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URGENT ALERT Mass. Coalition for Healthy Communities STOP THE CREATION OF DEVELOPER-GOVERNMENTS! Chapter 40T is back! Click here for letter excerpts sent to legislator ยท Click here for Shirley Kressel’s Testimony Dear Friend, Thanks in part to our protest last year, this boondoggle for bond-lawyers (Chapter 40T) was tabled. Now it’s back again as S146/H159, and community voices are needed again to stop this measure that strikes at the heart of local democracy and our pocketbooks! The bill would enable real estate developers to create their own special purpose “governments” within cities and towns, without critical public interest protections like transparency, accountability, and public participation in decision-making. These new government-like structures — run by unelected private property owners — will enable developers to issue tax-exempt bonds and levy property “assessments” (functionally equivalent to taxes) to subsidize private and potentially unwanted development, and even scoop up invaluable public land inside their districts. These private sub-municipalities could be formed with the consent of only 80% of landowners/acres. Not only would tenants have no voice in their creation or their decision-making, but they could also be stuck paying the bill for these shaky finance schemes, along with unwitting homeowners. PLEASE EMAIL OR CALL the committee members and your legislators, and ask them to:
Thanks for standing up for healthy communities and real democracy! Upward, Jill Stein Co-Founder, Mass. Coalition for Healthy Communities, www.masschc.org P.S. Please cc us on your letters and send us any responses you get from legislators. For more information, please visit www.masschc.org/chapter40T.html , email [email protected] or [email protected], or call Shirley at 617-421-0835 or Eli at 617-821-1453. |
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