Lincoln Precinct 2’s State Representative Alice Peisch Meets with Constituents
On the evening of Monday, April 3, thirty-four Lincoln residents came to the Tarbell Room of the Library to meet Precinct 2’s State Representative, Alice Peisch. Rep. Peisch continues to represent Wellesley, Weston and has since redistricting, added Precinct 2 Lincoln to the 14th Norfolk district. This meeting is the second meeting that the Lincoln Democratic Town Committee (LDTC) has hosted to introduce townspeople to our new representatives. In January, the LDTC hosted Representative Carmine Gentile who represents Precinct 1 and other towns in the 13th Middlesex District. Until the recent redistricting, all of Lincoln was represented by Rep. Tom Stanley of Waltham.
Background
Before running for the State Legislature, Representative Peisch served as a member of Wellesley’s School Committee, later served as Town Clerk and currently serves as a Wellesley Town Meeting member (one of 240 elected members.) She was first elected to the legislature in 2002. She served as House Chair of the Education Committee from 2011 to 2023 and in that capacity led the effort to pass the Student Opportunity Act in 2019, the largest piece of education reform legislation in almost 30 years. This session she is now the Assistant Majority Leader.
She is most concerned about education and believes that all students should have the same kind of access to education as the students in her towns. With an educated population, she feels we can best solve the rest of the problems that we face. Her first accomplishment was to amend the budget to exempt special education students from the requirement of passing the MCAS for graduation. She worked on the Student Education Act to overturn the limit to teaching English as a Second language. She is also especially interested in gun safety and is pleased that Massachusetts has passed many bills, but she feels the Federal Government must step up and do their part for the country to be safe. She is also interested in reproductive rights and police reform
In answers to questions sent ahead, Rep Peisch said that the greatest reward of being a legislator was to make a difference and to help people. The challenges are that
(1) The legislative process is slow and frustrating—and sometimes there are good reasons for taking time in order to see both the intended and unintended consequences
(2) Social Media has greatly increased and many local-based newsletters have disappeared
(3) Polarization has increased as have inflexible advocacy groups that cannot see the value of compromise.
Questions from the Audience:
Hanscom Expansion
Clearly, the major concern of the audience was the proposal to expand Hanscom. Several people said that the climate crisis was at the top of their—and our—list of our most important issues and this proposal is a climate disaster. One person noted the hard work that we—legislators, citizens, scientists—had put into passage of the Roadmap Bill. “If Massport can do this project it would negate all that work and the progress we have made,” she said. Rep. Peisch noted that this project would meet the guidelines of the Roadmap (she voted in favor of it) and so it would be difficult to stop. Rep. Peisch felt that the permit process –Massachusetts Environmental Protection Act (MEPA) could narrow the project, but MEPA does not have the power to stop it.
In the legislature, Rep Ken Gordon (Bedford) is leading the charge of the legislative delegation from the towns. Another person pointed out that much of the damage will come from increasing the use of private jets, damage that should not happen.
Another person noted that federal law controls noise and radiation from airports (citing the Fair Air Force Noise Act of 1990) and that the Federal government would be involved because of both the National Park and Great Meadows, both of which would be adversely affected by the amount of impervious surface as well as pollution. It was noted that a nonprofit, Save Our Heritage, would be working on this issue. Rep. Peisch also recommended getting in touch with our Federal Delegation. Rep. Peisch applauded the idea of working on parallel tracks to solve this issue.
Housing Choice Act
A question was raised about the Housing Choice Act and whether it was optional or mandatory. Originally the Town Council had said that it was optional with the penalty being loss of grant opportunities; however, recently Attorney General Andrea Campbell has said that it was mandatory. Does the legislature consider it mandatory? Several people noted that the Act doesn’t require affordability with the belief that more supply would reduce cost, but that cities and towns could put in requirements to require assure affordability. Rep. Peisch said that housing law is not her area of expertise and deferred to legislators on the pertinent committees. She welcomes comments from constituents.
Education
A constituent noted a Globe story on April 3 that reported that national groups with local members are working to have more parental influence on books, ideas and curriculum in our schools. Special targets are Newton, Wellesley, Wayland and Dedham. In answer to how the legislature is reacting to this, Rep Peisch noted that in Massachusetts, the legislature does not mandate curriculum as legislatures do in some other states. In Massachusetts, the Department of Education sets the standards and the Districts support them.
Rep Peisch said it is important to pay attention to this. In communities, some of these views do not reflect the views of the total community. It is important for each of us to pay attention to who is running in local school committee races, not to demonize them, but just to pay attention to the issues and vote accordingly. Wellesley has just been fighting a lawsuit funded by outside affinity groups saying that certain measures discriminate against non-Asians. Some of these groups are against CRT (Critical Race Theory) protesting it being taught in our k-12 schools. People do not understand that CRT is a college and post graduate course, not one for public schools.
Role of Rep. Peisch as the Assistant Majority Leader and how best for constituents to work with her.
The House is organized with a team of leaders. Rep. Peisch has the same title in the MA House as Rep. Clark has in Congress. The leaders are chosen for their accomplishments. It is almost impossible for an individual to get bills passed. We need a team to work with all the legislators and their committee chairs. With 160 people (129 Democrats) there is a large range of viewpoints.
Rep. Peisch says that for legislators, hearing directly from constituents is most important. You are the people who vote for us, you are the people we serve. Personal communication is most effective. We may get many emails that say the same thing (obviously written by an advocacy group and sent in by many people) and we pay attention, but we most appreciate emails written by individuals. She does pay attention to petitions and letters with lots of signatures. She is open to meeting with small groups on issues.
Local online Newspapers
Alice Waugh, from the Lincoln Squirrel, noted problems of local online newspapers especially the requirement that public notices and RFPs (with fees) are required to be in paper newspapers, and it is not only the loss of revenue to the online papers but also the loss to the public when the nearest paper newspaper is not local. Rep. Peisch filed a bill to remedy this and there is also a home rule petition. Ms. Waugh asked which is the most effective way for change. Rep. Peisch advocated parallel tracts. She also noted that the remaining local paper newspapers also need revenue.
Massachusetts Estate Tax
In answer to a question about the process of revising the Massachusetts Estate Tax that Governor Healy submitted, Rep. Peisch said that a similar bill passed the house unanimously last summer, but it is not over the finish line yet. The estate tax that begins at a million dollars, a huge amount years ago, now affects many homeowners who bought houses long ago and are now selling them and therefore meet the threshold. The tax now reverts to the first dollar and the new bill would raise the threshold.
The meeting ended with thanks to Representative Peisch for her thoughtful and comprehensive comments, and thanks to her aide, Corey Testa who also attended the meeting.
Notes by Joan Kimball
Emails to contact Rep. Peisch and her aide, Corey Testa:
