Meeting with Creem's Aide

Kiersten, Eddie, Ben, Pema

Today we went to the State House to speak to Senator Cynthia Creem’s aide. We chose to meet with someone in Creem’s office even if we could not get time with Creem herself because there is already a relationship between Creem and YMORE. In addition to that, she dealt with the state revenue and is a chair on the Committee of Ways and Means (which deals with finances.) The aide (whose name we did not remember) told us that Creem has always been in favor of taxes because of the money they bring to the state. While it is not necessarily relevant to this project, Creem is also proposing a bill to keep issues of civil rights from the popular vote. We began by introducing ourselves and by a very fortunate coincidence, she lived a street over from where I live now. The ice had been truly broken after that point.

Our questions:
How does the ballot initiative process work?
What are the arguments for and against cutting the sales tax?
What can we as youth do to keep this from passing?

When we asked about the ballot initiative process, fortunately the aide had a printout she was going to give to YMORE people. It explained fully the ballot initiative process and lists all 3 questions on the ballot. In order to get a question on the ballot, the legislature can propose it or one must collect approximately 70,000 signatures from all over Massachusetts (66,593 or “3% of the total vote cast for all candidates for Governor…at the last state election”) and get said signatures approved. After hearings etc, one must collect another 11,099 signatures. We have the helpful handout for the rest of the group.

The aide speculated on why some may be opposed to the sales tax and also justified the sales tax as it is. She said it is seen as a “regressive tax.” As we discussed already, there is no tax on drugs, food and clothing under $175- what she called the core of purchases. Another arguments she listed is that the 6.25% tax on, for example, a $1000 TV is $625 that could have gone to something else. Connected to that argument is the argument that claims people are driving to New Hampshire (no sales tax) for purchases such as those and MA is losing money as a result. The logical counter argument to the ones listed is that the state needs the money for services and to function.

Next, we explained the door knocking campaign and she suggested some fairly obvious ideas to organize in our communities. It was confirmed that the point is not to get the support of the politicians (not many need to be convinced) but instead the voters. We talked briefly about the housing initiative, too. There are not many supporters of it, two exceptions being Charlie Baker (R) and Tim Cahill (I) because they don’t like overriding local control of housing. We also discussed the rent control referendum that passed. We ended the meeting on a good note. We decided it went very well. She definitely set the tone with a chipper attitude and was very friendly. We were able to chat a little but also stuck to our plan and worked very efficiently. If we find a way to recover this lovely woman's name, we shall send a thank you email. We shall try to contact more local politicians, namely Representative Jeffrey Sanchez and Councilor Felix Arroyo. Success!

-Edsuvani Maisonet

Lew Finfer Interview

Interviewed by Samantha, Kenny, Adam and Martin

Lew Finfer is part of MCAN, which stands for Massachusetts Communities Action Network. MCAN is a congregation based community organization that looks at local and state wide issues. MCAN has helped to establish 8 other organizations like itself.

When we visited Lew he gave us plenty of information on the ballot initiative, which is summarized below.

Q: What influential people support and are against the ballot initiative?
A: All the candidates running for governor are against it. However, Baker and Cahill support lowering it to 5% but since the ballot says 2% they do not support it. Other organizations that are against it are major business industries, community organizations, and labor unions. Examples of those who support this initiative are organizations such as the conservative media and the Beacon Hillinstitute. Also Carla Howell who is part of a libertarian group and we have her to thank because she is the main advocate for getting this onto the ballot.

Q: Why is this issue so attractive?
A: Because of recession. People are concerned for their finances and the affects that it could have on their future.

Q: What are groups doing to help fight this?
A: There have been campaigns funded by 2 teachers unions and SEIU which have raised a lot of money against this. People have also put things together such as websites to show the affects it would have on local communities. Also
community groups have talked about voting education, and some have even done door knocking.

Q: Are there any areas that would be for or against it?
A: Cities have a tendency to vote more liberally, whereas suburbs vary.

Q: What can we do?
A: Develop a coalition with allies such as school parent groups, other youth groups, municipal unions, groups that tackle issues on schools, environment and housing, as well as calling meetings to talk about this. We could also go out and hand out information showing what could happen to certain communities. We could also go to elected officials of our cities and towns and ask them to be more active on this campaign.

Q: What could be cut?
A: Local aid could be cut to 8-10% and this is significant because local aid is usually the last area to be cut because it is important to communities.

Q: What happened in 2008 with the income tax ballot initiative?
A: It lost 30%-70% because it spent less time and money.

Youth Force

Today in our ( Jake, Amanda, Allain, Aneesia ) meeting with Youth Force, we learned of their process in door-knocking. They're promoting for both voters registration as well as the ballot initiative. Also they only door-knock at a certain companies set of apartment buildings, and before hand they have a list of names, addresses, and phone numbers to ensure a quick and efficient process. They are looking to educate people on how cutting the sales tax could negatively impact the community in various ways. Also they had some suggestions on us informing people about the ballot initiative in our own communities with fliers, post cards, etc. They said they were willing to help us in our efforts, but we should also take into consideration that they're busy just as we are with achieving our goals. The meeting today was motivational and inspiring, and I look forward to taking action ! =]

- Aneesia

Results from Cora and William's interview with Yawu Miller- organizer for the ONE Massachusetts Campaign against the Ballot Initiative in 2008

Our meeting with Mr. Miller helped gain a lot of insight and set a general precedent, specifically for how we want to use messaging in our campaign and how to use effective messaging. Mr. Miller works for the Public Policy Institute, an organization which helps non profits and other organizations rally together to become familiar with the current political and economic scene to initiate social and economic change. 

In 2008, ONEMass worked against a ballot initiative that would cut a progressive income tax in half. This means that state revenue would be greatly reduced and there wouldn't be nearly as much funding for schools, human services, public transit and public safety. Unfortunately, this referendum was passed and the income tax was decreased. 

Usually, when ONEMass' messaging and publicizing of the campaign was effective was when the campaign focused on spreading their message (as opposed to denouncing the opposing sides' message(s)). Mr. Miller also advised against the "fear tactic" (addressing the negative impacts on certain communities from the income tax cut). Instead, we should emphasize the value of funding for schools, public safety, public transit and human services. 

Another significant messaging technique that Mr. Miller emphasized was the importance of not focusing too much on numbers or statistics, because that's not as rallying to a cause. If we were to use numbers, we should use "social math" (explaining the statistics in terms of the impacts they will have). So, we should keep messaging short and sweet. For example, simply saying, "invest in libraries and schools, (without using "invest in").

Additionally, we discussed the involvement of non profits in the 2008 ballot initiative and how it was very effective that non profits became involved in voter turn out against Question 1 in 2008. Fortunately, all 4 governor candidates oppose the referendum. Therefore, there's a strong hope that the mayor of Boston will take a strong stance against the referendum because it will have such a strong impact on Boston communities. However, some legislators are for the referendum, particularly Carla Howell, who proposed it. We must also keep in mind that in areas where the Public Policy Institute is working, we may have legislators as allies but they don't always speak up, because they don't want to talk about controversial issues as they are campaigning to get reelected.

We'll also face opposition from the liquor industries, who will push the tax cut on liquor.

In order to combat this opposition, Mr. Miller recommended that we don't neutralize the opposition, but focus instead on spreading our message. ONEMass focused very much on voter turnout and rallying voters to vote against the 2008 referendum. An argument we can use against this referendum is the the sales tax is regressive but the budget cuts will be even more regressive, in that they'll impact low income communities the harshest. To make matters worse, debt service won't be cut, so some areas will be cut as much as 20%. Hence, a long term goal could be to work on tax reforms (i.e. more progressive income tax.)

ONEMass' next meeting will be to map out the Boston area and determine who covers voter turnout and messaging in what areas. It's important to know that due to high opposition to the referendum but low voter turnout, East Boston, Chelsea, parts of Lawrence and Everett might be good places to focus on. Especially, since we may need to translate our material into Spanish in those places. Though it's hard to focus on communities that have a high favor of the referendum and we don't need to focus as much on areas with a high "no" turn out such as Cambridge and Lexington.