Latest news with #Montigny
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Debate shows frustration over human trafficking policy
BOSTON (SHNS) – A day after adopting significant prescription drug pricing policy into the budget it could pass later in the day, the Senate spent an hour Thursday debating whether to do the same with a long-discussed policy meant to combat human trafficking in Massachusetts and came to a different decision. A parade of Senate Democrats said they agree that human trafficking is a problem in need of attention here and no one spoke explicitly against Sen. Mark Montigny's idea to require human trafficking recognition training for employees at hotels. But the New Bedford Democrat won the support of only the Senate's five Republicans and six other Democrats (Sens. Nick Collins of South Boston, William Driscoll of Milton, James Eldridge of Marlborough, Michael Moore of Millbury, Adam Gomez of Springfield, and John Velis of Westfield). The amendment (#924) was sunk on a 12-28 vote with Senate President Karen Spilka making her opposition clear by voting 'no' first. 'Normally, I'd say, 'let the process take place, we're in the first year of the session.' BS, we're in the seventh year of the bill being heard, studied, deflated and killed,' Montigny said during a speech in which he recounted many of the 20-plus anti-human trafficking amendments and bills he has tried to get through the Legislature since he became involved with the issue in 2005. The hotel worker training language was first filed in 2018. 'Seven years is enough. And all it does, all it does, is say that hotel workers will be trained, that the attorney general will approve it, and that these establishments will ensure that it actually helps catch the trafficker.' Now the longest-serving senator, Montigny said in March that he was getting 'less patient and more angry' about what he sees as a lack of legislative action on human trafficking. He made that point repeatedly Thursday and said the survivors of human trafficking he talks to constantly ask, 'Why is there so much inaction on Beacon Hill?' Senate Ways and Means Chair Michael Rodrigues was the first to argue against adopting Montigny's proposal as an amendment to the state budget. 'While the goals are certainly laudable, this is a situation where you really don't create a mandate that every hotel employee — whether they are front desk, janitors, dishwashers, window washers, everyone — to be trained to recognize human trafficking without having extensive discussions with our friends in Local 26, the labor unions that represent the employees, with those that are going to be instituting the training programs, if they have enough staff, enough availability, enough capacity to accommodate this mandate, which could arguably be tens of thousands of individuals in the commonwealth of Massachusetts,' Rodrigues said. Montigny pointed out that the Massachusetts Lodging Association and the American Hotel and Lodging Association has endorsed his legislation that seeks the same training mandate (S 1729). He also said the idea has 'across-the-board support from the attorney general, from workers, from unions' and that 'no one has spoken against it.' 'There's nothing left to study. It has been studied for seven years. So either we admit that committees, when they study things, don't study anything, or we say they've studied it to death and it's time to act,' Montigny said, referring to one of the most common ways a piece of legislation is sunk on Beacon Hill. Following a roughly 15-minute recess shortly after Montigny introduced his amendment and asked for a recorded vote, Sen. Cindy Friedman argued against it, saying she developed a bill (S 1116) in conjunction with survivors of the sex trade 'and in those talks with them, they have stressed that they want a commission that does a number of things.' 'Now, I am not a commission person. I'm not somebody who thinks that we need to continue to talk and continue to talk. But what I want to say and be clear about is the advocates that we have worked with — and it has been across the board. It has been the AG's office. I can give you the names of the advocates that have been involved in this — and they have asked for a special commission to look at all aspects of the sex trade,' Friedman said. She added, 'What matters here is that this is what the advocates have asked us for.' A number of other Democrats rose to say that they supported both the idea of Montigny's amendment and Friedman's bill, but would be voting against the amendment to instead work towards Friedman's legislation. Worcester Sen. Robyn Kennedy, a cosponsor of Friedman's bill, said the legislation 'seeks to follow the Nordic model that partially decriminalizes sex trafficking, so that we stop holding victims accountable.' She told Montigny that she's also frustrated by a lack of progress on human trafficking bills, and she is only in her second term in the Legislature. 'I stand in a very difficult moment, because I 100% agree that human trafficking is a problem. And I want to acknowledge that right now, in this commonwealth, across the state in almost every hotel, there is very likely somebody, most likely a woman, statistically, being held against their will, and we have to act to do something,' Kennedy said. Montigny countered the opposition by saying that he has omnibus legislation 'that speaks to every single one of these things [and] that has been killed for 23 years here.' He said he didn't offer that as a budget amendment because he didn't want to propose even more significant policy in the budget. 'Every session, I'm stupid enough to believe that we will actually do what we should do with joint committees, and we will actually pass policy so we don't have to be activists in the budget,' he said. The dean said his decision to push for his amendment Thursday was influenced by the Senate's vote Wednesday to add a major prescription drug price control measure authored by Friedman into the budget. If a policy like that is OK in the budget, he argued his should be as well. 'When you're trying to help people, and particularly when you do support and vote for a 23-page piece of policy that's far more complex, it's really hard to look survivors in the face, as I do, because I represent them also. So very hard to say, 'Sorry, we just didn't get to your policy,' ' he said. Montigny told colleagues repeatedly to 'vote your conscience.' He said, 'Let's vote the way we feel. I judge no one, but let's not in any way think that there are a bunch of struggling survivors saying, 'Please take a couple more years and study this, senator.'' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Decades in making, South Coast rail service begins Monday
BOSTON (SHNS) – Gov. Maura Healey plans to board a train in Fall River Monday morning, marking a seemingly improbable dream ride for southeastern Massachusetts residents who had expected commuter rail service to be restored to the area decades ago. Alongside MBTA General Manager Phil Eng, Healey plans to travel to the rail station in East Taunton, where she will catch up with Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt, who are journeying inbound from New Bedford. It's the last leg in the long quest for South Coast Rail, which former Gov. Bill Weld had once promised would begin service in 1997. The region has lacked rail service for the past 65 years, and the new line joins a string of others into Boston. Sen. Mark Montigny, a New Bedford Democrat and former president of the Fall River Chamber of Commerce, has served in the Legislature since the 1990s. As Montigny reflected on the 'political capital spent' over the years on commuter rail, he told the News Service Friday that 'it's the strangest emotional feeling' to prepare for opening day. In 1994, a year after he joined the Senate, he secured nearly $3.5 million in a bond bill for a study exploring the environmental impact of extending commuter rail service to New Bedford and Fall River, plus $1 million for a feasibility study to bring commuter rail to New Bedford via Taunton, his office said. Montigny, now the Senate dean, counts a litany of other legislative victories tied to South Coast Rail. For example, there was the law directing the MBTA in 1997 to start the design and permitting process for tracks stretching from New Bedford and Fall River to Myricks Junction in Berkeley; the 2000 law instructing the MBTA to use the Stoughton commuter rail route to extend service to New Bedford and Fall River, buoyed by $225 million in bonding capacity for the southern part of the route; and the 2008 law where he secured an additional $30 million in bonding capacity. And $2.3 billion in South Coast Rail improvements, championed by Montigny and the regional delegation, made it into the 2014 transportation bond law, his office said. Within days of taking office, former Gov. Mitt Romney told Montigny that he did not support South Coast Rail, the senator said. By around 2010, Montigny said he had hit a period of 'complete pessimism' as the project dragged on under multiple governors. 'I started to become pessimistic to the point where, if you called me around then, I would have said, I don't have faith, as my mother would say, that it's coming in our lifetime,' Montigny said. He said he became 'cautiously optimistic' under former Gov. Charlie Baker, whose administration agreed to a two-phase approach for South Coast Rail in 2017. 'Remember, he was secretary of A&F, so I worked with him on some of the original stuff,' Montigny, a former Ways and Means Committee chair, said of Baker's tenure under Weld and former Gov. Paul Cellucci. 'So he thought it was kind of funny, here I am somehow still here…How did this take my entire adult life?' South Coast Rail's bumpy journey, featuring several groundbreaking ceremonies but no actual rail service until now, has come with ballooning costs. The MBTA has also had to delay the project due to a lack of funds. In 2002, when the MBTA was projecting a 2007 opening date, total costs were estimated at $600 million, according to The Herald News. The price neared $1 billion in 2005, before climbing beyond $2 billion in 2014. Amid all the setbacks and false starts over the years, Montigny has aired his frustrations to governors and transportation chiefs. In a letter to Weld in 1993, Montigny said, 'I am writing to register my distress at the MBTA's failure to make a priority of the Commuter Rail Extension to the New Bedford Area.' 'Governor, I am sure you remember the Fall River Chamber of Commerce luncheon in 1990, when we discussed this issue in depth. We were seated at the head table when you expressed your support of an extension to Southeastern Massachusetts to me personally, and repeated it to universal applause,' Montigny wrote as he lamented the lack of progress since a feasibility study in 1990. Weld had famously challenged Montigny to sue him if commuter rail was not in place by 1997. 'While we appreciate the need to control state budgets, the commuter rail extension project is too fundamental to our recovery as an economically viable region to be omitted like any other MBTA project,' Montigny continued in the letter, which his office shared with the News Service. 'Southeastern Massachusetts is depending on this more, perhaps, than any other prospect.' Montigny joked Friday that cannot hold Weld to a lawsuit, though he learned over time to stop giving his constituents 'false hope.' 'I'm not saying it was easy for Baker, but really it only needed a governor to say, 'We're doing this,'' Montigny said. 'And Baker absolutely initiated it, and Gov. Healey picked it up.' He added he would 'give equal thanks' to Baker and Healey. Monday marks the launch of the $1.1 billion first phase of South Coast Rail, with six new train stations opening along the Fall River/New Bedford Line. Rides are free through the end of March, and there will be fare-free service on weekends through April, Healey's office said. The project extends service on the Middleborough/Lakeville Line to Taunton, New Bedford, and Fall River. The line will be renamed the Fall River/New Bedford Line when service begins, according to the T. East Taunton is the first stop to the south after Middleborough/Lakeville before the extension splits, with stops in Freetown and Fall River Depot on one fork and Church Street and New Bedford on the other, according to the T. On weekdays, trains will run every 70 minute, with 32 direct trips to or from South Station including 15 trips between South Station and Fall River and 17 trips between South Station and New Bedford. On weekends, there will be 26 total trips with trains running every two hours. Senate Ways and Means Chair Michael Rodrigues, a Westport Democrat, mentioned the arrival of South Coast Rail during a business forum last month, and tied it to the state's housing crunch. 'My neck of the world on the South Coast, after 40 years, South Coast Rail is finally a reality, you know, in a couple weeks,' Rodrigues said on Feb. 27. 'But again that's going to drive up the cost of housing in what was once, probably still is, the most affordable part of the state.' After a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new train station in Freetown in December 2022, Rodrigues called the milestone 'almost surreal,' as he lauded the Baker administration's progress on the commuter rail expansion. 'While there have been six governors that have promised me and promised us that we'd have commuter rail to Fall River and New Bedford, it was Gov. Baker and Lt. Gov. [Karyn] Polito that actually delivered on those promises,' Rodrigues said at the time. But it will be Healey at the celebratory press conference in East Taunton on Monday morning. Montigny said he will be catching the train in New Bedford with Driscoll and Tibbits-Nutt. 'The MBTA is proud to launch South Coast Rail service; a truly monumental moment for these communities that we will now serve directly and for so many that have long advocated for this service,' Eng said in a statement Thursday. 'Whether you're traveling from Fall River or New Bedford to downtown Boston or heading toward southeastern Mass. to enjoy their many community offerings, we welcome new and even more passengers to experience the benefits of this new transit expansion. Leave the driving to us, Take the T!' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Yahoo
Training bill aims to root out human trafficking in hotels
BOSTON (SHNS) – Lawmakers and advocates are hoping to write a new chapter this session in their years-long journey to reduce human trafficking in Massachusetts. Partner bills filed by New Bedford Sen. Mark Montigny and Peabody Rep. Thomas Walsh (S 1729 / H 2726) would require human trafficking recognition training for employees at hotels, motels, lodging houses and bed and breakfasts. Employers would also be required to display in their lobbies and public restrooms a notice that includes the national human trafficking hotline. 'Hotels are often used by traffickers and employers who take advantage of the anonymity and untrained staff,' Delia Vega, senior survivor mentor and policy specialist at the nonprofit My Life My Choice said Wednesday. The Massachusetts Lodging Association and the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) also endorsed the legislation and spoke at Wednesday's press conference. The AHLA has a national initiative called 'No Room For Trafficking,' which provides training, resources and partnerships so hotels can better identify, prevent and respond to trafficking situations. Montigny has spent about two decades filing human trafficking measures. He said the bill would help begin to uncover the many unseen trafficking cases in even the smallest of communities, but that he's getting 'less patient and more angry' about what he views as a lack of legislative action on, and awareness of, the issue. 'Unfortunately, most of the awareness is around high-profile Johns,' Montigny said. 'Why aren't we obsessed with people's lives being destroyed and not enough being done in Washington or Boston or other capitals?' The bill revolves around recognizing the signs of human trafficking within the lodging industry and protecting women and children from exploitation, according to Walsh, who said he first got involved with the issue when learning from Peabody law enforcement about its prevalence in his hometown. Many of the bills' regulatory details would be placed in the attorney general's hands. While many lodging establishments here already provide some human trafficking awareness training, Walsh said the requirements 'need uniformity.' The AG would create training requirements and employers would come up with plans that meet the requirements. They'd then submit them to the AG, who would have to sign off on them. The bill requires that the AG's training regulations must include ways to train employees about the nature and legal definition of human trafficking, how to identify trafficking victims, and how to 'appropriately respond' to a known or suspected case of human trafficking. Lodging establishments would have to use a certified trainer. Lawmakers said their focus on hotels comes from the 'front-line' nature of hotel workers who see individuals coming in and out of their doors. 'Think about it. The first person who sees that person that maybe shows up every week with a different woman — ' Montigny said. 'Or it's the amount of activity in a hotel room, how often the refuse has to be collected,' Walsh added. 'It's all little signs like that. If you're not trained, you may think, 'ah, that's something strange,' but you may not recognize why it feels like that.' The legislation does not encompass Airbnb, VRBO or other singular owner-occupied lodging, but Walsh and Montigny said they plan to look at that aspect if this legislation becomes law. 'The singular owner-occupied Airbnb is a different regulatory scheme, but we plan to look at it, because right now they have to train people on the payment system, they have to train people on getting rid of rowdy parties. So there's no question they should be trained to look for trafficking,' Montigny said. The duo said they think introducing these reforms piece-by-piece will extend the chances they're passed. 'If we don't start here, we'll never get to the next step. When I first looked at this, there were other areas where I thought, 'Gee, we should include them,' Walsh said. 'But the broader you make the bill, then you have people who might not be on board right away. So when we can prove this works, then others will say, 'Yeah, we should be doing it.' A lot of it is lodging, but then it's the travel industry. There are certain airports you go to, and they have that national hotline [posted]. Some don't, right? But we'll get there.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Boston Globe
05-03-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
These 12 Beacon Hill committees heard no bills and held no hearings last session. This year they're back.
Spilka's office didn't respond to Globe questions about why the Senate was reconvening committees that didn't consider any bills or host any hearings during the previous session. Instead, a spokesperson reissued the Senate president's statement on her latest leadership picks, which declared that Spilka has 'great faith that our chamber will continue to be proactive and responsive' in its work. Traditionally, committees are the engine of any legislative body; these smaller groups of lawmakers develop expertise about specific policy areas, gather information via public hearings, and shape bills on those subjects. Still, Massachusetts legislative leaders, and the committee chairs themselves, defended the non-legislating committees, whose chairs can now earn as much as $44,862 per year in additional pay for leading one of the panels. Advertisement Some legislative committees were never intended to consider legislation, a spokesperson for Mariano said, but rather take on advisory or management roles, such as offering feedback about bills before other legislative panels, updating the employee handbook, or allocating office space in the State House. In many cases, though, the Globe found those committees' responsibilities overlap heavily with the remit of other, busier legislative committees, or the work of permanent staff offices. For example, three legislative committees were tasked with identifying federal funding opportunities, taking on similar work to the governor's Advertisement State representative Angelo Puppolo Jr., a Springfield Democrat, will again chair the Again this year, both the House and Senate have a committee devoted to the climate crisis, an urgent policy matter. But neither panel had a single bill referred to it last session. Instead, legislative work on climate issues took place in the busier Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy. Nevertheless, the separate House and Senate panels still come with leadership stipends of tens of thousands of dollars. This year, Andover Democratic Representative Tram Nguyen was appointed to lead the newly renamed House Committee on Climate Action and Sustainability, a role that comes with a $22,431 stipend. In a Last session, state Senator Mark Montigny, a Democrat from New Bedford, chaired two panels, neither of which considered a single bill. He earned Advertisement 'The Senate President determines all bill assignments to committees as well as the flow of all legislation,' said Audra Riding, general counsel and legislative director in Montigny's office. 'Senator Montigny is hopeful, given the dynamics and increasingly complex relationship between Washington and the states, that [the Intergovernmental Affairs Committee] will play a very active role this session.' The leadership stipends legislators earn to chair these panels grew this year as part of pay increases lawmakers have baked into state law. Committee chairs saw their extra pay grow by nearly 10 percent, rising to either $44,862 or $22,431, depending on which committee they lead. That's on top of their base pay, which increased from $73,655 to $82,044. Related : State Senator William Brownsberger, a member of Spilka's leadership team, is continuing in his role leading the chamber's committee on the Census, which didn't consider any bills or host any hearings in the previous legislative session. The decennial census will next be conducted in 2030. Brownsberger said last week that it is unlikely any legislation would be referred to the panel over the next two years, but he expects to convene hearings to prepare for 'The Census is a ten-year process,' he said. 'The Census is happening every year. The process to prepare for the next Census begins as soon as the last one ends.' Some committees, such as the House Committee on Operations, Facilities and Security, have been charged with new responsibilities. For example, that committee is now tasked with appointing the House business manager. That position is currently filled, House officials said. Advertisement Mariano has said the reshuffled leadership posts this year were an attempt to elevate new faces after several experienced lawmakers left the House. Asked last week what he expected from his newly appointed committee chairs, he pointed to their legislative mission: 'to go through with their staff and evaluate the bills and start to give us … a set of priorities.' 'We weren't getting that in every committee,' Mariano told reporters. 'Different committees did it differently, so we're trying to bring some unification to that.' House officials emphasized that not every committee is charged with considering legislation, and compared those panels with similar models at the federal level, such as Congressional oversight committees. At the US Capitol, though, the lawmakers leading those committees do not earn extra pay for them, as the Massachusetts committee chairs do. They also hold frequent public hearings and conduct various investigations, often producing reports, albeit in many cases partisan ones, that they share with the public. By contrast, the Legislature's Joint Committee on Racial Equity, Civil Rights, and Inclusion has not held a hearing since 2021, and hasn't considered a single bill since it was created in the wake of the 2020 murder of George Floyd and the national reckoning on racism that followed. Its chairs, Representative Bud Williams of Springfield and Senator Liz Miranda of Boston, will earn additional leadership stipends of $22,431 this year for their roles. In an interview, Williams said he hoped to hold hearings this year, but was not sure whether any bills would be referred to his committee. Advertisement 'We'll just have to wait and see,' he said. He noted that he can weigh in on bills before any other committees. 'It's going to be a very strong committee,' Williams said. 'We're ready to make a difference.' Matt Stout of the Globe staff contributed reporting. Emma Platoff can be reached at
CBC
11-02-2025
- CBC
Former school guidance counsellor pleads not guilty to 3 sex charges against minor
A former school guidance counsellor who has been charged with sex crimes against a minor has pleaded not guilty in P.E.I. Supreme Court. Bethany Jean Toombs, 41, was not in court Tuesday but her lawyer entered the pleas on her behalf on three charges: sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, and sexual assault. The alleged victim is a minor whose identity is protected by a publication ban. No trial dates have been set, but Toombs had previously opted to have her case tried before a judge and jury in the Supreme Court. "I think everyone's looking forward to having the matter resolved in court," defence attorney Chris Montigny told CBC News after entering the pleas. Montigny had previously requested a preliminary hearing, a process held before a provincial court judge that's designed to determine whether there is enough evidence to proceed. In Toombs' case, the hearing had been scheduled for later this month. However, the court heard on Tuesday that Attorney General Bloyce Thompson has used his power under the Criminal Code of Canada to direct an indictment in the case. That means it will go directly to trial without a preliminary hearing. "We did ask for it, but there is a process that exists that allows the minister to direct indictment. That was their choice," Montigny said. A fourth charge was originally laid: a violation of the provincial Cannabis Control Act for allowing a minor to use the substance. At an appearance in provincial court last month, though, the Crown told the court it did not intend to pursue that charge. Before her arrest in September, Toombs was a guidance counsellor at East Wiltshire School in Cornwall. The Public Schools Branch has said it is co-operating fully with the investigation and its procedure is to place employees facing such charges on leave. Toombs was released on a number of conditions after being charged. Police have said they do not believe there are other alleged victims, and Toombs is not thought to pose a risk to the public. The case is scheduled to be back in court April 8.
