Denise Garlick

Visited a Department of Correction prison or County jail this legislative session. (This will be updated on an ongoing basis.)

Progressive Position: YES

Vote was on requiring one week of advance notice for any legislative hearing (as the MA Senate has endorsed), as opposed to the narrow existing 72 hour notice rule.

Progressive Position: YES

Vote was on eliminating the language from the House's tax package to reform Chapter 62F (the “tax cap law”) so that all taxpayers would get equal rebates, as opposed to larger rebates going to more affluent taxpayers.

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on striking a proposed lift of the cap on the rainy day fund. Reaching the cap on the rainy day fund would trigger automatic regressive tax cuts.

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on the House’s regressive tax reform package, which contained $440 million in tax cuts for the commonwealth's richest estates, residents, and corporations—undermining the new revenue produced by the Fair Share Amendment (i.e., the new surtax on income over $1 million).

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on eliminating language that would guarantee that constitutionally protected revenue from the Fair Share Amendment could not be diverted to regressive tax cuts via the 62F tax cap law.

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on a $1 billion tax cut package disproportionately benefiting the Commonwealth’s richest residents, corporations, and estates.

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on requiring employers with 25+ employees to disclose the salary or wage range for a position in all job postings, provide the salary range to employees offered promotions and transfers, and provide the pay range to employees for their current roles if requested. It would also require covered employers to supply wage and demographic information to the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.

Progressive Position: YES

Vote was on upholding the ruling of the chair that debate on the House's gun safety bill could begin despite the fact that it did not include a fiscal note detailing the cost of the proposal.

Progressive Position: YES

Vote was on expanding the use of pretrial detention despite severe and well-documented racial disparities in its use in Massachusetts.

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on a comprehensive strengthening of MA’s gun safety laws, including a more robust assault weapons ban; measures to crack down on ghost guns; prohibitions on firearms in government buildings, polling places, and educational institutions; and more comprehensive data collection.

Progressive Position: YES

Vote was on guaranteeing free access to phone calls to incarcerated individuals, ending the predatory practice of price gouging incarcerated individuals and their loved ones to stay connected.

Progressive Position: YES

Vote was on excluding arriving families from access to emergency housing assistance funding.

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on banning new residents of the commonwealth from access to emergency shelter.

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on a right-wing messaging amendment to create a false narrative that programs focused on helping new arrivals to obtain employment are harming low-income individuals.

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on defunding the dedicated account for the implementation of No Cost Calls (i.e., free access to phone calls for incarcerated individuals).

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on the first of a series of three right-wing budget amendments to prevent migrant and refugee families from accessing emergency shelter and to push false, xenophobic narratives.

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on the second of a series of three right-wing budget amendments to prevent migrant and refugee families from accessing emergency shelter and to push false, xenophobic narratives.

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on the third of a series of three right-wing budget amendments to prevent migrant and refugee families from accessing emergency shelter and to push false, xenophobic narratives.

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on an amendment to exempt communities from MBTA Communities Act (i.e., the law requiring communities with MBTA service to establish a zoning district where multifamily housing can be built as of right) compliance if at least 10 percent of the housing units in the city or town are low- or moderate-income (the “40B” threshold).

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on an amendment to make it easier for communities opposed to building more housing to evade compliance with the MBTA Communities Act (i.e., the law requiring communities with MBTA service to establish a zoning district where multifamily housing can be built as of right) by creating a right to appeal if communities refuse to meet infrastructure needs and if they pretend that multifamily housing is antithetical to environmental protection or historic preservation.

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on an amendment to automatically count all mobile homes toward a community’s 40B threshold (i.e., 10% of all housing units need to be for low or moderate incomes). The amendment was driven by NIMBY opposition to building affordable housing and would make it harder to achieve affordability goals.

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on a consolidated amendment that, among other positive measures, included a Tenant Opportunity to Purchase (TOPA) local option. Under this measure, cities and towns could choose to pass ordinances giving tenants the right of first refusal to buy their building if it goes up for sale.

Progressive Position: YES

Vote was on updating Massachusetts’s forty-year-old parentage statutes to be inclusive of LGBTQ+ families and families formed through assisted reproduction.

Progressive Position: YES

Vote was on comprehensive maternal health legislation that would expand equitable access to midwifery care, allow more birth centers to open, offer paid pregnancy loss leave, expand postpartum depression screenings, and increase public health attention on maternal health.

Progressive Position: YES

Vote was on approving a home rule petition introduced by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and overwhelmingly passed by the Boston City Council to blunt the impact of an increase in residential property taxes by limiting a decline of commercial real estate taxes during a period of four consecutive fiscal years from FY 2025 through FY 2030.

Progressive Position: YES

Vote was on legislation to reform siting and permitting laws, accelerate the state’s transition away from gas and toward renewable energy, and improve EV infrastructure.

Progressive Position: YES

Co-sponsored at least 50% of the bills tracked on our Progressive Scorecard website.

Progressive Position: YES

Co-sponsored at least 75% of the bills tracked on our Progressive Scorecard website.

Progressive Position: YES

Held office hours or town halls during the legislative session to create opportunities for constituents to make their voices heard. (This will be updated upon response.)

Progressive Position: YES