Michael Albano, 2010 State Senate Questionnaire Responses

1. What are your top three agenda priorities and how will you take action on these priorities?

My top three legislative priorities are as follows:

• Jobs and Economic Development: Small businesses don’t need more tax credits. They need money. State government and community banks need to partner to create a fund for small business development which makes loans guaranteed by the State (akin to the Federal SBA loan program) enabling banks to loosen lending guidelines and pour money into the small business sector and get people back to work.

  We need to expand resources to technical schools and 2-year colleges to enable them to expand their curriculum and capacity to produce the work force we need for today’s jobs and the sustainable jobs of the future. We are actually well-positioned to compete effectively in certain manufacturing segments for larger shares of the domestic and world market for certain products, like medical supplies for example. Massachusetts companies will need to fill 100,000 skilled manufacturing jobs over the next 10 years due to attrition/retirement alone. We need to create the work force which will enable us to take advantage of that opportunity.

  Massachusetts has to make good on the rhetoric that we are friendly to certain industries when we are attempting to attract them to our state. Many in the renewable energy industry, for example, have been frustrated to discover after locating here, that Massachusetts has been a less than reliable partner and often put up crushing road blocks to their development and success.

• Education Reform: We need to let teachers teach. We need to find a middle ground between minimum standards and positive, more broad-based curriculum development. We need to invest more resources in early Education and focus on increasing parental involvement, especially in inner-city schools.
  
  
• Consumer Protection: The new legislation passed by Congress regulating the behavior of banks and credit card companies is too little too late. We need to hold banks and credit card companies accountable for the money they have taken from consumers unjustly through unilateral rises in finance charges, overdraft fees and other unscrupulous, larcenous behavior. We need to take legal action against them to recover that money, give it back to consumers, and reset interest rates for responsible bill payers. This will give real relief to those trapped in predatory relationships with creditors, including those with credit card debt, borrowers of student loans and homeowners with mortgages (both in default and not in default).

2. Do you support instituting a progressive income tax in Massachusetts?

YES, I believe in the "ability to pay" theory of taxation. Those who make more money have a greater responsibility to the community. The progressive or graduated income tax is long overdue in Massachusetts. It is a more fair and equitable solution to current revenue problems than other more regressive taxes like the gas tax and sales tax which place the revenue burden on people of more modest means including average and below average income working families and elderly and others living on fixed incomes.

3. PDS has taken a position against expanding predatory gambling in Massachusetts as a way to increase state revenue and local aid. What is your position on gambling casinos and slot machines?

I opposed legalizing gambling in Massachusetts.

4. How have you as and office-holder or private citizen worked to support progressive causes and issues at the state and local level?

I've never run for office before, but I'm no stranger to politics. My activism began as a kid, going door to door with my father, a State Senator in the 80's and a maverick voice for progressive politics and legislative reform. I was raised to believe in the importance and nobility of public service and that there are things worth fighting for no matter how difficult they might seem. I've been in the trenches helping to elect other progressive leaders such as Sonia Chang-Diaz, Pat Jehlen, Jamie Eldridge, Deval Patrick and Barack Obama.

I've been a civic activist in Chelsea, a former chairman of the Chelsea Planning Board, and have served on the Board of Directors of the Chelsea Collaborative. I've worked in the private sector for most of my adult life and know that supporting small businesses, local economic growth, and smart development needs to be part of our progressive movement. I will be committed to making sure that the voices of our residents, community organizations, and small businesses are the loudest voices heard in the State Senate.

5. The parts of Somerville in your district include areas undergoing shifts in development that will affect the entire city of Somerville. What are your ideas for balancing affordable housing, business development, and creating/preserving open space in these parts of your district?

We need a continuing process involving all the stake holders, especially members of the community. As a part of this process we need to address RT 28/McGrath Hwy. This stretch of roadway should be brought to ground level at least and eventually buried if possible. This would reunite the neighborhoods of Cobble Hill, Brick Bottom, Union Square, Lechmere and other parts of East Somerville to the rest of the Somerville community. I will also fight to make sure the Green Line extension is completed on time with a terminus at RT 16.

6. What budget items would you look to protect or increase? Please include specifics of what cuts or revenue increases you would support to pay for these budget items.

I would increase funding for early education and K-12, increase assistance to small businesses and fully fund the Clean Elections Law. I would raise revenue by implementing the progressive income tax.

7. What is your stance on Election Day Voter Registration?

I support same day voter registration as a means of increasing participation and empowering traditionally under- represented communities.

8. Please tell us your stance and how you would vote on the following potential ballot initiatives:

• Reduce the sales tax to 3%.

  I oppose reducing the Sales tax to 3%. We need the revenue at this time in the state budget and rolling the tax back would just make our budget problems worse.

• Eliminate the sales tax on alcoholic beverages.

  I would not eliminate the sales tax on Alcohol.

• Eliminate Chapter 40B.

  I oppose eliminating 40B, Furthermore I believe that we need more affordable housing in Massachusetts and as your State Senator I will fight to make sure that happens.

9. Do you support the green line extension being completed on time with a terminus at Route 16?

Yes.