2025-04-08 00:00:00 - Joint Committee on Ways and Means

SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Welcome, everybody.
Oh. There's my list here.
SPEAKER2 - Okay.
SPEAKER1 - Over the past several weeks, we've conducted 7 ways and means hearings traveling from the State House to Gloucester, Amherst, Clinton, Worcester, Cape Cod, and Attleboro. These hear hearings have provided invaluable insights into our diverse needs of our communities. Hearing from various secretariats about the governor's budget has highlighted how each town and city faces unique challenges and opportunities. It's been rewarding to experience the work towards a solution that reflects their priorities. But today, we're here at the people's house, your house, to hear your concerns. So this is a public hearing, and we'll we're gonna have 3 minutes, 6 minutes for a group. If you have written testimony, if you're gonna read your written testimony, we'd rather just have you give us the written testimony and just go ahead and say a a few words. The the written testimony will speak for itself. We're gonna really stick to the 3 minutes because it's so98 many people here, and we wanna100 hear everybody. Your voices matter, and, we thank104 you. So I'm gonna pass it off to my cochair, Pawel Paiano.
SPEAKER3 - Paiano. Yes, sir.
Thank you, mister chair. Good morning. Buenos Dias, everyone. Thank you all for joining us today for the final hearing of the Massachusetts joint ways and means committee. This hearing is especially important, as is, well, 1 of the sole opportunities, 1 of the opportunities for the public, participation in the budget process. Over a 50 individuals, as, chair Dibson says, have signed up to speak, and we're very grateful for your engagement and your willingness to share your thoughts with us. Your input is crucial, in shaping, this year's148 budget and is gonna play a key role, as we deliberate on the budget. For the first 8 hearings, we heard from government officials and experts, but today, it's your voices that are gonna help guide us, in this work. Given the large number of speakers as the chair has said, we are asking that everyone stick to the 3 minute time limit to ensure that we have time for everyone to be heard. If you feel like you have more to share, you can always submit written testimony, which will be shared with the rest of the committee. I want, send a special thanks to, my colleagues in the committees, the senators, and the reps that, have gone all184 across the state, hearing from, from experts. And I also wanna thank my, co chair,190 vice chair Diggs, and his team for their excellent work in organizing this hearing. And, my incredible staff, both my staff and the interns who are at the front desk, for their dedication making sure this hearing runs smoothly. Your participation today is what makes this process truly democratic, and we appreciate your continued involvement. As you can see on you know, I'm a former, drama kid. On stage left, you're gonna see the ASL, interpreter. Make sure that as you're walking in, you don't block them. And, thank you. I'm I'm I'm looking forward to today.
SPEAKER1 - Likewise. Thank
SPEAKER3 - you. Should we introduce the
SPEAKER1 - So like you just said, the ASL interpreter is here. So anyone that wants to that needs help interpreting, we want to put on put up first. So, if there's anybody, please let us know so we can make sure that you can be taken care of and and move247 up first. I would also like to introduce
my state rep you want other ones? My state representatives. I'll start with, the minority leader.
Ranking leader. Sorry. I'm sorry. Where am I at? Oh, jeez. Where am I at? Todd. Sorry. Todd Smallwood. Good, buddy. Sorry.
SPEAKER4 - Thank you very much. I'm Todd Smalla. I am the state representative of the first hand in district. I'm the ranking member of the committee. We are honored to have all of you here today at the State House as the chair said, the People's House. While we move around the Commonwealth to have many hearings on different295 subjects, we could classify this 1297 as the most important 1 because it gives299 anybody and everybody the opportunity to come here, sign up, and testify before this committee. We have a very, quick schedule that's307 moving fast. We'll be releasing the House budget in about a week. We'll be rolling into the debate in the House, and then the Senate will be doing it
SPEAKER5 - in short order after that. But having your voice here as part of
SPEAKER4 - this process is the most important part, that you can undertake in as being a member of this commonwealth. And so we appreciate your time today, and we look forward to hearing from every single 1 of you. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. So we have to my left, rep Steve, Exaros.
SPEAKER5 - What?
SPEAKER1 - Rodney Elliot. Rep Elliot. I can't see.
Joe McKenna, rep rep Souza, rep Beal,
rep Hamilton? I don't see him. Rep Hamilton? I missed you.
Rep Hawkins?
Rep Natalie Higgins?
Rep Garcia?
Rep Howard,
Rep Kesner, Rep Kenny, Rep Kearns, Rep Kilcoyne, Rep Mendez?
Rep Moran? Rep Owens?
Rep Sabadosa?
Let me see. Rep Tyler. Did I see Rep Tyler? I see her. Appeas?414
Repchason?
Rub Marcy?
SPEAKER3 - Sullivan Almeda? Rub Sullivan Almeda?
SPEAKER1 - Rub Vaughn?
And,
Rabduffy? I didn't see her here. And
who did I miss anybody? So you know that name? Ariagua.450 Ariagua.
SPEAKER3 - Sorry about that. Senator, you wanna take over? Yes. Thank you, mister
SPEAKER1 - I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm457 fine. Rep. Skarsdale. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER3 - No more. Thank you, chair Dibs. I want to, introduce the the vice chair, of the committee, senator Joan Comerford.
SPEAKER6 - Good morning, everyone. I'm Joan Comerford. I represent 25 cities and towns in the Hampshire Franklin Worcester District. It's great to be with you480 this morning. Special shout out to the Northampton and Amherst Students who've driven in from Western Mass to make their voices heard.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you, madam vice chair. I will now introduce the, the members, the senate members of the committee. We have assistant vice chair Paul Feeney, ranking minority member Patrick O'Connor, senator Michael Brady, senator Nick Collins, senator Brendan Crichton, senator John Cronin, senator Lydia Edwards, senator Adam Gomez, senator from Worcester, Robin Kennedy, senator, Paul Marks, senator Liz Miranda who's with us today, senator Jake Oliveira, senator Michael Rush, senator Ryan Fatman, and senator Kelly Dooner, towards my left.
SPEAKER1 - Awesome. Let's get started. So chair chair Dom?
Chair Mindy Dom, you ready?
Oh, okay.
I understand. Alright. Do you want to you want to This is
SPEAKER3 - this is the order of the Montana.
SPEAKER1 - Alright. Just
SPEAKER3 - call the first person.
SPEAKER1 - Chaplain Clemente Clementina Cherry.
SPEAKER3 - I think, for the next person, he might wanna say, Elise DeSosa next, and then after her is gonna be Noel Trent. Okay.
SPEAKER1 - Elise Luisa DeSosa and Noel Trent will be the the next 2 people.
SPEAKER7 - Blessed morning, chairman Diggs and chairman Paiano, and members of the House and Senate on Ways and Means Committee. The Louis d Brown Peace Institute appreciates the opportunity to present testimony to the house and senate ways for the f y 26 state budget. The Peace Institute is a center of healing, teaching, and learning for families and communities impacted by murder, trauma, grief, and loss. I founded the Peace Institute in 1993 after my 15 year old son, Louis628 Brown, was caught in the crossfire of a rival gang shootout 5 days before Christmas. We are here with my co executive director, Rachel Rodriguez, and we638 respectfully request funding in line item 5 4 1 3 10 98 in the amount of $1,000,000 Specifically, we suggest the following language. For the provision of statewide support services for survivors of homicide victims, including outreach services, burial assistance, grief counseling, and other supports provided, that fund shall be expanded as grants, aggregate amount for no less than 850,000 to the Peace666 Institute Corporation, a a community based support669 organization dedicated to serving families and communities impacted by murder, and provided further that the Peace Institute Corporation shall establish and administer a process to distribute no less than a hundred and $50,000 to the Massachusetts Survivors of Homicide Victims Network organizations to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in form of grants of a hundred thousand. For 3 decades, the Peace Institute has served at the corner store cornerstone of the Commonwealth homicide response process, answering the call to support families in the aftermath of homicide regardless of where in the Commonwealth the family resides. State officials
SPEAKER1 - and municipal leaders rely heavily
SPEAKER7 - on the Peace Institute,
peace institute, referring families of the treasury of an array of services, advocacy, love, and care. The peace institute has risen to the occasion and has taken on this role willingly and with great strength and vision. We think it's important that state funding be aligned with the role that we are being asked to play. The Peace Institute had served families and communities impacted by homicide in over 90 municipalities across all regions of the Commonwealth. Additionally, offering training and support services to the over a 50 cities and towns that have experienced this homicide since 1994 when our organization was founded. I'll turn it over to Rachel Rodriguez.
SPEAKER8 - Thank you. It's notable that of the 160 house districts in this legislature, 157 have been directly impacted by homicide. In the senate, every single district. On the joint committee on ways and means, the peace institute776 has served families in 15778 of the 17 senate districts on this committee and 20 out of the 35 house districts on this committee. Currently, the funds support homicide response across Massachusetts and coordinate a statewide network of survivors of homicide victims. We provide practical support within the first 24 to 72 hours after a homicide and continue to provide case management and healing services indefinitely. 1 homicide impacts at least 10 immediate family members. Even if homicide decreases, the survivor rate is always growing and impacting families and communities for generations. Please support our requested language and funding level of a million dollars for line item 4 5 1 3 dash 1 0 9 8. With your support, we'll advance this work together, interrupting cycles of violence and832 building more peaceful communities where everyone can thrive. Thank836 you for your leadership and support. It was especially meaningful for us to provide this testimony because it's National Crime Victims Rights Month. So thank you again.
SPEAKER7 - Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Knowing that I came from a family that has lost also losing my son, I can relate to what your what your wishes and and thoughts because, a loss is traumatic. So we're taking advisement. So thank you. Any questions?
SPEAKER9 - So I'm a huge fan of the Peace Institute, and I just thought I'd make it publicly known that when my brother was killed in 2017, the first place that I went to was the Peace Institute, and you helped me and my family. And I'm eternally grateful. I'd love for you to share a little bit about the work that you're doing outside of Boston. Oftentimes, I have, colleagues that reach out to me because they know that I work in this space, and, it's happening in Springfield or Lynn or Brockton, for example. And they're calling the Peace Institute, to get support because your work is not just in inner city Boston. And I just would like for you to spend a moment just to share a little bit about that so that we can understand the collective effort of your work. It actually impacts more than just, the city that I represent here in the legislature.
SPEAKER7 - Thank you, senator. What we've learned is homicide knows no boundaries. It knows no culture, no class, and no communities. People who are dealing with anger react, and then those of us, whether we were intended target or caught in the crossfire, families are still being devastated. So for us, it's not about telling people what to do. It's it's fulfilling a missing piece. We work with law enforcements. We work with the city. We work with the hospital. What makes this different is I am not just a founder. I'm also a client. When Lewis was killed, there were really no resources available. And so I left the hospital empty handed physically and within my soul. You know, we we have surgery. We have a wisdom tooth pull. We leave with an aftercare package. We leave telling us what we need to do. When my child was murdered and I was told that he was dead, I left empty handed. So once society realized Lewis was a good kid, we wanted for nothing. Resources came for us. And what we did, I wanted to pay it forward. So this is something that we have translated the survivor's1000 burial and resource guide. We've1002 translated in Spanish, Cantonese, Haitian, Cape Verde, and Creole. Not everybody speaks English. So what we do is when someone in another city and state or the DA's office in another county reaches out to our survivors outreach services, that's the first thing that we do is make sure that the family has this. We connect with them, and we really guide them to make funeral preparations and to understand their rights according to the Massachusetts Victims Bill of Rights. When someone is arrested, they read their Miranda rights. When someone is murdered, nobody reads us our rights. So making sure that we are letting families know that you have the right to bury your loved 1 with dignity and compassion, including those whose loved ones were murdered due to police involved shootings, they are too are impacted. So that's the work that we do. And because we do not want to recreate Peace Institute, senator, we are training municipalities. We are training district attorney's office. We are training law enforcement. We are training hospital to add this guide as part of their standard of care. And as a part of this, what we wanna do is offer each of you on this committee your own guide. If you tell us the languages you speak, we will offer you this guide with a cheat sheet. So God forbid if something happens in your district, you will know exactly what to do, and families do not have to GoFundMe because the state victim's compensation offers funding for burial assistance. So thank you, senator.
SPEAKER10 - I just1114 wanted to also just, weigh in, just on the recent experience I had with1118 the institute. I just wanna just commend your work. I wanna just emphasize how rapid fire your response was to a victim in the in Boston's South End and how you helped that family and helped me as a legislator get resources and put stuff together. You're really quite amazing in your communication skills. The team is just great, So thank you very, very much for all you do.
SPEAKER7 - Thank you, representative.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you.
SPEAKER7 - Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Chair Dom, you ready?1148 New crew?
Rep Ramos is also in the house of 1 the 1 to say.
Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right.
Hi, guys. Just don't know. You you have great chairman right there that's he does incredible. So and it's it shows how many people you got with you. So whatever you're doing, keep doing it.
SPEAKER11 - Thank you so much. I
SPEAKER12 - thank you 3 incredible speakers
SPEAKER1 - Welcome. So thank you
SPEAKER11 - so much. I'm gonna let them introduce themselves. Okay.
SPEAKER12 - They're here to speak towards the education part of the budget, and I'm really
SPEAKER13 - Hello, everyone. Thank you for allowing us to speak today. My name is Yatharath Rajakumar, and I'm 16 years old. I'm reading the statement on behalf of the Amherst Regional High School students concerned about the elective classes due to the looming budget cuts. Electives are a cornerstone of opportunity at every school, allowing students to experience new classes and learn new skills. Cutting electives may seem right, but each class allows students to express creativity and have fun. For the past 7 years, I've enjoyed every second of the ARPS band program, a place where I truly belong. Walking into the band room with my saxophone is like stepping into another world. The worries of tests and grades disappear and get replaced by the1286 warmth of music. Having electives allows us to escape the pack school day by relaxing and refocusing. As colleges emphasize well rounded students, elective opportunities to explore are crucial. Yet with budget cuts threatening the existence of electives, students are losing more than just classes. We are losing passion, motivation, and opportunities that could shape our futures. High school students in high school holds unforgettable moments for many, not from hardcore tests or endless assignments, but rather the classes that sparked joy and creativity, also known as electives. Many students in our school share the same experience, whether that is through art, engineering, or language. When dealing with millions of dollars at the state level, the amount of money for students and schools may seem tremendous. However, the reality is far from that. Electives are often the first classes to get cut. Business and culinary arts are just 2 of a wide variety of classes that have been taken out due to our shrinking budget. Elective teachers such as our ARHS band director, miss Cara Bear, dedicate themselves with undivided attention towards the well-being of our students, yet their work is under threat as budget cuts target electives first. Electives serve as a vital way and vital part of the education system statewide, impacting thousands of students that who rely on them to discover their passion and prepare for their futures1364 outside of the classroom. I urge you1366 to reconsider the budget priorities and understand the fundamental role that electives play in student lives across the state.1372 Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you.
SPEAKER14 - Good afternoon, honorable members of the state legislature. My name is Nandal Dorje, and I am currently a junior at Amherst Regional High School. Today, we stand before you, not just on behalf of a single school district, but for the future of public education across Massachusetts. At the moment, the Amherst Pelham Regional School District is facing tremendous budget cuts totaling $3,500,000 Our schools have been known to have excellent programs and support systems which these cuts threaten to dismantle. Due to the routine budget cuts being a reoccurring event, an increasing amount of proposals are being drafted to cut down those support and creativity programs. Music and art programs, reading specialists, library staff and classroom aids should not be a luxury but a necessity. Parents and educators have expressed how these programs have been able1428 to support students thrive academically with confidence while bridging the gap for students with learning differences. This issue is directly a result of the State funding structure that continues to underfund districts including Amherst making for less opportunities for future students. These cuts will undo years of hard work and progress which we are constantly trying to maintain. If the state does not act upon this, not only is the state cutting budgets, but also cutting the futures of students. Our students deserve to learn and prepare for what lies ahead in both the present and future. Thank you.
SPEAKER15 - Honorable legislators, thank you for hearing us today. My name is Noah Farris, and I'm a senior at Amherst Regional High School. I'm speaking on behalf of my peers because we worry the proposed budget will strangle humanities programs at our schools. 4 years ago, as a ninth grader, I was full of self doubt and had no idea where school could possibly take me. For my1491 classmates and me, it was always our humanities teachers who were constantly expanding our horizons. For example, when my friend Rory took mister Sears' charcoal drawing class, he learned he wants to go to art school and become a professional artist. His newfound passion for studio art, in fact, inspired him to quit vandalism. Our beloved French teacher, Madame Tice, single handedly coordinates our French club and plans huge events to foster collaboration and multiculturalism in our community and push us to adapt an international perspective. And it was in miss Barbara Just's English class that my friend Christopher felt, for the first time, truly represented and engaged with the school curriculum. For my friend, Finn, miss Keown's English unit on disability justice and miss Hartle's sculptural class led him to envision a career as an architect. He hopes to design spaces that are both beautiful and accessible. Humanities classes spark life changing discoveries, but without adequate reform in the funding process, ensuing cuts will debilitate our humanities curriculum, leaving the faculty overstretched and less available to inspire our students. There's nothing frivolous about humanities. We respectfully ask you to remember all aspects of how high school prepares us for the future. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. You're our leaders, future leaders, so we we we need you. That's what we used to hear all the time when I was a kid. Kids are our future, so thank you for stepping up.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you very much. To the members, I don't know if there's any questions now. Seeing none, so 1 thing to mention, all senators, reps, we all have we're able to ask 1 question. If there's a question, you'd like to ask, representatives, please, contact chair Dibbs. Send them send them a message. For the senators, if you can text me so, we can make sure that we know. I wanna thank you all for, for your testimony. Yes, senator Commerford.
SPEAKER6 - Thank you, mister chair. I just wanted to say Amherst, you rocked it. Thank you so much. And thank you to your teacher, miss Seltzer, for organizing this. Of course, thanks to rep Dom. What you're talking about is a structural problem in the education formula, and we need to crack it open. And because of your advocacy here and at UMass Amherst when the the committee was there to hear about education, we're 1 step closer. So thank you.
SPEAKER3 - Thank thank you all.
SPEAKER16 - Thank you.
SPEAKER3 - And up next, you know, I I I grad graduated out of UMass Amherst, so I feel like I'm a 4 1 3 kid. And and sticking to that, we have a, we have a few members, that are from the Northampton, youth commission. I'm gonna say the first person that's up, and then I'm gonna say the other names to make sure that, all the individuals are ready to come up and there's a seamless transition. Zara Usman, and then afterwards, it's gonna be Nadia Loi Orsolic and then Owen Daggett.
We we also have C. Co. Helen Tajirian and, and then Emilian Durbin. Sarah, 3 3 3 minutes.
SPEAKER17 - Okay. Great. Thank you so much. It is a real honor to be here today. I'm my name is Zahra Usman. I'm a junior at Northampton High School, and I am a member of the student union there. And the 5 of us are here. 2 of us are on the Northampton Commission, and 2 of us are on the Northampton High School Student Union. And 1 of us is on both. So, it's a very honor to be here. I'm just gonna talk about the budget situation in Northampton a little bit. From the last fiscal year, we had, over 20 positions cut in our district, and the original proposed cuts were for 40. And then, our mayor found some money and, reinstated some positions. And coming to this next budget season, we're looking at another 20 cuts. And those reductions have had the impacts of increased pressure on paras. We hear it time and time again in city council and school committee meetings for 90 minutes each time that our paraeducators are struggling. IEPs are struggling to be met if being met at all. As the Amherst students just talked about, electives are being cut and, opportunities for students to explore their interests are just going away. Additional support in classes is just, like, nonexistent as bigger class sizes ranging on, like, 30 students in a class have made it impossible for teachers to give specialized attention to students. There's been a loss of mental health support as, adjustment counselors and guidance counselors have been cut from those departments, making a caseload of up to, like, 300 to 350 students per, counselor. And in some cases, we only have, for instance, in NHS, we only have 1 adjustment counselor to serve all the students not under IEPs. So that's around, like, 750 students for a caseload.
Our schools and any school in Massachusetts, any school in this country already needed more support. Coming out of post COVID, where there was an immense amount of learning loss, students just need additional, mental health and academic support to be able to succeed in this new environment. And Northampton Public Schools doesn't benefit from any of the funding reforms in chapter 70 that give money to schools, or, like, similar to us. For instance, we're not a regional school, so we don't, get extra funding. And we're also not a rural school because we live in a city. So, the the chapter 70 funding formula just really doesn't work for us. And our town has been divided by the issue of school funding. You can hear it at every city council, every school committee meeting. Our the people in our town are oppositional on this subject, and we know as students that it's a bigger issue, a state issue that needs to be solved through the restructuring of the chapter 7 70 funding formula and bills such as s, 40 400. Excuse me. My peers and I were here today1870 to advocate for an increase in chapter 70 funding for this fiscal year as well as an increase in minimum aid. But, however, we as I said before,1878 the system isn't working, and we urge you to restructure1880 the formula. Thank you so much for your time.1882
SPEAKER18 - Good afternoon, and thank you for allowing me to speak in front of you today. My name is Nadia Loyarslick, and I'm a junior from the Northampton School District. I'm here speaking on behalf of myself. Yes. I also serve as a member of our school's student union and school council. Over the past few years, me1904 and other students from my community have been battling a budget crisis that has severely impacted the state of our schools. The instability of our budget is not just an infliction on schools' resources, it's an infliction on the safeties of the members of our school district. Just within the year, our district has compiled countless injury reports from the teachers in our school districts, especially for those working with younger students in elementary schools. This problem has only worsened as class sizes have increased. As Zarr mentioned, a lot of this has stemmed from the lack of parent educators and proper support in classrooms for students learn struggling with learning disabilities. In law 6 0 3, c m r 28, section 8, it states for public school programs that integrate children with and without disabilities, the class size shall not exceed 20 with 1 teacher and 1 aide and no more than 5 students with disabilities. If the number of students with disabilities is 6 or 7, then the class size may not exceed 15 students with 1 teacher and 1 aide. With the severity of the cuts our district is facing, these criteria may not be met. Not only does this impact the quality of learning for all the kids already struggling with education, but it impacts the teachers and parents who are handling more than they can safely handle. It's gotten to the point where at least of ours 4 of our staff members have quit in the middle of the year because of these overwhelming conditions. Just to put it in perspective, Northampton, in comparison to some districts surrounding us, is 1 of the more privileged school districts. Though they may not be represented today, those students in the other districts deserve a chance for their situations to be considered as they are going through similar, if not worse conditions as Northampton. It's not just an issue of proper education anymore. It's an issue of our safety and our future. I'm here along with my peers asking for your support and increases in minimum aid and restructuring of chapter 70 funding so that we can stop our situation and many others from worsening. Thank you.
SPEAKER3 - Owen.
SPEAKER19 - Hello, Ways and Means Committee. I'm Owen oh, can I go? Yeah. I'm Owen Daggett from the Northampton, Massachusetts, and I'm a sophomore at Northampton High School. Chapter 70 funding, as many of you know, has left countless school districts across Massachusetts behind while also leaving municipalities with difficult decisions. In Northampton, 62 Percent of our budget goes to education spending. This underscores the power that formulas such as chapter 70 have on entire municipalities. How is our city supposed to prioritize education while also funding an entire city? While I hear often from the state of historic new funding initiatives, many cities across Massachusetts are having to contemplate historic cuts due to historic debt. While I understand many priorities of this legislature and budget during uncertain times, it is hard to think of a more pressing issue for the many districts receiving chapter 78 across Massachusetts, a majority in the Commonwealth. It appears that momentum to increase chapter 70 funding, something that has not been adequately addressed in this year's budget, has finally come to the attention of the state. It would be a complete disaster for this motion to be overlooked, and deny thousands of students across Massachusetts the education that they deserve. This state values education so highly and has waited far too long to truly address the inequities of chapter 70 funding as this budget has shown. Western Massachusetts and the entire state cannot afford to wait another 15 years before funded formulas are looked into again. At the ways and means committee, on education and local aid, it was made very clear that the education department will follow the legislature in regard to reforming chapter 70. Far too many government workers have been cut this year, And the sooner the legislature looks to reform or at least bolster chapter 78, the less public teachers will be cut and the fewer students will be left behind. You know, I I don't think I've ever come across a district that is thrilled or feels that chapter 78 is adequate for them, and this has affected countless districts right next to each other. I can think of many who are, going to cut likely 20, either cut 20, public school staff or, go further into debt. So please look into chapter 70 before.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you. Seko Helen Tajarian?
SPEAKER20 - Yes. You can just call me Helen. Thank you. Good morning, everybody.2170 I am Helen, a 16 year old resident of rural Sunderland, which is just surrounded by2176 farmlands. And I've choice into Northampton High School in Northampton, which is, more sort of a city where I'm a junior. I'm testifying before you as a school choice student who found the funding and opportunities for my local rural high school to be inadequate. On the opposite end of2193 the spectrum are charter schools who draw money away from local public schools such as mine. The Commonwealth has a commitment to public schools,2201 and bill s 3 8 9 not only addresses this, but can be amended with language from HD 4 4 3 9 to be even more effective. My public school minimum aid district has faced a multitude of budget cuts that have affected our public schools deeply and resulted in student protests and municipal tension, and I can just keep on going on, honestly. Though I speak on behalf of myself, it has been frustrating as a member of both the student union and vice chair of my city's youth commission to have to continually advocate for my education and that of my peers and be met with a hard reality that this is not something that is just relegated to our municipality, but rather an issue that is far larger than just Northampton. I come before you today to ask that you reopen funding formulas so that students across Massachusetts can have access to equitable education. Senators and representatives, thank you for your time.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you. Amelia Durban.
SPEAKER21 - Alright. Hello, everyone. My name is Amelia Durbin. I am a resident of Northampton, Massachusetts. I'm 16 years old and a junior at Northampton High School. I am extremely fortunate and very grateful to be a student in a state that is consistently ranked top in education in this country. However, this quality of education is not equitably received across the Commonwealth. I don't understand why we considered first when when districts like mine have laid off over 30 public school teachers in the past 2 years, and we're looking at another 20 plus this budget cycle. Districts like mine and other minimum aid, rural, or declining enrollment districts are facing elementary class sizes of 30 to 40 kids per class with 1 educator. Our most vulnerable students, English language learners, low income students, students with learning differences are left behind and without the resources to be educated equitably. These are not the conditions in which youth can learn at the level that our state claims to provide. Every year, my city must choose between funding public education and funding the other provisions required and guaranteed by a municipal government. The reality is public education funding in my community has been neglected for years, and just like the responsibility lawfully falls on both the state and municipality to fund education, so does the blame for this oversight. Districts like mine desperately need more state funding and not through the current formulas. A 6% increase in chapter 70 is great until you realize that we will receive a 2.37% increase over an already insufficient amount of money. Increasing minimum aid is great until it becomes part of what is adding to the growing budget deficits faced by districts like mine2365 and other surrounding in the area. Please support bill s 400 and reopen the funding formulas that fund public education in the Commonwealth. The Student Opportunity Act was and continues to be an important and effective piece of legislation, for many municipalities across the state. However, funding education is not a 1 size fits all feat, and currently, your system is not working. Students like myself, my 2 younger sisters, my peers here today, the educatives we learn from and look up to are all facing the fall. So we really truly need more state funding, and we need to reopen the funding formulas that fund districts like mine. Thank you all for your time. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Great job. Rep Sabadosa.
SPEAKER22 - Hi. Thank you so much for being here today and for for all of your comments. I really, just wanna say that I appreciate, first of all, that you've come here in person, which makes a huge difference. And I want to underscore that this is the first step in a long process. So we're gonna do what we we can do in this budget, but you've talked about many other pieces of legislation. So I want you to know that, your advocacy is going to continue to be needed in lots of fronts. And I appreciate how you have turned the conversation to where it needs to be, to the state, because this is a state issue. It's not just a local issue. You're right, it is tearing communities apart, and we don't want to see that. But I I won't I won't speak for Senator Comfort, but I think I can say that we both really, really want to work with you on this and and resolve these issues for Northampton, for Amherst, and all the other school children that I see walking in here today. So thank you for for coming and for making your voices heard.
SPEAKER3 - Vice chair Commerford.
SPEAKER6 - Thank you so much, mister chair. Northampton, you rocked it. Like Amherst. Right? Your voices are centered in this conversation because you've made them centered, and that's the power you have as a rising young electorate. And I will just say for the edification of committee members and as rep Sabadossa knows, this is not the first time these students have come to the state house. They were here to speak directly to secretary Tutwiler with this very same ask that we reopen the chapter 70 formula, and then we tackle the inequities that are facing the majority of school districts in the state right now. So kudos. Thank you, mister chair.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you, guys. Noel Trent doctor Noel Trent is next.
SPEAKER3 - And then Alan Burt.
SPEAKER1 - And then Alan Burt.
SPEAKER23 - Good morning, chairman Diggs, chairman Paiano, members of the joint committee on ways and means. Thank you for the opportunity to testify this morning. My name is doctor Noel Trent, and I am the CEO and president of the Museum of African American History, Boston and Nantucket. The museum is the leading cultural institution devoted to African American history in Massachusetts, New England, with campuses in Nantucket and right here on Beacon Hill. I'm here to request that the committee support an earmark for the museum line item 70080900 in the amount of $250,000. These funds would go to support staffing, operations, and needed upgrades in advance of the 200 fiftieth anniversary of the American Revolution. I will be frank. This is an existential moment for the museum and for many cultural institutions in the Commonwealth. Since the inauguration in January, the museum has been buffeted by both fiscal and policy threats. We have seen the impact on our federal and corporate funding. We have also seen it reduced institutional engagement as schools and companies try to assess whether or not coming to the museum and learning about our common history puts their funding and institutions at risk. Additionally, the uncertainty regarding the release of our economic development bond funds make support during this budget year critical. The chilling effect has been immediate and tangible. Boston is the cradle of the revolution and the nation.2640 Sustaining that legacy is2642 particularly important in this moment, as well as the rest of Massachusetts. And maintaining the stories of African Americans who fought and struggled side by side with their fellow Americans at Bunker Hill, Lexington, and Concord, who helped define the meaning of American liberty and through the abolitionist and civil rights movement. It also calls for learning and remembering those black families that lived in on the North Side Of Beacon Hill, wanted and strove for the same things as families in Barnstable, Haverhill, New Bedford, and the North End, as well as the interracial coalitions that collectively resisted slavery at the African Meeting House, including the work of noted abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. Funding an earmark for the museum in this line item will help us weather the current storm and continue to serve as a resource to citizens and2696 residents and students across the Commonwealth. It will preserve knowledge and history that some are actively trying to erase. We are the first victims in an attempt to revise our Commonwealth's rich history. We are asking that you help support the museum with this earmarked funding for the next fiscal year. Thank you for your attention, and I am happy to answer any questions you may have.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much. I don't really2727 have a question. I just know that our history is important, but we cannot forget our history. We need to be able to learn from all of our history so we can stop making the mistakes that we've made in the past. We need to learn and get better. So thank you for being here.
SPEAKER23 - Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Alan Burt?
And Al Annette Burke is Dirk sorry, Duke is next.
SPEAKER24 - Thank you. My name is Alan Byrd. I am the chair of the DMH Southeast Area Citizens Advisory Board. I am here today to speak not only for our area board, but for the other area boards across the state. I can report that we are deeply concerned, and in fact, horrified about the proposed cuts to the 02/1926 d m h budget. We are not paid employees, but we are the strong advocates for the approximate 3,400 clients of the Department of Mental Health. We are family members, professionals, and clients of DMH programs and services.2806 We are a very important voice. Please hear our concerns, our crying out for your support. Part of our role is to monitor the contract reviews of DMH in its vendor programs. I can report that we see clear evidence of less crises and hospitalizations because of the supports and services provided to our most vulnerable men, women, and children who are suffering with mental illness. We listened to the testimonies of the various commissioners2835 yesterday at the Attleboro High School. We wish that2839 our commissioner, Brooke Doyle, who we admire, had more strongly emphasized that these cuts, which the governor ordered her to make, will have a devastating effect on our most vulnerable citizens. We wish she had emphasized that these cuts will result in massive costs to other areas of the state budget, as there will be a surge of costly detox and psychiatric hospitalizations, along with costly emergency response services, housing and homelessness costs, along with increased costs to our courts and departments of corrections, as persons who become desperate often resort to desperate measures. We must remind you that the design of the programs and services of the Department of Mental Health is to reduce the otherwise massive cost to the state. The outcome statistics of DMH clearly demonstrate the savings to the state budget. It is a good business model. We understand that our state is in a fiscal crisis. We understand
Meaning that programs like the Department of Mental Health must remain fully funded. Again, we have been in a behavioral crisis for the past several years. Let us address this, not exacerbate it. 1 of the other commissioners noted yesterday that DMH got a 7% increase. As you read it, you will see that this comes from their proposed cuts before you. In summary, we need to keep the Pacassette Mental Health Hospital open. We need all of our case managers. We need all of our inpatient and outpatient programs for the men, women, and children suffering from mental illnesses. We are the spokespersons for those who cannot speak for themselves. Please listen to us. Please support us in helping those most in need.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Rep. Becks, you have a question?
SPEAKER25 - Yes, sir.
SPEAKER26 - Thank you, Chair Diggs. Chair Diggs and I come from Cape Cod. So we're proud to represent you. We're glad that you came.
We should not be cutting mental health facilities is my opinion, and we spoke about that yesterday with the commissioner. We're waiting for some more answers. As far as POCASET, I've been there. It should not be closed. It should actually be added on to. Use it. People need help. As I said yesterday, 22 veterans take their life every day, first responders. So I'm glad that3008 you came. This is how it works. You come to the3010 People's House. Let us hear your comments and know that we're working on keeping it open and actually making it even better. Thank3018 you, Chair Diggs.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Good job.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Next, we're gonna have Suzanne Connolly.
SPEAKER11 - Good morning, Chairman Diggs, Chairman Peiano, and members of the committee.
My name is Suzanne Conley. I live in Barnstable, Cape Cod's largest town and ground 0 for the onshore impacts of planned offshore wind. A nonpartisan citizens group I chair is opposing plans to land 7 extra high voltage 400 megawatt ocean cables on 3 town owned recreational beaches, and then to route these through our villages and neighborhoods to terminate at a series of massive new substations, sitted sitting atop the Cape Sol Source aquifer. If allowed to happen, this would mean the equivalent of 4 and a half times the output of the former Pilgrim nuclear power plant running through3093 our streets. We have been3095 called nimbyists, of course, and purveyors of misinformation. I'm here to say that the Healy Driscoll administration and the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs have not only ignored our legitimate concerns, they have themselves spread misinformation as they promote an overreliance on offshore winds wind as the means to achieve the energy goals set forth by the Climate Act of 2021. Recently, secretary Tepper publicly claimed offshore wind is by far the least expensive way to produce electricity. That is patently false. Only true if huge federal and state subsidies remain in place. On Monday, March 31, testifying before this committee, she responded to concerns about the aforementioned substations by pronouncing them safe, ignoring the all too frequent catastrophic fires and explosions at these facilities and thus the inadvisibility of locating them on top of drinking water protection zones. Such an event at 1 of the proposed substations, which would cover 20 acres and use 200,000 gallons of dielectric oil and large quantities of toxic s SF 6 gas could lead to an environmental catastrophe for entire region of the Commonwealth. In my opinion, the current administration's transition plan is poorly thought out and executed, essentially allowing foreign owned offshore wind developers driven by profit to dictate siting and permitting decisions. I come here today to implore members of this committee to take a hard look at any expenditures allocated to the executive office of EE and A and its various departments. In my opinion, the Commonwealth's plan to effect a transition to renewable energy is badly in need of a reset. We should focus on reliable rather than intermittent energy sources, such as small modular reactors, new carbon capture technologies, energy conservation measure measures, cost containment for the consumer, and overdue upgrades to the grid. We should certainly not be looking the other way when legitimate environmental concerns are raised, nor should we be trying to undermine article 97 of the Massachusetts constitution and the Public Lands Protection Act of 2022 to allow electrical infrastructure to be built where it simply doesn't belong. Thank you for hearing me this morning.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you, Suzanne. Yes. Any questions?
SPEAKER26 - Rep Hector. Thank you again, chair Diggs. Again, being from Cape Cod, I appreciate you coming. I have a concern of industrializing the ocean, what it does to the marine life, running the cables under our beaches, through our villages, and building substations on our sole source aquifer. That is a big concern of of mine. So I'm glad that3265 you came to the People's House.
I my question is how much money is in3273 the budget proposal that affects our funds offshore wind?
SPEAKER11 - Well, a a few months ago, the governor announced a new $35,000,000 tax credit for offshore wind developers. So there's that. In the h 1, I'm looking at it line by line, and, I'm 1 of the the largest, extra expenditures is a $10,000,000 increase to CEC. And, I I just think, you know, there are all these smaller items with incremental increases to support offshore wind. None of us in my group are, you know, are climate deniers. That's not our point. We understand the climate is changing, and we believe that we need to mitigate,
but we don't believe this is the way. And I think that there3324 are really smart people in this state who can take a look at this plan and in concert with the legislature and say, isn't there a better way to do this? Because, you know, I I live, as you know, rep Exaros, very close to where that that blade exploded in July. We are still pick picking up pieces of trash from that that terrible blade disaster on our beaches. It's fiberglass. It's PVC foam. It's epoxy resin. It's it's complete, environmental disaster, and there are countless more blades out there, being put up. We just have lost all confidence that this is the way to go. We do need to transition off of fossil fuels, for the good of our world, the good of our children and grandchildren, but I just think there are much better ways to do this. So thank you for the question.
SPEAKER26 - Thank you for your testimony. Thank you, chair Diggs.
SPEAKER1 - Anybody else?
SPEAKER11 - Thank you, chair Diggs.
SPEAKER1 - Have a great day. Jonathan Ozak and Dan Darien Gumbrell Will be next. Will be next.
SPEAKER2 - Good afternoon.
My name is Nini Silva, and I'm here with the Disability Policy Consortium. And I have lived in Milton for close to 25 years. I wanna talk today about deaf and hard of hearing services. The Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing has been level funded for the past couple of years, while other agencies have received increases. The Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing3462 is the only agency that provides3466 screening and certification of American sign language interpreters, which you see here are crucial service today.
American sign language interpreters allow people to have deaf and hard of hearing people to have communication access. Excuse me. But they also allow places like hospitals and schools and places like here in the state house to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Also, the Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing needs to have their referral system updated. Their computer system is out of date. They they are not able to keep up with the amount of referrals that they I'm sorry, request that they receive. They need $2,000,000 to update this system so that they can
make sure that the requests are filled in a timely, high quality manner. We also need you see here, communication access real time. There are programs in the state of Massachusetts where people can go and learn to become sign language interpreters. There are no programs for a card. There used to be 1 at, pardon me, MassBay Community College, but that closed over 20 years ago. And we need more CART providers. You're gonna hear me say this a couple times. The baby boomers are getting older. There are going to be more and more people who are hard of hearing. These people do not use American sign language. They use they depend on English, which Clark uses. It's like captioning on the TV. Card is like captioning real life.
In addition, the New England home for the deaf also needs additional funding. They do not have enough space for all of the deaf elderly people who need to move into an independent living, assisted living, or nursing home situation.
I wanna tell you about a person, a 72 year old gentleman who is living with HIV, and he is experiencing cognitive decline, and he has been on that waiting list for 7 years. And there is no hope3654 that he's going to be moving in anytime soon. They are building a new building nearby, but that's under HUD and only has 16 units for deaf people. That's not enough. Deaf people need to be together so that they can communicate and they're not isolated. We all know isolation leads to cognitive decline, Alzheimer's, so it's a pay now or pay later kind of situation.
In addition, the deaf and hard of hearing independent living centers need an increase in funding. When I worked there, when in the beginning of my career, I worked at Deaf Inc, and we had mostly elderly people who would come because they needed hearing aids. Those health insurance currently does not cover the cost of hearing aids, and many elders would come seeking funding, and the waiting list was so long that a lot of them would pass away before getting hearing aids. This is not okay.
That need is also only going to increase as the baby boomers age. Thank you very much for listening to me and your time today.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you.
SPEAKER27 - Thank you for the opportunity to speak before you today. My name is Jonathan Osek, and I am here to advocate on behalf of the deaf and hard of hearing community, which direct needs improved services and funding to to ensure their needs are met far and effectively. The topics I will address are crucial to the well-being in addition of this community.
Our current referral platform for the communication access real time translation, CART, and ASL translators referral is outdated. This platform is essential for providing timely and accurate referrals to those in need of communication assistance.
The lack of useful card services impacts those of us who depend on it for accurate communication in real time settings such as educational institution, workplace, and medical appointments without suitable card services, we face important barriers to communicate leading to misunderstanding,
misinformation, and frustration. Move over. The outdated state of the referral platform worsening these issues by causing delays in the process of requesting necessarily access. This results in independent access to services during downgrading the deaf and hard of hearing community. I urge this committee to assign $2,000,000 to update this platform, which will enhance its functionality and streamline the referral process, ensuring that those in need can receive time and support.
Deaf seniors are facing a desperate storage of proper housing options. The New England home for the deaf, while valuable resources lacks enough space to accommodate all individual who are required a service. This storage of space leave many seniors at risk of isolation and in Cape Cod care. It is urgent to address this gap by increasing funding to expand and improve house facilities for deaf seniors. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much. Rep Shirley Agawamba.
SPEAKER28 - Alright. I got thank you. I have a question really quickly. The wait list is so long, so there is no time frame for when individuals will get help. Is that correct?
SPEAKER29 - Yes. Well, thank you.
SPEAKER28 - That is terrible to hear, but let me tell you, we hear you today. Thank you for your advocacy.
SPEAKER27 - Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - It's our pleasure.
SPEAKER3 - Mister Ozak, I wanna thank you both, for your testimony. And mister Ozak, I know that there was probably some more that you wanted to say, so I would suggest to you that, if you wanna submit the rest, of your your written testimony, to the committee, make sure you you give it to the the folks that are on the the front of the desk, and we'll share with the rest of the committee. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - And, we we went to a it was either Amherst or Worcester, and we're hearing about the deaf and hard of hearing and how we need to make sure that our students and students we have students out there. Just to let you know, we need a lot of people to to be able to sign, and you can get paid a good amount of money. It's a good recreation sorry. It's a good profession to be able to help4019 your fellow person. So please, if you ever think4023 of doing something, that would be an4025 an awesome way to honor someone, to help somebody else out. So just to let you know, that's a really good position, a good job that you could have in being able to help somebody. Rep, please?
Go ahead. Oh, I thought you oh, okay.
Dang it.
Darian Gabriel? Kimbrell. Kimbrell.
SPEAKER3 - And then next, Annette Duke.
SPEAKER1 - Annette Duke is next.
SPEAKER30 - Are you, calling Annette Duke at this point?
SPEAKER1 - Annette Duke?
SPEAKER30 - Yes. I'm here. Can you hear me? I'm online.
SPEAKER1 - We can hear you. You're on Zoom. Yes.
SPEAKER30 - Excellent. Thank you so much, chair Diggs and chair Paianno. I really appreciate your allowing us to, testify remotely. My name is Annette Duke. I'm a housing attorney at the Mass Law Reform Institute, and I'm here today to testify on behalf of the access to, council coalition, which has over 240 organizational supporters. And we urge, the joint committee on ways and means to include $5,000,000 for the access to council line item to continue the program. I will be submitting written testimony with more details, but, last budget year, the access to counsel line item was approved in the FY 25 budget for 2,500,000.0. The Mass Legal Assistance Corporation immediately launched the project in the fall and was carefully and has been carefully developing it, so that it will succeed moving forward. At the onset, MLAC reached out to more than 200 stakeholders to solicit input about where to start and focus this project. This may be the first time in the country that such a broad survey has been done in the context of access to counsel. In January, the project was up and running. Staff attorneys are taking cases, filing court papers, appearing in court, and negotiating with attorneys. Legal services is partnering with the Mass Union public housing tenants to do outreach in public housing. Mass law reform is starting to do training for new lawyers, and MLAC is beginning to collect data and, establish reporting systems. So the infrastructure is getting set up. At the same time, the imbalance of representation is getting worse. The last 2 years, approximately 4% of tenants were represented while over 90% of landlords were represented. This is what this program seeks to correct. Again, the coalition is requesting a 2,500,000.0 increase for a total of 5,000,000
represent the clients that they're currently representing if the cases aren't resolved and expand and start to take new cases. Again, I'll be submitting written testimony, and I really appreciate, your support for this. And we'll take any questions. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - No questions. Thank you very much4234 for your testimony. Krish Mosher?4236
SPEAKER3 - Yeah. And Ashley Tarian.
SPEAKER1 - And Ashley Tarian, you're next.
SPEAKER3 - Just wanna remind, panelists, that there'll be 6 minutes, time limit. But if4265 there's a further testimony, you can always4267 submit written testimony.
SPEAKER1 - And believe you me, the the testimony is very important. Okay? We do read it.
SPEAKER31 - We are eighth grade students at Gateway Regional School in Huntington, Massachusetts. In the beginning of the year, the eighth grade collectively chose to investigate school funding for our civics action project. We initially had very little to no understanding about how the gateway schools were funded. In our research and conversations, we have learned that rural schools face a unique challenge.
SPEAKER32 - We are here to speak to you today about the fiscal crisis that is impacting our school. The gateway community desperately needs increased funding or else gateway is in jeopardy. In jeopardy of losing more teachers, in jeopardy of losing more learning opportunities, and ultimately, in jeopardy of closing down. And it is not just us. Other rural schools nearby are also struggling. For many of us, gateway is all we have ever known. But as we have grown older, we are starting to
fiscal crisis affects our school firsthand. Here are some of our stories.
SPEAKER33 - Ladies and gentlemen of our great Commonwealth, during the spring of 20 22, I was attending fifth grade within a suburban school district in Hampshire County. During a windstorm, a tree impacted my home, destroying it and causing my family to relocate to Russell, Massachusetts and I to Gateway School District. I clearly remember 3 years ago, the the very first thing I noticed at school was how few extracurricular and educational field trip opportunities were offered compared to my previous school system. In fact, because of this, I did not even plan to stay in the Hilltown system for my high school education. Recently, my research has shown that gateway is my best option due to the neighboring rural school districts also experiencing a funding deficit and cannot afford to provide equal educational milestones to students. Additionally, I remember high school students of my previous school district describing challenging advanced placement curriculums, and how they would benefit significantly from these classes to become competitive applicants to some of the most esteemed universities within our wonderful state. It was then that I set my sights on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Gateway cannot afford to offer4424 an equal amount to these advanced placement classes without additional financial assistance.
SPEAKER29 - Another struggle that we face is busing. I know other people here at Gateway that have hour long bus rides due to lack of enough busing. When you consider all that time spent on a bus, I think a lot about what people could be doing with that valuable time, studying, socializing, or sleeping. Personally, I do not have a long bus ride because I'm the last stop. But because of other kids on my bus, it comes late every single day, and I have to rush to get to class on time. I get in trouble or coming tardy because our school is treated less simply because of our location. Additionally, our school used to offer a late bus to allow students to stay after school for extracurriculars or to get extra help from a teacher. Because of funding cuts, we no longer have a late bus. As a result, there's far less participation in after school activities than there once was. In the suburban school, it would not be that big a deal to ask your parents to come pick you up 10 minutes away from your home. But in rural schools like ours, it might take our parents 30 to 45 minutes each way to come get us. The loss of an after school program was extremely damaging to our school community.
SPEAKER1 - Why don't you sit next to him so he can go next?
SPEAKER5 - I've come here my whole schooling career, and in my time here, I have seen how year after year our middle school students graduate. They leave to another district, often going to a trade school or a school that offers more AP classes.
Students yearly just because we can't afford to have a school that people wanna graduate from. Our district is forced to let go of teachers year after year due to budget cuts. This alone, several teacher yes, this year alone, several teachers and interventionalists will lose their job due to challenging funding.
SPEAKER34 - In the time that I have been in Gateway, I realized that our school district has only 6 sports in all seasons combined. That is not a lot of options compared to the other schools for me. I love playing sports, but the options that Gateway has are not the sports I like, and many other students would agree with me too. I feel like the more options we have, the more sports in our school, the people would want to play sports more. Sports are very important on physical and mental health because in sports, you learn sportsmanship and you make friends. Sports helps you build communities, but in rural schools like ours, there's simply often not enough funding to support as many teams. Many of our students miss out on the valuable experience of being on a sports team because of the lack of options. For example, I love to play volleyball, but I'm not play able to play it because gateway does not have that option. It affects my physical and mental health by not being able to socialize, and I just have fun playing a sport. Every student deserves a fully funded school with many extracurriculars and sports options, including students like me attending our rural schools in Hilton, Massachusetts.
SPEAKER35 - Education is crucial everywhere, really no matter the situation. The future of our species and civilization heavily depends on the education a student receives. It doesn't matter where a kid goes to school, we are all the same. We all have very high amounts of potential in the future and don't deserve to be held back because of insufficient funds that can be provided equally for all schools. We urgently request to help with the state legislature. Your area on commission has suggested that a pot of 60,000,000 for rural school aid is necessary for rural schools to retain financial stability, but rural school aid falls far short of that number right now. We stand here today to plead for a pot of only 30,000,000. This would significantly help out our school district and others like ours.
SPEAKER36 - What we ask is for some what we ask is what we ask for is some help. Not only for me, but the students and staff of Gateway because all kids deserve a fully funded school. I think every student deserves a fully funded school for a good education, to explore their interests, to try new things, to have more time at home, to being on a bus for an hour a day, to play sports and to learn, in order to 1 day make a world a better place. We would love to see students have an equal educational opportunity as the kids who live in suburban and urban areas because kids should not be treated differently because of their zip code. We are rural and we deserve the same opportunities as everyone else.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much. That was awesome. You guys did a great job. That was great teamwork, and this is what we are up here listening to you. We're gonna be a team, and we're gonna figure out how to work this out because you guys are our future, and we just saw how our future can work by communicating. So great job. Any questions?
Thank thank you for that piece.
Next up, Sabine Vaughn Murn.
SPEAKER3 - And then.
SPEAKER1 - And then Evan McKay.
Sabine, are you on?
SPEAKER3 - If not, we'll we'll call her again after.
SPEAKER1 - We'll call you after. If not
SPEAKER3 - Evan McKay.
SPEAKER1 - Evan McKay?
Someone lost their phone also in the front.
Oh, okay. Sorry. The alright.
SPEAKER3 - I'll just move on.
SPEAKER1 - Cesar Nazzello. Cesar Nazzello? Oh, hang on.
SPEAKER3 - Is this Evan?
SPEAKER1 - Evan?
SPEAKER37 - Good afternoon. To the esteemed members of the legislature and the public, my name is Evan McKay. I'm from Cambridge. I'm on the executive committee of the Sierra Club, and I'm a member of the United Auto Workers, UAW local 5 1 18, the United Automobile Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America. I'm incredibly worried about the state of our budget right now. We are operating under the context of extreme financial precarity, given the Trump administration, which is coming for so many of the things that we care about, health care, education, social programs, things essential for the working class and for our planet. They want to give tax breaks to billionaires and their corporations. And at the state level, we need to be doing as much as possible, and we must be prepared to tax the rich. Today, I'm gonna talk about something that shouldn't have ever existed in which we should end right now in our budget. This is a sales tax loophole on aircraft and aircraft parts. When I learned that taxpayers were subsidizing the billionaires polluting our planet, I was shocked. We can fix this right now in our budget. To see the legislation, it's s 19 23 and h 31 23, but it's so short, I'm just going to read it. Ground the jet the jet tax loophole. Section 6 of chapter 64 h of the general laws as appearing in the 2022 official edition is hereby amended by striking out subsections UU and VV. Section 6 are the exemptions of the sales tax. And UU is the sales of repair or replacement parts exclusively for use in aircraft or in the significant overhauling or rebuilding of aircraft4893 or aircraft parts or components on4895 a factory basis. VV is the sales of aircraft. Working class people pay sales tax all the time. Disposable diapers, personal hygiene products, toothpaste and shampoo, baby cribs, school supplies. When we travel by bicycle, car, interregional bus and train, we pay sales tax. But when a rich person buys a private jet and private jet parts, they do so without paying sales tax. Mass budget estimates this tax loophole costs our Commonwealth an estimated $27,600,000 every single year. This is a moment when vital services are not being funded, and we're told that there's not enough money for good things. There's not enough money, the people say, for the right to shelter, but we object to that. There's not enough money for high quality, sustainable public transportation for so many good things. We need to eliminate this tax loophole on aircraft, the worst and most environmentally destructive manner of travel. This is about climate justice. This is4954 about environmental justice. Right now, our tax code is subsidizing asthma and air pollution. This is about fairness, and this is about a budget that supports working class people instead of4964 billionaires. There's so many good things that need to be funded. We're hearing all about them. We're here testifying on behalf of the good things. Let's stop subsidizing the billionaires to pollute our communities and destroy our planet. Enough is enough. Ground the jet tax loophole. Thank you. Thanks, Evan.
SPEAKER1 - I didn't know that about, aircraft. That's very you learn something new every day, so that that was, that was good. Thank you. Any questions?
SPEAKER3 - I wanna introduce, senator Jake Olivera, senator from Ludlow, who just came in. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Sabine, are you around?
Anita Roman?
Anita, are you there?
Cesar Nuzzillo. Cesar Nuzzillo.
SPEAKER38 - Good afternoon, committee members. My name is Cesar Nuzzolo, and I serve as the chair of the Lunenburg Select Board. I made the long trek to Boston this morning5045 on the commuter rail because for5047 the second year in a row, the town of Lunenburg, like many other municipalities across the Commonwealth, is in a budget crisis. Last year, we successfully passed an override to close a $948,000 gap in our school budget. This year, that gap is $2,000,000 representing 8% of our school budget, and we're weathering those cuts this year. That means we're laying off 38 school employees. That's 9% of our total permanent school staff. All of these cost increases, health insurance, school transportation, out of district placements are out of our control, and they certainly don't fit within the confines of prop 2 and a half. So what does that mean for municipalities like Lunenburg? Right now, obviously, it means the quality of public education and the commonwealth is at risk. But it also means each year, departments are left to fight over an increasingly small amount of scraps. It means 1 group in town is pit against another group in town. Do we level fund our schools or do we pave our roads? How do we justify an increase in services in 1 department when another department has to cut staff. It's not sustainable, and it's leaving communities deeply divided. So we could ask for another override this year, but people are already stretched too thin. We need more local aid from the state. The chapter 70 inflation adjustment would be an extra $100,000 for Lunenburg. In district transportation funding would be $200,000 The special education circuit breaker would be $190,000 The whole child grant program would be an additional $240,000 Municipalities need this funding. We need the minimum per pupil funding level to be increased to $150 We need more unrestricted general government aid. Chapter 70 needs to be cracked open, as I keep hearing people say. I ask you all to act with urgency to better support municipalities. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you.
Paula Petrella.
Jerry Shea is next.
Gary Shea.
Barbara Reardon?
Linda Wesson?
What is that? Jennifer Wojtizek?
Dean Luchier?
Okay. Good. Hi, Dean. Hey. Good.
SPEAKER39 - Chairperson and distinguished members of the House Ways and Means Committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak before you today. I hope you only as a I come before you only as a researcher who witnesses a growing crisis that threatens the safety of communities, offers integrity of parole oversight systems. I would like to put on the record, I've been a field parole officer for 6 years. Anything I say today though does not represent the MPOA union or the Massachusetts parole board. I'm here as a researcher for my doctoral capstone from Liberty University in public administration.
This testimony centers on the Massachusetts parole board, critical understaffing, inadequate training, infrastructure, and system limitations that compromise parole ops ability to conduct safe and effective supervision. Let me begin with a simple truth. Staffing levels at the Massachusetts parole board are not just inadequate, but they are critical. After interviewing with parole professionals across 8 different states, it shows that Massachusetts parole officers carry out a unique and personal workload. They are responsible not just for supervision, but also mentoring, case management, crisis response, and whether acknowledged by policy makers or not, law enforcement duties. When parole officers are stretched thin, the ability to deliver quality individualized supervision drastically declines. Scholarly studies have consistently shown that high parole caseloads lead to reduced supervision, effectiveness, increased recidivism rates, and officer Berno Wetzel 2021. When staffing is critically low, officers are not forced are often forced to triage cases reducing supervision to manage check ins rather than5356 minimum rehabilitation.
Furthermore, the recent Mattis Court decision will increase the number of supervision cases stretching resources even thinner. There's approximately 250 eligible first degree lifers for intensive supervision. Parole standards that equates to 2 normal parolees compared to 2 1 lifer. The ration is not feasible with current staff and potentially endanger in public safety and undermine rehabilitation goals. Despite the multifaceted responsibilities that parole officers fulfill, including supervision, arrest, transports, possible use of force, and respond to emergencies. Some within different administrations in the state have labeled professionals as customer service, not law enforcement. In public service sectors, particularly in agencies tasked with public safety, organizational identity is crucial for consistency, morale, and coherent strategy, Albert Witten. When an organization lacks a clear identity, employees often experience confusion regarding values, culture, and operational directives. This uncertainty can undermine internal cohesion and the trust of the external stakeholders, including community members on the agency efficiency. That was my 3 minutes. Yeah. 3 minutes. I have more stats if anyone has questions. I know I gave a small piece to representative Soros, but
SPEAKER1 - Honestly, if you'd give us the testimony, we'd love to take Okay. Okay? No. No. We don't read enough, sir. We would love to take it.
SPEAKER39 - Alright.
SPEAKER1 - Okay? But thank you
SPEAKER39 - very much. Talk and send it. Does anyone have any questions about this?
SPEAKER1 - Told you I was gonna test
SPEAKER39 - Thank you for your testimony. Can you just quickly, give the membership here, at what staffing levels you guys are at today versus what you'd like to be in the future? So currently, I don't know the exact numbers. I've put in a request for it. I just haven't received the public records. But because I work for parole, I can say, over the last 3 or 4 years, we've lost due to retirements, COVID mandates, and other things, I think close to 22 parole officers, and we've only hired 9 back.
Our state mandate is not over 40 cases. So everyone in the state, I think our case average5496 is roughly 39. I have requested it. I just haven't got it back yet. So after 40, you're really stretched thin. Some officers have been over 40 for a long period of time, which then you are just putting no fires. If you cover a big district and you have to go town in 1 spot, and then you have to go 3 hours or 2 hours to see someone else, that's your day. If you have to do an arrest or transport, depending on what part of state, what facility goes back to, it could take out a whole day of work that could be accomplished. Great. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Thank you, Chair Diggs.
SPEAKER1 - Representative Zarzauris.
SPEAKER26 - Thank you, chair Diggs. Real quick, you said something about lifers. Oh, sorry. 245 lifers, something different.
SPEAKER39 - I roughly I'm sorry. 2 20. So it's 220 eligible first degree lifers. When that comes out, if they're released supervision, there's visited or made contact with at least 4 times. 2 times in the home, 2 times in the community, office, wherever it might be. Average person is 2 or 1, so you're doing double the work for 1 person. So say if you had 10 intensive people come out on parole, that's equivalent to 20 people you're doing the work for.
SPEAKER26 - Thank you for your testimony. Thank you, chair.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Thank you, sir.
So we got a panel. Abigail Theron? Ripley. Ripley. Sorry. And Abigail Theron. Theron.
SPEAKER3 - Blake Sekoske.
SPEAKER1 - Blake Sekoske. And Cassidy Toporoske. Toporoske.
Guys, just speak right up and have at it.
SPEAKER36 - Dear ways and means committee members, we are Cassidy Toporowski,
SPEAKER40 - Abigail Ripley. Abigail Terian. Blake Sikaski.
SPEAKER36 - From Chester Elementary School in Gateway Regional School District. Our school is a beautiful and wonderful place to learn. At Chester, we do exciting things like play productions, hydroponics, hatching animals, and hands on activities connected to our curriculums. We are5662 here because the way that our school is funded is putting our school at5668 risk again. Because we are a small school in a rural regional district, we do not receive enough funding to make our school better. Our school district competes for grants just to fund our basic needs. Our district is 1 of over 200 that are held harmless. If over 200 districts in the state are held harmless, what percentages of districts is the funding formula working for? It can't be more than 50%. A 50% grade is not a passing grade. So it sounds like your funding formula is failing. In addition, every year, we have to fight for rural school aid. Rural school aid is meant to provide rural schools with money they need to function since it costs more to provide a basic education at a rural school. These funds are not extra. They fund staff positions and make sure we have basic things. Every year, these funds are in danger. Why are we expected to make huge growth as a school or in things like a school of distinction recognition and be told that we are not worth funding fully?
SPEAKER40 - Our teachers, our staff, and our students are working as hard as we can. Our Chester Students and staff have been up to some amazing things, including hats and chicks and trout, growing many different plants using hydroponics and steam, taking part in composting with Tommy's compost, making maple syrup, student media club where students learn how to create informational videos, student wide hands on SEL day, and meet with the offer author of the book Nocturneals. Production of Willy Wonka's Kids, Girls on the Run program, Mad Science Night spelling bee, and adopt a cow program. Instead of going on field trips, we have people come to us because bus buses are insanely expensive. Some of these things were paid for by grants, which are not a sustainable way for for us to fund a school. We have done our part to keep improving Chester Elementary School. Now we need you to do your part and make sure that our school is funded.
SPEAKER36 - Rural school aid keeps Chester and other schools like ours moving forward. It's really hard to make sure that our school keeps improving when we never know if rural school aid will be funded, how much will we get, and when the money will come in. We are learning about how budgets are made. And the way rural school aid happens each year makes no sense for making a budget that works. Please fix this because we love our school. We love our town. And going to school in a small town should not mean that you get less of an education. Thank you. Chester Elementary School's fourth grade class.
SPEAKER1 - You got you got you guys had a
I I won't lie. They had a said hello. And I know they don't know that movie, but we do. Jerry Maguire. But
SPEAKER41 - So good morning. I'm actually my I'm honored to have the time to discuss this shortage of funding with the rural schools. I am Abigail Terrian's mom as well. I've been an educator since 02/2009. I've worked in Springfield, Holyoke,5914 and now Chester. Something that I've come to realize is the needs for students is not a geographical thing. Like many of our urban settings, Gateway also has many English language learners and families with economic hardships. What I've seen since COVID across the board in talking to my colleagues across the country is that our kids need more for academic, social, and emotional support. There's no substitute for group instruction from highly qualified educators. So here's the hard truth. If we can help our kids grow emotionally and academically now, later when they become adults, we they will become independent citizens who can positively contribute to our society. In short,5964 if we invest in our youth now,5966 we will not have to do it5968 when they are adults. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. I I can't kid5974 you. What we saw right there are future leaders for us. So, our our future is looking very bright with what we see, and and we're really listening to you. And, we'll do our work to figure it out.
SPEAKER3 - Shane, thank you all for your for your presentation. I think we're all extremely proud, of you guys, especially that you guys are here advocating for your community and advocating for something, as important as education. So thank you all for that. Vice chair Comerford.
SPEAKER6 - Thank you so much, mister chair. I just wanna say I wanna affirm that 50% is not a passing grade. And right now, we are not doing well for rural schools, and we could do so much better. 1 of the things you talked about was predictability. That seems just like a good idea. Right? We don't give that to rural schools, and we certainly don't give them enough money or enough opportunity to do restructure things, like the insanely expensive transportation, which you mentioned. Right? So we could do so much better, and because of you, we will.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you. Anita
SPEAKER1 - German, please. Online.
SPEAKER3 - Anita German, who's joining us online?
Let's, move on. David Foley, Katie Murphy.
SPEAKER1 - David Foley, Katie Murphy, you're up next.
SPEAKER28 - That's a tough crowd to follow. Yeah. Good good afternoon. Chairs, Diggs. Chairs, Peiano. My name is Katie Murphy. I'm an ICU nurse at Brigham and Women's Hospital and president
SPEAKER1 - of the Massachusetts
SPEAKER28 - Nurses Massachusetts Nurses Association, representing over 25,000 members across the state, including members working at Pappas Rehab Hospital for Children and Poughasset Mental Health Center, both of which were targeted for closure in the administration's FY 26 budget proposal. First, I want to express our strong opposition to any closure, staff reductions, or cuts in services at Bocassette Mental Health Center. We were happy to hear the governor has paused these plans, but we wanna be sure that this facility and its services are maintained in the legislator's FY 26 budget. Dave will be talking more about that. I also wanna express our strong opposition to any cuts to DMH case managers. As our frontline nurses and healthcare professionals across the state can tell you, we remain in a behavioral health crisis that is overcrowding our emergency departments. The impact of these proposed cuts on the healthcare ecosystem cannot be overstated. No other role can replicate6163 these services. I'll now turn the remainder of my testimony to the proposed closure of the Pappas Rehab Hospital for children and potential relocation of students to locations that cannot and will not provide the medical, rehabilitative, educational, recreation recreational, habilitative, transitional, and complimentary alternative medical services to children and young adults with multiple disabilities. This is not acceptable for these children or their families. We were happy to hear the governor announce a pause to this closure in late February, but remain very concerned that it has been a pause in name only. And you will hear from workers today at that facility who could speak to them. I'll focus on the future of Pappas and how you can help with that. Let us pause, study, and reimagine what Pappas can be. We are asking that the legislature protect Pappas and maintain services there while we explore opportunities to utilize the existing property and think creatively about how we can provide long term funding for the maintenance and expansion of Pappas as a center of excellence for the care of disabled children across the Commonwealth. This facility, its staff, and the programs provided there are too valuable to cast aside. There is no comparable setting no comparable programs in the Commonwealth to replicate what has happened at what is provided at Pappas. Thank you.
SPEAKER25 - Good afternoon, reps, senators, chairs, Pallano, and Diggs. My name is Dave Foley. I'm the president of SEIU Local 5 0 9 representing dedicated workers who serve on the front lines of human services and education in Massachusetts. I came here today to address the crisis we'll be facing if the proposed budget cuts for f y 26 go through to stand with the workers, families, and patients who depend on Pappas and PCASET and the essential case management services provided by the workers in the Department of Mental Health. I've had the privilege of seeing firsthand the impact that Pappas has on children and families who rely on the specialized care there. Pappas has been critical resource for children with disabilities and complex medical needs. If it were to close, families would be forced to seek care miles away from home, an obstacle that could change challenge unnecessary delays in treatment and add stress to families already facing difficult challenges. There's so much to say about Pappas and how special and irreplaceable this facility is, but just to put it simply, the care and education that Pappas provides cannot be replicated elsewhere. Similarly, Pacasset has been an integral part of the Cape community, providing high quality mental health care for individuals seeking support. Its closure would not only displace vulnerable patients, but it would exacerbate the growing mental health crisis we're seeing across the state. Mental health care is already inaccessible for so many and closing Pacasset's mental health facility would significantly worsen the problem. Pacasset is often the only option for the uninsured and under insured population on Cape Cod who need acute mental health care. Private hospitals are often unwilling to take these patients because they lose money. Closing Picasset puts this whole population at risk. We're also looking at huge cuts to DMH's case management services, reducing the workforce and access to6367 services by 50%. I can't stress enough that this is dangerous. It would result in the loss of a compassionate and skilled workforce that so many people rely on to access the very basic things we all deserve, food, housing, ongoing support. When the governor released her draft budget, our local held an emergency meeting for the workers. To prep for that, I looked through our contract and I got up to speed on seniority, bumping rights, civil service, anticipating granular questions from the workers. I didn't answer 1 of those questions. What's gonna happen to our clients?
How many people in need will fall through the enormous cracks in the system? How does DMH expect to maintain relationships with the clients who avoid us? Those are the only questions this workforce asked at that meeting. We have 300 feet 340 case managers employed right now with the Commonwealth who are dedicated and focused on building relationships with people in need, connecting them with systems and services, and improving their well-being. It's the lifeblood of the mental health system that we're so proud of in this state. The department is gonna claim that having the workforce that's decimating it times 5 won't lead to reduction in services because of open access. And I can submit the rest of my testimony in writing. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. We, you know, I came from a union, so I definitely can understand and all the bumping, we wanna be very careful and we wanna take care of our everybody, not just 1. We wanna take care of everybody. So we're gonna figure out what we can do and you know that we're we care. Thank you, chair. Any questions?
Repex?
SPEAKER26 - Very quickly. Thank you for coming. There's no way that Percasset should close. Agree. That is Cape Cod and the islands. My own sister was boarded for 5 days in Cape Cod Hospital before we could find her a place in Avril. So we should do everything we can to keep you open. And like I said earlier, use that
SPEAKER25 - rep.
6511 SPEAKER16511 -6511 Thank6511 you.
SPEAKER28 - Thank you so much.
SPEAKER1 - Next up, Ella Bradbury, Edenhamm, Olive Paradise.
SPEAKER3 - Mister chair. Somebody wants to
SPEAKER1 - Oh, sorry. I'm my dad. Yes. You did.
Rep Souza, sorry about that.
SPEAKER42 - No problem. Sorry to bring you guys back.
SPEAKER28 - It'll be
SPEAKER42 - a quick 1. I promise. Thank you so much for your testimony. And I just was wondering if the with the plans to relocate these children from papa Pappas to Western Mass, Western Massachusetts Hospital, are they prepared to offer the services currently being offered at Pappas? And what happens to the patients who are currently occupying the unit at the Western Mass Hospital?
SPEAKER28 - Doctor. Kevin. Yep. Thanks so thanks so much for Absousa. No. Our, members and our healthcare providers at Western mass Massachusetts Hospital have been very clear that they cannot replicate the services that have been, grown and developed at Pappas, you know, over the centuries to give this wrap around, you know, educational, emotional, physical, education to the children and young young adults at Pappas. They would be in rather than being on a campus, they would be in rooms rather than having classrooms and educational, environment on this campus. They would be in, I think, 1 recreational room. So they they cannot, duplicate the work in Western Mass Hospital. And your the other6602 part6602 of your question,
that that's currently a Huntington's ward at Western Mass Hospital, where also, the clients have been there for an extended period. And we do get to know our patients and our clients, and they would also have to be relocated clients, and they would also have to be relocated. In both in both cases, family members would have their families, in different parts of the state, as they've been talking about relocating some of the Western Mass clients as far east as the Shattuck. And then the people the children who are at Pappas out to Western Mass. So crisscrossing the state, yes, would affect both of those populations.
SPEAKER42 - Thank you. And you would we're gonna address my follow-up question, because what was gonna happen to the Western Mass patients. So thank you so much.
SPEAKER28 - Thank you. Thanks so much.
SPEAKER1 - I also asked a question yesterday about because it was similar things that is there a way to make something instead of making it so big, maybe we mean to make smaller
housing situations so that we can have it in have it in Worcester or have it up in Western Mass, have it in smaller spots so that it's not so big and we're able to help various areas. You know what I mean? Find a happy medium in every single section of the state. So we can have 1 in the same Western part, 1 in the middle, 1 down the Cape or Cape area so that we can small make it smaller, but then help those more and communicate more. I think there's gotta be other ways.
SPEAKER43 - You know, thank you, representative.
SPEAKER28 - You know, we're doing such wonderful jobs at, our academic medical centers here in in the Commonwealth of which we're so proud. And so we can see that there will be an ongoing need for services, you know, that that that affect all of our families, I believe. So, you know, you can see that how important it is. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. You did a great job. K, guys. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER44 - Hello, and thank you for letting us speak today. My name is Eden Hahn. I use sheher pronouns, and I'm a sophomore at Amherst Regional High School.
SPEAKER45 - My name is Ella Bradbury. I use sheher pronouns, and I'm a freshman at Amherst Regional High School. We are here because we are very concerned about the lack of funding going to the education system, especially its impact on special6794 education students. In the budget for next year, we are facing a $1,400,000 deficit from the middle and high schools. This will lead to a loss of teaching positions as the district can no longer afford them. We are facing this budget crisis in part because 50% of the property in Amherst is not taxable since it belongs to the colleges and universities. This means that we have to rely on a small tax base to fund our schools. The school serves the entire community, but 40% of the residents are footing the entire bill. This means that we need the state to provide more funding because local funding just isn't enough in a community like ours. With these proposed budget cuts, teachers would have to do a lot more work to help each student as there would be more for each to manage, and likely, each student would sup receive less support. The budget cuts have an even bigger impact on special education students. 44 4 percent of students in the Amherst Public Schools are considered high needs students. High needs students are low income students, ELL students, and students with disabilities. Around 25 percent are classified as students with disabilities. The amount of money that we get for each student is not aligned with the actual cost needed for educating high new students. There are tons of specialized programs that the district needs to pay for to meet the needs of these students. This includes a language learning disability program and an intensive learning needs program. Putting this into perspective, I've never been categorized as a special education student, but I still need attention from every single 1 of my teachers daily to help me learn. With fewer teachers, less learning will happen. I hope you will recognize the unique needs of our community and provide the funding we need for all of our students to receive the support we need.
SPEAKER44 - The immense budget cuts being proposed really concern us for a lot of reasons, but for me, especially because of my brother. My brother has autism, and in every stage of his experience in the public education system, from kindergarten to twelfth grade, my brother received the care he needed free of charge. Whether it was physical therapy, speech therapy, or help with assignments, there was never a doubt that he would get what he needed. Because of these accommodations, he is now successfully living on his own at college. My friend, Lucia, a junior at our school, is a part of the club best buddies. Every meeting, she complains about how understaffed it can be. The teachers do their best, but sometimes what is needed is more resources. She watches these paras go above and beyond, spending their own money on games and activities, truly wanting what's best for the students. If even just 1 para were laid off due to budget cuts, which is not an unlikely occurrence, this would make the program even more understaffed and under resourced, not allowing it to have the wonderful impact we know it could.
SPEAKER45 - We only hope that the future children with special needs and disabilities can access the help they need through high school. Thank you.
SPEAKER46 - Good afternoon. Thank you for letting us speak today. My name is Olive.
SPEAKER47 - And my name is Rose. We are both tenth graders at Amherst Regional High School. We wanna talk about the condition of our school building and how it's affecting everyone in the district.
SPEAKER46 - When I was in middle school, the instrument storage closet next to the band room was always overly humid. Many of the school instruments had been damaged and some unplayable because no funds exist to6976 buy a dehumidifier, let alone a proper storage area. Now in6980 high school, on a recent visit to my band teacher's office, her ceiling was leaking. She had 2 different bases placed6986 under the leak to catch the water. I believe that both instruments and music teachers should be treated with respect and care. No person should have vases brimming with dirty ceiling water in their office or broken instruments to practice on just because the state won't fund our schools. In7003 Amherst, our music programs are very special. Our teachers support students in grade levels across the7009 entire district. They do this knowing that music programs are often the7013 first to be cut. These programs and educators are important to me and to my community. They deserve more than what is being
SPEAKER47 - provided. This year, my history teacher, mister Elliott, warned people against eating in class. When I asked why, he informed me, it was because he had found a dead mouse hanging from the ceiling. I wish I could look at you and tell you that this is where the issue ends and it's just minor inconveniences, but that could not be farther from the truth.
The science department lacks the stability it needs when it comes to, securing yearly materials. Water dripping into the middle school's library is ruining the place where so many kids go to learn. I have been incredibly lucky to go to a school that has teachers who care so much about students, specifically my ninth grade English teacher, miss Seltzer, who brought us here today. There's only so much they can do when water filled garbage cans ruin instruments and books, mold covered walls, and wall water stained ceilings are normalized. This should not be the conditions we are forced to learn learn in. You have an opportunity to provide us with better conditions in the building. And on behalf of the generations to come into these very
SPEAKER46 - schools, please help. We believe the state cares really cares about Massachusetts' public education. I know no 1 wants leaking office ceilings, broken band instruments, cracked walls, and faulty roofs. Students and teachers alike Students and teachers alike deserve to learn and grow in an environment that is positive, safe, sanitary, and stable.
SPEAKER47 - This is why we wanna ask you to rethink the formula for school funding. Provide more funding to public schools, and please remember, this funding is an investment in the safety and care of everyone who walks through the doors of a Massachusetts public school. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER1 - Great job, you guys. You know, I came from a public school, and it's very, very important. And I also had a parent that made me, play an instrument. So, it's a lot of discipline right there. So thank you. Any questions? Great job, you guys.
Linda Wesson?
SPEAKER48 - Good afternoon, chair Diggs and chair Peano. My name is Linda Wesson, and I am I live on Cape Cod, and I've been an approved court transcriber now for over 26 years. I will not bother you with minor details. I will keep this short. Respectfully, I am in front of you today to explain how frustrated we were with the process. The joint committee on judiciary reported out our bill favorably to ways and means after 2 extensions. We were not informed of what was causing these delays. Once in ways and means, we were told to get in touch with your elected officials, so we placed numerous phone calls, emails, texts to the point where we thought we were harassing everybody. The wait was excruciating. After all our hard work, time, and energy, we were devastated to learn that we had to refile the bill and start the process over again. We can't do it without you. Please include us in the budget, and I thank you for your time.
SPEAKER49 - Hi. I'm Jerry Shea. Hopefully, I was on the list. I'm also an approved court transcriber. I'm from Swamp Scott, Massachusetts. And as I know, we should be brief and I will be brief. This is our eighth attempt since 1988 to get a page rate increase. It's been 37 years without a raise. I'm sure when we were at the judiciary last year and they moved it up to ways and means, they all agreed, we thought we had it, we were good. I couldn't have been wrong I was so wrong, we lost. So my7262 questions are, what did we do wrong? You know, what what is the process? What did we miss? And so we're trying to learn so that we can get it through and get it to Governor Haley for a signature. 37 years is too long to wait for a raise and we do valuable work. We transcribe all the audio hearings in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the courtrooms. So, you know, we really need this raise to get more7286 people involved. There's only 71 us on the list. And7290 at $3 a page, who's gonna work for that? We need a rate rate7294 increase. Thank you for your time.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much. 37 years is a is a long time and, you know, we're hearing you. And, we didn't know, but I think, we'll listen and, we'll see what we can do.
SPEAKER49 - I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Anita Roman should be on virtually.
SPEAKER50 - Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Cheers, Ayano and cheer. My name is Enaida Roman, and I am the president and CEO of Amplify Latinx.
SPEAKER1 - Can you
SPEAKER50 - hear me okay?
SPEAKER3 - Yes. We can.
SPEAKER50 - Okay. Thank you. And I am here representing, We Are ALX, formerly known as Amplify Latinx. And, the reason, for my time here this afternoon, is to respectfully request that, we are a l x once again included in, the budget, for the next fiscal year. Because, the work that we're doing is incredibly important in the communities that we serve. We are a statewide business organization, and, we serve, communities, such as Lawrence and Springfield that are gateway communities where, majority minority, communities, exist because they provide, services to the community, like small businesses, micro businesses, etcetera, and they are an economic engine to, these communities. We are incredibly grateful to senator, Adam Gomez, who has, sponsored it in the past, in the form of, amendments for our earmark. And, we would be incredibly grateful to, continue to, be considered, because, again, we serve, basic needs for the community in terms of, economic development. And some of the most important businesses that we serve are, for example, child care providers that we know are instrumental to the overall economic development of of the Commonwealth.7443 These women are working very hard. We help them.7447 We equip them with strategic guidance and with, support to build their businesses, to build wealth for themselves and for their families, to provide high quality childcare so parents can go back to work, and so that employers, can, have their employees back in the office, with the knowledge that their children are being well taken care of. And, last year, we served 500 businesses over 500 businesses, not just in child care, but in other areas such as construction, also that moves the economy and, retail, personal care, innovation space, anywhere where, Latinos are starting businesses. And, at the end of the day, it's it's about, supporting the economy so we can advance the economic mobility of the Commonwealth. Thank you for your time.
SPEAKER3 - Senator Kennedy.
SPEAKER51 - Thank you so much, chair, and and thank you so much for your testimony and the work you do to amplify and uplift, Latinx businesses across the Commonwealth. I wanna ask particularly as you mentioned, sorry about that. The, acknowledgement that you gave the work that you do in multiple communities across the commonwealth, representing the city of Worcester. I know that you've recently, engaged in partnerships in the community, and I wanna ask specifically, what you do to, engage and support local organizations. I'm proud to represent the LABO, the Latin American business organization, who for years has been working to build up and do a lot of the similar work that, does across the Commonwealth, but wanna talk about what you do to actually invest and build in the the organizations that exist in our communities so that we can help them also grow up and and and thrive.
SPEAKER50 - Absolutely. Thank you so much for that question. And that, that is something that is incredibly important to us. In fact, when we go into any community, the first thing we do is that we look for partners, for local partners to build that trust because that is incredibly important,7578 to continue expanding the work. So what we wanna do is, build, relationships everywhere we go. And so we actually,7586 know Elizabeth, from Lavo. And we actually recognized her last year, in our ALX 100 for the incredible work that she does, in Worcester. And we welcome opportunities to continue, building bridges with her and with others. We've met with, of course, the city manager and other, business leaders, and particularly in the space of childcare because we know that, roughly 4 out of every 10, childcare providers in the Commonwealth is, Latina. And so because we provide the, culturally relevant, workshops and and individualized training for these, child care providers, the city manager actually connected us with somebody, who does that work so that we can continue, exploring, other other, you know,7635 opportunities to, to provide7637 services to businesses in Worcester. But right7641 now, we do need, to continue, building those relationships because primarily, our focus right now is in Boston Greater Boston, in Lawrence and the Merrimack Valley, and, of course, in the Springfield area. So, so, yes, more more to come on that. We just continue, working with with local organizations in in Worcester and, you know, and across the state wherever the services are needed.
And, I just like to yes. I just like to add before I conclude, that we I respectfully request that $500,000 is included in line item 7,008 dash 11 16 so that we may continue to do the business development work and the economic development work that we've been working on for the last, 7 plus years.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you, miss Romain, for your, your testimony, all the incredible work that your organization does. I know that you guys are, in Lawrence. It's been great, collaborating with you all, the last couple years, and thank you for your testimony.
SPEAKER50 - Thank you. Thank you for your time.
SPEAKER3 - Before I I call the next speaker, I just wanna recognize, we have, 2 senate members that, have joined us a little while ago, senator Nick Collins, and also senator, Michael Brady. Thank you. Next, we have, Meg Robbins. And after Meg Robbins, Kira Nichols. Meg Robins online?
Seeing that Meg isn't here, let's move on to Kira Nichols, and we'll call Meg Robbins a little later, in the day.
After Kira Nichols is gonna be Michael Bachman.
SPEAKER52 - Hi. My name is Kira Nichols, and I am currently a senior at South Hadley High. I've been in South Hadley Public School since kindergarten, and budget cuts have always negatively impacted mine and my peers' education, and the proposed budget7773 cut for the 20 25, 26 school year is very concerning to me.7777 This budget cut will reduce access to resources, increase class sizes, and limit opportunities for students to succeed. I've been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to join different clubs while I've been here in high school, but many other students will not have that same opportunity. Many different club advisors, as well as sports coaches, are being cut out, especially in the music department. Not having access to extracurricular activities will negatively impact students, as they will not have the same opportunity to make new friends, go outside of their comfort zone, and become a well rounded person. This will also negatively impact college bound students, as many colleges want students to be involved in a number of extracurriculars. Too many teachers and staff members are losing their jobs with this budget cut. When I was in elementary school, I needed a reading and writing interventionist. After getting the help I very much needed, I started to thrive in school. Students not having access to interventionists is terrifying to me. Had I not received the help I did, I know that I wouldn't be here where I am right now. I would have continued to struggle well past elementary school, and no student should ever have to struggle. How many students will have opportunities like this stolen from them? When I was in middle school, there were 8 teachers for each subject, science, math, English, and history, and the class sizes were large. Now about 4 years later, there will only be 6 English teachers, 4 math teachers, 4 science teachers, and 4 history teachers, making an already large class size even larger. And the high school honors and CP classes are are are already being mixed, but next year, even more will be. Being in a mixed honors CP class is unfair for students as7880 well as teachers. Teachers are trying7882 to teach 2 different classes at the same time, and students are learning7886 at a pace that isn't fit for them. Because of these cuts, class sizes across all 4 schools will have well over 20 students per 1 teacher. This makes learning difficult for every student because they will not receive a lot of individualized attention from teachers, and teachers will struggle with grading many assignments on time and also keeping their class silent and focused during instruction. Students will struggle to learn because of this, and state testing scores will become even lower. I struggled in classes like this, but I still succeeded. How many students will fail because of this? Why should students have to be in a class that isn't meant for them? How is it fair to have classes much larger than 20? I know I will not be in the South Hadley School System next year, but this budget cut will affect my younger family members, my peers, the amazing staff in all 4 schools, and ultimately my community as a whole. Students who are in who are in
SPEAKER8 - school now
SPEAKER52 - are our future.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much.
SPEAKER53 - Hello there, folks. My name is Michael Beauchmann, and I am a senior from South Hadley High School, and I'm moving on to study nursing right here in Boston and pursue my passion in music. Now as my time in public education draws to a close, I'm compelled to speak out on behalf of my fellow students. The current state of affairs poses a bleak outlook for their future, and it is imperative that we take action to ensure their well-being. The last few weeks have been very emotionally driven, considering the fact that our town has been forced to remove nearly 20 full time teaching positions from the school district. Additionally, programs such as the marching band7993 in Harlequins, which is our drama club,7995 are at risk of being entirely7997 eliminated. This is due to those programs being very high on the list for being removed over other groups, other activities. Now, however, after speaking at local school committee meetings about how detrimental music cuts are, I pivoted my approach as I realized that this issue was not about me or my passions alone, but about us as an educational community. Sure, we have our unique paths and we each want more funds or positions allocated to a different niche. But it's come to the point where focusing on fighting for our own paths, construction will only slow its its progression further. But there is a common theme that connects our desperation as students, educators, and leaders. The pursuit for an education that is not harmed, halted, limited, or hindered by budgetary constraints. Of course, with the presence of or the the pressure to educate or lead groups with lack of money, Emotions often take over logical thinking, leading to arguments or disagreements between parties, despite us all being on the same side of the battlefield. And this time is vital that we have each other's support. Now at the end of the day, my request to the legislature is please reevaluate the outdated formula designed and utilized distribute funding to school districts. Consider increasing state funding allocated to towns like mine, as it is impacting our education as students and stripping students of their passions. Educators, students, leaders, and anyone else who may find themselves listening to this speech. I've said it once and I will set set I will say it 1,000,000 times. If we do not fight this fight together, there will be nothing left for us to fight for. Advocate for each other, for the students, and continue providing the best education possible. Thank you for your time and consideration.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you. If you guys can wait a a moment when the senators has a question. But I also know that Colin Zranick, who's also part of the group, if he's here He's he's he's not a part of the market. Perfect. Senator, if you'd like to ask your question.
SPEAKER54 - Thank you, mister chairman. Thank you to the students of South Hadley for being such strong advocates on behalf of so many school districts in Massachusetts that are facing serious budget shortfalls, just like the South Hadley Public Schools. I had the opportunity to participate in your walkout last week, along with representative Omar Gomez from East Hampton. Both of us still stood shoulder to shoulder with each 1 of you as you're highlighting this very important issue. I also wanna share with my colleagues for their edification. The students presented us with nearly a thousand letters from South Hadley residents, students, faculty members, administrators. I see some waving their arms in the back of the room as well. Thank you for providing these heartfelt testimonies of why investing in changing the chapter 70 funding formula is so essential for us right now. I do have to say, following the walkout that we had, we listened to about half a dozen student speakers, including yourself, Michael, and it was incredible. I remember from my days in high school when we had rallies in in the auditorium, everybody was speaking8207 over 1 another. Everybody was either making fun of the speakers. You could hear a pin drop in8213 the gymnasium of South Hadley High School because it shows the respect and commitment that South Hadley students have for being engaged in the political process, but also acting in a way in which we uphold our democratic values by doing8228 things like peaceful protests and speaking out when we see injustices. So I just wanna say, as someone who is proudly represents South Hadley, thank you to the students, thank you to the faculty and staff members, the administration, and the entire community for the outpouring of support. Together, as you mentioned, Michael, we can impact change. So I just wanted to thank you as, as a member who represents that great community of South Hadley.
SPEAKER19 - Thank you, senator.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you. And if there was anything else in your testimony, I know that the time might not allow it, please, submit, the written testimony. We'll make sure to share it with the committee. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Awesome. Next, we'll have Jackie Johnson.
SPEAKER43 - Good afternoon all. I bring before this committee the ruling of the Supreme Court and the EFSB in the matter of the proposed substation to be immediately abutting my home on Chute Flying Hill Road in Centerville. Both courts violated the laws set to protect the citizens of the Commonwealth when they issued license to the Park City Wind to construct an industrial substation in a residential neighborhood. The DP clearly mandates that the applicant must meet all aspects of pre construction compliance filing in its proposal. Park City Wind is legally mandated to meet and provide concrete proof of the design of the substation along with the equipment to be8355 used, but they did not. Instead, they8359 arbitrarily reduced the sound power levels of their proposed transformers to present legally accepted decibels. Their experts tweaked the sound level design specifications of their equipment, then acknowledged that the tweaking was aggressive and arbitrary. Why? Because the giant sized substation they are proposing to build requires equipment with ambient sound far in excess of that8391 which is legally allowed. The truth is, the equipment needed for the massive amount of electricity they intend to generate would be a clear violation of the law. The town of Barnstable could place a substation on their land. Instead, they also gave license to Park City Wind. My question is, when the law violates itself, who will stand for the violated? Eversource, whose power lines also8426 about my property, began construction8428 on their power lines in preparation for the proposed industrial substation. When swapping out their wooden8436 poles for giant iron poles, they were there were earthquake tremors that shook my house as they rammed the poles into the ground. Today, I have cracks in my house that were not there prior to the erecting of those giant iron poles. When the electromagnetic frequency is at its peak in the summer, my calls are jammed and I have to find spots in my home on the steps between the steers to make and receive phone calls. I never thought noise would be a problem because noise is everywhere. However, when Eversource began construction of their new poles, I was awakened at 5AM8474 in the mornings by bright lights flooding into my bedroom, booming noise, talking, vehicle engines, and other noises.
We want clean energy, but we must be wise. Let's not rip out the pages of history that taught us how to govern and what laws to write. For example8496 No. The slave trade taught us that and the Nazis8500 taught us that unbridled8502 passion without justice destroys lives.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. We're hearing you. We're hearing you now. Thank you. Thank
SPEAKER26 - you, chair Diggs. And to the committee members, thank you for indulging me at least. But this is serious on Cape Cod. I, again, thank you for coming all the way from Cape Cod. I've been to your home. I've seen exactly what you're talking about. And, I feel your passion and the pain. So this committee will do what we can do, and,
just know that you're being heard.8545 And as far8547 as the court case and8549 what to do after that, we'll have to talk further offline. Thank you. Thank you, chair.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you, Jackie.
Victoria Hill. Victoria Hill. Victoria Hill.
SPEAKER3 - I see none. Imunbusiani.
SPEAKER1 - Sorry.
SPEAKER3 - And then next, Tom Pinter.
SPEAKER1 - Next will be Tom Pinter.
SPEAKER55 - Good afternoon. Thank you.
All right. Good afternoon Chairs8618 Payano and Chair Diggs, Vice Chairs and esteemed members of the joint committee on ways and means, including Senator O'Connor, Representative Sabadosa and Representative Marcy who also serve on the permanent commission on the status of persons with disabilities. My name is Iman Buzian Sayedee and I serve as the Executive Director of the Commission, an independent state agency created by statute under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 3 Section 74. I'm here today with doctor Chris White, vice chair of the commission and CEO of Road to Responsibility. We appreciate the opportunity to provide us the opportunity to testify today on the governor fiscal year 26 budget proposal and the continued role of the Commission in protecting, preserving and promoting the quality of life choices for people with disabilities. We strongly support the Governor's FY 26 budget proposal to include $150,000 1 hundred and 50 thousand dollars in line item 8 hundred-three
to support the Commission's administration. These funds are critical to produce data informed reports and recommendations that help us guide policy making and resource allocations, maintaining our subcommittees on disability employment, workforce supports, and long term services and supports and health equity.
We also ask for your support for line item 15 99 dash 12 11 with the amount of $200,000, which is8720 shared across 4 permanent commissions including ours, as well as the commission on the status of African Americans, the commission on the status of Latinos and Latinas, and the8730 commission on the status of black men and boys. With this funding, the commissions can maintain the operational capacities needed to focus on systemic changes and expand access to opportunity throughout the Commonwealth. So who we are and what we do. The commission is mandated to study, support, report, and advise on matters that impact the lives of people with disability in the Commonwealth. We have, to carry out this work, we have 3 subcommittees, which are disability employment, workforce supports, and, again, long term services and supports and health equity. In your reports in front of you, you can see our fiscal year 25 impact and our fiscal year 26 priorities. The following major, areas of focus for '25 will shape our f y 26 strategy. Number 1 is the benefit cliff and employment, dissensitatives. Sorry. I'm a little nervous. With the leadership of secretary Lauren Jones and the undersecretary Josh Cutler at the executive office and of labor and workforce development, we partnered with the department of economic research to examine how benefit cliffs impact the economic mobility of people with disabilities. Building on this analysis, we brought together key partners including the executive office of labor and workforce development, Massability, and Commonwealth core as other workforce stakeholders to explore coordinated solutions to improve benefit counselling, transitional supports, and more flexible inclusive employment structures.
Our second focus of area is8829 advancing Massachusetts as a model employer. Pursuing to our statutory duty to examine the status of Commonwealth model employer plan, we partnered again with DER, to review executive8839 branch employment data. And that revealed that while long term employees with disabilities are retained, there is a need to improve recruitment pipelines promoting representation across Secretariat and open the doors for early career disabled workers. So in f y 26, we will continue to8855 track trends and support the adoption of best practices across the agencies. A full copy of these reports have been included in your packets that8863 were sent, via email, and we8865 also have these reports on our commission's website. Our third pillar is disability employment and workforce supports subcommittee works. And this spring,8875 these 2 subcommittees will cohost a statewide event focused on youth and young adults with disabilities and inclusive employment pathways built around the theme theme of elevating youth voices, disability employment, and inclusive workforce. We are partnering with8890 the Massachusetts Inclusive Concurrent Enrollment8892 Initiatives, folks so that we are able to target rural geographic areas as well as urban. Our third and fourth pillar are related to promoting inclusive workplaces. By way of doing that, the commission focused on a national disability employment month every October, and you're all welcome to join us. And we, use that time to celebrate, nearly 200 stakeholder to uplift and advance employer inclusive practices. In f y 26, we will continue promoting this8925 guide that is on our website and convene small to midsize businesses formed in partnership with Disability Inn. Fourth, following the commission wide8934 consensus in late 20 24, we designated health equity and community living as our second pillar. We are now integrating into our long term services and8944 support and health equity, which has several focus key areas on our report. This spring, again, we are very busy, the subcommittee will host an informational hearing on health equity with participation8955 from health equity experts, providers, disabled individuals, and state health officials. This hearing offers a critical opportunity to confront long standing disparities and hear directly from subject matter experts and folks with lived, experience. Lastly, we are looking to expand subcommittee memberships by way of creating an ad hoc policy for commission members. We would invite non commissioners8979 as ad hoc members, including individuals with lived experience and specific expertise. This policy will allow us to invite to invite and elevate new voices, within key working groups, including our LTSS disability employment and workforce subcommittee supports. Thank you for your time, and I welcome all of your questions.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Any questions?
All set. Thank you.
SPEAKER55 - Thank you so much.
SPEAKER1 - Kate Adams.
SPEAKER56 - Good afternoon, Chair Paiano, Chair Diggs, and distinguished members of the committee. My name is Kate Adams. I'm the senior public policy manager at the Greater Boston Food Bank. I'm here on behalf of the 600 community food providers we serve9048 all across Eastern Massachusetts, as well as the other 3 food9052 banks in the state. We respectfully urge your support for 55,500,000 investment in the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program, otherwise known as NEFAF. That's line item D a R25110105. From 2020 to 2023, food pantry use rose 80% across the state. 80%. Now we're facing a $3,500,000 loss in federal funding for the food banks, to purchase food, as well as potential cuts to other federal nutrition programs that would create unprecedented strain upon our network.
MEFAP is a 30 year old proven and essential safety net, currently funding 30 of all the9106 food distributed by our coalition. Unlike many other federal programs, MIFAP9112 ensures that all residents, regardless of immigration status, age, background, can access nutritious food with dignity. That's elders, veterans, children, working families. Mefap also strengthens our economy. Last year, over half of the MIFAP9130 funds supported Massachusetts based farmers, fishermen, food producers, feeding people while supporting local jobs and local businesses. In the past 3 years, we've tripled the amount of fresh produce distributed through Mefap. We're committed to providing healthy, nourishing food to those in need. We have an opportunity to protect our most vulnerable neighbors, boost our economy, and invest in a program that works. On behalf of the Greater Boston Food Bank, the Food Bank Coalition of Massachusetts, and the constituents that we serve in every single city and town in Massachusetts, I urge your full support for the 55,500,000 NEFAP request. And I I share my deep gratitude with the legislature for your, continued support of food security and this program for Massachusetts. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. You know, my my wife, works for elder services and, down the cape, we do a lot of meals on wheels, and that's so, so important. So we know that we need to take care of our elders, our youth, whoever needs help. So, thank you. You have any questions?
SPEAKER3 - Vice chair Commerford.
SPEAKER6 - Thank you so much, mister chair. Thank you for your testimony and the work of, of course, the Greater Food Greater Boston Food Bank, but all the food banks across the Commonwealth. The the the number, 55,000,000, will that account for the TFAP cut from the federal government? So our data team landed upon that number just based
SPEAKER56 - on the increase in food insecurity we saw in the past 3 years. We landed on that number even before we knew of these federal food cuts. So to
SPEAKER6 - to be Now that you've now that we're receiving the blows from the federal government, you know, blow after blow, including the local farm to school, funding and also some local farm to the food bank funding right through federal grants different from TFAP, different from, of course, the state's MFAP. Does 55 still seem like9258 a reasonable number?
SPEAKER56 - So to be honest, 55.5 won't won't solve the problem. We could use a hundred million dollars to really fill the gap. We recognize that there are several, requests from other food security organizations. 55 is is a significant increase from last year and, that's about 10. Right?
SPEAKER6 - What's that? 10 north of last year.
SPEAKER43 - Yeah.
SPEAKER6 - Yeah. But it does I think it's just important for us to understand it does not It does not. Fill9291 the federal gap. Yes. And it and when you add the local farm to school, that gap9297 gets even bigger. I just think it's important for us to understand that even 10,000,000 seems like a lot. However, it is not sufficient. It wasn't sufficient before the federal cuts. And now that the federal government is rolling back food security support in the form of TFAP and other grants, it is woefully insufficient.
SPEAKER56 - Yes. Thank you for raising that, chair Comerford. As a former food banker, you understand. So I thank you.
SPEAKER6 - I love MeFAP. I think it's a really important program, and I appreciate the commitment to local farmers as part of it. Yes. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER3 - I just wanna concur on the the vice chair's statement. I wanna thank you for your your your testimony. I I think, you know, it's it's 1 of these things where a lot of individuals don't understand the amount of food insecurity that that exists, in our region, that it's people that are working and they can't meet, enough. There's a lot9349 of individuals that I come into contact with that, just need something extra. And, you know,9356 sometimes they're a little embarrassed at the fact that they need something more. And I think that, thanks, to the Greater Boston Food Bank and the other food banks across, the the Commonwealth, smaller organizations that are more, you know, tied to, at least the communities that I represent, have been able to partner and basically deliver services and make sure that not just the elderly, but that even able-bodied individuals that are are working, 9 to fives and are are not, making do9393 and, you know, perhaps could be, on food stamps,9397 but food stamps the most that you can get9399 on food stamps is a little over $250 per individual, which amounts to less than $10 a day. So, you know, essentially helps feed those individuals. So thank you so much for, coming here9412 and, speaking to that and9414 speaking to, the the the working families that we have in in Massachusetts.
SPEAKER56 - Thank you so much, chair Payano. You have such incredible community food providers in your district and and around the room. So thank you for your understanding and attention
SPEAKER36 - to the issue.
SPEAKER1 - Steve Lewoods? Oh.
I'm sorry.
SPEAKER10 - That's fine. I I sorry, Kate. I just wanna acknowledge all the great work you do with the Greater Boston Food Bank, and it's in my district. And I just wanna also acknowledge the efficiency of the operations. So you're just you're doing a lot with the monies that you are getting. It's not like you're throwing it away. I just want 1 specific question. That is just to give people an idea and kind of what, Senator Priyana was saying, there are a lot of people that are food insecure even though they may be working full time. Do you have a number of Massachusetts residents that may benefit that just the count, the number of individual or clients that would benefit on a daily basis from food banks?
SPEAKER56 - Yes. So we measure it on a monthly basis how many individuals are coming to our network of 600 community food providers. And that number is 600,000 coming to our our food pantries every month. That is the same as it's been since the peak of the pandemic. It really has not slowed down. Across the state, it's around 850,0009491 every month. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Steve.
SPEAKER3 - And then up next after is Tom Pinto.
SPEAKER57 - Thank you to the chairs, especially my friend chair Diggs, members of the committee. My name is Steve Liebowitz. I'm a member of the Brewster School Committee. And, timing is exquisite. I am involved in a lot of food policy areas also. I'm going to try and boat race through about 4 different items, and provide additional, written testimony, on these. The first is school meals for all. It it was great to see that in,9533 House 1 that9535 the governor is continuing support for this. 1 in 3 students in Massachusetts face food security. What we've been able to do in terms of9545 feeding over 100,000 more students9547 in Massachusetts is admirable. I asked the committee to take a good look at that number as to what we need to do in order to, continue this progress. And we also can't disassociate food policy from public health policy also. A study from Tufts University indicated that, residents of Massachusetts save about $152,000,000 a year in health costs, just because of school meals for all. The second area I want to talk about is, Massachusetts Fresh Grants. That started under ARPA money. The legislature has been kind enough to continue that. And what that's done is, enabled students to not only have access to more local food, but get some really hands on experiential work with both agriculture and aquaculture, throughout the commonwealth. There's an ask for level funding, $750,000 for that. Just this past week, I believe 29 districts just got fresh grants including, Dennis Yarmouth, as, as9614 1. So I definitely urge the, the committee to continue support for that program.9620
SPEAKER53 - Third thing I want to
SPEAKER57 - talk about is9623 the Healthy Initiatives Program, more broader reach. Seeking to have full funding for that at $25,000,000 for the next fiscal year. As you may be aware, the funding in the current fiscal year resulted in significant cuts to this program in December. Where depending on the size of the family, 1 got9645 between 20 and $80 a month, in access to local, local produce. That was cut to a base of $20 regardless of family size. That has been a significant impact in a very difficult time right now to SNAP recipients and a significant impact to farmers that support this program. I have read and spoken to a number of folks, farmers who have been involved in this program, and the impact is significant to them. We really need to bolster this program back up, to the full funding that is received in prior years. The last item I'd like to talk about is the Mass Food Trust. This is a program that has
and you'll get my written testimony on that. Thank you very much to the Thanks.
SPEAKER1 - Thanks, Steve. Next up is Tom Pinto. And after that will be Sarah
Neville.
SPEAKER27 - Alright. Thank
SPEAKER58 - you. Alright. Hello. And, thank you for the opportunity to address you today. My name9726 is Tom Pinto. I'm a third third generation Plymouthian, born and raised. After attending Curry College, I returned to Plymouth to teach fifth grade in Plymouth public schools. I'm married to a Plymouth Teacher, and we raise our 2 boys in Plymouth who also attend Plymouth public schools. I serve as the president of the Education Association of Plymouth and Carver. We're an active union with over 1,200 members of teachers, administrative assistants, and para educators,9753 who also could be referred to as ESPs. I'm an9757 elected Plymouth Town Meeting member and a member of the North Plymouth steering committee. As you can probably tell, I'm deeply committed to my community. The issue I'm here to address is the cost of transportation for our schools. This is a common issue faced by many communities throughout the Commonwealth. The state has not reimbursed these costs in over 20 years. I want to speak to the issue of school transportation from a platform that I'm very familiar with, how it impacts the town of Plymouth. Plymouth, America's hometown, is unique. It covers over a hundred square miles. It is the largest land mass town in the Commonwealth. It encompasses a network of roads that are both paved in dirt. Our elementary school routes are anywhere from 4 to 21 miles. 17 out of the 249808 elementary bus routes are over 10 miles, and all but 1 take over 20 minutes to complete. Half of the elementary bus routes take over 40 minutes to complete. At Plymouth North High School, the average route is 36 minutes long with 3 being close to an hour. At Plymouth South High School, the average route is 42 minutes long with 7 taking nearly an hour. I am sharing these numbers to highlight the extent of our busing issue. As you can imagine, with the amount of distance to cover, the cost is overwhelming. Busing the students of Plymouth is budgeted for school year f y '26 at a liver little over $10,600,000. We need your help. Plymouth may be extreme, but towns across the Commonwealth are facing similar problems meeting their school's transportation needs. Another year cannot go by without financial help for school transportation. I am proud that the MTA is supporting enact ensuring full reimbursement for in district school transportation costs. And my own state legislators, Michelle Badger and Kathleen Archer, have presented an act eliminating predatory transportation pricing of school districts, and an act requiring equitable funding for non regional school districts with high transportation costs. I strongly urge that the committee includes in their budget a solution in line with these proposals. Imagine what we could use that $10,600,000 to support education to students. What goals could we accomplish? What achievements could be made? Thanks for everything you do, and thanks for your consideration.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. We hear you. I mean, Plymouth, I know Plymouth goes 495 to Route 3. It's it's amazing how big Plymouth is. It's a large community.9921 We understand.
SPEAKER58 - Yeah. I appreciate it.9923 Thank you for hearing me.
SPEAKER1 - Sarah Neville?
Linda Woodland?
Paul Hufney.
Melissa Vidier?
Hi, Melissa.
SPEAKER59 - Hello, all. Thank you for allowing me to speak today. When I wrote this, it said good morning, so that was wishful thinking on my part.
Good afternoon. My name is Melissa Verdier. I'm the president of the educational association of Worcester, an educators union of over 3,300 members. I've been a special educator in Worcester for over 20 years. I have 2 children in the Worcester public schools, 1 of whom is on an IEP. The Worcester public schools is made up of a very diverse population of students, which includes rather large populations of both English language learners and special education students. Last year, the Worcester public schools was forced to cut their budget by $22,000,000 due to insufficient funding, resulting in the cuts of almost 200 positions. The department hit the hardest with special education. Special education service providers have10029 caseloads much larger than previously experienced. Add to that incoming referrals and it's making providing services next to impossible. There are many education bills under consideration by the state legislator legislature, which could greatly benefit the students of the Worcester Public Schools. The biggest fix would come from fixing the chapter 70 inflation rate. The Worcester Public Schools10053 lost out on millions of dollars in funding because of a 4.5% inflation rate cap while the inflation was at10061 78%. We've still not made up those deficits. The failure to make up the difference in the following years has caused greater deficits in Worcester. In fact, last year, with a 1.3% of, per pupil increase, when the district was planning for10079 more around a 5, we lost about $15,000,000.10081 A few other, mentioned would be the whole child grant, the special education circuit breaker, and the reimbursement for in district school transportation. I mirror what Tom had just said about in district transportation. Worcester has taken our transportation in house, which has cause has caused some savings for us, but we're also not seeing any reimbursement from the state. We have a very large fleet, I call it, of midsize, buses, and those are staffed with drivers and monitors to provide door to door transportation for our special education students. Special education obviously hits really hard and home for me as a special educator for over 20 years.10125 So I urge you to please consider the needs of our students in10129 the Worcester Public Schools, my children, when you're considering the educational budget and legislative priorities. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Any questions?
All set.
Keith Miken?
Michelle Nelson Mu will be next.
SPEAKER60 - Good afternoon. My name is Keith Michon Junior, and I serve as president of the Fall10178 River Educators Association, represent our region on the MTA board of directors, and teach secondary mathematics in the Fall River Public Schools. I'm here today to speak to the importance of maintaining and strengthening the Commonwealth's commitment to equitable education. The chapter 70 formula, along with the Student Opportunity Act, has demonstrated that Massachusetts is serious about providing a fair and equitable public education for all students. I wanna commend the legislature, advocacy organizations, educators, and community members whose work has brought us to this point and for your ongoing commitment to funding this formula. However, we must also acknowledge the imperfections that remain in the formula and how those flaws are playing out on the ground. The SOA has been transformative has had a transformative impact on the Fall River Public Schools. It has allowed us to increase vital special education supports, expand social emotional services for students, and raise educator wages, helping us better compete in a challenging labor market. These are meaningful gains, but high inflation has eroded the real value of these increases. We are currently about $10,000,000 short of projected funding. Even more concerning, special education and transportation costs have risen at an even higher rate than inflation.
Sustainability of the progress we've made. Now is not the time to roll back supports for students. That's why I stand in support of10268 MTA's proposals to strengthen the chapter 70 formula and stabilize education funding. Make the technical fix to chapter 70 to ensure funding keeps pace with inflation over time. Create a 4 year funding schedule to reach full reimbursement for
SPEAKER1 - in
SPEAKER60 - district transportation, increase special education circuit breaker reimbursement rate from 75% to 90% while lowering the eligibility threshold for expenses under the program. These proposals would provide much needed relief and stability to districts like Fall River and ensure that the gains we've made can be sustained and built upon. Incorporating these proposals into the f y 26 budget is the fastest and most effective way to address the funding challenges facing our schools. I urge you to adopt10315 them and continue moving us forward, a truly equitable education system for all students in10321 the commonwealth. Thank you for your time and your continued commitment to10325 public schools. Thank you.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you so much for, for your testimony. I think, you know, the issue, of inflation is an issue that's affecting all of us. I I know that, you know, last10341 year when we began talking about that this issue, might come up, you saw more and more people, you know, speak on10349 it. Every community that I go to is a topic of conversation. I10354 wanna thank you for your advocacy because I think, speaking on that allows, and ensures10360 that, folks making decisions are10364 this is top of mind, and10366 so that people understand the importance and how it affects the, education, of our youth. I think there's a lot of communities that are struggling, because of this, and it's something that we need to, we need to work on. So I wanna thank you for for your testimony.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Zara Usman.
Okay. Leah Ramachandra
Chandran. Sorry.
John Cohn.
SPEAKER3 - So, mister vice chair, I know that, Leila was, virtual. So Leila, if you're not able to go online, if you can, send us a message so we can get back to you afterwards.
SPEAKER1 - Perfect. Thank you.
SPEAKER3 - Jonathan Cohen.
SPEAKER1 - Jonathan Cohen.
SPEAKER3 - And after Jonathan,10446 we have Bathsadi Sibong Ghazai.
SPEAKER61 - Okay. Thank you all for spending your entire day here. It's been a long 1.
SPEAKER1 - So,
SPEAKER61 - yeah, thank you all. My name is Jonathan Cohn. I'm the policy director at Progressive Massachusetts. We're a statewide grassroots advocacy group, with chapters around the state fighting for a more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic commonwealth. So as we contemplate the daunting anxiety inducing catastrophic possibility of steep cuts to the federal budget, as the Republicans in DC attempt to take an ax to health care, education, infrastructure, and so much more, we need to be prepared in Massachusetts to protect our essential services. We need to continue to do what we are doing, and we also need to be doing much more. To that to that end, I urge you to embrace progressive sources of revenue as well as to tap into the rainy day fund as needed. On the firmer point about the rainy day fund, like many of us, I have had the experience of holding an umbrella while walking in the10507 rain. The rain gets heavier and heavier, but I think it's not that bad yet while getting fully soaked. Let's not be that person. When it's when it10516 starts pouring as it might later this year, don't be afraid to take out an umbrella. But beyond that, I want to urge that the money isn't there is a difficult argument to stomach in a state as affluent as Massachusetts. Indeed, our state's GDP is higher than that of the count that of countries like Sweden and Belgium, despite our smaller population. We have great wealth in this state, and that great wealth is is why the fair share amendment has been able to deliver as much as it has. Has. You have many tools at your disposal to raise necessary funds such as, but not limited to ensuring that kind of large global corporations like Amazon and Apple are paying their fair share and not offshoring all their money in places like the Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, which have nice weather, but that's not where their money needs to be on vacation. Similarly, as you're kind of seeking as you're likely to seek every opportunity to trim our state's investments, I would urge you to first do the same to the state's corporate tax breaks to evaluate whether or not they deliver upon any goal at all. The kind of aforementioned sales tax exemption for private jets is but 1 of many examples. It kind of shows a lack of regard for the most vulnerable populations to countenance cuts to mental health caseworkers and cuts to assistance the needy families, but also like to not countenance cuts to to the tax giveaways given to large estates and day traders past 2 years ago.10591 I have a long list of things that I will go through that I'll10595 send in a follow-up document shouting out things that people have noted before, like committing10599 to deliver on the promise of the Student Opportunity Act and fully fund our public schools and addressing how inflation has caused the problem and delivering that value in full, building on the investments in higher education that you made, last session with making, free free community college to build on that to provide10615 the supports needed so that can everybody gets a high quality, experience and a debt free experience with with faculty and pay receiving the with faculty and staff receiving the pay they deserve, continuing the investments in early education and10627 childcare, make it like, investing in kind of access access to counsel and making sure that our right to the shelter is more than just a nominal phrase. So thank you. Thank you. My 1 parting comment that I make a request is that I know some of you have done this in hearings10645 that you run if to provide people who are testifying the speaking order, ahead of the event. It makes your lives easier. It makes our lives easier and helps the day run10655 smoothly. But thank you all for so much for spending your time here today.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you, Jonathan. So, we're told that Nelson Mui is here, and then afterwards, we'll we have a panel, from, from Batsari, as I mentioned before, Jessica Tang, Eric Berg, and Lee Nav, after.
Nelson Mui, I10677 think he's joining us virtually.
I'm here.10681 Great.
SPEAKER62 - Can you hear me?
SPEAKER3 - Good morning.
SPEAKER62 - Good afternoon. Good afternoon, joint committee of ways and means. Thank
SPEAKER39 - you for the
SPEAKER62 - opportunity, for me to testify to this committee on such a important topic. My name is Nelson Moy.10700 I am the town administrator for the town of Townsend. Townsend is a small rural town10706 with approximately 9,100 residents in Middlesex County. Townsend along with Ashby and Pepperl are part of the North Middlesex School District. And I am here today to advocate for additional funding to be to be provided to the North Middlesex School District as well as changes to the regional school district formula. Our district has seen a steady decline in enrollment over the years, which has resulted in minimal increases on a per pupil basis. Numerous mandates that are now fully funded have put a tremendous financial burden on the 3 towns, which has resulted in the decline in town services, reduction in much needed capital spending, below average wages for employees. And that's just to name a few, impacts, of the insufficient school funding. Currently, almost 60% of Townsend's operating budget is for the school budgets. As a result of the insufficient school funding, Townsend has tried the last couple years to get a prop 2 and a half override pass without success. Townsend10778 is trying again with the upcoming FY 26 budget to get a prop 2 and a half override passed. This override would result in a permanent increase to our tax levy. Many towns and residents who are either senior citizens or or on a fixed income, would see a increase to their tax levy, which would be a financial burden on them, which might force them to make difficult choices, ranging from having to choose to pay their heating or electricity bill, buying groceries, or even paying for a much needed medication. So I urge the joint committee of way ways and means to consider Townsend's request. Thank you for your time and consideration today.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you. Any questions? Mister chair, no no questions. I just wanna thank Nelson for, his testimony and, the great work that he's doing, in Townshend. Thank you.
SPEAKER62 - Thank you.
SPEAKER3 - And, next we have, Batsadi, Jessica, Eric, and Lee.
SPEAKER63 - Jessica had to go to her next publication, so it'll just be
SPEAKER36 - the 3 of us. Okay.
SPEAKER3 - Hi. So so what what I'll say is, the the panel again, there's, there's 6 minutes. And if there's anything extra, you guys are more than, more than able to send us, some written testimony.
SPEAKER63 - Thank you. Thank you, chairs and members of the committee. My name is Vatsadise Sivanheim. I'm a refugee immigrant and a mother of 2 young kids that keep me very energized throughout the day. I'm also the director of MASHA, the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance. We're a statewide organization that fights for public education. And our coalition members are organizations that are led by students, parents, and community members, and educators. I gave my son a credit card a few months ago, and he gets money to do chores. 1 of the requirements is to invest in a bucket for community and family, and10907 the other 1 is to invest in a bucket that builds for the future. And I think that this is true when you pass the Student Opportunity Act. We made some great progress in trying to get more equitable funding to our communities, but now collect our collective action is under threat. Students, families, and our school10929 communities are feeling the tremendous stress caused by the federal cuts and attacks that you've heard today, and they continue to struggle to keep up with the rising costs. While we don't know yet the full harm that is gonna happen to all of us in our communities, we do know this, that we as Massachusetts must address this crisis now. So I10950 present with you 4 critical solutions. First is fixing the chapter 70 gap. This is to cover the 465,000,000 shortfall. Districts across The10962 States are being forced to make painful cuts. You heard from laying off educators to key staffs, eliminating essential programs as10971 you heard from our students, including10973 the arts and musics and advanced placement. Second, we need to fix the charter school tuition reimbursement. Every single year, we lose significant funds when a student goes to a charter school. And that impacts critical programs and students, like students with disabilities, English language learners,
SPEAKER1 - who are less likely to attend charter schools. You heard
SPEAKER63 - from the students and
renovated, and sustainable, powerful buildings. We also must expand community schools so that we provide support for the whole child. These are critical investments, and you'll hear from, my colleagues about others as well.
SPEAKER64 - Thank you. Good afternoon, members of the joint committee. My name is Eric Berg. I'm a 25 year elementary teacher and currently serving as president of the Boston Teachers Union. We were stunned when we found out in the proposed budget that Boston Public Schools was slated for a net cut in school funding for f y 26 at a time when our enrollment is finally beginning to increase. Boston is nearly alone in seeing a net decrease, and this is because the slight growth in chapter 70 funding, which is barely over 1%, is more than offset11052 by a significant decrease in charter school tuition reimbursement. Here's how that inequity can be fixed. First, we are asking that the state fully fund charter school tuition reimbursement in Boston. Boston currently sends all of its state aid to education and more to fund charter schools11069 in our city. We're asking that the11071 existing formula be correctly applied so that Boston does not suffer. Second, with the rising cost of special education and increasing cuts to our state from the federal government, now more than ever, we need to fully fund the special education circuit breaker program. While considered wealthy for chapter 70 purposes, city of Boston serves a student population that is more like that of a gateway city. Nearly 22% of our 50,000 students are on an11096 IEP. Another pressing issue, as you've heard, is the rising cost of transportation. The complexity of transportation issues in Boston include serving homeless students in and out of the district, out of district special ed placements, in district transportation for students with IEPs, and transportation for all students in BPS, charter, and parochial schools. A fully funded program like those of the past would play a significant role in assisting Boston and other districts. Boston is the largest district in the state, and while we're moving in the right direction, we can't do it alone. K 12 education was funded minimally in the FSA surplus, so we need to fully fund charter reimbursement, special ed circuit breaker, and transportation to allow our students to continue to flourish. Thank you again for the opportunity to speak.
SPEAKER65 - Good afternoon, members of the committee on11151 ways and means. My name is Lee Nave. I'm an Austin resident, BTU staffer, and a father of 2, including a 4 year old who is a K 1 student at the Gartner Pilot Academy in Austin, who is in a full inclusion classroom. He has an IEP with speech delay and a secondary diagnosis of autism. He has a wonderful teacher, a paraprofessional, a learning specialist, as well as a speech speech pathologist for his speech delay. When he first attended the Gartner, now 2 2 years ago, he had a vocabulary so small, he rarely made more than 3 word sentences. He knew about 20 words in total. Now he both fortunately and unfortunately knows11187 thousands of words and uses them all quite frequently. As a parent, my top priority is my child's welfare. As a union organizer for the largest school district in the commonwealth, my job is to advocate for our educators so that they can deliver the best11200 outcomes possible for our students. In my child's classroom, he is blessed to have a fully inclusive classroom with the services he needs. However, funding issues with the11208 special education circuit breaker formula would potentially harm not only my child's needs, but those of the 22 percent of BPS students with IAPs. We need our classroom to be fully funded to meet the needs of our students whom need us the most. When with the attacks on public education from the federal government with massive funding cuts already occurring and more looming, it is time we utilize the entire toolbox at this level of state government to fully fund special education services for our young people. Thank you.
SPEAKER6 - Thank you very much for that testimony, and all of your commitment. Any questions from the committee? I don't see any, but your testimony together, demonstrates how complex this issue is. Right? And then just as you said so beautifully, it's just it's gonna take the entire toolbox to fix education funding. Thank you for calling for it. Thank you. Okay. Next up I'm just pinch hitting, by the way.
Next up, we11264 have, Lisa, Geisbond.
After Lisa, Jessica Corwin, Brad Morgan, and Kim Craven.
Did I pronounce your name correctly, Lisa?
SPEAKER16 - I was gonna say thank you for pinch hitting and for pronouncing my last name correctly. That's a rare occurrence. I should So good afternoon, Senator Commerford and Senator Paolo. Is he still here? No. They're both here.
SPEAKER6 - Both the chairs are here. They just were pulled out for a second, but with the the entire committee is listening.
SPEAKER16 - Okay. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you all today. My name is Lisa Geisbond. I'm the executive director of Citizens for Public Schools, which is a statewide public education advocacy organization. CPS is 1 of 15 organizations in United for our Future, which has identified at least 4 high priority school funding gaps that need to be addressed during what is a, as you've11332 heard so far today, full scale crisis that affects every district and school in the Commonwealth. 1 critical area that could be ameliorated if we applied these funding fixes is the current mental and behavioral health crisis. This crisis cuts across every group of students and families by income, race, ethnicity, language ability, and whether they have special learning needs or11359 not. Talk to any teacher or paraprofessional and you'll hear countless stories of students whose dysregulation and trauma disrupts their own learning, those of their classmates, and taxes the strength and patience of those working to educate them. Just 1 story that touched my11381 heart deeply was that of a sixth grade student whose mother was recently murdered and her father was the prime suspect. Imagine the trauma this girl is dealing with and how it might affect her ability to learn and thrive in school. There's a lot of focus on how we are still trying to recover from the learning loss that stemmed from the COVID pandemic. But look behind the test scores that represent lost learning in math and reading, and you'll often find mental health and behavioral health issues that underlie students' difficulty in catching up. The crisis is real, and so are the facts about what is required to address it in terms of resources to fix these yawning funding gaps. First on the list of United for our Future priorities is fixing the inflation gap because as a letter that we wrote states, the operational costs for school districts continue to soar at a rate that state education funding does not offset. Fixing this gap would help fund staffing in terms of counselors and other support people to identify and address mental and behavioral health needs of students. It's true that the crisis is real and daunting, but I personally witnessed the miraculous growth that can occur when students suffering mental and behavioral health challenges get the supports that they need. We are a wealthy state. Let's marshal our resources so that all of our students can thrive. And thank you again.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you so much, Lisa, for for your testimony. I see there's no other quest is there questions? No? We will move on. Thank you. With, Jessica Corwin. And, after Jessica, we'll have, Brad Morgan.
SPEAKER66 - Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Jessica Corwin. I'm a proud public school parent, teacher, and the chair of the Sunderland School Committee. I'm here today to join the chorus sounding the urgency of rural school aid, fully funding rural school aid at $60,000,000 as recommended by the legislative commission on the fiscal health of rural school districts in 2022. In addition to the challenges that all public schools across the Commonwealth share, rural schools schools face an additional reality. Because of our low enrollment, we are not able to achieve the same efficiencies of scale as our suburban and urban counterparts. A public school requires a superintendent, a business manager, a director of special education, a principal, a school secretary, a school nurse, and a school custodian regardless of whether it serves 600 students or 100 students. Because of this, the commission found that it costs on average 17% more per student to provide a basic education in a small school district compared to larger school systems. That difference rises to 23% more cost per student for a basic education if that small school district is also regional as most of us already are. This difference is not yet accounted for in chapter 70 funding formulas. Rural schools advocates are already pushing for the inclusion of a rurality or sparsity factor in the next chapter 70 overhaul. But in the meantime, rural aid is not just a Band11572 Aid. It's an emergency life vest for many of our districts. Rural communities have already regionalized our schools. We've closed buildings, reduced services and programming, and cut costs. The reason that I ran for school committee in the first place is that rural towns pay 18 of the lowest 20 average teacher salaries in the state. Many towns have repeatedly passed overrides simply to remain operational and some are now pushing up against the levee ceiling meaning that they have nowhere else to go. The very real fear is that these districts will have to start cutting the few remaining programs that11602 keep students engaged, then families with means will abandon their public schools as a result and districts will enter a so called death spiral with no known exit. In case you're already mentally critiquing my plea for help, please know that further regionalization is not a viable option for many of our districts. Some of our rural districts are already maximally geographically regionalized with 6, 7, or 8 towns coming together to operate a very small number of schools. They have students who spend an hour each direction on the bus each day, which is a serious equity issue. These students aren't able to participate in after school programs, including sports, because there hasn't been a late bus for decades. They can't do homework on the bus because rural cell signals don't exist on the entire bus route and teenagers can't work after school jobs because of time in transit. Add this to the bare bones curricular offerings that rural districts are struggling to afford and it's easy11652 to see why rural students are being left behind. The Governor has recommended only level funding rural aid at $16,000,000 in FY26. Accounting for inflation, that's roughly only a quarter of the need that your own legislative commission identified in 2022. Because every student in11668 the Commonwealth deserves a high quality education, please prioritize the full funding of rural aid at $60,000,000 in FY 26. Thank you.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you very much, school committee woman, Corwin. Yes. Vice chairman Comford.
SPEAKER6 - I I just wanted to acknowledge your work in Sunderland, which has been exemplary, but your statewide effort to try to name and concretize the specific needs of rural schools are is really unparalleled, and I'm so grateful. What we're hearing today is very interesting. Right? Because in for some districts, getting the inflation factor would be the money shot. Right? That's what they need. Right? But that that's not what a rural district needs. In fact, the inflation factor won't do anything for rural or declining enrollment schools. And that's why we need to look at this comprehensively as a state, which is what I hope we get done really soon. Thank you.
SPEAKER67 - Thank you. Senator Comerford.
SPEAKER1 - If anyone needs any ASL translation, please let us know, and we'll move you right up.
Next, we're gonna have Brad Morgan, and on deck is Kim Craven.
SPEAKER68 - Good afternoon to the house ways ways and means. Thank you for having me here today,11773 and I appreciate the opportunity to speak. My name is Brad Morgan. I'm currently in my seventh year as a superintendent of the North Middlesex Regional School District. I'm here today to advocate for additional school funding for NM and other like districts. I'm sure you've heard from many of those like districts today. The current funding formula for regional schools, especially those with little to no commercial tax base, does not come remotely close to adequately addressing the needs of our students. The formula continues to to be based primarily on enrollment rather than student needs. And proposition 2 and a half does not provide enough funding for our annual budget drivers, all of which are more than double prop 2 and a half. These include health insurance, transportation, and collective bargaining agreements. In addition, special education11818 and multilingual costs continue to increase exponentially and are well beyond our means. For f y 25 alone, we are already close to $2,000,000 over budget, mostly due to out of district placements. Both of these are both federally and state mandated. For f y 25, we reduced our11837 budget by $1,000,000 in order for it to be passed by our 3 member11841 communities. Excuse me.11843 This was accomplished with a reduction of 17 staff members from our general education staff, only general education staff. For f y 26, we are looking at a nominal 2.25% increase, well below level services. And to get there, we must reduce by another 20 to11862 23 additional staff, as well as cuts from curriculum, technology, and maintenance. This will result in class sizes of 28 to 33, k to 12. Without the override, and this does require an override, the 2.25%, our class sizes will go to 35 to 42. My question to each of you is would you send your child to a district that has class sizes like NM, whether the override passes or not? What is most glaring for NM in particular is that from 02/2001 to f y 25, NM has seen a 2.5% increase in total in chapter 78, whereas the state average for that same 24 year period is 75%. NM was 2.5. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts continues to find money money for other emergencies, yet the state continues to not adequately fund public education and is falling short of meeting the needs of our children, our future. In closing, I would like to address a quote made by governor Healy in a press release on April 1, where she stated, at a time when students are still struggling to recover from the pandemic, we need to be doing everything we can to address learning loss and the youth mental health crisis. While this was a reaction to the federal government's dismantling of the Department of Education, the governor does not model the behavior she expects from the federal government. I know I'm not alone in my reasoning for supporting the millionaires tax. We all thought it was to help public education. If we continue down this path, it is a11959 path of failure. I urge you to11961 focus what is within your control. Thank you. Thank you.
SPEAKER3 - Can we clear
SPEAKER6 - it? Can
SPEAKER1 - we Any questions? Yes.
Rapooms?
SPEAKER3 - What, towns and cities do you serve?
SPEAKER68 - So North Middlesex Regional School District is Pepperell, Townsend, and Ashby.11989 You're welcome.
SPEAKER1 - Rub Scottsdale.
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER68 - Thank you for the opportunity. I appreciate your time.
SPEAKER3 - Kim Craven?
SPEAKER49 - Yes.
SPEAKER3 - Yes. Thank you.
SPEAKER69 - Thank you, mister chairman and members of the committee for this opportunity to speak to you today. My name is Kim Craven and I am a member of the school committee for the North Middlesex District. I'm also the cochair of the economic development group, which is 6 communities in the first Middlesex District. And I am a member of the board of directors of our food bank, and I've worked in the public safety field for 40 years. I'm here today to act to ask you and urge you to act on the real and growing harm, ironically, caused by the hold harmless policy in our state's12053 education funding formula. What started as a well meaning provision to protect the districts has become12061 a barrier to equitable funding. Its consequences now extend far beyond the classroom. In many of our towns, the cost of level funding the schools has become a burden of the local task bears either through12077 cuts or additional taxes and operational overrides. These are not extras that we're trying to fund. We're talking about retaining12087 the basics. Teachers, programs, and keeping class sizes manageable. In our district, Ashby, Townsend and Pepperell, we will have lost 10% of the teachers. That's 40 positions in 2 years. The district is also left with the task of leaving a school empty. It's the only school in our community, Ashby. It will be unoccupied next year. It's going to require extensive busing in our district. Our district is 80 square miles. The cost to get North Middlesex back to the basics is 1,900,000.0 in the supplemental budget. And to stay a leader in the commonwealth and in our communities, we need your help. Further, research shows that a downward spiral in education is a true predictor of increases in crime. We need to preserve our ranking as 1 of the safest states in our nation. For perspective, if just 1 child falls through the cracks because of a reduced educational effort, it will cost more in corrections housing and lost productivity in 10 years than changing our budget formula. I also predict that the cumulative cuts will further burden our unemployment and our food pantries as you heard from the Greater Boston Food Bank. Because of the funding need, we're putting pressure on our12182 municipal budget. Many across12184 the state are seeking overrides. When it happens at the12188 expense of our core services,12190 our communities crumble. Cuts to essential services12194 at senior centers, libraries, recreation departments, and in public safety cause a downward spiral. This pits education against12204 others. While investments in the Commonwealth are occurring everywhere, this is truly the most important 1. You, our elected officials,12213 can make the change the change for our future. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you.12219 Rep rep Scottsdale.
SPEAKER70 - Thank you,12225 mister chair. There has been a lot of testimony today about the education funding crisis that impacts our towns. You heard from 1 of my towns, North Middlesex. I have 3 school districts, Lunenburg and Groton and Dunstable will also be testifying today. These cuts are really crippling our schools, and they12251 are going to impact the future of our children and their education and their future. I am so grateful for12259 the students who came here today from all across the commonwealth and from my district. Thank you for making that effort. And I especially appreciated hearing people say as they're commenting on the effect to their particular district, students were recognizing that they are not the only district that are in this boat, that it is affecting districts across the Commonwealth. 232 districts out of 316 to be exact. And as a couple of people have commented, that really is a failing grade. So to all of you in the First Middlesex, which is where Project 2 11 started, Project 2 11 plus is an effort to build a statewide coalition so that we can stand united and we can work on these issues, both on the funding side, which is critical for right now in this budget season and for our schools for this coming year, and on the very fundamental, the education, budget review commission, because if we don't fix these formulas at the source, we are going to have this problem over and over. So thank you for your advocacy and your efforts in coming here today.
SPEAKER34 - Chuck?
SPEAKER71 - Yes. Yes. I think I am. Good afternoon. My name is Charles Wachowicz. I'm a proud grandfather to 2 students in the North Middlesex Regional School District, and I serve on the Peperol's select board. It is an honor to be here on behalf of our town in our school district. I come to you today with a sense of urgency. This is a critical moment for our schools and I have 3 specific requests I respectfully ask you to12386 consider. First, fix the funding formula. For more than a decade, it has been widely acknowledged that this formula is broken. The consequences are now undeniable and unsustainable. In PEPPOL, our town's education costs have continued to grow and now represent 63% of our total budget. To absorb these cost increases, PEPPOL has reduced town services, deferred infrastructure investment, and repeated proposition 2 and a half overrides. Meanwhile, since 02/2015, North Middlesex has received only $1,300,000 in additional state12434 owned. That is just a hundred and $30,000 a year or $41 a year per student per year. Let that sink in. We're funding every student at only $41 a year. If the new formula isn't implemented by fiscal 27, our district may be forced to make even deeper cuts to staff and curriculum, cuts that will be devastated to our students. I ask that12471 the legislature assign the executive office of education and secretary Tottweiler the responsibility for developing a new equitable k through 12 formula with a plan to be in place for12484 fiscal 27.
Second, increase direct school aid. Many across the Commonwealth have called for additional educational funding. We ask that the budget prioritize direct aid to schools with a specific focus on addition an additional funding of students of a hundred and $50 and fully fund the student transportation. These investments that go straight to the classroom where they are needed the most. Third, adopt an early agreement on the education budget. School districts need certainty. An early agreement gives them time to plan, prepare, and most importantly, protect the students from disruption. Without it, the budgets are being developed in blind12541 and are forced to make the most difficult cuts first. In closing, I urge you, act with urgency. Fix the formula. Fund all k through 12 schools equitably and give our districts the clarity that they need. The decision you make here will shape the future of education for the children of the Commonwealth. Thank you for your time, your service, and your thoughtful consideration.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Any questions?
Thank you.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you, Peter.
SPEAKER1 - You're welcome. Peter Weller?
After that, Matthew Nugent? Nugent? Sorry.
SPEAKER72 - Thank you, representative Diggs, senator Pallano, members of the joint committee for the opportunity to speak with you today. I drove here from Western Massachusetts because our public schools are in crisis, and we need your help. Without additional state aid in next year's budget, I fear we will not be able to provide all students with the well rounded, high quality education they deserve. In my 20 years as a high school English and journalism teacher in South Hadley, I've never seen a budget this devastating. 19 positions cut, including classroom teachers, reading specialists, a music teacher, and more. In my hometown of Belchertown, the story is the same, only worse. 30 proposed staff cuts, a premature school closing, the elimination of our award winning elementary band and music programs, and ballooning class sizes at every level. Tomorrow night, my daughter will sing in a public chorus concert. At the end of the month, she'll play trumpet in the band. These opportunities have nurtured her creativity and confidence, but they will not exist for her younger sister if these cuts go through. Even more devastating, an exceptional elementary teacher who helped my daughter learn to read is on the chopping block. She isn't being let go because she failed our kids. She's being let go because the state's funding formula has failed our schools. So what do we do? We start by asking, what kind of education do we want for our children? Let this be the year we rise to the moment. Let's take a more thoughtful look at our struggling districts and come up with a better plan to help them. Let's adjust chapter 70 so it properly accounts for increased costs at the local level. Let's sufficiently fund special education so we can meet the unique learning needs of all students, and let's provide our districts with the transportation support they desperately require. Let us keep the promise of a great public education for every student in every corner of the Commonwealth. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Any question?
Thank you. We're hearing you.
Matthew Newgan?
SPEAKER3 - Then Carla Lima.
SPEAKER1 - Then Carla Lima?
SPEAKER73 - Thanks chair Diggs and chair Paianno for this opportunity to speak before the ways and means committee in support of responsible funding for Massachusetts public education. My name is Matthew Nugent, and my residence is in Beverly. I come here today to testify for important legislation to fix the chapter 70 inflation adjustment for the fiscal year 02/1926 budget. Specifically, the bill number is h 6 78 and its companion on the senate side is s 3 88. These bills are sponsored by representative Orlando Ramos of Springfield and senator Robin Kennedy of Worcester, respectively. Provisions within this legislation aim to address challenging periods of excessive inflation and effectively ensure school districts receive over time the level of funding in real dollars intended to the Student Opportunity Act. I encourage committee members to remember our Commonwealth's crucial role as a cradle of public education in the nation and to recall Massachusetts sustaining commitment to educational excellence from its founding forward. This legacy echoes across the hallowed grounds of the State House. Just steps from here on the front lawn stands a statue of Horace Mann, nationally renowned for his promotion of public education. The civic and architectural landmark State House Building itself is the creation of Charles Bulfinch, who is an alumnus of Boston Latin School, a public school with an especially long and distinguished history. I respectfully ask the members of this committee to responsibly renew12906 the venerable Massachusetts commitment to public education by advancing h 6 78 and s 3 88 during this session. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. No questions.
Any question? Thank you, hon. Thanks. Carla Lima and Lindsay Lucas. Carla Lima?
SPEAKER74 - Good afternoon, representatives and senator. Thank you so much for having me here today. I represent a mother of a child at Ashby Elementary School. You've just heard the superintendent earlier today, Brad and Kim, speaking in regards to the funding issue in our district. Ashby Elementary is the only school in our entire town. There are no, middle schools or high schools in our town, only k through 4, which is Ashby Elementary.
I have a first grader, Daniel, who attends Ashby Elementary today, a school that has become a second home to him. There's something truly special about rural education. It's the sense of safety, connection, and the lasting friendships that grow in a close knit community. That's why my husband and I chose to relocate to Ashby. We knew it was a place where our son could thrive both,13008 academically and emotionally. Our son has struggled with separation anxiety13014 since the pandemic, being forced to stay home, not attending a pre k education. We initially tried enrolling him in a private school for kindergarten,13024 which we did, but it wasn't really the right choice for him. So we were in a search for where it would be the perfect fit for our son to thrive and grow13034 in a close knit community. We landed in Ashby where we found it very comforting.
We met with missus C, the principal at Ashby Elementary. She warmly embraced us into that school. And when we13050 walked in, Daniel looked at me and he said, mom, this is where I want to go. And we knew right away that sealed the deal for us. Since enrolling, he's blossomed. He now plays with friends, participates in events, and has gained social confidence that I had never seen before. Academically, his growth has been extraordinarily. He entered the school unable to13077 read, even though we did pay for private school. We were very unsure if he13083 would be able to catch up with the first graders, but we still made that choice13087 to not hold him back and enroll him13089 in first grade. His teacher, Ms. Francis, and the title 1 teacher, miss Redder, joined forces to help him keep up with the rest of the class. 6 months into his first grade learning, I can tell you that he's able to read 2 full books every night, and he loves it. Another benefit of living close to school is being able13112 to bring him warm lunch every day. Our son has gluten and dairy sensitivity, which the school has very limited options for. So we're fortunate enough that I've already had warm lunch every day.
I'll end now, but I have fully submitted my full statement to you guys to read. Please reconsider as our school is being closed for next year. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you for13138
doctor Nia Wilson?
And also, if there's anybody that needs ASL, they're gonna be leaving at 03:00. You would say? They're gonna be leaving early, so please, if there's anyone that needs any special help, please let us know. Rep Cruz is in the house. Just wanna let you know.
SPEAKER12 - Good afternoon, Chairman Peano and Chairman Diggs and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to present today. My name is doctor Naya Wilson. I'm the hands on defense program manager at Justice for Housing Incorporated. I'm speaking on behalf of our executive director and founder, Leslie Creedle. She's on the ground right now dealing with a crisis, so I'm humbly, replacing her. We are asking the joint committee to support the Justice for housing mission in helping returning citizens. We respectfully request earmarked funding for justice for housing in line item 7004 dash 9 0 3 4 In the amount of $750,000 Justice for housing is a grassroots organization that provides housing justice and family reunification for justice impacted individuals. Most organizations provide 1 service, either policy, advocacy, or direct service. Housing is such a huge issue that in order to be successful, we had to tackle it from every angle. We use policy to change laws and dismantle systems. We use advocacy to lift13256 up the voices of our constituents and to educate those who oppose13260 us and those who don't understand us. We provide housing, a critical resource providing generational wealth and equity. As you may know,13270 formerly incarcerated people are 10 times more likely to be homeless than general citizens. Due to CORI background checks, formerly incarcerated peace people face intense barriers to building to rebuilding their lives and safe housing is the first step. Our hands on defense program provides support for voucher denials and terminations. We we help our constituents to appeal. We do eviction prevention, landlord mitigation, and reasonable accommodations. We've had a huge success rate of 97 percent, and we've housed over 300 formerly incarcerated people through our HOD program. Additionally, we have a 2% recidivism rate versus the 30 plus percent recidivism rate in Massachusetts keeping our communities safer. Hands on defense is a replicable model that is scalable. We are working with organizations across the state to train in our HOD participatory defense model. Supporting reentry programming is fiscally responsible and saves taxpayers money. By successfully housing people who are formerly incarcerated, we're saving tax payers tax payer money in shelters and in prison costs. So I thank you for this opportunity to speak and welcome any questions.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. No questions. Any questions?
SPEAKER12 - Thank you so much.
SPEAKER1 - Oh.
SPEAKER12 - We're also gonna do written testimony. How
SPEAKER3 - much, is the request?
SPEAKER12 - $750,000
SPEAKER39 - Thank you.
SPEAKER12 - For the scalable model.
SPEAKER11 - Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Lindsay Lucason.
Jana Brennan.
And up next is Lacey McCabe.
SPEAKER75 - Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today on behalf of the Wachusett Regional School District. My name is Jana Brennan. I am a parent in Holden, a school committee member, and the chair of our business and finance subcommittee. I'm here today to add13427 my voice of support for Senator Lewis's bill s 400 to re examine the chapter 70 funding formula and the f y 26 budget enhancements recommended to this committee by Mars, Masbo, and MASS, which include fully funding circuit breaker reimbursements and regional transportation, a correction in the interest rate calculation, and raising the per pupil minimum aid. Chapter seventy's formula works well for vocational schools and urban districts, but has a negative effect on districts like Wachusett. But has a negative effect on districts like Wachusett. The base formula not13462 only funds us lower than many13464 of the state's wealthiest districts, but lower than all the other central mass regionals. But we are the largest regional in the state and the 20 fifth largest district in the state. For the second year in a row, this broken formula has us in held harmless along with 231 other districts. This lack of funding puts a huge financial burden on what you said 5 towns, not only to cover the state minimum requirement, but to cover the quote13492 unquote discretionary spending needed13494 to make our schools function. For the proposed f y 26 budget, WRSD received only a 1.37% increase in state aid, while mandating a 4.49 average increase to our 5 towns. The last 2 fiscal years, our student population has slightly decreased, but the cost of our level services have only increased. Our dip in population for a district our size is not enough to garner any overall efficiencies and savings, yet our additional funding has dropped by millions of dollars. What you said staffing levels are well below that of the state average and all of our DART peers, and our students suffer for it. Our MCAS numbers still have recovered post COVID. School committees proposed f y 26 budget is comprised of level services and a modest increase to staff to increase these gaps in student achievement. If it does not pass, we will have to make significant teacher cuts further harming our students. I urge this committee, our state legislator, and the governor to not decimate our school and town services. Fully fund our obligations to circuit breaker and regional transportation. These will not cover what our district needs to operate, but it'll be a lifeline until chapter 70 can be reexamined and be equitable for all. Thank you very much for your time.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you.
Lacey McCabe.
SPEAKER3 - Coming up. And after was Rebecca Wex Wexner.
SPEAKER1 - Rebecca Wexner is next. Okay.
SPEAKER76 - Good afternoon, representative Diggs and senator Paolo, and to all the members of the joint committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify here today. My name is Lacey McCabe, and I am here both as the chair of the Groton Dunstable Regional School School Committee, as well as the parent of 2 kids in the Groton Dunstable School District. Today, I want to express how dire the financial situation is in Groton Dunstable, and impress upon you the urgent need for immediate action and increased support from the state of Massachusetts. Specifically, I am asking this committee to increase funding in the following areas and to support the following proposed pieces of legislation. First, I urge you to support funding the special education circuit breaker reimbursement at 90% and lowering the eligibility threshold. H 6 9 1 s 4 30. Second, please support increasing the regional transportation reimbursement to the full 100%, h 6 9 7 s 3 2 8. Third, fund sliding scale mental health supports for all districts, h 5 4 4 s 3 6 9. And finally, please support increasing the charter school reimbursement. H 5 7 7 s 389. In order to provide context for our financial needs, in f y 25 due to failed overrides in both of our member towns, Groton Dunstable13695 was forced to make $2,700,000 worth of reductions at our school system. Each of those reductions represents lost opportunities for our students. As 1 of my fellow school committee13707 members often says, a child is13709 only in third grade once. They have 1 chance at each13713 grade and at each stage of learning and development. By continuously stripping away resources and opportunities from our district, it will no longer be13721 a place that students want to go, and it will take many years to rebuild what has been lost, if that is even possible. The heartbreaking truth is that after a certain point, many children will be unreachable. This year for our FY '26 budget, we are once again in a position of requiring an override to fund our budget. Without successful overrides in both towns, we will be forced to make another $1,600,000 in cuts. What's worse, projections for next year already show that our expected increase will exceed the town's ability to pay, and municipal leadership has already indicated to us13757 that they would not support seeking an13759 override next year. Once again, we would be in a13762 position of needing to make significant cuts for the third year in a row. I recognize that these matters are not easy and that there are many matters that need your attention. I ask that in your deliberations, you remember and13777 you consider the needs of the communities of both Groton and Dunstable, and the 2,305 current students, and 351 employees of the Groton Dunstable Regional School District. They are counting on you.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you
SPEAKER76 - for your time and consideration.
SPEAKER66 - Hi there.
SPEAKER67 - I'm Rebecca Wexner. I'm here as a concerned citizen, a pediatric psychologist, and most importantly, a mother to 3 school aged children in the Groton Dunstable Regional School District. The term commonwealth is meant to signal a community founded on serving the public good. Massachusetts is 1 of only 4 states to retain this signifier, indicating its commitment to the well-being of all of its citizens. It's time that the legislature live up to that13823 name and move to fund the special education13825 circuit breaker, sliding scale13827 mental health supports to all districts, to fund regional transportation at 100%13831 and increase per pupil spending so that the well-being of our youngest citizens is fully supported. These investments would provide an additional estimated $1,200,000 to Groton and Dunstable, essentially closing our budget deficit and providing additional and preventing additional devastating cuts this fall, not to mention the relief offered to districts across the state. In Groton and Dunstable, as Lacey mentioned, the community has rejected overrides communicating their refusal to take on any additional funding burden as a result of the statewide structural funding shortfalls. We've been forced to reduce the district budget by over $2,000,000 thus eliminating 27 positions, including teachers, counselors, social workers, and nurses. We've seen increases in class size, decreases in student services, and diminished staff morale. My youngest daughter no longer enjoys school because her class size is so large13883 and the behavioral needs in the room exceed the capacity of any single teacher. Yet despite their best intentions, there is no additional staff to support either the teacher or my child. So13895 my 8 year old is learning that13897 when you need help, nobody is there to help you. And it'll only get worse. With expected increases in school assessments, the district faces continued budget deficits and elimination of 26 additional positions, which would be catastrophic for our school, our town, and each of our students. This is an unsustainable path. Our schools are our children's community, and not only are we telling our children that they do not deserve to have a fully funded community, we are allowing these communities to fail, in turn, setting the stage for our towns to fail. The students of Graton and Dunstable deserve access to a high quality education without the uncertainty of annual budget shortfalls. I ask for your leadership in addressing these urgent issues in the budget to ensure that students across the Commonwealth have the have the community that they deserve. Thank you.
SPEAKER76 - We'd welcome any questions from the committee as well.
SPEAKER1 - Yes. Ruth Cazdell.
SPEAKER70 - Thank you again, mister chair. Thank you for coming to testify. So just so the committee knows, Dunstable is 1 of my 2 towns of 3,000 people. Carla from Ashby is the other town of 3,000 people. So they are the face of what this funding issue looks like, and and the crisis is really real. And just to to give you a little taste for Groton Dunstable over the last 15 years, state aid has gone up about $500,000 and district costs have gone up $15,000,000 When I was talking to the Massachusetts Association of School Committees and they happened to pick Groton Dunstable as an example, they said they don't think they can ever dig out of that hole that hold harmless has put them in. So as someone else said earlier, hold harmless is really anything but, and we absolutely have to look at the school funding formula to fix this. Thank you. Thank
SPEAKER1 - you.
SPEAKER11 - Thank you. Emily Slater.
SPEAKER1 - Emily Slater.
SPEAKER3 - And then Diane Hewitt.
SPEAKER1 - And then Diane Hewitt.
Diane Hewitt.
SPEAKER77 - Good afternoon. I'm Diane Hewitt from, Groton, Massachusetts. And, I think I'm going to be echoing everything that has been said,14069 but not as eloquently as our students have been able to do for us this afternoon. That was masterful and great lesson in civics education. My husband and I have lived in Groton for nearly 50 years. We're both retired educators. He was a guidance director in upper elementary and, middle school14092 children. And I spent my career in higher ed14096 in student advocacy and academic affairs. Both of our children attended Groton Dunstable Schools, and we now have14104 2 young grandchildren enrolled at the elementary level. I'm writing to you or excuse me. I'm speaking to you to express our deepest concern and distress about the fiscal crisis facing our district. And all of those other communities in project 2 11, which is actually much more than 2 11, who all continue to be severely underfunded by the state of Massachusetts. This inequity and funding is hollowing out our schools in Groton and Dunstable. In 2025, chapter 70 monies dropped to just 23%. With inflation, the outmoded cap of prop 2 and a half, and the reduction of state funding as representative Scarsdale just said, we're in a deep hole and we can't climb out. Proposing yearly prop 2 and a half overrides is not the answer. Last year, our community rejected an override for the schools resulting in the elimination of 24 full time positions. This14167 is now affecting every school, every department, and every child. The negative impacts include increased class sizes,14175 the reduction of course offerings, and the lack of critical assistance in math and reading instruction. No librarians on the elementary level, and the cutting of14186 health care and guidance staff. This year, the district is asking for only a modest override that will just level14194 fund services and reinstate14196 just 2 of the 24 positions we lost last year. Without the override, we will lose another 16 full time staff. This means in 2 years, we will have lost a total of14210 40 full time employees or 11% of the district staff. This is so unacceptable. I respectfully and very urgently request that the legislature immediately provide supplemental funding to Groton Dunstable and the other hold harmless districts. Further, as was made abundantly clear in the recent Amherst, Massachusetts hearing on March 24, the leadership for creating more equitable funding for a more equitable funding formula must come from the legislature. Please stand up. Do your job. Our children, my grandchildren, and our communities are all counting on you. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you.
John Crowell? John Crowell?
SPEAKER3 - And then Sherry
SPEAKER26 - Haber?
SPEAKER3 - John Crowell isn't here.
SPEAKER1 - Go ahead, Sherry.
Next, it will be a panel with Hannah, Madison Press.
Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Sherry Haber, and I'm a member of the Wachusett Regional School District Committee, the largest regional school district in the state in geography and population, serving 6,700 students across 5 towns. I'm here to advocate for removing regional schools from hold harmless status, increasing per pupil amount for hold harmless districts, fully funding regional transportation, and the revision of the funding formula. I strongly support Senator Lewis's bill s 400, which aims to address the enormous inequities built into14311 the current funding system, but immediate action is needed to prevent further damage to the majority of the districts in the state.14317 This year, our chapter 70 funding increase is only 1.37%, and our average minimum local contribution increased by 4.49%. Enrollment decreased by only 1.8, which does not offer any opportunities for savings. It averages 1 student per every 3 classrooms,14336 not enough to offset rising costs in providing even level services. While large city districts can move students, our regional district must educate its K-eight students in their own towns. Regional transportation costs have also risen sharply. Only 1 company bids for our contract with the long distance to cover, further driving our cost. It is critical to fund regional transportation at 100%. WRSD has done what it can to stretch resources. In f y 25, we maintained a14367 level service budget, making strategic allocations and holding 7 bargaining units to a 2.5% increase. We are already below the state average in percentage of teachers, administrators, support staff, clerical, and tech. There is nothing left to cut. To offset the extreme burden to our towns, we have committed $500,000 in excess funds, but this is not sustainable. Our students are already suffering. MCAS scores are down significantly, with over half of students in grade 3 to 8 not meeting expectations in ELA, a 20% increase in 6 years. With 33% not meeting ELA expectations at our high school, we're sending graduates into the world unprepared. In this funding crisis, instead of hiring reading interventionists, we're going to be forced to cut teachers and increase class sizes. We cannot provide adequate education with this financial strain. The current foundation budget indicates that it costs only $13,160 to educate a student in Wachusett, lower than 90% of the rest of the state. We receive far less per student compared with both our DART peers and other local regional districts. While it's clear from former success that regionalization can save money and still provide a solid education, it has a limit, and that limit has been reached. Under the existing formula, 73% of14449 districts, including 82% of regional districts, are in hold harmless. Though its intent to protect districts from losing funding, and it does for some, it has created a massive financial burden for us that our towns cannot endure. At a minimum, I ask that you maintain or increase the f y '20 '5 '1 0 '4 dollar per pupil funding and urge you to reconvene the k to 12 funding review committee in f y 26 to address the failure of the funding formula. Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you.
The panel with Madison Press. Chris Little. Chris Little.
Okay. Move on. Mandy Gilman. Mandy Gilman?
14495 SPEAKER314495 -14495 Mhmm.14495 Next will be Glenn Yapwell.
SPEAKER4 - Hello. I've brought my colleagues from Lunenburg up with me. We're here together. Thank you so much, for taking for listening and hearing from us. I'm here today as a concerned parent from the Lunenburg Public School District. I have 2 boys, age 9 and 7, who attend Lunenburg Public Schools. Lunenburg is a small town in North Central Mass. We have approximately 1,600 students in our school district, and we are getting killed by the current chapter 70 formula. We are also not a regional school, so we do not get any funding for our transportation.
I'm basically here14544 because my kids deserve the kind of education that all kids around the state deserve and the funding formula is really killing us. We actually were the successful we had a successful override last year, and we are again looking at another 2 and a half million dollar deficit.
Our recently approved budget cuts over 38 positions. This amounts to 9.5% of the district's total permanent staff. The governor's budget included in a hundred and $20,000 increase in chapter 70 money for us. Our health insurance costs alone went up $450,000 our special ed out of displacements went up $606,000 and our transportation costs went up $280,000 So when the state gives us an extra $100,000 it really does nothing to address the concerns that my kids are facing. I'm going to let the school committee members on either side of me talk a little bit more, but I want to leave you with a few things. My 9 year old went to kindergarten during COVID and first grade, and he has taken a long time to get him to read. He really has struggled. And without the supports that, my school district is able to fund, I don't know that we would be where we are today. He also has a lot of anxiety and he has, there's social workers in our schools. In particular, there's a social worker at Turkey Hill who is going to be cut next year,14630 which is at the elementary school he's in. And so, you know, he talks very favorably of this staff member. This staff member will no longer be there next year. You know, we are not asking for frills. Another parent, we've been meeting with our legislators who've been wonderful, but another parent uses the story that when she, works in the school district, we have our principals cleaning up vomit off the floor. We do not have enough maintenance staff to take care of our buildings. And, you know, the principals and vice principals do what needs to be done to have a school environment that's safe and14663 happy and healthy for our kids, but14665 they shouldn't be asked to do that. So thank you.
SPEAKER5 - Hi. My name is Laura Brozovsky. I am from Lunenburg as well, and I am a member of the Lunenburg School Committee. I am also the parent of 3 school aged children. Like Mandy said, Lunenburg is struggling. Our schools are at a $2,000,000 deficit this year. That is 8% of our budget. And that is after passing a million dollar override last year that passed by less than a hundred votes. Every penny of that override went into the schools. We anticipate needing another override next year. This year, we are looking at cutting almost 10% of our staff with the shortage we have. We are a small town. We have a lot of economic diversity. Some of our neighbors cannot sustain continuous overrides year after year. We're also a small school district, and we cannot sustain cuts of14727 this magnitude to the school budget. Our school budget costs are rising far more than proposition 2 and a half can keep14733 up with. Overrides alone are not the14735 solution. When inflation outpaces chapter 70, the14739 town has to shoulder a compounding amount of the cost each year. It's unsustainable. We have a structural deficit that cannot be resolved through local revenue alone. Small districts like ours are especially vulnerable. We do not have room to absorb cuts without directly impacting students. I know that this is a complicated problem. I'm here today because I want to remind you that there are real students, very real students who are being affected by the budget issues. They cannot wait years for a student for a solution. They are being affected today. We need help now. So I'm asking you to number 1, prioritize education funding in Massachusetts. I know I'm supposed to be specific and that is a very broad ask. But public education for children has been a core value of Massachusetts for 250 years. Please recommit to that value, not with your words, but with concrete14804 budgetary action. Also, 2, consider14810 the chapter 70 inflation adjustment, increase minimum aid, make sure that all schools can continue to provide quality public education that we've relied on in the past. 3, our transportation costs and many other suburban and rural transportation costs have been increasing. There is no state funding for non regional school transportation. Please consider budgetary assistance. Please consider house bill 39 76 for competitive bidding for bus transportation. That's been an issue of ours that we do not have competitive bids when it comes to bus transportation. For our out of district placement costs can be financially difficult for small districts with smaller budgets like ours when there are unexpected move ins, and it can wreak havoc on our carefully managed budgets, especially when we are on such razor thin margins. And the budget is so carefully balanced, and we need to carry that cost in our local budget and wait for reimbursement. So please consider a circa break it reimbursement or
SPEAKER6 - a more timely reimbursement system.
SPEAKER5 - We're doing as much as we can locally, but we need your help too. Please make education our priority. Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - We definitely hear you. Sorry that that was all you guys' time.
SPEAKER7 - That's alright. Oh. No. You're good.
SPEAKER8 - I didn't know. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER2 - That's alright. I mean, that's why we said 6 6 minutes for committee.
SPEAKER3 - I like quick speed. Sorry.
SPEAKER9 - You're good. Thank
SPEAKER2 - you. But we we get it. We we totally understand what you're saying, and we're we're listening to you. But I there are some questions.
SPEAKER10 - Thank you, mister chair. Just to point out, you had heard previously from my 2 regional schools. Lunenburg is a a comprehensive school. The whole harmless14917 minimum aid district designation, it doesn't work for any of them.
SPEAKER11 - Sorry. That was right.
SPEAKER5 - And we don't qualify for rural either. No. We're not rural either. So none of the specials none of the special designations.
SPEAKER12 - If
SPEAKER3 - you could speak, look. If you could please speak to the mic.
SPEAKER5 - We're not we're not a rural district either. So14941 none of the special designations would apply, but we are also still struggling.
SPEAKER2 - No. We we understand, and we're we're listening. So thank you.
Elijah De Jesus? De Souza. I'm sorry.
Glenn McLeod after this.
SPEAKER13 - You guys mind if I stand?
SPEAKER2 - You can
SPEAKER13 - stand. Good afternoon, committee members. How do you do today? Wonderful. Wonderful. So my name is Elijah Sousa, and I represent citizens against Eversource. I'll speak a little bit upon that in a minute. But before I digress to that, I just wanna, you know, speak about the elephant in the room. As I drove in today, you know, I was reading the local paper, and there was a lot of conversation about the federal government cutting funds, and especially in the education sector. And we've sat here for quite some time and in speaking on listening to a lot of these concerned citizens about those specific funds. But let's be clear here. It is not that the federal government is cutting funds. These funds that are being withheld are a consequence of the disobedience by the state administration, by this administration, particularly Maura Healey and this legislature, because there are some federal mandates that, you know, need to be followed to be able to get these funds and have access to these funds. And so let's be clear.15052 These funds are not being cut. There are consequences to the15056 state not following federal mandate mandates similar to how in these cities and towns, when the15062 cities and towns don't abide by the state's, you know, mandates, these citizen towns also get cut by funds. So let let's be clear about the paradigms of what happens in these situations, you know, because when these things are happening, there are real citizens that are having a really difficult time with their professions, whether it's teachers, whether it's employees. And so these these political games these political theater games that get played within the administration, they try to vilify the federal government. Let's be clear here. This is the system that we work in. This is a political paradigm that we work in. Okay? And whether there is, you know, someone with the d in15098 front of their name in the federal government, whether there's somebody with an arm in front of their name in the federal government, those laws are set, and they need to be followed by the legislature whether we like it or15108 not. Because that is the system of democracy that we have in this great country and in this great state,15113 and we can't sit here and pretend that when the other party is in power, we can just avoid these federal mandates. So let's be fair, guys, okay, in that respect. And so with that, I'm gonna digress back onto Citizens Against Eversource. And so when I initially started Citizens Against Eversource, I thought, wow. This is the big bad corporation. This is Eversource coming after us, coming after our funds. But when you really research, you find out that they're allowed to be in a monopoly. Right? And we're gonna branch out. This is not just about Eversource. It is about IOUs or investor operated utilities. Right? And so we're talking about Unitil. We're talking about National Grid. We're talking about Eversource. We're talking about Liberty Utilities, which is a 4 primary IOUs in the state. And what happens is they are regulated by the DPU, the Department of Public Utilities. But here's a clincher, because for a while there, I was, you know, you know, going after the DPU, but the reality is it is this legislature that sets law and that law that's then gets passed on to the DPU, their lawyers take apart and requesting15177 some additional time given the fact I'm representing 33,000
SPEAKER14 - members.
SPEAKER2 - I'm sorry. You wanted to talk about it, but I will say this. I'm sorry that, you know, I I take a little bit of offense that because I I'm a state representative, and I'm working for my people locally. And I'm sure everybody that's up here cares about what's going on. Absolutely. So to go ahead and say that we're not caring, that's not that's not the case. No. But that's what you implied.
SPEAKER13 - No. No. The the
SPEAKER2 - That's what you implied. So I'm letting you I'm letting you know well, I'm letting you know that we are caring, and I'm, you know, I'm not liking to hear about kids schooling getting cutted and all that. So we're gonna figure out a way. But you did not come and just talk about what your issue was. You just said you wanted to talk about how there's a mandates and all that stuff under there. Effect But but the problem is you should have talked about what you wanted to talk about. You wanted to make sure that you you put something else out there. There's a difference.
SPEAKER13 - Well, I I think it's
SPEAKER2 - Does anyone have a question?
SPEAKER13 - Will anybody concede some time
SPEAKER15 - to me within the Thank you.
SPEAKER13 - So that I can finish my
SPEAKER16 - Time is up. Please remove yourself from
SPEAKER2 - Glenn McGloyd.
Oh, stop it.
Glenn?
SPEAKER3 - Glenn Mcno Kirk McLeod?
Next is, Lara Brozalski.
Laura Brozalski is not here. Andrea Pancholi.
Judith Lewin Mater. Donna
Grady.
We have a panel with Jennifer Loud and Michael Murphy.
Jennifer? Donna Grady. Donna Grady. Okay. So, after, after Donna, we'll have Jennifer and Michael. Thank you so much, Donna.
SPEAKER17 - Thank you so much to the committee for the time today. I appreciate it. My name is Donna Grady, and I'm a proud 36 veteran public school educator. I teach kindergarten. It's not it's not what I do, it's who I am. I'm here to talk about the biggest missing piece of the budget puzzle, the students. Most talk about money. As you've heard, we know money is an issue, not15347 a surprise. But few talk about the children, about the students. Every penny, every dollar impacts a student and a family. Students don't come to us in a vacuum. Each day, they come to us full of hopes and dreams with unique personalities, various family structures, strengths, skills, and challenges. Our job is to work for, care for, educate every student in whatever form and whatever manner they come to us. We've seen an increase in students unable to name or even control their own emotions. Students with anxiety, depression, and aggressive behavioral concerns. As young as 4 or 3 and as old as 22. When our students arrive, they need and deserve trained professionals. Professionals who know how children grow and develop cognitively, biologically, physically, physiologically, socially, and emotionally. The classroom educator is but 1 person on any student's team. There are15414 speech and language pathologists, special educators, occupational and physical therapists, van and bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodial staff, secretaries, nurses, librarians, counselors, mental health professionals, educational support professionals, and subject specific educators. For many years, under underfunded budgets have decimated our student facing staff. We've stopped asking if we're supporting students to become critical thinkers, confident and self aware individuals, empathetic and productive citizens, reflective and innovative problem solvers. The whole child grant provides funding for districts to hire more student facing critical staff, such as nurses, librarians, counselors, social workers, and psychologists. The whole child grant asks you for a commitment to appropriate student to staff ratios. This grant will help focus on providing grants to communities15481 who need the most support for15483 the most children. A budget is a moral document, a reflection of what we as a society value. My ask for this body is to support fully funding the whole child grant. Our children and our future are worth it.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you so much, Donna. If there are any questions, thank you so much for for your testimony.
SPEAKER17 - Thank you so15511 much.
SPEAKER3 - And up next, we have a panel, Jennifer Loud and Michael Murphy.
Okay. Since we are gonna be moving on to our next section, we are struggling along here. So far, we have heard from over, 80 people, or 80 people that, were on the list. Now we're moving on to higher ed. Melissa Santos.
Michael Hanigan. Or is Melissa walking by?
SPEAKER15 - All right. So,
SPEAKER3 - Michael Hanigan.
And after Michael, we will have Ray Roberts.
SPEAKER18 - Good afternoon. My name is Michael Hannigan, and I am the current student senate president at Greenfield Community College. And at the age of 42, I returned to school after years of working as a custodian and a dishwasher. And I had the privilege of testifying before this committee last year to share how the access to free community college, the mass reconnect program, had changed the course of my life. And I've seen firsthand how the expansion
SPEAKER2 - of this
SPEAKER18 - program to students of all ages has transformed our campuses. It's opened a door to higher ed to thousands of people who never thought it would be possible, including many of my classmates. But I'm here today to say, access alone is not enough. Across Massachusetts, we're seeing students fake forced to make impossible choices between staying in school and meeting their basic needs. I've heard from classmates living in shelters, living in their cars, in the attics of friends, just to stay in school. I've seen students going hungry for days, trying to hold it all together while attending classes and working low wage jobs. And I've seen the panic that sets in when our SNAP benefits are suddenly reduced or, suddenly reduced or cut off, and the deep uncertainty that creates. And I've seen our campus food pantries act as the 1 thing keeping some of us enrolled. Without that support, many of us would have no choice but to drop out. At Greenfield Community College, our food pantry is constantly packed. And these scenes aren't unique to Greenfield. It's a statewide issue. Right now, 44 % of public college and community college students in Massachusetts are facing food insecurity. And in rural areas like Franklin County, that number is even higher. And food security and housing instability are preventing students from completing their education they fought so hard to begin. Massachusetts has made the bold and necessary investment in free community college. Now we need to make sure that every dollar we spend leads to a diploma and not just a student ID card.
What I'm asking you to do is include $2,000,000 in the state budget to fund the hunger free campus initiative, a statewide effort led by students to provide food pantries and wrap around services on every public college and15707 university campus. And this is line item 140O3.
So free community college has opened the door, but if we want students to walk through it and cross the stage at graduation, we have to support them every step
SPEAKER14 - of the
SPEAKER18 - way. So thank you for your time, and thank you for your continued investment in the future of Massachusetts students.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you so much, Michael. As a former student government president, I appreciate the work that you're doing in your campus. I learned a lot, you know, back when I was younger, how to organize from from MassPerk and, appreciate the work that you do. And I think I I meet, a lot of individuals that 1 of the things that a lot of our community doesn't don't know is sort of, food insecurity. And sometimes you're looking at a kid that's going to college and you're thinking, this this person is fine when in actuality, they, they are not. So, thank you for your advocacy, and representing, individuals that, are are disempowered.
SPEAKER2 - And we also know that, you know, having food in your stomach gives you energy to be able to think. So we know that it is important, and will listen to you. So we thank you. Thank you.
Ray Roberts.
SPEAKER19 - Hey. Hi. My name is Ray Roberts. Good afternoon to everyone, and thank you for allowing me to speak today. I am currently a freshman at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and I live in Amherst. I'm speaking today to share my support for the $2,000,000 for hunger free campus initiative, which is line item 7 1 0 0 dash 4003. I'm speaking on behalf of both myself and MassPerg students, UMass Amherst chapter. We are a student run student funded campus organization that advocates for public interest issues affecting college students. This funding is incredibly important to us because college students experience food insecurity at disproportionate rates. According to recent statewide research that was also mentioned by the previous speaker, 44 percent of community college and public university students in Massachusetts were food insecure at some point last year. This funding would enable public colleges and universities to take steps to end hunger on campus by expanding student enrollment in federal nutrition programs like SNAP, increasing participation in dining hall meal swipe programs, and more. With an uncertain future of federal education funding, it is even more critical that we use state funding to support students now. We applaud the governor and legislator's previous investment in free community college for the commonwealth and we encourage them to continue support students by including $2,000,000 for the hunger free campus initiative in the fiscal year 20 26 budget. Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you. Any questions?
SPEAKER3 - Max Fundran.
SPEAKER2 - Max Fundran?
SPEAKER3 - I believe your your mic might not be on.
SPEAKER20 - Is it good now?
SPEAKER3 - Yes. Thank you.
SPEAKER21 - Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Max Bondren. I'm a student at UMass Boston, and I'm an advocate for student basic needs. I'm here to voice my strong support for $2,000,000 in funding for the hunger free campus initiative, line item 7 1 0 0 4 0 0 3, a vital initiative that addresses 1 of the most pressing and overlooked barriers to student success in Massachusetts. Right now, nearly half of students at our public colleges and universities experience food insecurity. This means thousands of students are showing up to class hungry, skipping meals, and living with the chronic stress of not knowing where their next meal will come from. This is unacceptable for a place that is the hub for higher education.15971 And it's not just15973 an individual crisis. It's a15975 systemic 1, and it's 1 we can solve with the right investment. To support students who chose the commonwealth, there needs to be the right support system in place, such as helping eligible students enroll in SNAP or WIC, creating on campus EBT SNAP vendors, building partnerships with food pantries and food recovery organizations, and funding anti stigma and awareness campaigns. To bring these programs to life and to scale them across campuses, we need to increase funding. Colleges want to do this work. They see the need for it firsthand. But without adequate resources, their hands are tied. With proper investment, they can hire staff, build infrastructure, and expand outreach to support more students more effectively. This is a smart investment. When students are fed, they are more likely to perform well and graduate. That strengthens our workforce, boosts our economy, and fulfills the promise of public higher education as a pathway to opportunity, not a place where students are left to fend for themselves. I urge you to support our ask of $2,000,000 for the hunger free campus initiative.16051 Let's give our public colleges16053 and universities the resources that they need to ensure that no student in Massachusetts has to choose between their education and their next meal. Thank you for your time and your commitment to student success.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you.
Sarah Woodcomb.
SPEAKER3 - And after is Phyllis Keenan.
SPEAKER2 - Phyllis Keenan is next. After Phyllis. I'm sure after Sarah.
SPEAKER22 - No. Now it's on? Okay. Thanks for having me here today. My name is Sarah Whitcomb. I'm a licensed psychologist and associate director of research and evaluation for Boston Children's Hospital, neighborhood partnerships program. I'm also the codirector of the Birch Center at UMass16121 Boston. Boston Children's Hospital is 1 of the executive members of the children's mental health campaign,16127 advocating for policy, systems and practice solutions to ensure all children in Massachusetts have access to resources to prevent, diagnose and treat mental health issues in a timely, effective and compassionate way. Neighborhood partnerships is a school based behavioral health program at Boston children's having partnered with Boston public schools across more16149 than 22 years, to prevent and respond to student behavioral health needs. So esteemed members of this committee, here's what we know. Children are less able to engage16161 in learning at school if behavioral health concerns are present. Massachusetts data show our preschoolers are 3 times as likely to be expelled for dysregulated behavior than their K-twelve counterparts. According to recent youth risk behavior survey, 34 percent of our Massachusetts high schoolers felt sad or hopeless in the last 2 weeks. 20 percent have engaged in self injury in the last year. We're seeing alarming increases in suicidality, particularly among minoritized populations. Insufficient resources lead to youth with serious needs languishing in our hospital ERs. Nowhere is the youth crisis more evident than in our schools where teachers, our first line of defense, are experiencing incredible burnout rates. Nearly 80 percent of teachers engage in thoughts of leaving the profession at some point during the year. So now add a shortage of behavioral health providers to an increased teacher workload and the crisis becomes even clearer. A Birch center scan of commonwealth schools continues to show that schools with the most economic need, often have the fewest behavioral health providers employed. And as a researcher, psychologist and former teacher with 27 years experience in my field, I know that students are more likely to access and complete behavioral health treatment when it's offered at school. But we cannot do so without strategic investments to support efficient workforce development strategies, build consistent and coordinated professional learning for educators, and expand capacity for the effective coordination and implementation of school behavioral health in partnership with community based providers. We know what must be done, but we need a commonwealth strategy to be effective and efficient. So as you build the budget for the fiscal year ahead, I urge you to prioritize student mental health. It is good for our children and assured an investment for the commonwealth.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you. Mental health is a big big big issue and we care about our kids. And we care about we don't know if they're always kids, whatever. We care about mental16293 health. So we will definitely keep an eye. Anybody else? Anything else to say? Thank you so much. Thank you. Jillis Keenan?
16309 Jay16309 Nakai is next.
SPEAKER10 - Hello. Thank you16314 for listening to all of our talk on education today. I am gonna16318 talk on higher education. I am Phyllis Keenan. I'm an adjunct math professor and I live in Amherst. I teach mostly developmental math. It's that math that you take when you didn't get placed into college math. And for most students, they really struggle with it. They have mental health issues, they have math anxiety, and they've struggled with math. Some have learning disabilities. What happens through my courses that I teach is that students learn the math, and they learn that they can learn, and they have the confidence to be able to go forward. And for some students, it's the first time they've really felt that somebody taught them math in16355 a way they could learn it. Without math, students cannot progress through college. They miss16361 out on many things in life. As adjunct faculty, we teach16365 75% of the courses in this state. We're often the first professors that students access at the colleges. Yet, we teach more than 1, course. We might teach several courses. Often, we teach at multiple colleges and have other jobs. So we can't commit the time to the students that they need or commit16385 to the college itself because we're busy going off to another job. And this really does affect the16391 student success. I want16393 to tell you about 1 student, a former student of mine. He came online, to a tutoring session. And he had been in my class and he had taken it, he was urged to take developmental math. Just take 1 course and I won't pester you about going to college anymore, was what his GED teacher told him. Well, by the end of the course, what he said to me is that he understood math and he knew he could do math. And he also had changed the way he saw himself. He saw himself as somebody who could learn, who could go to college, and more importantly, he realized he could have a dream, he could have a goal, and he could achieve it.16436 He's now in physical therapy16438 school. He had gone through from developmental math16442 through 5 more math courses, calculus, all the biology, the chemistry, the the physics. He got his associate degree, his bachelor's degree. His dream is to be a physical therapist in his community here in Massachusetts. And while we are talking, his daughter came on. She was about 7, 8 years old and she said, I like girl math teachers. I'm good in math. I just can't do this 1 problem. In community colleges, we change students and we change families and we16475 change communities. I'm calling on the legislature today to invest in community colleges and fund adjunct faculty wages and working conditions in your budget, and to elevate mass educate. Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you. So I have Cape Cod Community College in a in on The Cape, and we, we love our we love our community college. So thank you for what you do. Any questions?
Jay Nakai?
Colleen Avikian?
Angelina. She
left. Angelina Avegano. Yes. Emery Spooner. Emery Spooner.
Stacy Hodges is next.
SPEAKER23 - Hi. Good afternoon. My name is Emery Spooner. I'm a part time coordinator of the dish food pantry at Bunker Hill Community College, and a proud union member of the Massachusetts Community College Council and the MTA. We had about 25 people here today for most of the day over there in that corner. And so since Mass Educate, we have seen an increase in use of the pantry of over 1300%. I want to say that 1 more time, 1300% more students are coming into the16585 pantry every single day. And that's only since 2023. Our clients include students, faculty, and staff, and on our busiest days, we serve over 600 clients in a single day.
And in this current cost of living crisis, our community colleges need the staffing, wages, and resources to adequately support our students. We need the16608 wages to support a dignified life to retain the staff necessary to solve problems like the food bank cuts that will make accessing basic needs even more difficult for vulnerable students.
Basic needs services in community colleges are a crucial safety net for keeping working class students enrolled. In my personal experience, I've been a non benefited part time employee, managing a program that serves approximately 2,000 households a year with only 1 other professional staff member. I'm leaving my position next week, in part because I cannot sustain doing this work at this level, because the wages and benefits are not available to me to stay on full time. Our educators and support staff implore you to elevate the investment in mass educate so community college workers can afford to support our students the way that they deserve. So please support h 2 1 8 516670 s 1 3 6 5 and provide wage equity now. We need this to keep our community colleges running, to continue to support students. I'd also like to ask you to fund MFAP to maintain food access. We get over, 60 of our food from the food bank, and that's facing federal cuts. And to also fund the hunger free campus initiative. Thank you very much for your time.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you.
Stacy Harjes.
SPEAKER24 - Alright. Well, thank you very much for this opportunity. I'm gonna share my story, and I hope that you keep me in mind as you consider both the wage equity and public higher education and the adjunct bill of rights. My name is Stacy Hargis. I'm a proud tenured professor at Middlesex Community College in Lowell and Bedford. Hello, reps. I have a passion for entrepreneurship, our students, and I truly believe in the role that community colleges play both for economic justice, but also for uplifting our communities. Our faculty workload includes 5 classes a semester, but work goes beyond teaching time, prepping, and grading. This also includes meetings with students, which include everything from academics to mental health issues. We also do work for the college and our departments. In a normal semester, the workload is 38.5 hours a week. So I started in 2014 at almost $49,000 as an assistant professor, and I have a master's degree. That was almost a $12,000 pay cut from the nonprofit job I left running a small business center. And I recognized this pay cut, but I figured, oh, the work life balance that will emerge will be worth it. However, the living wage16791 in Lowell in 2014 was roughly 60,000. I was forced to get a second job waiting tables in order to cover living costs for a few16799 years, and eventually, I was able16801 to take on more classes as an adjunct. At times, I had to take at least 5 classes a semester additional. So if 1 professor is full time with 5 classes, I was basically doing 2 full time jobs. Today, to reach a living wage of almost 86,000 in Middlesex County in a household with 2 adults and 2 kids, given my salary now even after 10 years, I still have to work an additional $12,000 just to reach the living wage. In fact, at last poll, 76% of all m triple c full time faculty have to work a second job. That once inviting life work balance disappears in reality. It's simple. We shouldn't have to work 2 jobs to be able to work at a community college and be able to take care of our families. I work weekends and night. I miss meaningful time with my family. I take shortcuts to my health and wellness, and, obviously, those are gonna have a lasting impact. I'm having doubts about if it's worth keeping this up even though I absolutely love what I do. The fact is the state broke its our our promise to us to keep us in the 70 fifth fifth16875 percentile of pure state community college wages, so I
SPEAKER25 - feel
SPEAKER24 - unappreciated, underfunded, and under resourced. As Mass Educate shows its success,16884 our silent crisis highlights its extreme challenges, including the inability to hire and retain talented educators. I implore you to consider16893 our unique situation that community16895 colleges are in as you look to elevate the investment in Mass16899 Educate and support a future supplemental bill that will help give us a 1 time wage adjustment to keep that promise. Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you. Hang on. Hold on.16909 Rep Rep Howard?
SPEAKER26 - Thank you, mister chairman. Thank you so much, professor Haggis, for being here today to testify and for sharing your personal story. So as a proud alum of Minnesota Community College, mister chairman, I also love Minnesota Community College. So thank you again so much for being here. And, without educators like you, I wouldn't be where I am today. So thank you.
SPEAKER24 - Thank you.
SPEAKER3 - Professor Harjes, I I I wanna second, what my my colleague from, the other great city from the Merrimack Valley said, thank you, not just for the work that you're doing, but16950 for your advocacy, on this issue. I think, it's it's something that needs to be told, more, because a lot of individuals there's a feeling out there that if you're a professor, you're making, like, a million dollars or something. You know, I don't think anyone understands the work, that is done, especially in the community colleges where, you are a little bit more on the ground, and dealing, with, a lot more issues than, I think that some of our, our other schools where you have a lot more, wealthier, students. So thank you, and and thank you for your advocacy. And next, we have Joe Nardoni.
Oh, I'm I'm16992 sorry. So, the the other, representative, from Lowell on this committee, has a question for
SPEAKER15 - for you.
SPEAKER11 - Of course. Thank you, senator. I think I know the answer to the question, but in, you know, in light of the free community college that is being offered, we see a significant increase of students returning back. I'm gonna presume that, the salaries that are being offered is an impediment to hiring more teachers, professors. Excuse me. So do you think should a supplemental be presented that will that will bring up that pay bring pay equity and, because that's the obstacle right now.17036 We have students, and and a list, but we we can't let them in because there's not enough professors as they understand it from your boss, miss assistant.
SPEAKER24 - Yes. That's true. In fact, recently, we've had our fourth search failure in the nursing department, and that's a common thing. We can't hire people that actually can talk about the discipline that they're
SPEAKER11 - we're trying to hire for. And I'm sure it's not just specific to nursing. No.
SPEAKER24 - It's across the board.
SPEAKER11 - Absolutely. Thank you, mister chairman.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you, chair. You brought17072 up something. Do you have to be a certified teacher to teach nursing or something like that?
SPEAKER24 - So depending on what discipline you're in,17080 you may need certain credentials. Like, in the nursing field, you have to have certain things. For everyone else to be a full time faculty member, you do have to have at least a master's. I do want to also point out that because I have to work 2 jobs, I can't move forward in my educational journey, and I can't get a PhD, which would just benefit my students because I'm working too much.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you. Thank you, chair. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER24 - Thank you.
SPEAKER3 - Next, we have Joe Nardoni. And after Joe, we have Carmen Rondash.
SPEAKER27 - Senator Payano, representative Diggs, and members of the committee, thank you for having me here. I am Joe Nardone. I am the vice president of the Massachusetts17126 Community College Council. We represent 5,000 workers at the community colleges. We are the hardest working17134 faculty and professional staff in17136 public higher ed. We invest our very lives in our students' growth, success,17140 and well-being. And in spite of that, a silent crisis that Stacy just told you about threatens mass reconnect and mass educate, which we love, but we cannot do justice to it because of the substandard wages our members receive and the damage it does to their lives and our students' living conditions. We will deliver to your offices today the numbers that describe this crisis in full. I will talk about a few of them. Salaries of community college full professors with at least a master's degree averaged $68,309 a year. That's over $86,000 less than a full professor in the UMass system. Our work is unfairly undervalued because we teach the underrepresented. As a result, and this goes right along with what you heard about students in college, 45 percent of our professional staff members, that's our full time professional staff members, and 35 percent of our full time faculty members suffer from food insecurity. Our, Over 60 percent of our members have 1 or more job in addition to teach to any adjunct teaching they may perform. And these numbers should be 0. Because they're not, I'm gonna tell you about 2 of my colleagues. Brian, a former marine who served in Afghanistan and helps veterans returning to college. He loves his job, but he's a single dad. And the salary he earns isn't enough to support his 2 boys. So he is forced to work as a bouncer. He put his body on the line for us over there, and now he has to come back and put his body on the line here for his kids. What does he say to his sons when they ask him where he got those bruises on his face? And he still doesn't have enough money to afford Christmas or a vacation. This is simply unconscionable. There's also Jonathan, a professor at Middlesex, who is chronically overworked teaching 10 courses per semester. And you just heard from Stacy what that means. When you teach writing courses, it means that you're reading 2,000,000 words a semester of17268 student writing. I don't know how he does it. I literally don't, because when I teach my full load of 5 writing classes a semester, I'm reading those 1,000,000 words, and it kills me. And so when I ask him what he's doing, how he's doing, he says, he's tired. Of course, he is. I'm afraid he will leave us too soon, 1 way or the other. I'm sure his partner worries about this too.17290 When we work so hard to make17292 ends meet, we can't progress in our careers17294 or in helping our students the way we know that they needed to be helped. That damages our students' potential for success. So I'm asking you here to elevate and math educate. Follow through on math educate and math reconnect by including language and funding in the f y 26 budget that compensate our labor fairly and allow us to attract the workforce we need so our students can succeed. Invest in us, the real people you you will hear from and have been hearing from lately who devote themselves every day to making a difference in students' lives and without whom the colleges would not exist.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you.
SPEAKER15 - I'd be
SPEAKER27 - happy to answer any other questions you have about our situation.
SPEAKER2 - No questions. Thank you17336 very much.
17339 Carmen17339 Rondash. Carmen Rondash.
SPEAKER3 - Yeah. George. Darissa Rodriguez.
SPEAKER2 - Duddy Sotelidis? Rodriguez.
SPEAKER3 - I'll I'll I'll say the name, you know, because I I can roll my r's. Jairisa Rodriguez will be up next.
SPEAKER28 - Thank you everyone here. Thank you for everyone still remaining in the gallery after a long day, and thank you to our ASL interpreters. Hi. I'm Carmen Rondash. I'm an m triple c member at Bunker Hill Community College. I'm also the special program coordinator for students who are parents. I myself personally am a single dad to 4 kids and a domestic violence survivor. My job is hard. So far this year, I've helped 4 students leave leave abusive relationships. I've helped 1 student move into a new house after spending 16 months in a shelter. And I've helped countless students who struggle with food insecurity. I personally struggle with food insecurity. The lunch that I had today was what I've eaten so far today. I appreciate it from the union. I will be hungry later.
The funding that goes to our food pantries on campus is incredibly helpful to our students. It means a lot to them. Our faculty and our staff also need it. I use it. I need SNAP. I use ABCD for fuel assistance. Globe Santa helps me with Christmas.17429 I have a lot of17431 need. It's hard. I do love my career. There is no fairy tale that gets you to where I am. There is no happy story. But from what I've gone through, I'm in a really unique position to help our students. These are students who are incredibly at risk of not completing their degrees. They struggle. Some of them are first generation students and they have a child or they're caring for an elderly parent or they're caring for a disabled sibling. These students are incredible. They are so resilient and their stories blow you away. I could talk for hours about them. I'm incredibly proud of them. They do so much. These students, they will be our nurses. They will be our cardiac sonographers. They will be our early childhood educators.17479 They are incredible. Please invest in them and invest in our our community college staff. It is a very17489 effective means of17491 developing our commonwealth. I know the ways17494 and means you have a hard job. I take 4 kids to the supermarket.17498 I have to do ways and means. There is no way I have the means17502 to buy everything they want as a snack. I've got to trim. I've got to bargain. I've got to make agreements. I've got to make deals. I've got to kick the can down the road sometimes. I know what you have to do is hard. Please. It's17514 been a long17515 time, since the handshake agreement and since so so many of the other things that my my peers have talked about. It's been very important. I'm here for wage equity in higher ed, the adjunct bill of rights. Also, please consider me in the future, with the increase from the fair share act towards a 1 time pay increase as well. And I'm available for any questions.
SPEAKER2 - Carmen, thank you. Your testimony, you're that's real. And, you know, us being up here, we we we care about what's going on and what you're saying. You know, I come from similar things that have happened to me. That's why I'm really sitting in this chair. I'm not gonna get involved with it, but just know that our thoughts are with you and we are trying to figure out ways to help all, not just 1 side or the other. It's all about helping all encompassing. So
SPEAKER3 - so senator Miranda has a question.
SPEAKER29 - I had more of a comment. Thank you for your testimony. Just to bring it to light, 14 years ago, I also taught at Bunker Hill Community College. I'm the senator from Boston. I taught entrepreneurship, and I had17590 to have 3 jobs, just to be able to make enough to live in the city of Boston17596 and buy food. So I definitely understand your struggle and definitely will be supporting. I have Roxbury Community College in my district, and I know many students that leave from the southern part of the city that I represent from Hyde Park all the way to the South End who go to Bunker Hill because it's just a phenomenal, institution as well. So I just wanna thank you for what you're doing. Adjunct professors, associate professors, lecturers are not often taken care of, and we have to do a better job. Thank you.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you, sir. Thank you all. Next, we have Darissa Rodriguez.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, Darissa. And then, after Darissa, Abigail Raymond.
SPEAKER25 - Okay. Buenatale, everyone. Thank you for pronouncing my r's. My name is Darissa Rodriguez, and I am a classified staff member from the University of Massachusetts Boston. We are considered the higher ed17661 ESPs, and we would be the equivalent17663 of what you think of when you think of pre k to 12 ESPs, the paras, the bus drivers, the food service. We actually have that in higher ed as well. And 1 of the things that I17675 first wanna touch on is that 1 of the things that I always say is17679 we need to stop isolating the 2 and thinking of pre k to 12 in higher ed. When we're talking about public education, we really should be thinking of pre k to 16 because public education should be a right for everyone. And if we make it free for pre k to 12, it really should be free for those that want to look for higher ed education. And not everybody does, but if they want it, it should be an option. And that's why I'm here today to speak on the need for a true free and debt free higher education beyond just community colleges. As a UMass employee,
SPEAKER30 - I see a
SPEAKER25 - lot of our students that are struggling. I am 1 that donates constantly to our food pantry because I also see the need of our students and those staff members and everyone on campus who needs those services. But a lot of our students are working 2 and 3 jobs on top of being full time students just to make ends meet. And this year, UMass introduced, if you make $75,000 adjusted gross income or less, you can go for free. That is still not enough because a lot of our students are working multiple jobs, are married, have multiple incomes. They are not meeting that threshold. And it's important that we are taking care of everyone throughout. As a leader in the state, as a leader in the country for public education, it's important that we also set the standard of what a true and free debt free public education looks like17787 through pre k17789 all the way to 16. And it's important that we're doing our due diligence to make sure that those that choose to want to get a higher17797 education are able to do it. Because by attaining a higher education, that is a way of liberation. That is a way for a lot17806 of our students to break the chain of poverty and try to17810 provide something better for themselves, their family, and then be able to do better for the community in which they reside. Because our students not only live here, they go to school here, and they wanna stay here, and we need to make that available for everyone. Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you. Okay.
Abigail Raymond.
Liz Espinosa is next.
SPEAKER31 - Good morning. Oh, good evening, actually. I have good morning written here, but good evening, members of the committee. I'm grateful to be given the opportunity to testify today. My name is Abigail Raymond, and I represent the University of Massachusetts Boston as its current student trustee. I'm here in support of greater investment in greener and healthy public colleges, the deferred maintenance needs that affect universities all over the Commonwealth, and debt free public higher education. The first act surrounding deferred maintenance addresses the strain of capital debt and services on college budgets and to the students who often bear the brunt of additional fees. The existence of buildings that are outdated, dilapidated, and unaddressed by deferred maintenance contribute significantly to health and safety risks, energy costs, and global climate change. The second act on debt free public higher education affirms that all students should have the opportunity to attend college without going into debt. Both acts take into account student well-being, where students should be able to learn and study in safe
SPEAKER32 - and functional conditions, and not be beholden
SPEAKER31 - to working excessive hours,
between their studies just to barely cover their tuition. My personal connection to the first act comes from my experience as a student learning in buildings in need of deferred maintenance. My 3 years at UMass Boston have always been amongst construction. My 3 years at UMass Boston have always been amongst construction. Developments are seemingly ubiquitous on my campus through non functioning automatic doors, safety tape antiquated buildings, and windowless classrooms. I know that students that attend my institution every day are demoralized when attending classes in buildings like Wheatley that were constructed in the seventies. Even when conducting campus tours, these buildings are the first to be avoided in favor of our newer ones. Half of the buildings on my campus do not reflect the tuition that students pay and are not an environment that promotes student retention and affected learning. This is the reality for many universities. Not all academic buildings are pristine cathedrals of learning. Oftentimes, students are provided with a mix. On 1 hand, there are the newly furnished classrooms with sleek and modern elements that are then juxtaposed of older worn down rooms with buildings struggling with structural instability. In the end, student tuition is increased and used in order to fund these projects. Projects that these students may never get to see completed in their 4 years of enrollment in that institution. This is also how both issues intertwine. In the failing infrastructure of colleges to the debt accrued by students. Despite the wealth of Massachusetts, the cost to attend public colleges is increasing faster than any other state. At the same time, state investment in public higher education has fallen in the past 20 years, forcing schools like my campus to take on heavy debt to repair buildings. At the same time, this debt has led to an increase in student debt by more than 30%. No student should have to work several jobs just to barely cover their tuition and at the same time have to learn and work in the conditions that their tuition is meant to repair. From someone who represents a state school and who herself is a student at a state university, I'm calling upon you to invest greater f18040 y 26 funds into campus infrastructure and debt free college to better improve student success in the18045 Commonwealth. Thank you for your time and consideration.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you, student trustee, Raymond, for, your, formal testimony. It's been great, not just hearing from you, but hearing from other18057 student advocates, from across the Commonwealth, standing up and, speaking about this, really, really important issue.
SPEAKER29 - Thank you.
SPEAKER3 - Next, we have Liz Espinosa.
SPEAKER33 - Thank you. Good afternoon and gracias. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be heard. It's great. So I18088 just wanna preface this, that I was thinking about a title for my testimony I've been teaching in the state of Massachusetts.
SPEAKER2 - Can you move up towards the mic, please?
SPEAKER34 - Closer. Yeah.
SPEAKER33 - I just wanna preface my testimony by thinking about a title because I've been teaching in the state of Massachusetts for over 15 years. I'm a title 5 higher. My family are immigrants from Costa Rica. And I'm a public ed brat, which means I probably have seen the good, bad, and the ugly of the California system and also as an educator in the department of English at Northern Essex Community College. I'm also the department chair. We have 9 full time faculty, total of 30 English faculty. So if you do the math, you know, there's a lot of adjunct faculty in the English department. And I'm the only Latina. So it's always tricky having a voice. So thank you.
Maybe the title would be to request that we think creatively, have courage in that creative thinking, and have all of you in front of me and folks possibly behind me realize that there's so much18159 talent that the Commonwealth has. And I teach18163 American literature, so I'm always thinking about the legacies of talents and diversities of thinkers and leaders when it comes to public education and sustainability in regards to sustaining a quality of life that has dignity and respect for all folks of all walks of life. And I just wanna encourage that because a lot of us, including myself, knock on people's doors. That takes courage. You guys have courage with all these committees, complex pressures.
Right? So, that's the possible title that I was thinking of. So, today, I, Lisa Espinosa of Northern Essex Community College, request that you invest, y 20, 6 funds to provide green and healthy public colleges and universities18207 and address deferred maintenance at Northern Essex and beyond. As a community college educator in rural Massachusetts, who also teaches18217 at Lawrence. Funding green and healthy infrastructure guarantees a safe18221 space and educational facilities for optimal learning. Such funding brings both,18225 alleviation and hope. Alleviation because our public ed institutions are oases of traditional public education and hope to protect its nestled green spaces throughout the Commonwealth while attending to maintenance needs. I just wanna let you know that, this actual bill on trying to support green and healthy facilities in our public higher ed institutions is really valuable because I've seen stories and examples where we wouldn't have, let's say an elevator work for about a18257 month or 2. And then, suddenly we come up with a lot
SPEAKER35 - of things. I've always
SPEAKER33 - been kinda curious on how we can honor the facilities and other students' quality of education. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you. And I liked I liked the way you came around another way. Good. And and had us think a little bit more about, you know, we're not not everyone we're all different, and we all come up different ways. And and and you were able to express that. So it was awesome.
SPEAKER36 - I teach
SPEAKER33 - at Evan Essex. I teach at Lawrence, and we really need to talk to each other. I I I'm not a camp person, and I'm not a divisive person, and I don't choose. I love the whole family.
SPEAKER3 - Well, thank thank you very much, professor Espinosa. As you're you're you deal with, kids are, youth that are in my district, we appreciate the work that, you do, ensuring, you know, 1 of the things that we always talk about, especially, once we've made community colleges free is that, community colleges, you know, a great way that folks can, enter, the middle class and are able to get, you know, good careers, but we had to take care of the whole kid. So, thank you for for for your advocacy.
SPEAKER33 - You're welcome. I'm also on the AI task force and I worry about a lot of pressures outside the college that tells me that privatization likes to kinda go in there18333 and I hope that we continue to honor public ed. Thank you.
SPEAKER37 - Thank you.
SPEAKER3 - Moving on to health care. Louis Bellows.
Louis Bellows.
We are now moving on to health care. Michelle Schulz.
18355 SPEAKER3818355 -18355 Hello?18355 Hi.
SPEAKER3 - Is that is that Louis? Yeah. Alright. Great, Louis. So, after Louis, Michelle Chulz will be up next. Go ahead, Louis. You have about 3 minutes.
SPEAKER38 - Let me okay. Thank you so much, chair people of the ways and means committee and state representatives for the opportunity to testify about my experience at Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for children. My name is Luis Bellos, and I have Duchenne's muscular dystrophy. I have been a resident at Pappas for 3 years, and in that time, I have learned how to flourish into an independent adult who knows what they wanna do with their future. Before I came to Pappas, after being at children's for a long time recovering from the flu, I was a high school junior with no direction of where I wanted to go in life. Now I will18406 be graduating soon, and I know what I18408 want with my wife. I want to live in the community independently, be active in the community, and have a job where I'm making money. I have been able to do this because I've been given this important care for loving staff at Pappas that care about the patients they help. Pappas is a special place that provides life changing care and creates a community where both parents and residents feel safe. Being at Pappas has also allowed me to improve my relationships with my parents by making them become my parents again and not my caregivers. I have also made lasting friendships with many of the other patients here. I can relate with them so well because they too are dealing with the same things I am. Pappas is the beating heart of Massachusetts and provides lifeblood to the disabled community. Pappas is like the human body where the nurses of the heart that provide blood to the vital organs. The teachers of the brain who teach the students to excel and push themselves to be more. The therapies and recreation18467 staff are the muscles that propel us forward to achieve great things. Finally, the caregivers of the bones to give us the support to function each day. These elements come together to create strong, independent,18479 and responsible graduates for the future.18481 Without Pappas, I wouldn't be who I am today, and that is why it is important for it to stay open so we can continue to provide the care and support that allows disabled children to flourish and ultimately teaches them to be defined by their abilities and not their disabilities. Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you. Great job. Keep doing what you're doing. Looking forward to seeing what you're gonna do next.
I think we have give me a second.
Questions? All set. Michelle Scholes?
SPEAKER38 - Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Hi. Hi, Michelle.
SPEAKER39 - I'm remote as well. Hi. Are you able to see me yet?
SPEAKER2 - Yes. We can hear you.
SPEAKER39 - Okay. Hi. My name is Michelle Schultz, and I am the mother of Eric who was born with spina bifida and is a paraplegic. From 2032 to 2017, Eric attended MHS, also known as Pappas, rehabilitation hospital for children. I'm not here today because of poor care or dissatisfaction with Pappas. I'm here because governor Maura Healy and doctor Robbie Goldstein want to close this vital facility against the clear wishes of the children and family it serves. Doctor Goldstein believes that disabled children are better off at home with their families, but that doesn't18570 reflect reality for many of us.18572 Families like mine often live in rural towns, like Clarksburg, Pittsville, Orange, and Savoy, where housing is more affordable, but services are scarce. In Clark in Clarksburg, we have no public transportation.18585 The next town has18587 a bus route and no accessible sidewalks to get to it. Eric's medical18591 care is mostly out of state, and Massachusetts won't provide PT 1 transportation access across state lines. This makes access to care incredibly hard. Our local infrastructure falls short falls far short of ADA standards. Restaurants are inaccessible, curb cuts and sidewalks are missing, and there's no ADA coordinator in our town. A bowling alley added a ramp only after 15 years of advocacy. The message to kids like Eric is, you don't belong here. Before attending MHS, Eric received just 1 hour of school based physical therapy each week. Local clinics refused to treat him because he was too complicated. In our community, there were no occlusive sports, no other kids in wheelchairs, no peers he could relate to, which was socially isolating. Gave him what our community could not, consistent therapy, medical care, education, social connection, and belonging. Doctor Goldstein continues to express concerns regarding building safety at Pappas, but according to EHS 2 3 0 1, facility and program existing conditions and assessments were rated fair to good in 2023 for the buildings. Officials argue18664 that low admissions justify closing Pappas, but that decline is artificial, caused by the state closing buildings and stopping new admissions. The need hasn't gone away. In fact, it's grown. I believe yesterday that doctor Goldstein said the need is about 10,000 students or children in the state of Massachusetts. I ask you to fully fund fiscal year 20 26 budget line item 4 5 9 0 dash 0 9 1 5 and include strong protective language to prevent closure, excuse me, or reduction of services at Papa's. Please listen to the families living this reality every day, not just the theories of policy makers. Thank you for your time and commitment to all children, no matter where they live or how they move through the world. Thank you.
18711 SPEAKER218711 -18711 Thank18711 you very much.
Next, we have Caitlin Hogan Oregon.
Is that a group? Okay. So you guys have 6 minutes, okay?
SPEAKER6 - Great. Thank you.
Members of the joint committee on ways and means, my name is Caitlin Horrigan and I have been a teacher at Pappas for 13 years and a member of SAIU local 5 0 9. I'm testifying about the governor's proposal to close Pappas. The proposed placements for our students fail to match the specialized care and unique community Pappas provides. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, students are entitled to a free appropriate public education until age 22. Since the closure announcement, the administration has plans to discharge students with minimal input from education and clinical care teams, sometimes without proper education plans in place. These students are being pushed out because the administration believes they don't belong here, but then where do they belong? Residential special education placements are scarce, expensive, and often unable to meet our students' medical needs. This cost will be transferred to local school districts, which could be detrimental to communities across the commonwealth for the foreseeable future. These concerns are being ignored in favor of reducing the census and closing the hospital. The focus on our diminishing student census is misleading. Since the announcement of the closure in January, Pappas leadership has plowed forward with urgent discharges with absolutely no pause. The administration is working on discharging patients while stifling and disregarding professional opinions and safety concerns about the suggested placements. Other placements are being pressured to accept our students even though they simply do not have the openings available for our medically complex population. But the administration doesn't care about these gaps. They care about 1 less patient on the census. Potential placements are hearing messages about urgent placement needs and imminent closures. This is what placement decisions are being based on, not what's best for the student. Pappas has been helping students for over a century. This fight is not just for today's students, but for future generations across the commonwealth. It's a unique, irreplaceable resource for a specialized population.
I'm asking you to hold Pappas and DPH leadership accountable to the governor's call for a pause to plan the plan to close Pappas, including ensuring a restoration of past practices related to discharges and admissions. Thank you for reprioritizing18906 the best interest of our students and other vulnerable individuals18910 in the commonwealth.
SPEAKER36 - Thank you. Members of the joint committee on ways and means, my name is Catherine18918 Brewer, and I'm a teacher at Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children and a member of SEIU Local 5 0 9. I'm here to testify on the governor's proposal to close Pappas and the impact of the so called pause announced on February 25. I will provide insights into our community and explain why our program does not align with the proposed future placements for our students and residents. Since the announcement of the plan to close Pappas, I've heard firsthand the struggles families and caregivers face as they are forced to make the impossible decision of finding a suitable community program that's available for their child or taking their son or daughter home. To clarify, this pause has brought no relief to the anxiety that families are experiencing as the pressure to expedite discharges has only intensified. I fully understand the demands of caring for a child with complex medical conditions because for 29 years, I've had the privilege18975 of growing up alongside my younger sister, Erin, whose challenges closely resemble those of my students. My sister requires full assistance with all daily activities, including toileting, dressing, and feeding. She can walk short distances, but uses a wheelchair for longer travel. As a nonverbal communicator, Erin relies on facial expressions, gestures, and vocalizations. Due to her seizure disorder, 1 of my parents sleeps with her each night. Our home was adapted for her to live with my parents on the First Floor. And after the pandemic, when day programs were no longer feasible, my mom retired from her career as an occupational therapist to become a full time caregiver. This only scratches the surface when describing the assistance required for students like ours. And in reality, it's not realistic for most of the families we serve. Some19031 of our students come from single parent homes surviving on 1 income, while others may not have accessible living arrangements. How do families manage when their child becomes sick or faces a medical emergency without easy access to familiar doctors and nurses? What are families expected to do when they need to bring their child to clinical appointments amid transportation uncertainty? This also doesn't take into account that for many of our students, they don't have a home to return to. Pappas is their home. Our students' bedrooms are personalized with belongings that are theirs, and they spend weekends enjoying recreational programs and outings with friends. Nurses, therapists, and other members of their team have become like family with whom they celebrate holidays, birthdays, and other important milestones. Pappas provides an19080 environment where children are surrounded by19082 peers with similar experiences, fostering a sense of belonging and understanding, while receiving care from staff members who lead each day with compassion, empathy, and respect. Families can find comfort in knowing their children are safely supported by individuals who treat them as their own. No parent dreams of having their child admitted to last resort. Nevertheless, families and caregivers frequently express how their children have not just adapted, but survived since receiving care at Pappas. This is what makes Pappas exceptional and why it's unlike any other program in the state. I urge the committee to fully fund Pappas for another year, ensuring at least 40 beds are maintained for children 7 to 22 and explore innovative solutions to preserve the unique quality of services, education, and community. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER2 - We hear you. And we, you
SPEAKER3 - know,
SPEAKER2 - family members that go through this is brutal. And, this this house cares and senate cares about you, and we're trying to do what we can, and we're we're hearing you. Is there any questions?
SPEAKER3 - Thank you, chair Diggs. Powerful testimony.
SPEAKER16 - Thank you.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you. Very powerful. We should not be closing that facility. Yesterday, we talked about a working group. Do you know anything about the status of a working group?
SPEAKER6 - Yes. The first meeting is scheduled for the April 16.
SPEAKER3 - Who is on this group and how many people?
SPEAKER6 - I'm not sure of the exact, members. I do know our unions will be involved. I do know 1, thing that has been brought up. A concern is that there are not any workers from19190 Pappas Pappas on the committee. It's just our union represent.
SPEAKER15 - Okay.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you. And thank you, chair.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you, guys.
SPEAKER29 - Excuse me.
SPEAKER40 - I had texted. I have a question. Senator.
SPEAKER2 - Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. I didn't see you.
SPEAKER40 - Just wanted to thank you guys for your testimony. Just a quick question. How as of how recent were those discharges? I don't know if you can give that information, but if you can, as of how recent were some of those discharges made?
SPEAKER6 - Yes. So typically, students are stay at Pappas depending on their treatment plan until they're age 22. But since the closure, the discharges the announcement of the closure in January, the discharges have accelerated. Thank you. Thank
SPEAKER40 - you guys for being here. I agree with Rep. X. This hospital should not be closing, and a lot of the decisions being made around mental health in my very short term being here have me very concerned, very alarming, and I'm with you guys. And hopefully, we can find a way to to fix this because that hospital absolutely should not be closing. So thank you, guys.
SPEAKER36 - Thank you. Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Derek Jenkins and then Dustin Messler.
On Zoom? Okay. Derek?
Derek, you there?
Hang on 1 second. I think he's she texted me.
SPEAKER11 - Yeah. You can buy stuff
SPEAKER14 - for welding,
SPEAKER11 - start using this part.
SPEAKER41 - Yes.
SPEAKER2 - Derek, we think we hear you.
LAS, he's in the waiting room.
He's on?
Derek, I think you're on mute.
There you go.
SPEAKER14 - Hi. Sorry about that. I was in the waiting room.
SPEAKER2 - You're all set. Go ahead.
SPEAKER14 - Okay. Hi. Chairman Micheletz, chairman Rodriguez, and members of the joint committee. My name is Derek Jenkins.19373 I'm a licensed independent clinical social worker, and I've worked in the mental health field for nearly 15 years, including the last 7 as a case manager, DMH case manager in Lindt. I'm here today because I want you to understand what will be lost if these cuts go through, to DMH case management. They're not just jobs, but there's cuts to people's lifelines. When I think of people served, I think of a 6 year old woman from our site, who will proudly tell anybody who listens for even a second that she's been out of the hospital for 35 years. She lives with serious mental illness and calls our our office probably weekly, sometimes multiple times a day. She knows everybody by name. She sends handwritten cards to every single case manager and when her paranoia flares up, she calls, she calls someone who knows her and that's her connection, that's her treatment, and it keeps her well. Another person served by our team was chronically homeless, living with on the streets with untreated schizophrenia and heart failure. He was seen as unwilling, by19440 many providers, but DMH19442 case management, is building relationships over time. So we started with Subway sandwiches, and then we helped him get a snap card, and we connected him to medical care and helped him19453 move into DMH housing. He now is stably housed, managing his health,19457 and recently celebrated, his birthday with some of his estranged children that he's now19463 connected with. He likely would have19465 died, without those consistent19467 human touch points. We're being told that we19471 can offer more flexible care with 50% fewer case managers, but flexible has really become code for burned out. You can't do more with less. You can't replace trusted relationships with a revolving door of unfamiliar faces and providers. After similar cuts in 02/2009, '1 of our clients was removed from case management and put on a wait list. During that time, they attempted suicide. These aren't hypotheticals. This is what happens when continuity of care is broken. Research shows that long term case management not only reduces hospitalizations and improves engagement and lowers crisis cost. Meanwhile, community behavioral health centers, the proposed alternative are are still stabilizing and experiencing very high staff turnover, and that kind of turnover leads to worse outcomes and broken trust.
I urge,
the committee to reject these harmful shortsighted cuts, preserve the community based care that works, and hold this administration accountable to DMH's mission, and protect the relationships and safety nets that keep people alive. Flexibility is code for fewer services, fewer staff, and lower standards. That's not innovation. It's just neglect.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you. Rep Holmes, got a question? Derek, are you able to hear me okay?
SPEAKER14 - I can.
SPEAKER15 - Alright. So couple questions. Were you employed through COVID in this role?
SPEAKER14 - Yes.
SPEAKER15 - Were you considered an essential employee?
SPEAKER14 - I was.
SPEAKER15 - So yesterday, this is just so compelling to me because I think it's insane that all of us non essential employees are back at work, but we're about to fire people we consider essential employees. And I've said often or I've said it is clear the difference between an essential person through COVID when19593 we had people we learn garbage workers, people who, in grocery stores and like yourself, we we clearly knew who was important during COVID. So it's my challenge around this is, 1, we called you essential. We forced you to work. And now when everyone is back to work you're now being laid off or they consider to be laid off. How many people are you helping today? What is your case load?
SPEAKER14 - My case load is currently 18 people and it ranges typically between 20 and 25.
SPEAKER15 - Alright. So so we're looking at19629 and then finally my last question was yesterday, the commissioner said there19633 were 133, but then some others said there were 177 Any sense of whether or not it's a 33, a hundred and 7 77? Do you know how many of your colleagues are gonna be laid off?
SPEAKER14 - I think we're just as, confused as we as you are. We've heard we've heard both numbers.
SPEAKER15 - Alright. So no matter what it's about 20 to 25 and it's 20 to 25. People will be in serving. It's gonna be 133 to 177 people being laid off so somewhere between 2,504,000 clients you're serving. Is that right?
SPEAKER14 - Yeah. Thousands of clients. Correct. Yeah. Across the Massachusetts.
SPEAKER15 - Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for your service.
SPEAKER14 - Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Hal Subin.
SPEAKER9 - Good afternoon. My name is Hal Shubin. I'm the chair of the committee that runs the Belmont Farmers Market. I'm testifying today in support of full funding, $25,000,000 for HIP, the Healthy Incentives Program. Line item 44001004. Our market hosts over 50 small businesses and family farms, creating a great community event in the center of town. Food assistance for our neighbors facing food insecurity is 1 of the most important parts of that. Our food assistance program has 2 parts. First, we double SNAP benefits and farmers market nutrition program coupons. In the 2024 season, that helped local families stretch their food budgets by $29,000 The other part of our program is the instant rebates on produce that HIP provides. We always have a good selection of farmers, and last season they reported over $28,000 in HIP sales. We fund the matching program through donations and sponsorships, but the instant rebates are funded by the Commonwealth. That benefit used to be 40 to $80 per month depending on household size, but it was cut to just $20 for everyone in December. It's hard to know what the impact of that will be when we open the market in June, but winter farmers markets have reported decreased sales and fewer shoppers. Some farmers are cutting staff and thinking about dropping out of markets, and that would reduce access to fresh fruits and vegetables in
attendance, which will affect the vitality of the market and hurt all of our vendors. We know that more than half of our shoppers go to the stores in town on market19814 days, so having fewer shoppers may affect those small businesses as well. But most importantly, cuts to hip mean that our shoppers have less fresh produce at home for their families. No 1 should have to struggle to get enough food on their table. Please restore this important program to full funding. And I'll leave you with a comment from a19840 shopper who depends on SNAP and HIP. The HIP and Match, she said, have allowed19846 us to eat better than we could otherwise.19848 Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you.
SPEAKER3 - Next, we have Sarah Gomez and Nicole Zahn.
SPEAKER2 - Sarah Gomez. Nicole Zahn. It's a panel. It's a panel.
I think they're both virtual.
SPEAKER3 - Go ahead.
SPEAKER42 - Okay. Hi. My name is Nicole Zahn. Thank you today to chairman Diggs and chairman Galliano for letting us speak today, and to all the committee for the dedication you have for hearing us out. We're19897 here to talk about the governor's proposal to eliminate the 50% of case management from the Department of Mental Health as you just heard from Derek. I am a member of SEIU and I am a case manager for 30 years with the Department of Mental Health in Lawrence. Proudly, I might add, we cover 15 cities and towns in that area. We travel about 3 50 miles to see our folks in their community. On a daily basis, I connect with people with resources to get them resources and make referrals, for critical services, but that's pretty simplistic of what I really do. What I truly do and what I really enjoy have been doing for 30 years is connecting with people who come to us, people who are struggling to accept that they've developed a brain disorder and need to learn how to navigate life in a different way, in a different support system that they have to develop, and we are lucky to be a part of that. People who haven't found someone trusted with whom they shared their deepest fears, people who know I hear them and will walk with them during those times of need. That needs to take more than 3 or 6 months to develop that trust. At other times, my job is picking up a person on a sidewalk in a city and bringing them to a respite program so they aren't unhoused while I find longer term housing, which is what I did yesterday during my job. This is how the proposed changes to case management19983 services will negatively impact19985 the people we serve. A 50%19987 reduction in case management will create wait list for race mental19991 health services that are already short staffed, both in the community with vendors that we are paying for as well as with case management. The behavioral health community partnership and the behavioral health line, as well as crisis mobile services that you have heard about are not affecting it and are not working. If you need more details or questions around that, we're happy to answer those. If the proposed changes go through, case managers that were already left over will need to close existing long term relationships with clients as Derek mentioned,20024 and we will have to lose those connections with people. We already20028 are working under an open access system. We are covering shifts, each 1 of us case managers and supervisors to for anybody that walks into our office during business hours, we are there to meet them and to any calls that come in. We are doing that already, and we're be we're being asked to do that with less case managers in the future. We may be facing cuts to Medicaid funding at the federal level, and in the past when such cuts had happened to Massachusetts, we've had to reduce or suspend MassHealth services. If MassHealth eliminates medical transportation for our people, We, as case managers, have always picked up the slack to make sure that we are available to transport people to their psychiatric appointments, which will leave us with less to be able to do with less case managers. Right now, with the current climate
SPEAKER2 - Thank you. Increase Sorry. I would have it. I cut you off.
SPEAKER42 - Got it.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you very
SPEAKER42 - much for listening. I appreciate for your time.
SPEAKER3 - And please feel free to to submit, the rest of your testimony, in writing. Next, we have Sarah Gomez.
Okay. So it seems like, Sarah,20107 might not be able to20109 join us online, so we'll we'll go back, to, to her. Dustin Metzler.
SPEAKER8 - I have 3 children. The eldest is an honor student at Springfield Central High. The youngest is a precocious preschooler in the dual language program at Hureina Community School. The middle child is currently attending the SEIS school at Evolutions, an intensive residential treatment program administered by the Department of Mental Health.
SPEAKER2 - Can you move the mic forward, please, please?
SPEAKER8 - Okay. Thank you. The governor's budget would shutter that program. Our daughter's mental health profile is complex. She struggles with depression, anxiety, ADHD, gender dysphoria, disordered eating, and episodes of psychosis. Her primary diagnosis is post traumatic stress disorder. Prior to my daughter's placement at Evolutions, she had been hospitalized 27 times. Last year, she attended less than 6 weeks of school. We maintained 2 small adjacent apartments so that the ones she occupies can remain free of sharps, cords, medicine, and anything our daughter could easily use to enter life. It also serves as a place for her siblings to retreat when their sister is self harming or suicidal. My husband and I sleep in the living room, so we will know if she leaves in the middle of the night to try to jump off a bridge or run into traffic again. As serious as her symptoms are, with proper treatment, the prognosis is hopeful. Emma is, in the words of her teachers and care team, kind, respectful, funny, creative, and grateful. The first time I spoke with her after she was admitted to evolution, she told me, this is a good place. I20236 think I can get better here. For the first time in almost 2 years, she's attending20242 school regularly. She's a strong writer. In residential treatment, she is working towards the future while healing from the past. Finally, she has enough safety, stability, and support to build the skills and strength to manage her conditions. We used to live in Texas. Another ex Texan once remarked to me, in Texas, they don't treat mental health. They adjudicate it. We chose to transplant our family to Massachusetts because it's a refuge for LGBTQ youth and because the mental health infrastructure the Commonwealth has created is unparalleled in The United States. So I20290 would like to thank you legislators and my fellow Massachusetts taxpayers. Y'all are saving my baby's life.
Please continue to fund the DMH residential services for children and adolescents. The knee is very much there, and thank you for remaining a beacon of democracy in these dangerous times. I'm so grateful to be here.
SPEAKER43 - Hello. My name is Ulrich, and I would just like to say that my sister is a very bright and wonderful person. She's kind, annoying sometimes as siblings often are, but kind. And she has a lot to bring to our community. But her trauma and her experiences have stolen her from me and our family. This is our chance to get her back. So please, I would ask you reconsider these cuts to mental health organizations.20358 Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you. Your testimony is heartfelt. We're listening.
SPEAKER3 - No. I I would just add to that, extremely powerful. Thank you so much for both of you for your courage, to to speak out, on this, in incredible issue and, helping us, helping us lead within your community on it as well.
SPEAKER29 - Thank you all.
SPEAKER5 - Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Sharita Rainey.
SPEAKER3 - And after, we have a a a panel. I believe they're online. Alana Stanley, Colleen DeGowan.
And Robert Conlon.
SPEAKER44 - Good evening. Hi.
I'm here representing the, Roxbury Main Streets and our surrounding businesses, districts, and highlight a matter of urgent importance, the current state and the future of Nubian Square. Nubian Square is not just a neighborhood hub. It's Boston's Second largest economic center following only downtown crossing. It has long served as commercial culture and transit acre for Roxbury and beyond. Yet despite its historic and economic significance, Nubian Square continues to suffer from underinvestment, poor infrastructure, and economic stagnation. Sidewalks are in despair. Storefronts sit vacant. Public spaces that should welcome residents and visitors alike feel neglected. And too many of our small businesses are barely holding on without the resources or structural support they need to thrive. These conditions are not the result of lack of potential. They're results of lack of funding and long term strategic investment. Today, I respectfully ask the committee to consider making a significant fine finding excuse me, significant funding commitment to Nubian Square, 1 that reflects its importance in the city's economic ecosystem and the needs of the community it serves. This funding would be used to rebuild crumbling infrastructures and public spaces, improve safety and accessibility, provide technical assistance and20520 support to small business, revitalize vacant properties, and20524 encourage entrepreneurship, celebrate and preserve the culture identity of the neighborhood. We are not asking for charity. We are asking for equity, for Nubian Square to receive the kind of forced investment that has transport transformed other districts throughout Boston. We're confident with the right support, Nubian Square can be a vibrant, inclusive engine of economic activity and community pride. We're ready to partner, plan, and execute, but we need your help to begin. Thank you again for your time, for the leadership, and for your commitment to a more balanced and just economic future for20562 all of Boston.
SPEAKER3 - May
SPEAKER29 - I make a comment? Thank you for coming out today and testifying. I represent Nubian Square, lifelong Roxbury woman, and we've been20576 making a lot of investments. So I really appreciate your testimony, particularly regarding that Nubian Square used to be 1 of the busiest districts actually in the Commonwealth and in the city of Boston. But over the decline post the sixties, it hasn't been that, but it's on its way in upswing up. I had a question about which organization so there's a a bunch of organizations working in Nubian Square right now, the Nubian Square Task Force, Roxbury Main Streets. There's some development coming to Nubian Square, including, Franklin Cummings Tech. Just wondering if you're just a concerned citizen or if you're part of a collective organization.
SPEAKER44 - Oxbridge Main Street.
SPEAKER29 - Awesome. Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Rep Holmes?
SPEAKER15 - Alright. So same thing to senator. Are you asking for the Roxbury Main Streets to get money? What what exactly are are you asking? I'm just we all Yeah. I guess, we'll share that
SPEAKER44 - Right.
SPEAKER15 - We we agree Nubian needs to become a20640 lot more, but what what are20642 you asking for in the budget?
SPEAKER44 - Right. And, on behalf of Roxbury Main Street,20646 so I have some, support in helping20648 to get, you know, Nubian Square back to where it used to be.
SPEAKER15 - So the Main Streets itself?
SPEAKER44 - Yes.
SPEAKER15 - Okay. Thank you.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Alana Stanley?
SPEAKER3 - So this is a pan this is a panel. So it's Alana Stanley, Colleen DeGohan, and also 1 moment
SPEAKER41 - Robert Conlin.
SPEAKER3 - Robert Conlin. Now I would say that the because it's a panel, there's, 6 minutes, that that is on. And if there is any further testimony on top20683 of the 6 minutes that you would like, to share with us, we will always accept written testimony. Thank you.
SPEAKER41 - Good afternoon, committee members and chairs. My name is Alana Stanley. I'm a member of the M and A, and I've been a nurse at Pacasset Mental Health Center since 02/2016 working on the inpatient unit as well as the partial hospital program. I think it's important to shine a light on the type of treatment Pacasset, the only state hospital on The Cape, is able to to provide. We treat the most vulnerable of the mental health population. We treat those who are uninsured and under insured. We treat those who find themselves on the expedited list, a list that prioritizes those who have been boarding in emergency departments for extended amounts of time just waiting for an inpatient bed. This vulnerable20724 population is often passed over by private hospitals due to difficult or violent behavior and those who may have a history of being resistant to treatment and require more in-depth, treatment to stabilize to stabilize and be determined discharge ready. The average length of stay on our inpatient unit is 47 days. Most private hospitals, including Cape Cod Hospital, is 5 to 7 days. The Cassette also plays an essential role in diverting those who would otherwise end up in long term care. With this extended length of treatment, we're able to work on so much more than medication adjustments. We have the time to form therapeutic relationships, facilitate family meetings, provide educate education and understanding, work with the court systems, outside providers, and community supports. We have the ability to connect patients to community resources before they discharge to ensure that they have the best chance of stability and success. Closing Pekasset will cut the available beds on The Cape almost in half. The Cape is already suffering from a lack of mental health20778 resources. Pekasset plays a vital role in servicing the Southeast. There were 70 people boarding in southeastern mass emergency departments in January. This demand for this demand for our mental health services is increasing as our resources are being taken away. Closing closing Picasset and cutting case management services will be devastating to our community community. How can we knowingly allow this high risk vulnerable population to decompensate without access to appropriate care? Eliminating accessible mental health care will only put more strain on our emergency part departments. Substance abuse and homelessness will increase. Without proper treatment, this population will be funneled through our court system and ultimately end up in overcrowded jails where they do not belong and it could have been diverted. We were encouraged with the governor's announcement to pause possible closure of Picasset. We were encouraged with the governor's plan to formulate a work group to take a deeper dive and look into the real data. But where is this work group? Why has this not come to fruition? I now worry that this pause was only announced to silent the very vocal, community on The Cape that's outraged by these cuts. I urge you to ask these questions. What is the backup plan? Take a step back and look look at what this will do to other services. Talk to those who work in the front lines of the emergency departments in the court system. Listen to the families that fear about what will happen to their loved ones dealing with mental health issues. This is so much more than a line item on a budget. These are human lives and struggling families we're talking about. We have worked so hard to combat the stigma of of associated with mental health. These cuts will only take us backwards and counteract what we've all worked for heart so hard for and what this population deserves. Thank you.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you. And and next person on the panel.
Colleen or Robert, are you on?
Colleen or Robert, if you can take yourself off mute, and then that way we know who you are and we'll zoom in on you.
Alright. We will be moving on.
SPEAKER35 - Alma
SPEAKER2 - Arech.
SPEAKER45 - Hello. My name is Michelle Sweeney and I've been a physical therapist at the Pappas Rehab Hospital for Children for 27 years. Pappas is not just a children's hospital. It is truly a mecca for caring with children and young adults with disabilities. It's a program that offers unique services for the most severely disabled children in the Commonwealth. Daily therapy services sorry,
20994 SPEAKER4620994 -20994 he20994 thinks he's a
SPEAKER45 - lapdog 24 hour nursing care, medical care on-site without the need to travel for hours to Boston hospitals that consists of not just primary care, but behavioral health, and multiple specialties like neurology, pulmonology, cardiology, and psychiatry. Add to that a full size swimming pool with a 0 entry roll in ramp, an accessible gymnasium with our own bowling alley, radio station, and accessible gaming cafe, an indoor equestrian arena, and a fully accessible school program that you've already heard about. These services cannot be replicated at the Western Mass Hospital. Not only does their campus not include any of these services, it is located 3 plus hours from the specialty care centers in Boston, which have served as the gold standard of care for children with disabilities. On in January, the governor and commissioner announced the devastating commit decision to close Pappas. We know that the children in the Commonwealth who need our services have not suddenly disappeared. There are children across the state who would benefit greatly from coming to Pappas, and we should not be denying them that opportunity. In reflecting over what I wanted to say today, I remembered 1 of my former patients, a young girl with multiple medical diagnoses who came to us from 1 of our state's islands. Before her admission to Pappas, her mother told us that on average, she would spend 4 to 6 months every year admitted to Boston Children's Hospital. Each admission required ferries, ambulances, cars, and countless hours missed work, school, and life. The first year she spent with us, she spent less than 4 weeks at Boston Children's Hospital. Forget the small fortune that being with Pappas saved the state and think about the increase in the quality of life for her and for her family. There is truly no dollars and cents that you can place on that. Pappas provides these children with the daily care they need to keep them from being these worst case scenarios, while also giving them the full experience of being a child. For over a century, Pappas has always been much more than a medical facility. It's a community where these children are given every service and every opportunity to, as our mission statement says, achieve the optimal level21134 of independence in all aspects of their life. Pappas' camp campus in Canton should not be closed. It should be invested in for all of the service it does and could provide in the future. Medical care, behavioral health care, these are very real needs of our unwavering desire to be there for the future of our children. We look forward to you investing in Pappas and helping us create a landmark center of excellence for children.
SPEAKER26 - Hello. I'm very nervous. This is my first time, you know, look at you guys. I only see you guys on TV.
Actually, I drove 2 hours to get here and, park over there for $40, but that's okay. That's just that's not in the record. Okay? But okay. My name is Alma Elish and I'm a parent. My son's name is Billy Alish, and he's a resident of Pappas Rehab. It was the summer of 20 16. Billy's brother, Joey, just graduated from high school. It was the happiest time of our lives. 2 weeks later, their father had a heart attack and end up in a coma for 19 months, and later he died. At this point, Billy, who has cerebral palsy, was in and out of Boston Children's Hospital. From Boston Children's Hospital, he was transferred to a facility here in Boston. It was a lockdown facility, hoping this facility was a good fit for Billy. I'm sorry. I'm so nervous. I left him there for 2 weeks and came back to visit Billy. Billy told me that he hasn't eaten in 3 days to find out they forgot to feed him. The staff did not know that Billy could talk, so I abruptly took him out of the place and Billy ended back at Boston Children's Hospital for months and nowhere to go. Finally, they were able to place Billy at Papa's Rehab. He had been there since 2016. Billy was able to learn how to read and write, math and speech. They off offered occupational therapies, PT, swimming, and he had end up having friends there, which is really good, you know, especially for for a special child, you know. On January 22, doctor Jabbar called me and asked me to attend a21301 town hall meeting at Papa's.21303 What I heard there disturbed me deeply. Commissioner doctor Goldstein claimed that disabled children are better off home with their families. That doesn't reflect the reality of many parents and guardians, especially for those who rely on critical care, education, community that Pappas provide. And even more alarming, we learned that the plan was to move these children to a facility that houses sex offenders. That is unthinkable, especially for the kids who could not talk. I'm so fortunate that my son could talk. It is just that a policy error is a betrayal of trust. At the end of the day, many of you will go home to your families, to your normal routines. But for the children and families who rely on Pappas, that is our lives. And many of us, this is a life and death situation.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you.
SPEAKER26 - How Can I just finish? No. Okay. Just 1 more.
SPEAKER2 - No. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER32 - Please for
SPEAKER26 - the love of God. I drove to
SPEAKER2 - the office. I said, that's okay. We told hey, you know something? You wanna give us your testimony? We'd love to have it. But we're we're truly listening to you.
SPEAKER26 - Absolutely. And
SPEAKER2 - we're feeling you. Okay? We understand what's going on. Okay?
SPEAKER26 - So I just hope that you're gonna reconsider. There's a lot of kids that need you guys.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you.
SPEAKER26 - I know you will do your job to the best that you can. Always. That's all it is. Of course. This is Massachusetts. What are you talking about?
SPEAKER2 - Any other place?
SPEAKER26 - Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you. You got a question? Yes. Rep Howard.
SPEAKER26 - If you don't know the answer, that's okay. Prior to the announcement of the potential closing of Pappas, did did case managers, parents, clients were21429 ever consulted?
SPEAKER45 - Prior to about the closure?
SPEAKER26 - About the closure.
21435 SPEAKER4521435 -21435 We21435 it was it was completely it took the breath away from me when we found out. We had no idea. No.
SPEAKER26 - So you were never consulted as as far as you know? We were blindsided. We were so shocked that because they were talking to us, specifically to me, that they keep saying, oh, we have to do this. We have to do that. But you know what? They have, you know, really, good plans in place. So everybody was happy, even the staff. And to blindside us like this, this is really insulting and a slap on the face. I mean, just be honest, you know?
SPEAKER45 - At at this time last year, our leadership team actually presented us with a 5 year growth plan. They had a a thought to make our hospital a center of excellence, for pediatric care. So not only to continue the21483 care that we do currently, but to build a behavioral health unit where we could help alleviate the pediatric patients that are sitting in EDs right now and also to even eventually21493 at the end of that 5 years create a behavioral health emergency department of our own where pea families could come and they could filter into our new unit. We, you know, we have so much to give that for the Commonwealth and we have the space and we have the ability, and we have the staff that are absolutely wanting to make that happen.
SPEAKER26 - Yeah. Thank you. I wanted to know that. Thank you very much for the clarity for your application.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you.
SPEAKER38 - Erin Moler.
SPEAKER2 - Erin Moler.
SPEAKER47 - Good afternoon. My name is Erin Molnar, and I'm here as a parent of a 9 year old, Tay, who currently resides at 3 Rivers, the only DMH clinical intensive residential treatment program in the state, which is proposed to be eliminated for fiscal year 20 26. Until 6 weeks ago, Tay had been hospitalized at child psychiatric units 5 times in the past year and a half for mental health and behavioral challenges that cause near constant emotional dysregulation resulting in both self harm and outward focused aggression. The admissions started coming closer and closer together. Applying for DMH services was not mentioned until Tay's fourth hospital stay. I now realize that should have happened long before. Tay was home from hospital stay number 4 just 6 days before their therapist had to call an ambulance during a session, and we were headed for inpatient stay number 5. This time, while Tay boarded the ER, I found 3 Rivers myself by Googling and clicking through pages of programs that didn't help 9 year olds. The only option I found other than 3 Rivers was a network of private residential schools where only 1 branch21627 accepted children 10 in Orange County, California. Our options were Belchertown, Massachusetts or California. Having had my child boarded at the ER now 5 times awaiting an inpatient bed at times for close to a week, I imagine that 3 Rivers must be overwhelmed with referrals and a long21649 wait list. Getting Tay into 3 rivers took 5 weeks. When Tay finally arrived at 3 rivers, I was shocked to learn that the program was less than half full, even though kids continue to sit in ER hallways awaiting care. While hospitalized, Tay called home daily, sobbing. Now every time I21672 answer their calls, I hear a happy, hi, mama. So I have21676 equestrian. With the support of 3 rivers, we are confident that when21681 Tay comes home this time, there will be21683 no more merry-go-round of ER boarding21685 and inpatient treatment. Parents like me across the state are not told DMH's residential programs even exist. It would be a disservice to the families of Massachusetts if the budget for those programs is slashed because our representatives believe believe our children don't need it. DMH is being told that underutilized services means there is no need. And I'm here to tell you that there is a great need, but there is a communication disconnect within the system. I respectfully ask you to help fix that system so that access to deeply needed DMH services and referrals to the CIRT are made clearly available to kids in crisis. I'm so glad we found 3 rivers for Tay, but I know there are families like mine across the state who are struggling, and it shouldn't be on them to hunt down these supports on Google. Thank you for your time.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you. Oh, got a question. Representative Odoza.
SPEAKER48 - Thank you so much for for staying this time to share your story. It really does matter. And I have just a very simple question if you don't mind asking answering. Where in the Commonwealth do you live?
SPEAKER47 - Rutland, Massachusetts. And where is Rutland, Massachusetts? It's about 20 minutes from the center of Worcester, right over the Airport Hill.
SPEAKER48 - And has it been difficult for you to get to 3 Rivers?
SPEAKER47 - Easier than Orange County, California. Thank you.
SPEAKER35 - Yeah.
SPEAKER48 - I appreciate it. Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Is Athena Mueller?
SPEAKER3 - And then afterwards, we have a panel of Pamela Hooks, Tina Champaign Cutchens, Courtney Shello, and Chantelle Gooden. So we're ready.
SPEAKER49 - Hello. My name is Athena. I'm currently 13 years old, and my 9 year old sibling Tay is a student at 3 rivers in Belcher Town. Growing up with Tay has been a long term challenge considering their mental health issues. It's taken a long time to get them into 3 Rivers. During hospital visits, I would often overhear my parents' phone calls, hearing my 9 year old sibling crying their eyes out every day. However, since my sibling has been in the only residential mental health school taking kids their age in the state, I have heard many more happy calls where I've only visited them once, but they love the school and has already had made a massive positive impact on my siblings' mental health. Much21844 more in about a month than the now several months they have now accumulated in hospital. However, while I wish they had gotten in sooner, I well understand how long it takes to be admitted to these schools. With the current amount of DMH case workers already, I fear how much longer it would take with half the case workers.21864 I say this on behalf of all siblings of children with mental health21868 issues. Living with them as much as we care is hard, and we as their family want them21874 to get the help they need as efficiently as possible. Because if we can keep our struggling family members safe, especially those who struggle with regulation, like my sibling, we can also keep our family safe.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you.
SPEAKER3 - Okay. So do you know which which ones?
So it sounds like, you know, we have, 4 people listed on this panel, but, if whoever the first 2 are, Pamela Hooks and Tina. There's a person that's on the list. Okay. And they're in your first panel?
And, I'm guessing the second group is Courtney21938 and Chantelle. Okay. Great. And if if you guys wanna maybe sit up21942 front, so that way you guys are ready, to come in, when the, this panel21946 is done. And remember, you have 6 minutes. Anything, after, you can always submit written testimony. Thank you.
SPEAKER50 - I think that means the pressure's on me. My name is Pamela Hooksager. I'm the executive director of the Parent Professional Advocacy League, also known as POW. We're a nonprofit providing non clinical peer support for caregivers raising children with mental health challenges. We are and represent the families affected by the proposed cuts to DMH Children, Youth and Family Services. I am also a passionate mother of a 27 year old daughter who is alive today because of the services she got from DMH. The number of kids and parents that21995 need your help is growing. Last year, Powell supported over 600 caregivers who were brand new to Pal. We had over 6,000 contacts with parents and caregivers of children. So far this year, with 3 months left in the year, that number has already climbed to over a thousand new families. The acuity of these children is higher and more frightening than we've anything we've ever seen. Wait lists continue to be long and truly accessible services scarce. Where would you turn if your 4 year old tried to jump from a second story loft because his life is too hard? Or maybe your 10 year old who destroys your home and threatens to kill their sibling is sent home from the ED because inpatient psych unit won't take a22059 kid who's aggressive. Or maybe you have a 14 year old that has been to the ED 5 times in 6 months and can't get out of bed for school because they want to die. These stories are not unusual. They happen every day to families in the Commonwealth. They happen to your constituents. Maybe they even happen to you. For most of these families, DMH is not the solution of first resort. It is their last hope in a long line of disappointments for their child and family. Cutting funds and closing programs or scaling back on programs and services will inflict enduring and possibly irreversible harm on our most vulnerable children, their siblings, and their caregivers. The cuts will send 1 message to children, you are not a priority. We do not care. These kids need your help and protection. Without it, I can assure you that kids in your community and across the state will die. Maybe their parents too. Please reject the cuts to DMHCYF and restore funding to the fiscal 25 levels. Thank you.
SPEAKER51 - Good evening. My name is Lydia Todd, and I serve as executive director of n s NFI Massachusetts. We operate 2 intensive residential treatment programs that serve young people who have been caught in this revolving door of emergency room boarding, psych hospital placement, back home, and around again. Without our services, those youth will continue to cycle through expensive and disruptive hospital placements. Yesterday, the DMH commissioner testified that IRTPs are underutilized. This is not due to lack of need, but to other phenomena, including admissions being closed for continuing care units and the clunky referral process. Parents tell us it now takes 4 to 8 months for a referral. Hospitals report a minimum of 100 days. They cannot wait that long to free up a bed. So many ceased making referrals to our programs. The commissioner also stated that utilization was low because of staffing, but we in fact have been staffed at 90 to 95% for over a year. Now that the continuing care units are coming back online and DMH has begun to streamline the application process, referrals are up again. Community services alone cannot provide for youth who are at such risk of harm. Mental health needs have only increased and especially for the third to half of the youth we serve in our programs who are non binary, transgender, or gender fluid. DMH invested time and money to relocate us at their request in 02/2022 and ensure we had a facility that could serve every gender. Given all of this, it is irresponsible to take this resource offline. It would take years to stand up such a program from scratch. Please restore funding for these essential programs and hold the system accountable for a reasonable referral process. Thank you.
SPEAKER52 - Good evening, everyone. My name is Tina Champagne. And I'm the CEO for Cutchens Programs for Children and Families. We are located proudly in Western Massachusetts. I am we have the CIRT program and we've been we've had this program for 32 years. A couple of years ago, we moved the program. We've all been through staffing issues. We've bought we've both moved our programs for the betterment of our children and families. Underutilized does not mean that there is no need. And we've met with hospital systems and DMH to to uncover this issue with the referral process. And so I beg you to dig deeper and to save our programs.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you.
SPEAKER3 - Senator Kennedy.
SPEAKER53 - Thank you so much both for your testimony today and and the work you did. I think there's been a lot of conversation around Pappas and POCASET and, our IRTPs and the potential threats with the closure, I don't think has had enough, conversations. So I appreciate what you're bringing forward. And I I wanna highlight too in particular and and thank you, as the the unique programs that you offer that provide affirming care for young residents of our commonwealth that we know face very targeted attacks at this22361 time. And so I want to acknowledge that. And, just wanna if you can speak a little bit because we had this conversation yesterday with the commissioners and and the secretary, around consensus and closures as a result of that. And I know in past conversations, we've talked about just a little bit speak to what22379 the investment that the state has made to your facilities, that would be lost in just and you mentioned in 2022. So not decades ago, but in recent time. And and can you just talk a little bit about that cost that that's been invested? And
SPEAKER51 - Absolutely. We're located in a state facility, and it was fully renovated for us to to go there and serve this population safely with individual bedrooms, individual22404 bathrooms. It took probably a year and a half to complete those renovations. I don't know the total cost because that would be, the on the22412 Commonwealth's books. But, for example, not the non barricadeable doors alone that are required to serve a group of young people who are at such risk of harm to themselves so we could enter their rooms cost about $10,000 apiece, and I believe that we have 45 of those. So that's just an example of the investment that was made in this program. And, also, even though these are the deepest end youth in the system, this affects upstream all the way because if the hospitals can't unclog the kids that can't stabilize over to us for more permanent stability, then that backs up the emergency departments and we're gonna be right back to this huge ed boarding crisis that we had a few years ago. Our situation is22459 a
SPEAKER52 - little bit different. Our property is 1 that it does not belong to the Commonwealth. And so we invested,22467 we took out loans, we we22469 also were able to re receive an FCF loan, with a letter of partnership from DMH that this was a program that they wanted, and also millions of dollars out of our own pockets as well. And so, you know, we're all in at approximately 4,600,000, if you consider the loans and everything else. This is not state owned. So again, we made this investment, as part of our partnership with DMH and for the children and families of the Commonwealth.
SPEAKER53 - Thank you so much. And I appreciate you also raising I don't think we paid had enough of conversation around some of the bureaucratic challenges with referrals and application processes and how that is also impacting the census. And I'm hopeful that at this time when we're looking at, a tougher budget year ahead that we can also be more strategic and thoughtful and innovative around how we're bringing our agencies together, state agencies, to fill beds and without eliminating facilities altogether, but to better get people that need access to beds into them and into programs. So thank you. Thanks.
SPEAKER26 - Thanks. Representative Pelosi.
SPEAKER48 - Thank you. And I grateful that senator Kennedy raised these questions because I think it's really important to understand what the state investment and what your investment has been in light of this partnership that has existed for. I think you mentioned decades now and it's continually frustrating to hear this conversation about the referral process because what I've heard in the testimony today is a tremendous amount of need. And I just want to go back to some of the the the parents and and siblings who have spoken, about what a godsend your facilities have been to them. And so, you know, if worst case scenario happens and these disclosures go through, in your to your mind, where do these children go? What what's available to them and and what does that mean for the families where these children to return back home without the care that they need?
SPEAKER52 - Sure. For our program, there is no other. You heard yesterday that there's community services. These kids don't come to us because the community services are being effective due to their level of need. There's no offense to community services and I'm very grateful that we've expanded upon our community services. But for the kids that go to the CIRT, ages 6 to 12, youngest, most vulnerable, kids with the highest level of need in the state. There is nowhere else for them to go but back to the emergency rooms and back to the hospitals.
SPEAKER51 - The plan for the IRTPs is there are 2 other IRTPs. 1 serves right now biological boys and 122632 serves biological girls. One's in Taunton, one's in Tewkesbury. And the plan would be that they would relocate the youth to 1 or the other of those programs. And the commissioner, tells us that obviously those programs would have to learn how to reconfigure themselves to serve the needs of transgender, non binary, and gender fluid youth. We've got a rich history of this. We've been doing it for 20 years and have good expertise in working with that population and their families. So I'm sure there would be hiccups along the way, even though I know the provider that runs those programs is outstanding.
SPEAKER50 - I just wanted to add quickly. You asked where the kids would go. They're gonna go to EDs and places like that, and then they're gonna discharge them home to their families because there's no place for them to go. And then we're gonna end up not only with the kids back in the EDs, but the parents as well.
SPEAKER51 - And we also now have more22692 kids than could could be moved. So that that creates another complexity because we went up 400% in referrals after this issue was brought to light in the February.
SPEAKER52 - Yeah. We at the end by the end of the week, we'll be at 8 kids. So 8 out of 12 beds will be full. And that's just since we've been able to uncover these issues and and work together with the hospital associations, with DMH also, and together as a unit, we've just started to scratch the surface. We've also talked to DCF because if, you know, if we, do have less of a need, they may possibly need some beds also for their highest level needs in the state. And maybe there could22739 be an interagency contract. But to take down these programs and what it costs, what invest, you've heard how staffing is hard across the board everywhere, to take these teams down and22751 to take these programs, the physical infrastructure, you can't just pop that back up again. It just doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you. Courtney and Shantel.
Chantal. Chantal will put22769 in.
SPEAKER30 - Alright. We will jump right in. Thank you for your patience. My name is Courtney Chantal. I'm the director of government relations at the Massachusetts
I'm here to comment on behalf of the children's mental health campaign. Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. As we approach the twentieth anniversary of the campaign, it's been essential to reflect on the progress we've made as as a Commonwealth. We have seen significant improvements in the behavioral health system over the last 2 decades. But despite this progress, a glaring gap remains between the growing demand for services and the ability of our system to provide it. Nearly half of our youth experience psychological distress, yet only 1 in 4 children receive the mental health care they need. The reality is while there's been an investment in community based services, many of our most vulnerable children, those with serious and persistent mental health needs, still don't have access to the care they desperately need. The campaign is deeply concerned by the approximately $23,500,000 the department of mental health supports cut to the department of mental health supports for children22841 and adolescents. This proposed cut would severely limit access to life saving interventions, treatment, and community based care, and undermine our ability to support the thousands of children and families who rely on these services every day. These cuts would also disproportionately impact specialized programs including, as you just heard, the only existing facility in the state with beds for 6 to 12 year old children locating in Belchertown. This is the only 12 bed staff secure unit for those latency age aged children run by Cutchins. There's no other option available to families requiring residential care for young children. The cuts would also target the program in Westborough as you just heard, the most centrally located IRTP program for adolescents and the22885 only existing residential program in the state with the capacity to support transgender youth. As you heard the secretary mention in her comments yesterday, transgender youth already face staggering challenges. In fact, nationally, studies have22899 shown that gender diverse youth, their suicide attempts amongst gender diverse youth increased by as much as 72 percent in states with anti trans policies. Fortunately, Massachusetts has been a leader for a long time in protecting these youth, but without these specialized programs and services, we risk abandoning these vulnerable children. Gender affirming care isn't just about medical transition. It includes the full continuum of behavioral health support, including crisis care and residential treatment. As you do the difficult work to balance the I urge you to consider the families that have had to wait for days, weeks or even months in emergency departments desperately trying to access appropriate care for their children. I ask you to think about the parents who have to navigate a complex web of insurance regulations and state agency rules to find even the most basic of services. While beds are underutilized, the proposed cuts are not a reflection of a lack of need. Rather, it is a result of a complex array of challenges facing our behavioral health system. Let us be clear. A budget is not just a financial document. It's a statement of our values. And our values must reflect our commitment to ensuring that every child has access to the care they need to thrive.
SPEAKER54 - Good afternoon, esteemed committee members.22974 My name is Chantelle Gooden, and I am the director of behavioral health advocacy22978 and policy at Boston Children's Hospital, a member organization of the Children's Mental Health Campaign. Thank you for granting me the opportunity to testify before you today on a matter of critical importance to the well-being of our children and families. I want to bring to your immediate attention the proposed f y 26 budget cuts of approximately $6,700,000 to vital home and community based services and supports provided by the Department of Mental Health. This includes a significant $5,200,000 reduction to flexible supports and an additional $1,500,000 cut to the program of assertive community treatment for youth or PACT Y. The urgency of this issue is illustrated by the situation we face daily at Boston Children's Hospital, where we consistently have 10 or more children awaiting behavioral health beds in the ED. Some of these vulnerable children could be effectively diverted from the distress of ED boarding through crucial programs like those offered by youth villages and JRI. These ED diversion programs are demonstrably effective. They improve access to timely appropriate care, allowing patients to receive the treatments they need while remaining in familiar and supportive environments of their homes, schools, and communities. Furthermore, these programs play a vital role in connecting families and caregivers with essential support in navigating the often overly complex children's behavioral health system. We have heard directly from families who have utilized these services and their profound gratitude for the positive and lasting impact on their children and their own lives. We are encouraged by the recent progress in lowering e d boarding numbers, bringing them closer to pre pandemic levels. This positive trend is a direct result of the legislator's commendable investment in community support and children's behavioral health services. However, we are deeply concerned that these proposed funding reductions could reverse this progress, leading to a rise in e d boarding cases, particularly if critical components of the behavioral health continuum, both on the diversion and inpatient sides, are dismantled. Beyond e d diversion, programs like pack y are equally vital in enhancing access to care and enabling children to receive treatment within their own communities. Locating a psychiatric prescriber often presents a significant barrier for23124 families in need, forcing some to travel hours away from their homes where resources are limited to secure a provider. PACT Y addresses this critical gap by providing a team based intensive home and community based service that includes direct access to a psychiatric prescriber. Ultimately, children and families deserve to receive treatment that allow them to remain connected to their communities. Preserving services that effectively
SPEAKER2 - Any questions?
Thank you.
SPEAKER3 - We're gonna call up next. It's an online panel, Colleen DeGohan and Robert Conlon. They were, the the panel was on a little bit earlier. I think we had some technical difficulties. Hopefully, we're able to get them on now.
SPEAKER34 - Yes. Hello. My name
SPEAKER3 - Colleen, before before you start, so it's, you and Robert, both on the panel and, you both have 3 minutes, left. And I would say if there's anything, if if you're not able to get to the time limit hits, the rest of your testimony, you can submit online, written testimony. Thank you.
SPEAKER34 - Okay. Great. Thank you. Good afternoon, panel. My name23211 is Colleen DeGowen. I have been employed by23213 the Department of Mental Health for 20 years. I currently work in the capacity of a case management supervisor, which also includes service authorization, which is called needs and means its eligibility for the department. I am an SEIU 5 0 9 member, most recently serving to negotiate with the Commonwealth about these possible changes. I am testifying today about the governor's proposal to reduce case management services across the Commonwealth and to close Pacasset Mental Health Center. This plan would have negative impacts on the clients served, families, local emergency rooms, and police departments across the Commonwealth. Since COVID 19, we have noticed a 20% increase of those seeking DMH services, as well as those accepting DMH services. We are in a critical point in our world where we are in a mental health crisis. I authorize services for those with severe and persistent mental illness. In determining appropriate services, case management is the 1 service that I can put in place immediately so that clients are engaged at the door with minimal lag time. All of the DMH vendor services are operated at 100% capacity with lengthy wait lists. Vendor services have struggled to maintain their contract obligations, and they are not fully staffed and often seek case management support in managing clients with a number of risk factors in the community. Putting in case management allows for the ability to build rapport, thereby decreasing the risk the client has as well as the community. It allows for 1 person to come in and engage with someone who they may otherwise struggle to engage. I can have a case manager meet with a person every single week in order to develop this report and identify further risk, which23311 would then reduce the amount of time they are in the ER or in psychiatric inpatient units. Services that have been put in place to assist with the case23320 management role include BHCP and23322 the Community Behavioral Hubs, which we've heard the governor speak about. Both of those services are not able to provide the same level of care that case management for the Department of Mental Health does. In fact, I am receiving a great deal, majority of eligibility requests from those services. To tell you a little bit about myself, I started my career in the human services field just after completing my degrees and working for a medium security prison here in the Commonwealth. Why I moved to the mental health field is because the lists the lines for mental health services were outrageous. People were needing mental health services beyond our capabilities. So I decided to come to this field. Today, I am working on my second master's in social work, completing an internship at the Pacasset Mental Health Centre. There, there's a team of mental health workers and staff and clinicians that have shown me an environment that is caring, sensitive, and allowing people to work on their mental health recovery in a way that is supportive and helpful for their journey. I urge this committee to consider creative solutions on this unique23387 quality of community services that DMH23389 case management and Pacasset mental health center provide.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you so much, Colleen. So we are at time. So, Robert, if you can submit your testimony, online, we'll make sure that the rest of the committee, hears it.
SPEAKER2 - Jean Covert McClure?
SPEAKER55 - Good afternoon.
My name is Jean Calvert McClure. I'm a licensed independent clinical social worker. I have over 40 years, in the field. And the last 20 have been with the Department of Mental Health. Yesterday, during the budget hearing, we heard the DMH commissioner speak about the lack of value in our Picasso mental health center. And she stated that we do not have long term care there and that we do not take really acute clients with high risk behaviors, violence being 1 of those, and that is absolutely incorrect. In fact, we have an individual that has been on on our unit for well over a year. That's long term care. We also receive a significant amount about 50 percent of our admissions come from 1 of 2 of our or 2 of our emergency rooms locally. The rest come from the high risk units because we can manage them and they are Cape residents and should be treated here in their home environment where their families can be a part of treatment and discharge planning. We also heard the commissioner speak about case management services being23488 redundant. As my colleague, Colleen said and many others have said, the vendors that commissioner Doyle spoke about are not able to manage our clients. They refer them back to us. In fact, we have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars paying these vendors for services that they are not providing. The fiscal year 26 budget calls for another $80,000,000 to vendors. They're spending money, paying people who are not providing the services that they're already being paid to provide. There have been 3 different price of stabilization units that they have been paid to provide here in the Southeast area. 1 in Plymouth about 3 and a half years ago that is still not built. 1 in New Bedford that they were paid to build and have up and running that is still not up and running. And 1 here in Hyannis that was supposed to provide crisis stabilization services that had a fire 2 years ago and they never reopened. Her plan for walk in services does not take into account the needs of our child, youth, and family services. We want our kids to be able to stay in school and live the life that others who are not struggling with mental health issues live. We want their families to be able to work, take care of their other children, and all of their other responsibilities. These parents and these children are not going to walk into our offices. Our23576 plan does not23578 identify how we're going to address the several thousand clients who are going to leave lose services when these cuts are put in place. An average case load is roughly 30 people per case manager. We're talking thousands of people who lose services. The relationships our case managers build with our clients is the best predictor for a positive outcome.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you.
Ashley Smith?
And then up after that will be Kathleen Rolfe. Yep.
SPEAKER56 - Okay. Hi. I'm Ashley Smith. I'm a DMH client, and I appreciate this opportunity to speak against the proposed DMH budget cuts. When I was 16, I was sent to my first mental health program. Only a few weeks passed before my insurance, and insurance, often considered a good 1, decided that they would no longer cover my treatment. I was discharged home, not because I had miraculously recovered, but because my coverage ran out. Soon after, I was sent to an inpatient facility, and again, when my insurance deemed my stay no longer necessary, I faced being sent home. This time, the department of mental health stepped in, recognizing that returning home would be dangerous for me. Even with the good insurance, DMH services were vital. Imagine what it's like for someone without that kind of coverage or no insurance at all. This is what many people face. DMH is often the last line of support. Today, I live in a DMH supported apartment, working toward independence. I've reached a point where I no longer need the constant supervision, but it seems I have reached this goal at a bad time. Budget cuts are threatening not only the DMH staff I work with, but they would also make it almost impossible for me to move forward. My progress and the progress of thousands of others is stalled. If someone is deemed eligible for DMH services, the shortage of case managers, beds and housing vouchers will cause the system to halt. People in crisis will be stuck in emergency rooms. Clients ready for independent living won't have23712 vouchers for housing, leaving no beds for new clients. The system will freeze and at the cost, both human and financial will grow larger. Group homes will stay full, psychiatric facilities won't be able to discharge patients, emergency rooms will overflow, new clients can't get in, existing clients can't move forward. Here are the options I see for myself. I could stay in support departments longer than I need to, blocking someone who does not need that care. I could be moved around unnecessarily, side stepping or being sent to higher levels of care that I don't need, creating instability that makes it harder to hold a job or stay in school, let alone manage mental health. Or, I could try to make it on my own, but in today's economy, even people outside the system can't afford housing. How can I be expected to? Cutting mental health services doesn't save money in the long term. It creates bigger, more expensive crises down23763 the line. These cuts also send a devastating message that those of us who needed help are somehow lost causes. But23769 we don't look the way you might imagine. If I hadn't told you my story, would you23773 have seen me differently? With the right support, we don't just survive, we can thrive, and I'm proof of that. Without that continuing support, I23781 wouldn't be here today. These budget cuts aren't just numbers on a spreadsheet. They're our futures being stolen from us. We are not expendable. We are not lost causes. We are people who deserve a chance at a future, and that future depends on the choices made here today. Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you very much.
So so yes. Alright. So Catherine Rolfe is next and then Catherine Trainor. Okay.
SPEAKER35 - Hello. Thank you for letting me speak today. It's a big opportunity. My name is Katie Rolfe. I'm 19 years old and a student at LaSalle University. I'm here to also talk about the budget cuts and straight up closings of children and adolescents' residential mental health units. These programs are really vital in supporting youth mental health needs and ensuring their safety. And I'm speaking as someone who has struggled with mental health and has been in an IRTP. Just for context, I struggled with mental health throughout high school. And during that time, I never received any outside help from school or counsellors. And it came to a boiling point sophomore year when I attempted suicide. And it wasn't until I had almost lost my life that I received the care
SPEAKER57 - that I needed. And the care
SPEAKER35 - I needed was intensive long term residential treatment, which is exactly what an IRTP provides. I was placed at NFI, specifically, Allen Hall on Unit 1 in Westborough, which was mentioned earlier. The staff were supportive and always prioritized my safety. To say the least, in fact, I think they saved my life multiple times in the middle of several suicide attempts. But I really felt connected with many of them, which was something unique. Same with my clinician. He was involved with my family and focused on my treatment. My future was always put first. And on top of my treatment, I was also reintroduced to life outside of hospital. And as for as for the other kids, I'm still great friends with many of them. And after I was discharged, I never visited the mental hospital again nor experienced any serious suicidal thoughts or engaged in any self harm. And the point I'm making is that this program saved my life, and I don't mean to put that gently. I wouldn't be here talking to you if it hadn't been for my IRTP and all the effort my treatment team put in. Had I returned to the way I was living, nothing would have changed. I would have been just another teen lost to suicide, just another obituary in the weekly paper. I owe my life to NFI and all the success I've experienced since then, and my gratitude is always beyond measure. But still, my story is not an isolated case, and there are so many other kids like me who need this treatment. And cutting funding takes dependable care away from the smaller population, leaving more suffering in silence. And I know the last thing any of us wanna see is increased suicide rates among youth and other instances and effects of mental crises. In finality, I'm just urging you to please prioritize the mental health care of our youth and their treatment and not support the budget cuts as someone who has been there. These hospitals are so very important. And I hope by sharing a little bit of my experience, I can kind of convey how important they are and how much they can impact a life, a family, or a community. Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you. You're important.
We appreciate your testimony. Question?
SPEAKER53 - I just wanna make a comment, Neko. First, thank you for waiting here for a very long day. Thank you for sharing your story. I know it's very difficult to do, and I really wanna appreciate and honor you for for doing so. And thank you for putting your face. We've talked a lot about numbers and dollars and and the budget today. It's so incredibly that we talk about the people that we're serving. So thank you so much for for sharing that and and for for being a testimony to to what we just heard about the IRTPs possibly being closed.
SPEAKER35 - Thank you.
SPEAKER37 - I'm used to waiting all day for care24026 for my son. I wanna thank24028 you for letting me speak. I'm from Taunton. I'm hoping Kelly Dooner will stay an24032 extra minute. Thank you, Kelly Dooner. I'm from Taunton, Massachusetts, and I know you're all tired. Not only do I speak for myself, I'm a special education advocate. I support families24045 and special needs students that navigate multi them navigate mental health challenges. I stand for specialty programs like Italian Home, the state's only autism focused CBAT. But above all, I speak as a mother. My son, Patrick, has attempted suicide 5 times. He spent over 600 days in 3 over 3 years trapped in a cycle of partial CBAT inpatient care to be denied IRTP 3 different times with being told there are no beds. He has autism, ADHD, PTSD, anxiety, depression, and is a sexual a sexual assault survivor. I would sleep at night in my son's room, locked sharps in a camper. I would left my job as a special education24097 admin and brought my older son to my in laws to live24101 for his own safety. The real issue is the broken IRTP approval process through DMH. I had to cross state lines to Rhode Island, a state ranked twelfth in mental health, where Massachusetts sits in first. I should not have to chase care when my son is in crisis. The workflow is 3 to 6 months to be approved for IRTP. Last week alone, 50 youth are waiting for inpatient beds in Massachusetts. You heard that correctly, 50. No family should have to fight this hard. Fix the process. Leave the line item alone. Our children are not line items. They are need of lifelines. I am all about facts, not feelings as a special education advocate. In 02/2024, '4 thousand '9 hundred and '40 '2 individuals, youth, went inpatient. Over 75 percent of them waited 3 days, including some that waited 10. Have you ever been to Disney? Most children can't wait 3 hours, never mind 3 days.
Senator Subardoza, I apologize if I mispronounce your name. You asked where the children would go if IRTP was cut. Residential schools are not an option, and even if they were, at a cost of $300,000 per child. That is not a cost saving measure. If anything, it will increase costs on the DESE line item. We need to stop the closures of IRTP, expand access. Children cannot wait 6 months. That is not a solution when solution is now.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you.
SPEAKER37 - Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Rachel Coven Carrington and Sarah Golding.
Okay. Do you see them online? Rachel Covington
or Sarah Goulding?
SPEAKER3 - Okay. Hold on. Reman Jordan.
SPEAKER2 - Reman Jordan.
SPEAKER12 - Stop listening. Can you hear me?
SPEAKER2 - Yes. We can.
SPEAKER12 - Oh, sorry about that. Good evening,24294 everyone. I've been here since 11, so,24298 I feel what you feel. And thank you for this opportunity to, give a testimony in support of the MassAbilities Assistive Technology Independent Living Program and the Massachusetts Alternative Financing Program. Both of which, have greatly impacted my life, my independence as a person24321 living with a disability. Unfortunately, I was in a car accident, and I acquired a24327 spinal cord injury and that was 20 years ago now. I was, gonna be a new father, with a new promotion, passions for writing, and I was doing spoken word poetry at night sometimes. And unfortunately, a car accident changed all that. And, trying to get back to that person I was, is, extremely challenging as, you can all imagine. But I couldn't imagine how it would be without assistive technology and that's the basis of, me testifying. Assistive technology allows me to do things on a daily basis, my daily activities, all the24371 behind the scenes things that got me to be, here, virtually with you today. Assistive technology has allowed me to return to the workforce, write a children's book, text my daughter, while she was in college, at my alma mater, UMass Amherst. I know a couple other people from here. And the the major thing is that I I I need assistive technology and a lot of the funding has been cut. And I'm just worried about what that, may do for those who are not as lucky as me to have gotten all this, funding and and to just think that I needed just to make my24419 life better and to help me get back to the things that I would love doing like reciting poetry. I mean, I can't explain how it feels waking up in a hospital thinking this can't be possible. I mean, I was just driving home and I must have dozed because I'm laying here with tubes in my mouth and my nose and it just goes to show live life to the fullest because none of us really know where life's gonna put us. And trust me, I was hoping it was all a dream, but I kept breaking to the sound of the breathing machine. 3 months in a medical ward for injuries of the spinal cord replaced without insurance, I could never afford. Doctor said, you may never walk again, and how it's all a new beginning, it was not the end. But it really was the end of my life as I once knew it. I can't change the past, but I'm learning to live through it.24463 I used to look at life like, wow, I've lost a lot. But with assistive technology, I got a better parking spot. Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you. Next up is Jesus Eva.
Tina Dixon.
SPEAKER42 - Good evening.
SPEAKER2 - Good evening.
SPEAKER58 - Thank you for being here so long today. My name24499 is Tina Dixon. I'm the executive director24501 of the region 2 emergency medical services council. Central Mass EMS is 1 of the 5 EMS councils in the Commonwealth. As I refer to us or we, it's because I'm including all of the regions that cover EMS across our state. We are requesting your support of the regional EMS councils to restore line item 45 10 0 7 90 to $1,000,000 for f y 26. This amount is split between the 5 councils, and it's not an increase, for us, but it brings us back to the level funding we were at in fiscal 23 after devastating cuts down to 500,000 split between the 5 councils in '24 and '25. Without this funding, the councils are in danger of closing, some as early as this year. No 1 can sustain or operate an office on a million doll a hundred thousand dollars annually per office. As directors and offices, we're also, greatly limited by the state on the additional and outside funding sources we can seek. Regional EMS councils improved prehospital care by enhancing medical and disaster communications, supporting education and training for EMS providers and agencies, and we're a critical link between state administration and local response. We provide services that, that regulatory agencies cannot, and our work is not redundant, but it's supplemental to the Office of Emergency Medical Services. We provide real time responses to questions from services and individual providers alike. The regional councils are independent nonprofits created and defined under the CMR, 1 70 and in 5 sections of the mass general laws under 1 11 c. But I prefer to give you a few quick examples of the work from my office to show you what we do, which is similar in the other regions as well but individualized for their communities. So 2 weeks ago, I taught a mass casualty class for a local fire department. We reviewed the basics of disaster communications and sorting patients based on the severity of their injuries. We reviewed their local emergency plans, practiced in a tabletop exercise. And then last night, I had the24622 privilege of going with them to test their knowledge at a drill at 1 of their local schools. Participation by the regional councils in communities helps prepare them for disasters and the response. Last week, our training committee worked on our fall EMS training officers workshops. We offer this training annually to guide those who train and teach our providers. We feel every agency should have the same tools available to them no matter what size they are, what budget they have, or the staffing model they follow because every patient deserves the same high quality care. Yesterday, I feel the concerns about patient care during an EMS handoff at a local hospital. My office provided the audio for the communications and clarified what happened, and the issue was resolved by working with our regional medical director. All the EMS councils pay for their regional medical directors and work closely with them to improve EMS delivery within hospital relations. Those are only a few examples of the work of the regional councils who are asking you for this additional 500,000. It's made as fuel in the state budget, but it's quite the, not even quite the bargain since it'll keep keep 5 offices open and strengthen the delivery of EMS across the entire Commonwealth. So please consider funding line item 45 10 0 7 90 at $1,000,000
SPEAKER2 - Thank you.
SPEAKER58 - Thank you for taking the time to hear me today.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you very much.
Tina Alice Huttland?
SPEAKER3 - No. Tina Dixon.
SPEAKER2 - Oh. I'm sorry. Tina Dixon.
SPEAKER58 - I just spoke.
SPEAKER59 - Sorry.
SPEAKER3 - Terry Alves.
SPEAKER58 - I'll speak again if you24718 want, but
SPEAKER2 - Terry Alves.
Hunt Huntlet Huntet.
Lynn Riley.
And after that will be Anne McDonald.
SPEAKER16 - Hi. My name is24742 Lynn Riley and I live in Millis. Thank you, Representative Vaughn. I'm a parent whose child receives services at the Cutchins 3 Rivers24750 CIRT program, testifying on behalf of children in crisis who will need this program as my son did. I appreciate the opportunity to testify against the governor's budget cuts targeting DMH Children, Youth and Family Services, and specifically the IRTP and CIRT program cuts. I oppose these cuts24770 to these critical services as it would cause a void for the 6 to 12 year old children needing the level of care that 3 Rivers provides. The thought of there not being 1 option for this level of care in the state is unimaginable.24782 At 6 years of age, our son, who had been adopted as a toddler, began having very challenging behavioral issues at home. Prior to placement at 3 Rivers, we had exhausted all other clinical options available to24796 us to address his increasingly violent behaviors. We had worked with the school resources, outpatient psychiatrists, therapeutic24803 behavioral support, in home therapy, and more. Despite
SPEAKER60 - all
SPEAKER16 - of that effort, his explosiveness continued to increase until24811 he caused an injury serious enough to merit inpatient care for 3 months at Franciscan Hospital, where he was diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder. The team at Franciscan and DMH agreed the only viable placement based on his clinical needs and age was 3 rivers. Never had we imagined what we were experiencing. Thankfully, we found angels on earth at 3 rivers from the moment we arrived. In addition to our weekly family therapy session, almost daily, we were welcomed by the milieu staff to spend time learning from them by observation and conversation how to help our son with a very difficult diagnosis. 3 Rivers is unique in the combination of the individual commitment of the staff, the integrated treatment approach, and the human connections formed. We say that 3 Rivers gave us our foundation back because we still had challenges ahead of us, but they worked with our family for a year and a half to get our son to a more stable place and to help us get to24871 a place of hope. If we hadn't had this stepping stone in his journey, we can't imagine that he would be24877 living at home as a stable teenager with hopes and dreams for his future. The obvious question is what will happen when a child like our son is having such challenges? What option will be safe for the child and family, and where will they find that needed help? These are the most important question questions, but another to ask is what will be the financial cost without this level of care? Again, it is unimaginable that this level of care wouldn't be available for children experiencing such significant mental health challenges and unacceptable that the additional proposed cuts to DMH services, which which also helped our family, would be unavailable to Massachusetts children and families in crisis. These are the reasons that I strongly urge you to restore and fully fund the DMH Children, Youth, and Family Services budget. Thank you for your time and thank you for what you choose to do every day.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you very much.
Hang on. Hang on. Ma'am? Ma'am? A question? Representative Edoza?
SPEAKER61 - Thank you. I was just wondering, how old is your son now?
SPEAKER48 - 17. 17. And so he when at what age was
SPEAKER16 - he at 3 rivers? I believe around the age of 9.
SPEAKER48 - And how long did it take you to get into the program?
SPEAKER23 - Do you remember?
SPEAKER16 - Well, he was at Franciscan for 3 months, and, he that was the only option at that point until they collaborated with DMH and told us that the only option would be 3 Rivers, which was difficult to not have a choice.
SPEAKER48 - Right. I understand. Thank you.
SPEAKER16 - Although that choice ended up being fantastic.
SPEAKER48 - Well, I was gonna say, if if you all these years later, you're here to testify about your son's experience, it really does mean something. So thank you for for staying here and waiting and for sharing this with us.
SPEAKER16 - Yeah. It it needs to be there for others like him.
SPEAKER2 - Rev Vaughn, hang on, ma'am.
SPEAKER62 - Hi, Lynn. I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you very much for your testimony, for your advocacy, not just for your own child, but for, children all over the Commonwealth. So thank you very much for, you know, holding tight here today.
SPEAKER16 - Really appreciate it. Absolutely. It, someone did it for us. So Yes.
SPEAKER12 - We we
SPEAKER16 - pay it forward.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you. We this is huge. So it was important to hear you. So thank you.
SPEAKER16 - You're welcome. Thank you. Anne
SPEAKER2 - McDonald?
Unan Brout?
Meg Coffin will be next.
SPEAKER63 - Hello. Thank you all for waiting for us too. We appreciate it. My name is Oona Bro. As a parent of an extremely ill child who was having constant suicide attempts, try to imagine what it was like to never know when you would wake your when you go to wake your child up for school if they would be alive. My child from the age of 10 to 14 years old received every possible outpatient and in home therapy from DMH as well as our health insurance. This did not stop the constant revolving doors of numerous EDs and hospitalizations. Finally, after languishing in their last hospital for 3 months, they had been approved for an intensive residential treatment program run by NFI, which, by the way, is the25087 only IRTP in the state that can take a child like mine who is non binary or trans. My child was the lucky 1. Their closest friend who had25097 been with them at the last hospitalization was not able to access an IRTP. As my child was safe receiving treatment at the IRTP, I was at a funeral holding a mother as she looked into an open coffin of her beautiful 15 year old daughter who loved to play the ukulele. With further cuts to DMH and the elimination of this particular NFI IRTPs,
there will be a lot more mothers and fathers going to funerals instead of high school graduations. I implore you, please save our children. Putting this simply into a scenario, I would like you to picture a rowboat out at sea full of beautiful children, our future. Over on the shore there is a glimmering lifeboat with IRTP written on it, but the motor is broken. The lifeguards walk by and they see the lifeboat. Their immediate reaction is it is not being utilized, so let's throw it away, not knowing all it needed was to have the motor fixed. Now look back out at the rowboat full of children. It is gone. It has been swallowed up by the waves. The motor of25170 the rowboat is the arduous broken process that inhibits children from receiving lifesaving help from the IRTPs because of the DMH broken system. Please restore last year's level funding to DMH and fix the broken system. We need to bring our children home for our children deserve life and a future. 1 last25191 thing, the major side effects of these IRTPs is what my child now has. My child is a flourishing adult in their 20s. They are going to college, they have a job and they no longer receive any, any services from DMH. Please give this side effect of our children and and and, and to our children25211 and other families. Thank25213 you for listening.
And I didn't cry.
Do you have any any questions?
SPEAKER3 - Thank you so much. Any questions from the members? If if not, thank you, ma'am, for your testimony. We are, gonna be moving to a panel. We are gonna call the names, Kelly Viera, Maureen Saint Cyr, Christina D'Alfonseca, Michelin Cahill.
And, I know that we have some some members that are in person and some members that are online. If our friends at LIF can help us, Zoom in to the the folks that are online, as well.
Great. And just something to note is that there are 6 you have 6 minutes. So what what I would advise is, if you have written testimony, speak of your written testimony, and you can always submit the written testimony, and that probably will allow you to have enough time so that, everyone in the panel can at least say a few words. If you look at the, the TV, you will see a countdown. Thank you. Go ahead. Hi.
SPEAKER64 - I'm Christina Dafonseca, a resident of New Bedford. I'm the executive director of South Coast Fair Housing. I founded South Coast Fair Housing in 02/2012 to ensure that fair housing enforcement services were available to residents of Bristol and Plymouth Counties and Cape Cod in the islands. And now with the other members of the Fair Housing Alliance of Massachusetts,
SPEAKER32 - crucial
SPEAKER64 - services. The Fair Housing Alliance of Massachusetts is a coalition of 4 nonprofit organizations, including South Coast Fair Housing, the Massachusetts Fair Housing Center, community the housing prod Fair Housing Project at Community Legal Aid, and, the housing discrimination testing program. The work of FAM is complimentary to the work of our state's commission against discrimination and attorney general. But different from those state offices, FAM provides direct advocacy and legal representation to individuals and families. Collectively, we process almost 1,000 intakes annually, evaluating, investigating, and providing counsel for a
SPEAKER26 - full
SPEAKER64 - range of fair housing issues. Families often arrive at our doors first, and we frequently help to address their fair housing issues without the need to ever seek the help of our state agencies or courts.
SPEAKER46 - Good evening. My name is Kelly Viera. I'm a Boston resident, daughter of Cape Verdean immigrants, a lawyer, a renter, and the director of investigation and outreach at the housing discrimination testing program, 1 of the member organizations of FAM. At this time, we are starting to see the major effects of funding cuts at the federal level. In my work, for example,25396 at HATP, we do extensive education outreach, letting housing seekers and tenants know what their rights are and whether their rights have been violated. We even educate landlords, social workers, real estate agencies. Our work reaches everyone involved in the housing process and over the 12 of our since our founding as an organization, we've educated over 7,000 people. I can attest personally that often people know that they didn't know something that had happened to them was illegal until we were trained, they were trained by us. However, our ability to do this work is under serious threat. As you know, the federal government's priorities have drastically shifted under the current Trump administration. Typically, for housing organizations depend on significant funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development or HUD to do this type of work. However, that funding, is at dire risk. In a typical year, HTTP might expect to receive around $550,000 in funding from HUD. However, the 2 grants we applied for in November of 20 24 have been pending ever since, and we do not expect to receive that funding. If without, an additional source of funding, we do not anticipate that HTTP will be able to continue its vital services past this coming fall, and we fear that other family organizations won't be able to exist for much longer than that. It's April. It's fair housing month. In April, doctor Martin Luther King Junior was killed 57 years ago this month. And I bring that up because doctor King was actually fighting for housing integration near the end of his life. And I asked the legislature to feel in his words the fierce urgency of now. And we asked you to fund the Fair Housing Trust Fund, with $4,000,000 to ensure that fair housing can continue to exist in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And we additionally ask that you fund the office of, fair housing with $1,000,000 to ensure that we can continue to fight for fair housing rights in the Commonwealth. Thank you.
SPEAKER65 - Good afternoon. My name is Maureen Saint Cyr. I am the executive director of the Massachusetts Fair Housing Center, the oldest Fair Housing Center in Massachusetts, which has been in in, existence since 1989. We serve Central And Western Massachusetts and, are a member organization of FAM as well. I wanna speak briefly to the cuts that attorney Viera mentioned. Like many sources of federal funding, fair housing funding is under attack at this time. On February 27, HUD at the direction of Doge terminated 48% of all fair housing grants across the country overnight stating that those grants were inconsistent with, or no longer effectuated program goals or agency priorities. These cuts dealt a devastating blow to critical civil rights work such as fair housing enforcement, education, and outreach. Our organization, Mass Fair Housing, lost 52% of our funding on that night as a result of those cuts. We're part of litigation that is challenging these terminations, but it's very uncertain whether our work will be funded during the litigation. Without this funding, we will have to make deep immediate cuts and ultimately also like HTTP will not be able to keep our doors open into the fall. Absent replacement funding. Or we are echoing their ask that the legislature fund fair housing and keep these programs alive, through funding the Fair Housing Trust Fund, at $4,000,000 Thank you.
SPEAKER4 - Good evening, members of the committee. My name is Michael Ann Cahill. I am a resident of Worcester, Massachusetts and the senior supervising attorney at the Fair Housing Project of Community Legal Aid. As my colleague testified, the federal funding for our organizations have historically we have historically relied on in jeopardy. And without replacement funding, fair housing enforcement will be decimated in the Commonwealth. Currently, our 4 organizations work together to combat prevalent housing discrimination across the Commonwealth, and any cut to the current capacity will be felt by its residents. We ask you to fund the Fair Housing Trust Fund at $4,000,000 Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? Have a great day.
SPEAKER16 - Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Elizabeth Murphy.
SPEAKER8 - Good
SPEAKER61 - evening. I'd like to thank the chairman and the members of the joint committee of ways and means for taking time to listen to me today. My name is Beth Murphy and I come to you as an attorney, advocate, and most importantly, the mother of a young adult with significant mental health concerns. She's a DMH client and a former IRTP patient. You've heard from parents of children with mental health concerns today, and we all belong to a club that nobody ever wants to join. It is statistically improbable that some of you are not also part of our club. There's no application to join, and the dues are paid in ugly cries, screams of rage and frustration and sleepless nights. Not unlike the Hotel California, you may check out anytime you like, but you can never leave. My request is slightly different than the others that you've heard. I'm here not only to ask that you fully restore the DMH budget, but that you further mandate that policies be put into place making the services more accessible to clients. Making these services more accessible will not only make life easier25754 for clients and caregivers, but in the end will provide cost savings to the Commonwealth. Let me explain. In speaking to directors of some of the IRTPs, the second highest residential level of care for youth, there are open beds in all facilities. In speaking to the administrators at inpatient facilities, we are told that there is a 3 to 6 month wait list to get a patient into the IRTP. Let me repeat that. With beds available, we are making suffering children wait 3 to 6 months to get treatment. How does that affect the budget? The Commonwealth is paying for the IRTP beds whether they are used or not. Also, most of the children waiting for inpatient beds are covered by some form of MassHealth. Therefore, the Commonwealth is paying for the empty bed and also the bed being used by the stagnant patient. Further, when all inpatient beds are full, other children are forced to wait in the emergency room for a bed to open. Again, many of these extended stays in the ED are paid for by MassHealth. Often when a child waits for an extended period of time, the ED eventually discharges them only to admit them again months, weeks, and sometimes just days later. If we want to reduce the budget, we need to get kids the treatment they need as soon as they need it. In closing, please do not cut funding for mental health services. Strengthen them, reform them, oversee them, fund them so that they can be better for families like mine and thousands of others. Although the most important measure is made in human lives and keeping families like mine whole, the investment also makes good economic sense. Thank you for your time.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you very much.
SPEAKER62 - Thank you, Beth. Just wanna say thank you for waiting here all day and really appreciate all the insight you've given me over the last couple years and my legislative aide on, the issues that, are rising at DMH. And, just want you to know that we'll be advocating for you and families across the Commonwealth. So thank you very much.
SPEAKER61 - Thank you. And just as I'm sure you guys have all heard, our families were used to waiting. So sitting here, not a problem.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you very much.
Julia Garvey and Kelly Turley.
SPEAKER66 - Good evening. My name is Kelly Charlie. I'm with the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless. I want to thank you for this opportunity to testify today on behalf of the Coalition in support of key investments in language in the FY26 budget to prevent and end homelessness. We will submit written testimony that covers the wide range of our policy priorities for this fiscal year. And I just25956 wanted to highlight a few before turning it over to my colleague, Julia. We know that this year, in the past 18 months, Massachusetts has made significant changes25966 to the right to safe,
stable places to go. We know safe, stable places to go. We know that the costs have been enormous, but we can and must do better. So we ask you as you're formulating the f y 26 budget to seriously consider reversing some of the negative changes that were implemented this year, in particular, the arbitrary time limits on how long families can stay in shelter, the cap on how many families can be in shelter at any given time, And to make sure that we're making the investments where they're needed in comprehensive housing search and wraparound services because that's what families need to be able to be successfully housed and to exit homelessness. We hope that you will listen to the lived experiences of families who are the experts in what we need to do going forward and to revisit some of the recommendations that came out of the previous commission on the state of the family shelter program. We ask you to adequately fund26039 EA and to be able to take the steps forward in26043 the upcoming months to make sure that we don't push families out of the safety of shelter before they're able to secure alternative housing. We also ask you to make the investments that are needed in the home based program. We thank you, Senator Miranda, for being the lead on focusing on that program, which is the state's key tool to making sure families can exit into safe permanent housing. We ask you to increase the home based benefits to make it more flexible so it can be useful to families, increase the funding to $80,000,000 in FY 26, and to make sure that families can access it before they have to enter shelter. And briefly on RAFT, we ask you to increase funding for RAFT homelessness prevention program and to make sure that families and individuals can access it before they get a notice to quit from their landlord or utility shutoff notice. Thank you. I'll pass it to Julia.
SPEAKER67 - I had good morning, then I had good afternoon, and now I have good evening. My name is Julia. I'm the community organizer slash legislative advocate Coalition for the Homeless. I wanna thank the committee chairs as well as the hearing chairs, and the members of the joint committee for this opportunity to provide testimony today. Just wanna touch upon, a big issue that we've been seeing around older adults experiencing homelessness. Between the lack of affordable housing and an overall housing crisis, older adults in Massachusetts turn to long term subsidized housing for relief through such programs as state funded public housing, the Massachusetts rental voucher program, and the housing choice voucher program, also known as section 8. However, Massachusetts housing authorities acknowledge that the wait time for section 8 is 10 years or more.26145 While production of more affordable units will help in the long term, we must26149 find a solution for the now to help older adults experiencing26152 housing instability who often have complex health issues and are moments26156 away from an eviction and living in a26158 shelter, car, or on the streets. In the f y 25 budget, the coalition26162 worked with senator Pat Jaylen of Summerville to earmark a hundred thousand dollars in the state budget to establish a pilot program in Somerville. The Somerville office of housing stability, Somerville Cambridge elder services, and the Somerville council on aging have collaborated to identify older adults who meet the eligibility criteria. Low income older adults participating in the bridge subsidy program pay26185 30% of their income towards rent with26187 the bridge subsidy making up the difference in total rent. Since receiving the funding, the pilot program has allowed 2 older adults to remain in place and move into longer term affordable housing. Additionally, there are 8 older adults who are currently receiving the subsidy to remain in place and would have otherwise entered homelessness. Although this is a small sample, it is a testament to what the program can achieve on a large scale. The coalition is also working this legislative session with rep Shirley Arriaga and senator Pat Jalen on a bill to create a steering committee for the expansion of the program as well as funding subject to appropriation, and we encourage folks to review the language. The Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, alongside a hundred and 4 other statewide organizations, call upon the legislator to provide $10,000,000 in the state budget to create a statewide bridge subsidy program for up to a thousand older adults, age 60 years and older, facing housing instability to the route them to remain in place while they await approval for long term subsidized housing. While this program does not address the root causes of older adult homelessness, it mitigates the current trend and prevents additional older adults from entering homelessness. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of our recommendation for a statewide bridge subsidy program for older adults and for your leadership on deepening Massachusetts' commitment to ending housing instability, ensuring that everyone has a safe and permanent place to call home. My written testimony will also include advocacy for adequate funding for the emergency aid to the elderly, disabled, and children program, also known as EADC. Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you very much.
No questions.
Michael Caine, Carmen Allen, and Victor Bragna?
SPEAKER3 - And as we wait for this, for this panel to come in, next is gonna be a panel, William Bill Murphy, Nancy Rian Porter, Karen Carroll, if you guys wanna sit, close.
You can go ahead. You have 6 minutes.
SPEAKER68 - Good evening, afternoon. I'm sharing my experience as a tenant at Will at the Forbes Building, where I pay approximately 60% of my income in rent, and I live with constant anxiety, as I'm having now, about, potential homelessness and financial instability. I'm here to highlight the critical role of the MRVP program in providing stability and community support, to emphasize the need for increased funding of $47,000,000, which will provide help to an additional 2,300 families or individuals to help vulnerable populations, including veterans, which I am, to live with dignity amidst ongoing uncertainties, which I'm sure you're all aware of and we've all experienced these past couple months. I'm a disabled veteran, senior citizen, and more importantly, a tenant and will I say again. I've resided at the Fourth Building since the October, and I'm on the waiting list for a project based MRVP voucher. Prior to obtaining housing, I was homeless and stayed at a veterans shelter for 11 months due to a medical emergency in my family. I still have problems sleeping. I'm haunted by the unsanitary conditions I witnessed, misogyny, the at risk behavior of individuals, and the general misery while staying at a shelter26437 in that environment. It was very stressful.
I was able26445 to get a job during that time at the National Grid. And And when I got that job, that was an outlet for me. I was able to be gone from the shelter Monday through Friday. I was only able to maintain that position for 5 months because then age isn't set set in. I know I don't look like it. I look really good because I got my hair done. But, I'm 65. I'm a senior. So that the ageism was rampant.
I wasn't because I got let go at 5 months, I wasn't able to get, unemployment, because you have to be there 6 months. So that means my income went down substantially. So paying 60% of my income is untenable. And I can't maintain it for much longer because my savings are dissipating quickly.
So I live month to month, check to check. I budget constantly. I'm anxious. Again, there's the medical issues of the family member that I have to deal with. And this voucher program would be a lifeline. But again, I'm on the waiting list. I need you to know how imperative it is for me to have this. I can't afford to move out of state even though it would be cheaper to move out of state and live somewhere else. I wouldn't get the same quality. I wouldn't be in the same community. I wouldn't be able to stand up for my other fellow tenants, veterans, and people in my situation, my age range, which is, like I said, good. But I'm doing the best I can. And I just appreciate if, you all would take into consideration that there's a lot of us that fall through the cracks. This voucher program would allow me to pay 30% of my income as opposed to 60%. And
Oh, I'm sorry. We have to wrap up. So thank you for giving me the time. I just wanna live with dignity, not anxiety. I'm lifing right now, which everybody is doing. But I wanna live my golden years goldenly. Thank you.
SPEAKER59 - Thank you. Carmen's store story is just like the 90 hun 9,500 or more families that have MRVP now. The it's a vital lifeline to keep them off the street. There are a 60,000 people on the wait list for MRVP. 60,000. So we are part I'm from the MAS Alliance of HUD Tenants. My name is Michael Caine. We're part of a coalition that we spearhead, spearheaded with CHAPA and other allies and the Coalition for the Homeless to increase funding for the MRVP program. The governor has asked for 253,000,000. We are asking you all to increase that by 47,000,000, about 15%, which is enough for 2,300 new people that are, like Carmen, facing the street if they can't get this resource. We were able to negotiate a commitment of a 10 MRVPs for Carmen's building. They aren't in place yet. They hopefully will be by the summer. We wanna thank senator Miranda for her leadership in helping us get that, commitment. But that was, you know, a 1 off thing, and we need to spread that. So we're hoping we we spearheaded cookie day. You may remember the cookies, house made cookies. They were made by homeless people at the, Haley House Cafe. And we deliver them to everybody, to remind you of that need, for people to be housed. So we're hoping that you can make that 1 of your priorities, speak to chairman Michael Woods now to make sure he puts it in his
budget for the sixteenth. Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you very much.
SPEAKER3 - Senator Miranda?
SPEAKER2 - I just wanna 1 second.
SPEAKER29 - Just You know, I'm really happy today. You know, you of course, praise is always a beautiful thing. But just to see so many constituents from my district actually come to the ways and means hearing to make sure that we know that we need to put our money where our mouth is. And the Forbes is a great building that is in Jamaica Plain. So, you know, we want you to make sure that you can remain in that building. So please reach out to my office, and thank you for coming today. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - William Bill Murphy.
SPEAKER7 - Cheers. Senator Peano and Representative Diggs, and honorable members of the joint committee on ways and means. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. I am Bill Murphy, the current director of public health for the city of Framingham. I currently serve as the vice chair of the Massachusetts large cities health coalition. 2 thirds of the Massachusetts population reside in Massachusetts 14 largest cities. I am also a foster parent. The housing crisis is a public health crisis. Rents are unaffordable. The average rent for 1 bedroom in Framingham is 20 over $2,500 Encampments continue to grow. With recent policy changes, the safety net of emergency assistance shelters is disappearing. Last week, I received yet another call from my police department asking, do we have any resources to put a roof over a family family's head for even 1 night? With a lack of shelter capacity and shortened stay protocols, we can expect to see more families with young children on the streets. Failure to increase investment in upstream resources such as wrap, the rental voucher program, and home base will continue to strain the emergency shelters. Cuts to these programs will be devastating and shift more responsibility to municipalities and our nonprofit partners. Given the many disruptions occurring with the federal government, nonprofits will not be in a position to be the solution. They will always help, but due to funding constraints, they will be limited in their response. The faith faith communities are amazing. They are amazing resource but simply can't fill all the gaps. There are many additional layers with a lack of housing. Our municipalities, especially cities, are challenged to adequate adequately respond to layers such as transportation issues, limited access to health care, food security, and mental health issues, that families need to improve health and wellness. I've been asked many times, including our emergency assistance shelter operators, what's my plan as a municipality to address these? There is no plan without resources. Lastly, as a foster parent, I've seen firsthand how the lack of adequate shelters, transitional housing, and affordable housing have prevented reunification of families. This is an injustice. I'm asking you to please support the mass coalition for the homeless request to invest and expand in upstream resources like raft, rental voucher programs and home base, as well as safety net programs like VA family shelters. With these, we can see more successful stories of recovery, tangible pathways out of poverty, and a realistic hopes of stability for all families in Framingham and all throughout Massachusetts. Thank you for your time.
SPEAKER3 - Ma'am, you're you're you're you're next.
SPEAKER69 - Thank you. Thank you to the26933 chairs and honorable members of the Joint Committee and of Wayne on Ways and Means. I'm Karen Carroll, the director of Health and Human Services in Somerville and a member of the Large Cities Health Coalition, which represents the 14 largest cities in the state. I have been working in local public health for over 25 years, and in that time, I have become more and more convinced that stable housing is the most important social determinant of health. Research consistently shows that individuals26965 experiencing homelessness are at a much higher risk for physical and mental health issues. In fact, a study from26973 the National Academy of Sciences found that individuals who experienced chronic homelessness are 3 to 4 times more likely to die prematurely compared to those with stable housing. I've witnessed firsthand how crucial stable housing is for the health and well-being of individuals and families. At our own emergency winter shelter in Somerville, we see that when people have their basic needs met, even temporarily, they take important steps towards not only securing housing, but also improving their health. These individuals begin to engage in health care, find stable employment, and take better care of themselves because they finally have the safety and security they need to focus on their well-being. However, it's clear that the housing crisis in Massachusetts is only worsening. The emergency assistance family shelter system is under immense pressure, and we can't address the root causes of how homelessness without meaningful sustained investments in affordable housing. I urge the legislator to support the Mass Coalition for the Homeless FY 26 budget requests to strengthen support for families entering and leaving EA Family Shelter Program, particularly by improving housing search services, as well as investing in and expanding eligibility for home base, RAFT, and MRVP to meet the need in Somerville and across the Commonwealth. These programs are crucial in helping families secure stable, long term housing and relieve pressure on our emergency shelter system. Housing is health. Without it, we cannot address the broader health disparities that many families face. It's time to invest in housing solutions that keep families safe, healthy, and out of shelter for good. Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Thank
you. Got a question? Rep Holmes.
SPEAKER15 - Could you repeat your stat? What percentage live in the fourteenth largest city?
You're on mute.
SPEAKER7 - 2 thirds of the Massachusetts population reside in the 14 largest cities.
SPEAKER15 - Alright. You know, again, people bother me with math. They ask me as an engineer and MBA. I just did the quick count and I see about 2,000,000 people in the top 14 cities. Right? So I go Boston to Framingham and a quick math says it's about 2,000,000. So is it 2 thirds or 1 third? That's why I just wanna make sure27148 I have that number right.
SPEAKER7 - We'd be happy to follow-up, with those exact numbers.
SPEAKER15 - Alright. Yeah. I think there's about 227156 little bit more than 2,000,000 when I do the quick number. Okay. So it's either 1 third, I think it's 1 third may live in the top 14. Just do the quick math. Thanks.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you. Alright. Elizabeth Alfred, Michelle Lima, Carolyn Chao.
Do I need to tell you guys I have 6 minutes?
27185 SPEAKER3327185 -27185 We27185 got it. We're ready.
SPEAKER57 - Thank you so much. My name is Liz Alford. I am an eviction defense attorney, and I do emergency assistant shelter work. I've done that all over the Commonwealth. I do it right now for Greater Boston Legal Services, and I'm here for families who are experiencing homelessness. Last week, we had a client with a 5 week old baby who stayed outside for 2 nights because of delays in the shelter system. We represent a 66 year old wind widow of a Vietnam veteran who has custody of her 4 grandkids. They ran out of home base in mar in month 15, and so she falls further and further behind every month. And she is very afraid that she's gonna be evicted, you know, this summer because she can't afford her rent. Families eligible for shelter, even those eligible for priorities, wait in their car, while they wait on wait lists. And sometimes they wait in their cars because they're waiting for quarry checks to be completed. That can now we have heard from we have, in our experience, had that happen, and, it's taken a week for CORI checks to be completed. Families just wait while that happens. We've had families told if they can't get to the office to do the Cori check-in person that they will be denied.
We have single moms with disabled kids or who themselves are disabled, call us all the time and ask where they're supposed to go, when their time is up because they don't have a place to go, and they can't afford the rent, and no landlord will rent to them. Even people who are in shelter, who have low wage jobs can't get landlords to rent to them. They can't find rent that they can afford.
Families with vouchers are exited from shelter while they're going through the section 8 process.
Families, you know, when when it gets below freezing and the weather gets really bad, the Commonwealth creates emergency plans for single adults and does not create emergency plans for children. We do not have emergency plans for children when the weather is really bad and they're staying outside.
So families, you know, are now limited to 6 months. If they have people who are disabled, if they have children under 6, if they are escaping DV, they get an extra 30 days. All of this I I get that you tried really hard to protect the most vulnerable families, but all I can say is that the all of these families are extremely vulnerable. And so, we need to be thinking about this in a holistic way. We need to keep people in their homes, and we need to be able to have some place for children to go.
SPEAKER70 - Thank you, Liz. And thank you to the chairs and to the committee for having us. My name is Carolyn. I'm the executive director of Homes for All Massachusetts. We are a statewide coalition of tenant organizing groups. We have groups in Springfield, in Lynn, in Boston. We're building in Worcester and the Merrimack Valley. And our member organizations see the impact of the high cost of housing every day. Right? We heard from a lot of workers and and families today, and we know that workers that are keeping our economy together are often paying 40, 60 plus percent of their income in
sent into immediate crisis. Right? And that's why for us, connecting what is happening with the family shelter system,27399 the EA system, and, upstream solutions and really27403 investing in affordable housing are deeply connected. Our organizations organize tenants to stop rent increases and no fault evictions. They see the breadth and depth of the displacement crisis every day. And housing is key to everything we've heard here today, and we shouldn't be pitting critical issues against each other. Right? Dignified work, health care, mental health, adequate education, housing are all critical, for people, families, and communities. I'm gonna pass over to Michelle, but I'll just say, you know, we are here supporting, making sure that the emergency assistance, shelter system is invested in and, that limits are removed and that, we're investing27444 in home based raft, MRVP, upstream solutions. And the last27448 thing I'll say is, you know,27450 as Homes from Massachusetts, we know you've heard a lot about BudgetS today. We also know, financial resources are27458 finite, but, you know, rent stabilization policies, ending no fault evictions, these are things we can do at no cost to the state that make a real impact as we also, advocate for these budget as. Right? Because we can't afford 1 more eviction due to a a rent increase or no fault, in a in the crisis we're in. And I'll just pass to Michelle because we also know that preserving every affordable housing unit we can right now is critical to this.
SPEAKER20 - Thank you, Carolyn, and thank27490 you chairs and members for sticking around and listening to us. Good27494 evening. I'm Michelle D'Alima. I work with the Greater27496 Boston Community Land Trust Network. I also wanna throw in that I grew up in Hampton County and still have strong personal and professional ties to Western Mass. I'm here with my colleagues in the housing just and move justice movement today because we need a variety of tools to address the housing and homelessness crisis across the state. I'm here to ask you for $1,000,000 in the budget for the Small Properties Acquisition Fund, or SPAF. Piloted in 2024, SPAF provides forgivable loans matched at the local level for nonprofits and developers to acquire housing and protect its affordability. We must preserve our housing stock to address displacement and high cost of living. Today, we ask for another 1,000,000 to carry the program forward unabated. Earlier this month, Secretary Agustin said about staff, while we work to build the housing that Massachusetts residents need now and into the future, it is essential that we preserve and maintain the affordable housing we already have. Every property that we can keep affordable and
SPEAKER35 - every
SPEAKER20 - okay. Please fund staff 1000000 dollars. Thanks.
SPEAKER2 - Got a couple questions for you. The27560 veteran, the the wife,
the heroes act is supposed to help with that. So finding a place to stay, can you can you get some more information for us and send it to my email?
SPEAKER57 - Yeah. I
SPEAKER2 - will. I'd like to know more about that. And also, the kids plan, how many kids are homeless?
The plan, I mean, I'd like to and that sounds and there's no emergency plan. I we didn't really know that at least I did. Didn't know that there's kids that are homeless. So how many kids are we talking? Do you
SPEAKER57 - I mean, I think at the moment, the the legislature gets reports from UHLC. At the moment, they say that there's about 700 or in in the last report, there's about 700 families on the wait list.
During, you know, during the winter months when it was really cold out, it's like you can send if you have single adults, you can send them to Pine Street, and Pine Street will get them in the door somewhere inside. And there is not a place to send people with kids. I mean, I had 1 family who had 2 teenagers who who were, like, young teenagers, and they couldn't get into shelter that night. And they were like, well, where do we go? And, like, I I was like, I don't know where you can go. Like, we gave them tea passes to, like, be on27655 the tea for as long as possible and get to the27657 hospital and maybe stay at the hospital for a while.27659 But I talked to her the next day, and she said the hospital27661 said she couldn't stay, and they stayed outside.
SPEAKER2 - And it sounded a little
SPEAKER70 - bit just oh, sorry.
SPEAKER2 - It sounded just a little bit different. I was honestly thinking that kid didn't have a family. But No.
SPEAKER57 - No. Like, just that, like, kids like, we have I hear what you're saying, but, like, kids who are in families that don't have a place to stay
SPEAKER2 - Yeah.
SPEAKER57 - There is no emergency place for them to go. And so if you limit shelter to, like, a certain number of people and you say everybody else needs to wait, then there's not even a place inside27693 for them to go. Like, there's not a place to send them where it's like this place will at least put you inside for the night and you won't freeze.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you. You wanna I
SPEAKER70 - was just gonna add to what Liz was saying that, you know, we are proud that we are have been a right to shelter state for children and families, and that has meant we have not needed the kind of emergency weather based assistance that in, individual adults have needed. And now because of these caps and the, the limits on our right to shelter, we are facing this crisis. And I'll just say personally, I have tents in my basement in Dorchester because we've been seeing this,27727 right, for the last year, 2 years years that families are just sleeping outside at tea stations, maybe in South Station if the security guards don't kick them out.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you.27737 Senator Kenny.
SPEAKER53 - Thank you so much. And I continue to say, arguably, right to shelter is an idea. We don't have right to shelter, right, where we know historically 50% of families have been turned away at any point during the system. We have a statewide system, which is unique unlike any other state, but, right to shelter. And and I wanna appreciate the specific examples that you gave because given the tight budget constraints that we're in, it's important to recognize that often we cost ourselves more money with the less compassionate response that by not providing housing supports, which are far less expensive, we end up caught having incurring costs, much that are much more substantial. So, and and I think we often end up putting ourselves in those positions. I wanna ask specifically because you raised, the quarry checks, which I think we thought collectively would would enhance, security. I do note that the I'm sorry? No. I do wanna note that despite the fact that EA Shelter does serve, families with a whole host of complications, when we talk about emergency shelter at the end of the day, it is intended for emergency situations, fire, flood, natural disaster, and domestic violence. I've heard, and I'm curious if you have heard as well, examples of families meeting those definitions that because they don't actually have their paperwork and can't access and can't actually provide to get a quarry are actually not eligible for shelter.
SPEAKER57 - Yeah. I mean, I think I, have definitely seen families27833 that have had people split off because of the quarry check already. And I we have been hearing from families, like, especially my colleagues in27843 Western Mass who have represent27845 families in, like, areas that27847 may not have public transportation, that people are being told because you can now apply27851 for a shelter online or over the phone. But if27853 you can't get to the office to do the CORI check, that you will be denied because you couldn't get to the office to do the CORI check. And that family that I was talking about with the 2 teenagers who's, you know, stayed on the tee and then stayed outside, you we were trying to get them into shelter at, like, 03:30 that day, and the response from the field office was, well, they're not gonna be able to clear the quarry check before before 5. Right? Like, it was like the quarry check was part of the reason why they were just like, yeah, we're not even gonna try to get this family in because they're not gonna be able to, like, get get their quarry done anyway in that amount of time. Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you.
Andrea Park. And next is Julie Love.
SPEAKER60 - Hello. Thank
you. My name is Andrea. I'm an attorney at the Mass Law Reform Institute. Thank you for still being here. I just was gonna go before Kelly and set some context for the specific line items, regarding EA raft and home base and MRVP, so just pretend like you heard all that first. We just I wanted to share a little bit about what we're27929 hearing from talking to the many providers and people who are working and families within the EA system across the state. It has been a 40 year history of ups and downs without a doubt, but it is truly an existential threat as Senator Kennedy said. It shouldn't27942 be a surprise that as income inequality has grown, the number of families who are in need of the safety net for their children has also grown. 1 long time shelter provider said to the EA commission, this is the first time I've seen so many steps taken to undermine the right to shelter for parents. We have had spikes in the past. Providers have worked with EOHLC to figure out how to help them address these concerns and this too shall pass. The increase of numbers in EAA eligible families over 2023 and 2024 was absolutely rapid. It was unprecedented and we're grateful and we were proud of the State's response initially. But in light of this problem that has no easy answers, it does feel as though we've lost our way. I'd like to focus on 2 specific things that you all have probably heard a lot about in the context of the specific cases that you've heard. The first is the governor's claim that this is a federal problem, which we've heard from day 1 and continue to hear today. And I would ask which problem is that? Which is the federal problem? Is it the problem that we have immigrants coming into the state? I don't think this is a state that has ever said we reject the notion that immigrants will come here. That is not a28007 state that I came to. The28009 number of families entering the shelter system has dropped precipitously coming in from outside28013 the country, which is totally predictable. The E. A. Shelter has never been a Federal shelter system. So is this the Federal response28020 we were hoping for? That the numbers of28022 immigrants are dropping and now the President is very publicly trying to get anybody out of the country. We28028 shouldn't be scapegoating immigrants and we28030 need to be very clear that all these changes, these things that have been happening and the stories that you heard are happening to Massachusetts families and28036 children every single day. Some of them are the kids you heard about and maybe heard from28040 earlier today. The second thing is that the Administration is saying we need to move forward towards a needs based system that is not 1 size fits all. Oh my gosh, I'm going to run out of time. I just want to say that we agree there is a combination of a sort of damocles and magical thinking behind this idea that we're going to be able to get people out in 6 months, maybe even 9 months. I think we agree we don't want a 1 size28061 fits all system, but we need to try a little bit harder. There is a lot of space between we need to cut the funding from where it is now and the idea that this is the only way forward. I was going to share a story about someone who lives near me in Worcester County who is running out of time as I am and she is going to be out of shelter in June. Her decision at the moment is I'm going to return my 2 young children to their abuser because that's a better choice for her to make than leaving the shelter system and having them on the street with her. So really ask you to think about this, as you're looking at this budget and I will submit my remarks in writing as well. Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you very much.
Julie?
SPEAKER55 - Hello.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you.
SPEAKER32 - Long day. I hope you guys can listen as fast as I can talk because I really don't wanna get cut off. The school nurse liaison project is a very tiny program with a huge impact. It gives school staff immediate consultation with a psych NP with school nursing experience for anything they need, policies, medications, behavior plans to keep kids in class, stuff for their billet boards. It also has professional development and a library of printable resources. This is a state budget's dream. It was a program that was completely developed under a private grant. So all the risks and wrong turns were paid for by someone else. And the Commonwealth was handed a thriving program that was already serving about 1 third of the state. And Massachusetts welcomed that gift and funded it as part of CPAP in fiscal year 20 22 with an expectation that it would expand statewide to all of you from the West that have hardly seen me. I don't know why MCAP decided not to do that and shut it down after just 1 year. It's not a huge mystery. A program run by a nurse designed to give the schools what the schools ask for wasn't a great fit for a program designed by and for doctors. What is a mystery is why when the schools and I went out on a limb to keep it going so that the state could still take advantage of that private investment and maintain these these vital services that schools have been relying on for years, the state said no twice. I know that the budget's really tight. Believe me, after struggling to keep this program alive for 3 years with no salary, I know what short funds feel like. That's why I'm driving a 13 year old car. It's it's small, but it's reliable. And the money to keep it going is all I can afford. What I don't do is go out and spend a whole lot more money to design a new car.
SPEAKER8 - But that's not a
SPEAKER32 - great analogy because I don't see a new car offering the schools services and support that they need.
I did go looking for that to in order to criticize past budget decisions, but because I was honestly hoping I'd find somebody, anybody out there doing what I do. See, I'm a nurse, and we have it drilled into us that you cannot leave a client in need until someone else comes and assumes their care. That's why I worked for 24 hours straight through a blizzard and why I've sacrificed so much to keep SNLP going. Because if I stop, I don't know who the schools can call, and neither do they. I put out a poll to school administrators and I got responses from 11 counties asking them about this. Only about half said that they had anyone that they could call. And they were talking about mostly their
SPEAKER35 - in house staff.
SPEAKER32 - Please let me keep28292 going. Their in house staff and me. If you lose28296 me, which you will in if I'm not in the budget this year, 3 quarters of them have no 1 that they can call. And the other quarter, they need to get the families to sign a release or get the doctor to stop and explain things to them or some of them listed 911. They need to be able to call someone before they're calling 911.
SPEAKER2 - Your testimony? I'm sorry.
SPEAKER32 - Yeah. I've got written stuff that I've sent to all of you repeatedly. I can give you that.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you. Any questions?
Thank you so so much.
SPEAKER32 - Anyone? Name your town. I can tell you how much they've used the program and how much they're going to lose if28335 the program goes away. I28337 mean, I I was hoping to have others28339 testifying with me, but school staff couldn't get away. We didn't know we'd be here in the evening. And
SPEAKER15 - My town is Boston.
SPEAKER32 - I got my first Boston call this week. It was I I don't know where exactly in Boston, so I don't know if it was your town or anyone or your corner of it or anyone else's. When I was with Nick Papp, he was trying to make it smaller. I don't know why when we're supposed to go statewide. And I I was naughty because the week after he told me to tell towns that they couldn't sign up, I signed up the archdiocese of Boston, and the program got a lot bigger in 1 day. It was very exciting.
SPEAKER15 - Alright. No problem. So you don't do anything in Boston. That's why I've never heard of it. But what's the name of the program again?
SPEAKER32 - It's called the School Nurse Liaison Project. And so
SPEAKER15 - much is how much is the line item?
SPEAKER32 - It's a hundred and 50,000 to have it be available to all schools statewide. I I reach out to everyone and they use as much or as little of it as they want. Some use it for love professional development and never call. Other towns, their PD schedule is full but their nurses and other staff kind of have me on speed dial and call every time they've got anything that puzzles them. It's it's, flexibly meets whatever schools want and need rather than deciding what they ought to need and going and insisting that they should accept it.
SPEAKER15 - Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you very much. Right.
Meg Coffin? That's fine.
Suzanne Stinger? Stinger?
Shannon and Kelly Hickey.
Zoom.
SPEAKER34 - Hello. Can you hear me?
SPEAKER2 - Yes.
SPEAKER8 - Hello. Kelly, do
SPEAKER34 - you go first?
SPEAKER71 - Okay. I'll go first. We are, related, but we're not testifying together. Hi. My name is Shannon. Thank you so much for28461 hearing from me and so many other advocates28463 today. I'm testifying in support of full funding of $25,000,000 for the healthy incentives program. Yep. Line 428472 4 0 0 1 0 028474 4. I am a former snap and hip user. I'm a farmer's market employee for a hip vendor farm, and I'm a farm technical assistance provider. I have participated in the healthy incentives program from each of these perspectives and have seen the immense value of the program at each angle. For consumers, not only does hip enable us to increase our healthy food purchasing power, but it also makes farm stands, farmers markets, and CSAs accessible and welcoming community spaces. The difference is dramatic and important, especially in isolating and divisive times. In 2024, the state averaged more than 2,600 new hip households every month. That's not just a number. It's real residents of the Commonwealth gaining access to healthy produce and community spaces. As28523 a farmer's market employee, I had the28525 pleasure of introducing a dozen snap customers to hip to hip28529 each week. The relief in people's faces when learning about this program is what brings me here today. Funding HIPAA $25,000,000 in f y 26 would allow for the program's continued growth so that every SNAP recipient can afford fresh fruits28543 and veggies. Over the years since HIPAA's inception, farmers have built their business models and crop plans based on this new market access. As a farm service provider, I've worked with many farms who earn more than half of their revenue from hip transactions. They've planned for growth based on hip. They've built bigger farm stands, invested in delivery vehicles, hired more staff, and altered their entire business models to serve hip customers. Farmers in Massachusetts want to feed their neighbors, and hip helps them do it. Insufficient funding would throw a wrench in their business plans, lead to significant layoffs, eliminate food access points, and even put some farmers out of business. Today, I work at the National Young Farmers Coalition on agricultural policy across The United States. The Commonwealth Healthy Incentives Program is the premier local food access program in the nation and is held up nationally as an example of great food access policy. Congressman Jim McGovern sings its praises in the House Committee on Agriculture and other states attempt to replicate it. HIP is what make what makes Massachusetts 1 of the most food secure states in the country. It28614 is imperative to restore and fully fund this program. $25,000,000 is a drop in the bucket of the state budget, but I assure you it will have a very real impact across the Commonwealth on the tables28626 of thousands of households and in the bottom lines of hundreds of farmers. Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you.28634 Kelly?
SPEAKER1 - Hi. Can you hear me?
SPEAKER2 - Yes.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I my name is Kelly Hickey. I am the owner of Atlas Farm Store in Franklin County, and it's important to me that HIP is fully funded both for the sustainability of my business and for the well-being of our community. A speaker earlier talked about hip cuts going into effect December 1 that reduced family's benefits from 40 to $80 per month to $20 per month regardless of family size. In December, when those hip cuts took effect, we saw a 27% decrease in snap sales over the previous year. In January, down 32%. February, down 40. March, down 38. And in all those months, the percentage of total sales attributed to snap and have dropped from 15 to 20% to less than 10%. At this point in the season, we are28687 down over $27,000 in Snap sales over last year. For a28691 small business in 1 of the lowest margin industries, that kind of loss is absolutely28695 unsustainable. I have 20 employees that are employed based on sales that no longer exist. My expense budget has been built around a business model that no longer exists, and we are relatively insulated from the effects of these cuts compared to other farms. I don't have a crop plan based on last year's sales. I can order less produce from my colleagues, most of whom have come to depend on our sales for their businesses. We order from 200 small vendors, all based in New England, most of them in Massachusetts. The ripple effect of this underfunding goes way beyond the SNAP households and their immediate farm stand. And I'm sure others will articulate it better than me. HIP dollars spent at farms means less time and money, often state funded or state subsidized, spent at the doctor. Underfunding HIP is unsustainable for everyone. It's also unsustainable for the community. Aside from healthy produce for under resourced families, increased sales for farms, and less strain on our health care system, HIP serves the vital function of inviting low income families into local food spaces. When you know you can't afford what's at the store, you don't feel like you can go in. I assume we've all been to a farm stand to pick up a fresh picked ear of corn or a perfect summer heirloom tomato. You can point out different fruits and vegetables to your kids, talk with the farmer, listen to live music, sample something you've never tried before. This kind of experience is simply beyond reach if the only grocery environment you feel welcome in is a fluorescent food city with wilting greens picked 2 weeks ago across the country. We all benefit from everyone being welcome in community spaces. We are constantly learning recipes and food stories from our customers. Immigrants to the area who are finding food that feels like home, old timers who knew what the valley looked like 60 years ago, parents of young children who figured out that 1 thing their kid will eat. Customers bring us the spice mixes they use on the Japanese sweet potatoes or tell us how their mother would pickle tomatoes back home in Russia. We try new recipes and report back. They write us letters and invite our staff over for holidays. That is community building, and it's possible because of hip. We are seeing customers, especially those that rely on SNAP and HIP, sharing their fears and uncertainties about program cuts at the federal level. Massachusetts has a program that is a proven win win win for families, farmers, and health care. I'm urging the WAIS community to fund the program at the full $25,000,000 level for fiscal year 2026. That is the funding that is necessary to return previous benefit levels and the funding that is necessary to ensure a strong local food economy here in Massachusetts. Thank you for your time.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you. Thank you so much for both of your testimonies. It's extremely, extremely important. HIP is a way that, you know, I I said earlier, I think a lot of people when they think about food stamps, they think that they're, you know, folks are just getting tons of money to buy food, which is not the case. Individuals are living sometimes $10.10 dollars, per day, if if they're lucky enough, per per individual. And and HIPAA is a a way that they're able to get more for their buck and ensure that they're eating healthy, and especially in28869 communities like mines where there are food deserts and it's really difficult when you go to a convenience store. You're you're not finding28875 the right foods. Programs like this at, you know, farmers markets and, you know, in the area are are super vital. So thank you so much for that advocacy.
SPEAKER2 - Bianca Ortiz White?
Jennifer Maynard.
SPEAKER4 - I'm here virtually. Can you hear me?
SPEAKER3 - Yes. Yes.
SPEAKER4 - Oh, great.28904 Thank you. Well, good evening. I'm Jen Maynard. I'm the executive director for the Mass PACE Association. I'd like to thank the committee chairs and members for allowing me the opportunity to provide testimony on governor Healy's house 1 fiscal year 20 20 6 budget. First, I really wanna thank you all for the work you do and the work in front of you. We recognize these are very uncertain and challenging times. The Mass PACE Association represents the 8 programs of all inclusive care for the elderly in Massachusetts. For 30 years, PACE has served nursing home eligible adults with 90% of PACE consumers receiving services in the community, at home, and in senior living and senior housing, assisted living. Yesterday, we heard from Secretary Walsh and Assistant Secretary Levine describing the rising number of older adults and individuals with complex needs and the shared goal to keep them home. These are the people that PACE serves. Every PACE program has operated for at least 10 years and is deeply rooted in their communities. The comprehensive list of services they provide from medical to social services make it possible for individuals to live safely and happily in their homes and communities. Further, PACE programs serve working caregivers to try to keep their loved ones home. However, today, I must express my concern for the financial stability of the PACE programs. And because of this, on behalf of the PACE programs, I'm requesting a $9,000,000 rate increase in line item 4Thousand-six01 in FY 26 to be shared across the programs. The current rates included in house 1 leave the programs and in turn consumers vulnerable. PACE programs are an integrated program and are administered through MassHealth and function through a full risk capitated payment model with rates determined by the agency, every year. This year, the rates, have been determined for 2025, but they remain inadequate, leading most of the programs to operate in a deficit. 7 programs are currently running a loss and 1 program has already been forced to lay off staff. PACE lost over $37,000,000 across the 8 programs in FY '24 and $10,000,000 in FY 25 Q1. It is anticipated the program losses for calendar year '25 will be greater than 2024. Even with a $9,000,000 increase, the the programs will experience a deficit. These deficits stem from an increased cost not fully accounted for in the rate setting process, the rise in medical needs and utilization post COVID, high inflation, including medical inflation, and investments into the new sites. This is the first time in 30 years PACE programs have approached the legislature to, support them in the rate setting process due to their concern for losing any programs. Based on the current rates, it's estimated that the PACE program will29073 assist the Commonwealth in avoiding $51,000,000 in expenditures for CY '25 by making it possible for consumers to avoid nursing home care. The additional allocation will just help the programs, con continue to function, and save and continue to save the money for the state. This is essential services for rising number of older adults. And we thank you for your time and consideration.
SPEAKER2 - Thank you very much. Any questions? No. Have a good night.
SPEAKER4 - Thank you so much.
SPEAKER2 - Christine Tati Tosti?
SPEAKER5 - Hi. That's me. That is my service dog in training, David Bowie, underneath the David Bowie poster.
I am here today to talk about Massability and my experience going through the disability determination service that commissioner Wolf was talking about with you all.
So how that how that process works is that, medical consultants that Mass Ability hires reviews medical documentation and then determines which of us, should be eligible for SSDI.
Even with all the medical records from my doctors and therapists saying that I couldn't work full time, 1 of Massability's medical examiner director people,
wrote that I can't work in my past capacity and that I can only now work at unskilled jobs unskilled and I can only work at unskilled jobs full time. So, they denied me disability benefits. And if I was impressionable and believed that, believed that as a college educated person, I can only do unskilled work, you know, I just I can do skilled work part time. I don't become unskilled just because of autism, ADHD, and post traumatic stress disorder. I'm there's no unskilled job. So that was the process. A highly paid consultant from Massability denied my claim for disability. And had I not appealed, I wouldn't have my dog. I wouldn't have had back pain.
But even through getting approved for social security, my problems with have not stopped for 6 years straight.
It only recently did I get evaluated for assistive technology. Years ago, they told me that I don't need a service job to work. I appeal to that. So this is actually an agency that is creating a ton of barriers for people to access assistive tech, to access service jobs, and are telling disabled people what they do and do not need. Commissioner Wolf does not represent me or my needs. Massability social media does not represent me or my needs. And I would just caution you all to be very aware of performative allyship and to make sure that people who actually experience these processes are here and tell you about how degrading they are. You know, having counseling through them, it's it feels like someone gaslighting me out of my abilities. It's so degrading. It's not acceptable. And I wouldn't be here in front of all of you without my dog. Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - Oh, we're glad that you have that dog. And, we truly were hearing you. Thank you for your testimony.
Have a good night. Rebecca Miller?
SPEAKER6 - Good evening. Can you hear me?
SPEAKER2 - Yes.
SPEAKER6 - Great. Thank you, Chair Diggs and Chair Paianna for hosting this incredibly long hearing. I appreciate all of the work and the folks still in the room in the State House and just the warmth and care that you've shown for each person that's testifying and hasn't gone unnoticed. My name is Rebecca Miller. I'm a policy director at the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative and I'm here to just make a put a big plus 1 next to everything Shannon and Kelly Hickey just said about the Healthy Incentives Program line item 4,400 dash 1,004 and its need for full funding in fiscal year 26 of $25,000,000 as you heard earlier today, the program faced a 50% cut to the monthly benefit cap starting in December which has resulted in a
farm that operates over the winter compared to the same time in the previous year. For example, in Worcester at the Regional Environmental Council's mobile markets, the first week with the reduction, they purchased $6,400 worth of produce to sell on mobile markets and sold $3,600 with a loss of $2,800. Their average weekly sales prior to the hip cut was $8,868 for this fiscal year,29384 so this was a 59% drop29386 in sales in 1 week. They saw a 64% reduction in weekly29390 transaction numbers, And staff have been reporting that they do not see any customers making purchases above $20. So folks are really sticking to that limit, that new monthly cap that folks have. At the same time, folks with SNAP benefits are seeing that new monthly cap and are choosing not to go to farmers markets. A SNAP recipient from New Bedford said the cap was frustrating. Now we don't get fresh food anymore. Getting out to a farmers market is a struggle since I'm disabled, so it's not worth it to meet the low amount. We also see an increasing number of seniors still using the program. Some seniors get SNAP and they get as little as $23 a month. So every dollar really counts, and they're really making an effort to still get every dollar they can towards a healthy diet. This is the longest cut the program has ever faced since it was started in 2017. It's just been incredibly frustrating. So the need to restate the caps that were, you know, frustrating. So the need to restate the caps that were up until November of 20 24 is really important. We have farmers that are starting to meet with bankruptcy lawyers that are really questioning whether they're gonna they're gonna make it to the next fiscal year. So I know you're facing a ton of really important issues as you've heard today. We're also facing a number of cuts to programs that were funded by the federal government29457 and USDA that are frankly pretty devastating to local agriculture and to someone who's worked in this area for the past 7 years.29463 So I just really respectfully urge you to support HIP. I29467 appreciate Senator Paiano's kind words earlier to the Hickey sisters and just appreciate your time. Thank you.29473 And I'll be following up with our current comments as well.
SPEAKER3 - Thank thank you, miss Miller, and and thank you for your advocacy. I think, you know, so I I worked food stamps, some time ago. And 1 of the hardest things for me was when 1 of my, clients was an elderly individual, and I had to give, I think it was, you know, close to $30, at the time, of food stamps. You know, the question, especially if they were new to food stamps, was like, what could I do with $30? So super key, program, especially for for a community that is so, in need and sometimes is really easily, for them to be missed out by others, especially if they don't have, connect family members or other, deep connections or access to resources or where people stop by and make sure that there's, food on their fridge. So thank you for speaking out on that.
29533 SPEAKER629533 -29533 Thank29533 you so much for your work. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you for staying with us. Alright, members. So we have several people, signed up.29543 Probably there's around, like, 40 people signed up, but they are neither here in person or, online with us. We've we've checked and double checked. So I think we can safely say that, this meeting is coming to a close. I wanna thank all of you for, being here throughout the, the the whole, day. I think a great opportunity for our our community members to come speak to us.
SPEAKER2 - Yes. I concur. I I wanna thank everybody here and our, our team. You know, it was a pleasure working with you. And, thanks. You guys have a great night.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you. Good day. Alright.