Legislators are scored for their roll-called votes on bills and amendments where an important progressive advancement (or stopping a bad policy) is at stake. Learn more about the benefits and limitations of a scorecard.
Bill | Name | Summary from Progressive Mass | Kennedy's Vote | Vote Tally |
---|---|---|---|---|
DOC Accountability | Visited a Department of Correction prison or County jail this legislative session. (This will be updated on an ongoing basis) Progressive Position: YES | No | No: 31 Yes: 9 | |
S17 7 | Eliminating Term Limits for the Senate President | Vote was on eliminating term limits for the Senate President, exacerbating the centralization of power in the chamber. Progressive Position: NO | Yes | Yes: 32 No: 5 |
S3 36 | Eliminating In-State Tuition for Undocumented Students | Vote was on eliminating the language in the underlying bill to extend in-state tuition to all Massachusetts high school graduates, regardless of immigration status. Progressive Position: NO | No | No: 36 Yes: 3 |
S3 38 | Reducing Fair Share Taxable Income | Vote was on enabling wealthy individuals to avoid the Fair Share tax by reducing their taxable income. Progressive Position: NO | No | No: 33 Yes: 5 |
S3 45 | Redirecting Fair Share Revenue to the Rainy Day Fund | Vote was on eliminating language to prevent Fair Share revenue from being redirected to the rainy day fund rather than being used for constitutionally protected purposes. Progressive Position: NO | No | No: 33 Yes: 5 |
S2397 50 | Reforming HDIP to Ensure Affordable Housing Production | Vote was on ensuring that Housing Development Incentive Program funds support much-needed mixed-income housing by requiring developments funded under the program to have at least 20% permanently affordable housing. Progressive Position: YES | Yes | No: 30 Yes: 9 |
S2397 51 | Protecting Fair Share Tax Evasion | Vote was on protecting the revenue raised by the Fair Share Amendment by ensuring that couples who file jointly on their federal taxes do so in Massachusetts as well. Progressive Position: YES | Yes | Yes: 33 No: 5 |
S2397 52 | Tax Cuts for Day Traders and Speculators | Vote was on reducing the tax rate for short-term capital gains, a tax cut that goes disproportionately to the top 1% (e.g., day traders, speculators). Progressive Position: NO | No | No: 32 Yes: 5 |
S2397 53 | Tax Giveaways to Large Estates #1 | Vote was on a regressive and fiscally irresponsible attempt to raise the estate tax threshold to $5 million, which would have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to such multi-million-dollar estates. Progressive Position: NO | No | No: 33 Yes: 5 |
S2397 54 | Tax Giveaways to Large Estates #2 | Vote was on applying cost of living increases to the bill's increased estate tax threshold of $2 million—something the Legislature has always avoided doing for wage increases. Progressive Position: NO | No | No: 32 Yes: 6 |
S2425 57 | Gender X Bill | Vote was on allowing for a non-binary option on birth certificates and driver's licenses in the state. Progressive Position: YES | Yes | Yes: 39 No: 0 |
S2251 58 | Everyone Needs ID Bill | Vote was on making it easier for unhoused individuals to obtain a state-issued ID. Progressive Position: YES | Yes | Yes: 38 No: 0 |
H4104 62 | Overly Regressive Tax Package | Vote was on a $1 billion tax cut package disproportionately benefiting the Commonwealth’s richest residents, corporations, and estates. Progressive Position: YES | No | No: 38 Yes: 1 |
H4109 88 | Frances Perkins Workplace Equity Act | 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 | Yes | Yes: 38 No: 1 |
S2491 89 | Menstrual Equity Bill | Vote was on making disposable menstrual products available for free in public schools, homeless shelters, and prisons in Massachusetts. Progressive Position: YES | Yes | Yes: 38 No: 0 |
S2480 90 | Expanding PrEP Access | Vote was on expanding access to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) by allowing pharmacists to provide a 60-day supply for those facing barriers to care. Progressive Position: YES | Yes | Yes: 38 No: 0 |
S2502 92 | Excluding migrants from emergency housing assistance | Vote was on excluding arriving families from access to emergency housing assistance funding. Progressive Position: NO | No | No: 36 Yes: 3 |
H4139 109 | Delaying Action on Gun Safety | Vote was on a motion to delay passage of the Senate's gun safety package by sending it back to committee. Progressive Position: NO | No | No: 30 Yes: 9 |
S2572 111 | Weakening Gun Safety Action | Vote was on replacing the Senate's comprehensive gun safety package with a much narrower bill. Progressive Position: NO | No | No: 34 Yes: 6 |
H4139 114 | SAFER Act | Vote was on the Senate's comprehensive gun safety package, which would crack down on ghost guns, codify the state's assault weapons ban, prohibit machine gun conversions, and take other important steps. Progressive Position: YES | Yes | Yes: 37 No: 3 |
S2697 115 | Creating New Ineffective Tax Credits | Vote was on requiring a Legislative commission in the bill to study the development of a tax credit for employer-supported early education and care, a policy that has proven ineffective and underutilized in other states that have adopted it. Progressive Position: NO | No | No: 32 Yes: 7 |
S2707 116 | EARLY ED Act | Vote was on making the state’s Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) operational grant program permanent, expanding eligibility for the state’s subsidy program, and boosting compensation for educators by creating a career ladder and providing scholarships and loan forgiveness. Progressive Position: YES | Yes | Yes: 40 No: 0 |
S2708 119 | Shutting our door to migrants | Vote was on a xenophobic amendment to bar resettlement agencies from doing their work if the emergency shelter could be at capacity at an undefined future point—solving a problem via exclusion that can be solved via funding. Progressive Position: NO | No | No: 31 Yes: 8 |
S2708 120 | Shutting our door to migrants | Vote was on a xenophobic amendment to determine eligibility for emergency shelter according to the duration of residence in the commonwealth. Progressive Position: NO | No | No: 27 Yes: 12 |