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Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
A long-term transportation bill that will send $5 billion to Massachusetts and funding for infrastructure that unlocks private investment were among the federal achievements hailed by U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey at the MMA Annual Meeting in Boston on Jan. 23.
Both senators also called for increased funding for the battle against the opioid crisis gripping the Commonwealth and the nation.
Speaking to hundreds of local officials, Warren and Markey cited the December passage of the $305 billion Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act as a critical step toward addressing crumbling transportation infrastructure.
Warren called the law “a critical first step.” But, she added, “We need to do more than just maintain our current infrastructure. We need the vision, we need the leadership to improve and expand transportation and mass transit to underserved parts of the Commonwealth. Investing in infrastructure not only creates jobs today, but it will create economic growth for generations to come.”
Markey highlighted the $300 million in federal funding approved a year ago for the dredging of Boston Harbor to accommodate the larger ships coming into use as the Panama Canal expansion project is nearing completion. The investment, he said, will bring more economic activity to Massachusetts that would otherwise go to other East Coast ports.
“That’s already unleashed $2 billion of private sector investment up here,” he said. “That’s what the government really has to do. … We just have to create the infrastructure, we just have to make it possible so the private sector can be successful.”
Each senator pledged to protect the tax-exempt status of municipal bonds as well, citing their importance to municipalities in making infrastructure investments.
They also pointed out that Community Services Block Grant funding got a $41 million boost in the recent omnibus spending bill, while Community Development Block Grant funding was held steady.
In conversations with local leaders, the senators heard about the ongoing battle against opioid addiction and overdoses. Both said additional resources are needed.
Conversations about how opioids are prescribed and the amount provided to patients are important, Warren said, but “real resources” are needed to provide the short-term and long-term interventions needed for people to overcome addiction.
“We have to have a serious conversation here in this Commonwealth and all across this country about coming up with the money to be able to provide the treatment beds and long-term treatment that will be needed,” she said.
Markey recalled how his father, a two-pack-a-day smoker, eventually died from lung cancer, and how the U.S. Surgeon General’s 1964 report on the health risks of smoking became the turning point for public perception.
Last year, Markey and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell asked the Surgeon General to issue a report on opioid abuse, and in October the Surgeon General’s Office announced it would release its first-ever report on substance abuse and addiction this year.
“Forty-seven thousand people died in 2014 [from drug overdoses], over 50,000 died last year, could be 55,000 this year,” Markey said. “That’s a Vietnam War in its entirety every single year. We have to stop trying to incarcerate ourselves out of this problem and start treating our way out of the problem.”
Warren lauded the year-end tax deal that made permanent the 2009 expansions of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, which were originally set to expire in 2017. The credits, she said, would put almost $1,000 back in the pockets of 169,000 families in Massachusetts supporting 305,000 children.
Meanwhile, both Title I and Head Start each received a $500 million increase in funding, Markey said, and $3.4 billion was budgeted for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, providing more support for families who need it most.
Warren and Markey expressed relief at getting out of Washington, D.C., and back to Massachusetts before the storm that dropped two feet of snow in the mid-Atlantic region.
“Folks down there are not used to snow – the traffic came to such a standstill with a half-inch of snow. Usually when there’s that kind of gridlock in Washington, it’s because the Republicans are trying to shut down the government again,” the progressive Warren said to laughs.
“I sat in the front seat of my car for five hours on Wednesday night with one inch of snow,” Markey added. “We all know what it’d mean for your careers if anyone in your city or town sat in the front seat of their car for five hours with one inch of snow!
“We know your jobs are tough,” he said. “There’s no Democrat or Republican way of looking at a pothole. There are no ideologues in this room. You just have to get the job done every single day.”