Elections Issues Main Topic Privacy

State House Bills: What’s your opinion?

There are a number of bills we considering supporting or opposing, and what your opinions on them.  If you know of any bills we should support or oppose, please post them in the comments below.

Bills to support

The first two bills in the support bucket were put forth by our friends at the Massachusetts chapter of the Digital Fourth due to the hard work of Alex Marthews, Harvard Black Law Students Association (BLSA) and others.  Disclosure: I helped a bit.

H.2169 – An Act assuring municipal control of military equipment procurement by local law enforcement

H.2170 – An Act promoting the use of body-worn cameras by law enforcement – Here is Alex Marthew’s take.

The Boston Police Camera Action Team (BPCAT) and the Harvard Black Law Students Association (BLSA) drafted a Boston Police Body Camera Use & Procedure ordinanceBoston City Councilor Charles Yancey, who represents Dorchester and Roxbury, introduced it.

H.3383 – An Act relative to the digital right to repair – This one is near and dear to our belief that what you own is yours to tinker with.

Also, the Massachusetts ACLU has a large number of bills under consideration only a few are listed below:

  • S.903 / H.1531 – Electronic Privacy Act
  • S.962 / H.386 – Social Media Privacy Act
  • S.377) / H.553 – Election Day Voter Registration
  • S.857 – Forfeiture Reporting
  • S.1234 / H.2144 – Military-grade Controlled Property
  • S.735 / H.1577  – Transgender Non-Discrimination
  • H.2070 – Act to Improve Healthcare for Young Women

Bills to oppose
Hollywood already has its tax break that costs us $80 million a year with a cost per local job of $108,000.  Two new bills would expand that tax credit to the video games industry and research and development:

H.2487 – An Act relative to increasing economic development and business opportunity in the design and manufacture of video games through the use of tax credits

H.2606 – An Act relative to tax credits, education and training for the design and development of video game and interactive digital media products

S.1572An Act relative to the creation of a super research and development tax credit

Some of these bills will have legislative hearings on 9/22.  Please post your comments by Friday, 9/18.  Also, if you know of any bills we should support or oppose, please post them in the comments below.  Thanks!

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