Massachusetts politics

An amendment to the state constitution that would create an additional tax on Massachusetts’ highest incomes received wide support from activists, legislators and the public at a State House hearing last week.

Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots organization, held its annual lobbying day April 3 at the State House, where more than 100 activists discussed their priorities for the state’s 191st legislative session.

The Massachusetts Latino population is projected to reach 1.5 million in 2035, up from 757,000 in 2015, according to a study released last week by the Mauricio Gaston Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy. By 2035, Latinos are expected to account for 15 percent of the state’s population.

At a public meeting hosted by the MBTA last week, elected officials and commuters slammed the transportation agency’s recent proposal of a 6.3 percent increase in fares starting July 1, 2019.

In Boston, and undoubtedly elsewhere, blacks have been hampered from joining the police force. Even today there are only a few black members of the state police. It was not until the 1950s that Samuel M. Range became the first black trooper and he remained until retirement. At Range’s recent funeral, he was honored for his service in breaking down racial barriers.

One month after unveiling her extensive education finance reform bill, the PROMISE Act, Massachusetts state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz has been removed as chair of the state’s Education Committee, a post she has held for eight years, as well as from the committee itself.

More than 300 teens marched from the Boston Common through Downtown Crossing to the State House last Thursday in a demonstration calling for more funding for summer jobs and an increase in the age at which criminal defendants can be charged as adults.

After the Safe Communities Act died in the last legislative session, several progressive candidates made the immigration reform legislation a plank in their platforms as they sought seats in last year’s Democratic primaries.

Governor Charlie Baker has announced an education finance proposal that would fund the recommendations of the Foundation Budget Review Commission in the fiscal year 2020 state budget.

State Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz announced an education finance reform bill Wednesday that would create a guaranteed minimum level of funding for all districts in the state, as well as implement recommendations from the state’s Foundation Budget Review Commission (FBRC).

During an interview in the News Café at the main branch of the Boston Public Library the day after the ceremony, the Byron Rushing looked back on an electoral career that spanned enormous changes in politics and economics, both locally and nationally. That arc took him to the leadership ranks in the Legislature, his elevation to Assistant Majority Leader coming as African Americans and Latinos tripled their ranks in the House.