February 2007

Legislative Priorities:
Tom Sannicandro is working on a range of issues that are important to the residents of Ashland and Framingham

Increased Education Supports: From Chapter 70 funding increases to achieving meaningful increases in higher education funding, the legislature has accomplished a lot during my first term. Looking forward I hope to make a statutory change to the Chapter 70 funding formula that would provide an outline for cities and towns to receive much needed, dependable increases. I hope to secure much needed capital costs to improve the McAuliffe Center at Framingham State College and to provide part-time employees of the MA college system the option to buy back their time towards retirement.

Senior Tax Relief: While the legislature increased access to senior property tax credits this last year, Tom has refiled his senior citizen property tax relief bill for this legislative session. This bill is crafted in the spirit of New York's successful STAR Program, which offers senior property tax relief based on a number of factors to many senior citizens.

Transportation: In Framingham and Ashland the commuter rail is an important part of our local economy. Tom has filed a "Commuter Bill of Rights" that is intended to promote commuter rail reliability so that metro-west riders can depend on public transportation. In response to last year's authorization for Metro-West to create a Regional Transit Authority, Framingham and Ashland are leading the way on increasing the transportation options to all Metro-West residents.

Health/Life Insurance: Some of Tom's most valuable learning experiences in the legislature have been around constituent experiences and needs. Out of these experiences two bills have been filed. The first would require insurance providers to cover the MRI procedure as a type of early detection examination offered to detect breast cancer in women. The second would increase protection for families who take out a life insurance policy and are unexpectedly striken by illness and subsequently dropped from the policy.

Special Education Caucus: As a founder and co-chair of the SPED Caucus in the legislature Tom is planning to build on the success of the caucus by focusing on new priorities this year, including increasing the circuit breaker reimbursement to cities and towns to 100% and to include transportation costs as part of the reimbursement. The caucus will also focus on increasing important budget items like the Concurrent Enrollment item that provides options to students with disabilities to enhance their educational experiences.

Health Care: While the health care reform act is a success for Massachusetts, there is little doubt that it will need some adjusting as it begins to be implemented. Tom is looking forward to that discussion and on adjusting the program to provide the best coverage for every Massachusetts resident. Tom has also refiled his bill to allow the purchase of prescription drug medication safely from Canada in order to reduce the costs of prescription drugs for everybody.

Public Safety: The preparedness of our local and volunteer police forces is of paramount importance to public safety -- in addition to police grants for Framingham and Ashland I have worked to allocate $5,000,000 for reimbursements to cities and towns for the costs of replacing old and buying new bullet proof vests for volunteer, auxiliary and reserve police officers. During this session I hope to make that commitment statutory so that municipalities can avoid the cost burden of properly equiping our officers. Also, I have filed legislation that would require uniformity during funeral processions to avoid accidents that could result in serious injury or death.

Massachusetts Turnpike: There has been a lot of conversation about eliminating the tolls on the Mass Pike but not enough movement in that direction. I have filed legislation to eliminate the tolls on the western Turnpike and have signed on to other initiatives that would equally distribute the turnpike's cost burden among all Massachusetts residents.

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