a disability-led commission, the first of its kind, a commission that's going to be led around the history of state institutions. It's an uncomfortable history in the Commonwealth. We have unmarked graves from Belmont, all the way to Belcher Town, a letter with a number. It's not a history that we're proud of here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And this is going to be a commission to study that history. Those are human beings. They died under the care of the Commonwealth, or not the care of the Commonwealth. But they died with markers, with just a letter, signifying if they were Catholic or Protestant and a number. You don't know their history, don't even know their names. Talk about something so dehumanizing. And this commission is going to study all that and report back on how to make it right and create, hopefully, a memorial to these individuals. Right. At the very least, an honoring of their memories and a reckoning, perhaps, for all of us. That is a lot, and that was a good term. You're right for you and for the work that you've put in. And great examples, really, because, as you said, each one of those bills has a long history, multiple efforts to make sure that they stay in progress towards the goal that you've finally reached. And that really sums up a lot of what we were talking about earlier in the conversation in terms of what you've learned over your time in the House and how much patience is required and how you need to get everybody, or as many, as important as possible. Takes a long time, and you've done it, so well done. Thank you. All right, so let's face forward now and talk to us a little bit because one thing I've learned through these updates, I've been getting in education the whole time, one thing I know is that what you started on January 6th is a brand new term which means everything that you were working on before, whatever stage it was at, you got to start the process at least again, right? So what are the things that hopefully, less than 10 years from now, you're going to be able to tell me, I finally got this bill passed? Well thanks for the question, James. That is right, the beginning of January, I was sworn in to a new term as your state representative, as well as the 159 other state reps and 40 other state senators all being sworn in. The day after that we were sworn in, we had a swearing in of a new governor and a new lieutenant governor and a brand new auditor and a brand new attorney general. So we have tremendous change here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and tremendous opportunity as well. And what you did not read maybe in the news after both of those swearing in or inaugural events, legislators had maybe a two, three week window to file legislation. So I have been filing all of my bills, I have around 60 pieces of legislation that run the gamut on a whole host of issues around education, public higher ed, transportation, schools with disabilities and addressing climate change and housing. And so now we will be working over the next two years to try to build support to get those done. And I can run down kind of my individual bills, but I think it's more important at this point because it's kind of the first talk of the town, up the legislative update for this session is kind of talk to you about the major pieces. So Governor Healy now and Lieutenant Governor Driscoll just filed one of their first pieces of legislation which is no surprise to me or to any of my viewers was a housing bond bill. We have a housing crisis. People are having a very difficult time being able to stay in their homes. We need to address this. We need to do more to support individuals living in our housing authorities. We need to develop more housing stock. We need to allow for more raft vouchers and more mass rental voucher program, MRVP, the mass family rental voucher program to create more opportunities so people can stay in their homes. Right now we have a housing crisis. We have a lack of accountability crisis as well. We have so many people heading back into hotels, motels, which is the exact opposite of where we want to be and where we should be going. We need to have these folks find permanent housing. It is absolutely critical. So I believe this term we will be coming up with a piece of housing zoning, a piece of legislation that addresses this issue for a whole host of ways. That's really important. This passed on the ballot in November. The voters decided to vote for a constitutional amendment known as the fair share amendment. It is also known as the millionaire's tax that does a tax on income of those earning more than a million dollars. We're not talking about assets. We're talking a paycheck of more than a million dollars and some estimates estimate that we're going to receive as much because that did pass. Some estimates say that we're going to receive as much as 1.5 to 2 billion dollars a year on revenue. That our belief and our hope is that we're going to dedicate that revenue to public education and public transportation and infrastructure. So one of the pieces of legislation I filed this session is known as the cherish act. 85% of our young people that leave graduate one of our 29 public higher education institutions from community college to state university to UMass upon graduation they stay in the Commonwealth and they are invested in our communities and one of our 351 cities and towns but they are strapped with loads of debt and costs and fees continue to rise on these students every single day and the share of the investment the Commonwealth has made to their education into the 29 public higher education campuses has steadily decreased over the years as costs have risen from meals to textbooks to dorms and it's really outrageous and we as a Commonwealth need to invest in public higher education which is what the cherish act would do and would freeze tuition and fee rates and finally invest and I can't think of well there's a whole host of important things to invest in but I can't think of something more important in terms of the economic growth of our Commonwealth than investing in our public higher than our young people our students in public higher education. So I'm hoping and we'll be working and trying to pass the cherish act but make sure that part of the fair share amendment that the people voted on and supported and passed will go to supporting everything from early ed but also to public higher education. Another huge piece of that is of course and we were talking about it right before the program is investing in public transportation. We have a crisis in the MBTA especially here in the 23rd middle sex district. We are able to save some of the bus routes like the 80 but it's not going to reach me or anymore. It's going to Davis. Nearly every bus route out of Alewife 79 was canceled. That's outrageous. I've you know the previous GM I spoke three or four times to him about the cuts the draconian cuts that were made to the MBTA bus routes under the false pretense of efficiency and kind of a fake study that was done during covid that ridership was down. Of course it was down. It was down. It was down across the 175 MBTA community region. Right. People are coming back. And just like public higher education if you want to grow the economy if you want to invest in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts you have to invest in people. That's an education. That's our workforce. Guess what. You also have to transport these people to from their homes to their jobs and because they can't count on the MBTA to get them to their work their place of employment they're getting in their cars which is creating such congestion on our infrastructure that it's creating real problems. So one of my hopes with the fair share amendment and hoping that we'll see that kind of leadership from the Healy administration is that it is time to invest in our infrastructure but it's time to invest in our MBTA and the first thing we can do to get the buses back on our roads and restore our public transportation is the biggest struggle we've had since covid. The biggest challenge we've had is the fact that we can't hire the requisite number of our drivers bus drivers to be able to get buses back on the road. You can't you can't have a service if you can't have anyone to drive the buses. And I think we all know that bus drivers are not treated well on the whole by the general public. And so I think we need to do a few things. I think one is we need to come up with a salary that is better than that made in the past with salary and benefits to encourage people to become bus drivers. I think we have to find a way to treat bus drivers nicer more nicely so that they can have the impetus to do that job. So that is what I'm really hoping that this administration will put forth and that the legislature will pass legislation to invest in public higher education general ed early ed but also public transportation. It is critical. Well you will truly go down in the annals of legislative genius. If you're able to come up with legislation help that makes people be nicer to drivers and others. I think that would be great. We will hail that to the heavens when it happens. It's important. A couple of points in support of what you were just saying particularly about the MBTA. We were talking before we went on air. You took you more than an hour to go the eight and a half or nine miles from the state house to our studio today in your car which you had to do because of the public transportation situation as you said. So that's not good. And that that feeds right into an article that I saw recently in which Boston by if you measure it by the amount of time that is lost in congestion Boston is the fourth worst city in the world in the world. Chicago is worse apparently but that's the only American city. Right. You know crazy crazy. So you you're not kidding when you say we have a crisis. We never think that we were more congested than L.A. Right. It's just amazing. New York and New York. Yeah. It's it's it's a crazy thing. All right. So we we have as usual we've we have filled up the the half hour in no time at all. I will say for future for future conversations you know getting your thoughts on. Well let me just ask you in the minute that we have left what do you think about the big changes as you already cited in Massachusetts here especially in the governor's mansion lieutenant governor attorney general etc. What do you think. I think it's exciting. You know more Healy is not new to state politics. Right. She served as our attorney general for the past eight years. Kim Driscoll our new lieutenant governor is new to the state house but she's not new to governing. She was the mayor Salem a great city for for almost two decades I believe. So these are two individuals that are used to getting work done and rolling up their sleeves. I'm excited to be able to work with them. And you know we have a lot of challenges here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I highlighted a bunch of them. I've already had several conversations with the lieutenant governor who I think is going to be a really hands on lieutenant governor as will the governor. And I think their their attitude and I think one of the benefits of both of them being in government in Massachusetts is that they know the legislature. They know the legislature how it works. They know that they need to be partners and they want to be partners in this work. And that's really really important in being able to get things done is to have a governor who's going to meet with legislators who's going to meet with the speaker in the Senate president to collaborate on getting things done. Now that doesn't mean we're going to agree 100 percent of the time on everything. That doesn't happen in the House. That doesn't happen in the Senate. And it's not going to happen between the legislature and the governor. But we've made a commitment to work with each other to get things done. That's the way she's acted as attorney general. Right. We've worked together on a whole host of issues to make positive progress. And I have no reason to suspect that that won't happen or continue to happen these next four years as she serves as our governor. Well I'll tell you what Massachusetts. There's a lot of grim news out there in the wider world. Massachusetts nice place to hunker down and try and get it right. Lots of lots of problems to address as you mentioned but also a good reason for hope. So there you have it. I have been speaking of course with Sean Garberley who is our representative here in Arlington and with a little bit of West Medford Drone in as well. And this has been a legislative update for talk of the town. We really appreciate Sean's time always. Thank you James. Thank you very much. And we appreciate yours as well. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm James Milan. We'll see you next time.