On Friday, Jan. 17, state Rep. Adam Scanlon (D-North Attleborough) filed 47 bills for the new legislative session.
“I am very excited at this start of the new session to continue working for the people of Bristol County and all of Massachusetts,” said Scanlon in a statement. “We made a lot of progress on numerous fronts last session, including passing the largest tax cut in state history, delivering record state aid to local school districts, passing a housing bonding bill to address our housing shortage and high rents and home prices, and enacting a law to improve and modernize veterans services–which included two bills of mine, to allow military medics and other veterans with medical training to expedite their certification as EMTs, and to allow veterans to proudly display their service on certain license plates without paying extra for it. We also passed my bill to allow craft brewers to sell their products at farmers markets, which has been part of my small business agenda. I am looking to build on these achievements by continuing to fight for affordability, for good, high-paying jobs, and for public safety.”
Some of Scanlon’s top priorities for the new session include expanding vocational-technical education to ensure more students can learn the skills they need for trade professions that Massachusetts needs, establishing a “DNA exception rule” so that more victims of sexual assault can get justice, and improving access to addiction treatment services.
Scanlon is also interested in addressing mental and behavioral health issues in schools and mandating that there be time allotted for recess for middle school students. Other priorities include modernizing the state’s gambling and sports betting regulations to protect this economic activity and source of revenue while making sure that the costs are not borne by those most predisposed to addiction, enabling some property and other tax relief for seniors and veterans, and making it easier for small businesses to open and operate in Massachusetts.
Scanlon is interested in allowing cities and towns to levy a surtax on commercial shopping malls unless they have a memorandum of understanding with a municipality to work towards establishing zoning for the property as a mixed-use development.
Scanlon is also committed to building upon the investments in local aid last year as well as more significant funding to address the quality of roads.
“One of the things I hear about all the time is the need to address the quality of our roads. We need to do better. Drivers and commuters of public transit deserve better,” said Scanlon. “This will help make our state competitive. A two-and-a-half hour commute from Boston to North Attleborough is unacceptable. Let’s aim to be pothole-free in our region with an influx of funds for our roads.”
