Walter Timilty

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 eliminating term limits for the Senate President, exacerbating the centralization of power in the chamber.

Progressive Position: NO

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

Vote was on enabling wealthy individuals to avoid the Fair Share tax (i.e., the new surtax on income over $1 million) by reducing their taxable income.

Progressive Position: NO

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vote was on allowing for a non-binary option on birth certificates and driver's licenses in the state.

Progressive Position: YES

Vote was on making it easier for unhoused individuals to obtain a state-issued ID.

Progressive Position: YES

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

Progressive Position: YES

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 making disposable menstrual products available for free in public schools, homeless shelters, and prisons in Massachusetts.

Progressive Position: YES

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

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

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on a motion to delay passage of the Senate's gun safety package by sending it back to committee.

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on replacing the Senate's comprehensive gun safety package with a much narrower bill.

Progressive Position: NO

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

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

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

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

Vote was on a xenophobic amendment to determine eligibility for emergency shelter according to the duration of residence in the commonwealth.

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on banning third-party electric suppliers from enrolling new individual residential customers, protecting residents from unfair and deceptive practices that have led to higher energy bills for low-income families.

Progressive Position: YES

Vote was on an amendment to extend the statutory two-day sales tax holiday to two weeks. Sales tax holidays drain vital revenue and don’t actually achieve the goals of tax progressivity or economic stimulus.

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on an amendment to undermine the Fair Share Amendment by allowing high-income couples to evade the surtax by filing separate tax returns if they have filed a joint federal tax return.

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on an amendment to create a new advisory commission to determine a new seal and motto of the commonwealth (to replace the current very racist flag and seal), as recommended by the last commission.

Progressive Position: YES

Vote was on making the ten-cent fee for recycled paper carryout bags in the Plastics Reduction Act optional for retailers.

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on a comprehensive bill to reduce plastic waste including by creating a statewide ban on carry-out plastic bags, preventing plastic utensils and straws from automatically being given to consumers, prohibiting single-use plastic bottle purchases by state agencies, and creating a statewide program for recycling large plastic objects like car seats.

Progressive Position: YES

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 increase the age of juvenile jurisdiction to include 18-year-olds—keeping high school seniors out of the adult prison system.

Progressive Position: YES

Vote was on an amendment to establish minimum public health standards in every community, increase capacity and effectiveness by incentivizing shared services, create a data collection and reporting system, and increase equity across communities through dedicated stable funding.

Progressive Position: YES

Vote was on reducing the tax rate on short-term capital gains from 8.5 percent to 5 percent over three years, a cut that would disproportionately benefit the top 1 percent.

Progressive Position: NO

Vote was on creating a moratorium on any hospital, provider, or provider organization entering into any financial agreement with a private equity firm, real estate investment trust, or management services organization until 180 days after the bill’s regulations go into effect.

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, provide insurance coverage for medically necessary donor milk, and increase public health attention on maternal health.

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