Garlick Press – Thursday, July 27, 2023

Today marks the end of the 2023 Summer Internship in our State House office. Thank you to our interns for all your hard work and a wonderful summer. We hope to see more bright young individuals such as this team in public service. Wishing you all nothing but the best in your studies and everything else that follows.

Yesterday, I joined the Framingham delegation to celebrate the raising of the Disability Pride Flag in my role as Chair of the Commission on the Status of Persons with Disabilities. Highlighting the multiple experiences of disability, the flag displays the words “Disability, Rights, & Human, as they are one in the same.”

• On the 33^rd anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Governor Maura Healey signed an executive order that establishes the Digital Accessibility and Equity Governance Board to make state government websites and digital applications accessible for everyone. This board will be responsible for creating new standards, guidelines, and policies to improve digital accessibility on state platforms. The board will be made up of every secretary of a state executive office, as well as the leaders of the Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the Commission for the Blind, the governor’s deputy chief of staff for access and opportunity, and members of the disability community. The board will be led by the chief IT accessibility officer, and applications for this position will open this week. According to a 2021 Pew Research Study, 80% of people access government services digitally, and this executive order takes a tremendous step forward in making the Commonwealth more accessible.

• Over $26.3 million in grants will be distributed to towns across the Commonwealth to strengthen Massachusetts’ food supply system and mitigate future food supply and distribution disruption issues. This grant was created to combat urgent food insecurity resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the recipients of the grants was awarded to Needham Community Farm! To learn more about the grants, click here.

 

• Congratulations to Needham for being a recipient of the Investigating History Implementation Grant from the Department of Secondary and Elementary Education. This is a federally funded grant that will support the school district with the costs of adopting and implementing the newly released Investigating History curriculum. To learn more about the new Investigating History curriculum, click here.

• The towns of Needham and Medfield were awarded ARPA grants. Needham was awarded over two million dollars for water and sewer infrastructure improvement. The Town of Medfield was awarded nearly ten thousand dollars to equip the Town Hall and Public Safety facilities with video conferencing equipment. To learn more about ARPA, click here.

• The sales tax holiday for 2023 will be held on Saturday, August 12, and Sunday, August 13. Retail items up to $2,500, purchased in Massachusetts for personal use on these days will be exempt from sales tax. To learn more about the sales tax holiday, click here.

• The Registry of Motor Vehicles Announces standard driver’s licenses regardless of immigration status available soon under Work and Family Mobility Act. As of July 1, newly eligible Massachusetts residents can apply for their learner’s permit and road test to obtain a license. To learn more about this bill, click here.

• The Sumner Tunnel will be closed seven days a week from July 5th to August 31st, 2023. During this time, the blue line on the MBTA will be free to riders. Detour options and more information on the closure can be found here.