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As vote looms, concern raised over tax holiday

The Boston Globe reports on the upcoming vote on the sales tax holiday that, “a growing chorus of legislators and budget watchdogs from across the political spectrum is voicing sharp skepticism about the summer sales tax holiday, a decadelong Massachusetts tradition popular with consumers.” Senator Brownsberger plans to vote against the holiday and is quoted as saying on his website, “[h]olidays are festive and I am not by nature a grinch.”

Rethinking tough-on-crime

CommonWealth Magazine’s summer 2015 cover story on criminal justice policy reform by executive editor Michael Jonas, focuses in on the debate over repealing mandatory minimum sentences, which is one aspect of Senator Brownsberger’s legislative priority to reduce the footprint of the criminal justice system and to help make it easier for people to get back on their feet. As reported in the piece, “Sen. Will Brownsberger, who co-chairs the Legislature’s Joint Committee on the Judiciary, thinks the state should pull back the entire “footprint” of the criminal justice system, not only the length of many prison sentences but also various sanctions and fees that hit people once they’re out of prison. Rather than help ease offenders back toward productive pursuits, Brownsberger says, these often seem more like tripwires setting ex-prisoners up to fail.”