(Editor’s Note: Below is a press release from State Rep. Dave Robertson’s Office.)
BOSTON, MA — With this past Friday marking the end of the four week sprint of bill sponsorship and co-sponsorship by all members of the Massachusetts House of Reps, Wilmington and Tewksbury’s Representative David Robertson made his legislative priorities clear amidst the chaos. Keeping a local focus, much of the legislation targets fixing situations here at home. Ranging from sewage debt relief to helping towns defend against unwanted trash-transfer facilities like Transrail, such legislation focuses on state solutions for local problems.
One example of this is his bill, An Act relative to solid waste disposal facilities. The legislation would allow cities and towns to enact and enforce zoning ordinances on landfills, transfer stations, recycling centers, etc that do not have an implicit purpose of serving for public health, public safety or the protection of the environment. If passed, this legislation could give the town of Wilmington (and nearby towns that could and would be affected) additional, non-traditional protections against proposed dangerous businesses like the New England Transrail transfer station, on the polluted former Olin Corporation site. Another example requires revenue from the general fund to be allocated back to towns to help with sewage bond debt relief, an ongoing issue in the town of Tewksbury. However, not all bills were only town-focused.
“Without a doubt, the largest bill I am co-presenting with Representative Andy Vargas is Net Neutrality bill,” said Representative Robertson. “Not to take away from any of the merits of any of the other legislation filed for this session, but I think it’s a significant issue that is important to not only my generation, but it’s an incredibly important issue to educators, small businesses and all private users, not just in Tewksbury and Wilmington, but across the entirety of the Commonwealth. As such, I thought it was important for us to jump on this issue right away. And it’s also one of those unique opportunities where we can and I believe do have overwhelming bipartisan cooperation and support. Just about 85% of the country is openly in favor, even more so in Massachusetts, and this is universally agreed upon all across the population regardless of age, income, or any metric.”
“To explain the nuts and bolts of the bill, there are three real categories of the internet affected by net neutrality: speed, cost and subject matter,” continued Robertson. “What this bill does is protects the freedom of internet users to access the internet as it has existed, as a universally accessible utility that doesn’t require special permissions or the purchase of individual packages to access Facebook or YouTube in addition to a package that only gets you access to Wikipedia, etc.”
In addition to his net neutrality bill, Rep. Robertson filed legislation which if passed would standardize firearms legislation across Massachusetts, preventing legal, law-abiding firearms owners from committing crimes unknowingly as they travel through the state. Currently each individual city or town can pass its own laws regarding what a legal firearm is, which can create a murky legal situation for law-abiding firearms owners who often cross town lines to go to firing ranges or sportsmen’s clubs within the state. In a similar way the Commonwealth standardized the state building code as the patchwork local ordinances resulted in the same issue arising; people were unknowingly and accidentally committing violations.
With several thousand bills filed each session, a representative’s personal portfolio of legislation is only a small percentage of the legislation one must be familiar with and ready to discuss. Representatives can show support for others’ legislation through not only voting for legislation in committees or if the legislation reaches the floor of the house, but also through the act of co-sponsoring another Representative’s legislation to show solidarity and support for the legislation.
“The bills I’m proud to support through co-sponsorship cover a variety of issues, from Senator Bruce Tarr’s bill which updates open container laws to include marijuana, increasing the percentage of state revenue collected that will fund our schools and roads, and animal protection laws forbiding violent animal abusers from purchasing or adopting more pets,” said Robertson. “There are so many great ideas I am proud to get to work on and support, I look forward to working on them all with my colleagues.”
The House of Representatives next organizes its committees and begins work on their version of the recently released Executive Budget, in preparation of passing a final budget in conjunction with the Senate in several months.
If anyone has any questions about any of Representative Robertson’s legislation or any legislation of the 191st session of the General Court, please feel free to reach out to the office at David.Robertson@MAHouse.gov or at 617-722-2425.
(NOTE: The above press release is from State Rep. Dave Robertson’s Office.)
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