173 Day Update

Dear Friends,

It is hard to believe that we have entered fall so gracefully. Our family had a great summer together and have now readjusted to a busy school life with a freshman in high school, an 8th grader and a 4th grader! I hope that you and your family and friends have some fun plans for enjoying the beauty of a Massachusetts fall.

While Beacon Hill is back in full swing, in August legislators take a self-imposed break from formal session and committee meetings to spend time in their districts, hosting events, meeting with constituents and preparing for the fall legislative season. Much of my update below is focused on time in the district these past two months.

Inaugural Hannah Kane Charity Classic

As many of you know, our two former State Representatives Karyn Polito and Matt Beaton each hosted a charity golf tournament. I was honored to serve as Matt's Tournament Director for the three years he hosted the tournament, where we expanded our benefit charities to include St. Anne's Human Services, along with Westborough Food Pantry and Shrewsbury Youth and Family Services. This year, with help from a fantastic host committee, generous sponsors and auction donors, and a hardy group of golfers who didn't mind a little heat, we raised a record $45,000 for our three terrific human service organizations! Special thanks to Beth Casavant, who excelled as our Tournament Director, and Kelly Barner, who kept track of all the information behind the scenes. To visit a gallery of pictures from our day, please click here, and watch the "Conversations with Hannah" episode recorded during the tournament here.

We are looking forward to hosting the 2nd Annual Hannah Kane Charity Classic on August 15, 2016 and we hope you will join us!

9/11 Remembrances

On the 14th anniversary of 9/11, I was honored to join the Shrewsbury Firefighters in remembering the lives lost on that clear blue day with a series of bell chimes and a reciting of the Firefighters Prayer. In the afternoon, I joined many in Westborough who gathered together as the behest of Westborough freshman Abigail McLucas who organized a very moving tribute to all public safety personnel who gave their lives in heroically trying to save others against all odds. Honored to be asked to speak, I reflected that "for me, the enormity of loss on 9/11 is always tethered with the dim light of humanity. The first responders, the images seared in my memory of those streaming into the twin towers as others rushed out, were the only glimmer of hope on that day to those stuck in peril, and those watching in disbelief."

Corridor Nine Chamber of Commerce - BFF (Business Forward Females) Guest Speaker on Women in Public Service

Corridor Nine Chamber asked me to speak at their monthly women's business luncheon about Women in Public Service, a topic I happen to be quite passionate about! As I stated at the beginning of my 20-minute long speech, it had never occurred to me to not do something because I was a woman. However, the gap in representation at the State House is quite visible. There are only 38 women to the 121 men in the House of Representatives, and 12 women to the 28 men in the Senate. While women make up over ½ of the population of the Commonwealth, only ¼ of elected representation at the State House are women. And this means that it can be difficult to get women in all places that we need to have a strong voice heard.

And as disappointing as the lack of female representation is in MA, we are doing better here than in the US as a whole, where only 19.4% of the 535 congressional seats are held by women.

The case for women legislators is strong. A recent University of Chicago study found that women legislators tend to bring more resources back to their home districts, are more likely to work across the aisle, and sponsor and co-sponsor more pieces of legislation than their male counterparts do.

Women in corporate settings also have significant opportunity for growth. The Boston Club's Census of Women Directors and Executive Officers of MA Public Companies found the following:

Women hold 14.9% of the board seats and 11.8% of the executive officer positions in the 100 largest public companies in MA.
24 of those 100 companies have no women on their boards.
46, nearly ½, have no women executive officers.
And 19 have no women on their boards of directors or in their executive suites.
While nationally, women are CEOs in only 4.8% of companies; in MA it is even worse, with just 3%.
Women in MA earn approximately 80.8% of what men who work full time make.

Clearly we still have much work to do.

At the end of my prepared remarks, I shared "that the only practical advice I can give you to help change the landscape of women in public service, is to do something. Run for office yourself, or support talented, hard working women when they run for office. Write a check, send in a letter to the editor, volunteer to make calls, host a coffee or hold a sign. Take your young children to vote with you, and encourage your older children to register to vote. We cannot expect change if we are unwilling to lead it. Remember, the MA legislature has had only 190 women in its history, as compared to over 20,000 men!

Women in Government Conference

Next month, I will travel to South Carolina for the Women in Government (WIG) Eastern Regional Conference. WIG, headquartered in Washington, D.C., whose stated mission as a national, non-profit, non-partisan organization of women state legislators is to provide leadership opportunities, networking expert forums, and educational resources to address and resolve complex public policy issues to all 1,783 women state legislators. I am excited to represent Massachusetts at the three day meeting and look forward to meeting with fellow legislators from the eastern seaboard.

Opposing the Legalization of Recreational Marijuana

As I mentioned in my 100 day update, this is an issue that I feel strongly about. I will continue to speak out about why I believe the legalization of marijuana will be detrimental to our youth, health, society, public safety, and has stark fiscal consequences to the state. The unfortunate consequences of legalization are on full display in states like Oregon and Washington who have already approved it at the ballot box.

L ast week I went on the show Greater Boston with host Jim Braude and my Senate colleague Will Brownsberger, who spoke in favor of legalization. In November, the Senator and I will debate the issue at a League of Women Voters' Forum in Sudbury. One of my upcoming email updates will provide an in-depth focus on why I feel so strongly about defeating the ballot initiative to legalize marijuana.

"Let Your Spirit Build" Event for the Shrewsbury Public Library

T his past Thursday, as part of the Spirit of Shrewsbury week events, Matt Beaton, Beth Casavant, John Masiello and I co-hosted our 2nd Annual "Let Your Spirit" charitable fundraiser, with this year's beneficiary the Shrewsbury Public Library. With the renovation/expansion well under-way, the capital campaign team has also made significant headway in raising the $1.75M in private donations committed to as part of the project financing. Having secured over $1.25M to date, the last $500,000 will come through many smaller events, such as the one we hosted last week. As a member of the Capital Campaign Advisory Committee, I truly believe that the library building project is a terrific community investment and I am excited to say that we raised over $15,000 to donate as part of the private fundraising effort to augment the local and state funding allocated to this most worthy project.

St. Mary's Family Festival, Spirit of Shrewsbury and Westborough's Arts on the Common

The past two weekends have been chock full of opportunities to visit with neighbors and reflect on what terrific towns we live in. I greatly enjoyed partaking in all of the special activities and loved marching in the Spirit of Shrewsbury parade with many friends and supporters showing a lot of Spirit!

Events Coming Up!

Kenneth Burns Memorial Bridge Ribbon Cutting Ceremony will take place on Tuesday, October 20th from 5:30pm-7:30pm with Lt. Governor Karyn Polito and Secretary Stephanie Pollack joining us in celebrating the completion of the mega-project. More details will be available soon and I will pass them along!
Join me for "Coffee with Hannah" on Monday, October 19th at 9am at Brody's Diner on Route 20 in Shrewsbury. Please stop in to say hi or talk about an issue in an informal setting.
I host monthly office hours in Shrewsbury and Westborough for residents to stop in and discuss an issue or problem they need help with in a quieter environment. The upcoming times and locations can be found on my home page on RepHannahKane.com. I hope you can join me!

Legislative Outlook

While clearly my time on the Hill has been brief, those who have walked the halls for many years tell me that we are off to one of the slowest legislative starts in their memory. This Wednesday, the House will be back in formal session for the first time since the end of July. We are scheduled to take up the $360M supplemental budget bill that will close the books on FY15. There is no shortage of substantial bills on the horizon for the House to deal with and some of the anticipated bills we could possibly debate and discuss this fall range from solar/energy, opioid abuse, charter schools, criminal justice reform, public records and transgender rights to name just a few.

Transportation Committee

As you know, I sit on the Transportation Committee. Last week the MBTA Fiscal and Control Board released its 60 day report which indicated that the MBTA's operating budget is unsustainable, with expense growing at nearly 3x the rate of revenue growth. The report indicates that if left unaddressed, the structural operating deficit of the MBTA will reach $427M in FY 2020.

Additionally, annual capital spending on deferred maintenance and capital investment - the "state of good repair" backlog - has historically fallen substantially below the $472M annual spending needed to prevent the SGR backlog from growing greater. The backlog now stands at $7.3B.

These daunting challenges must be addressed and I have no doubt that we have not reached the bottom of the barrel. I am looking forward to the months ahead as we work together to solve these critical problems plaguing our transportation infrastructure.

Fall Reception with Governor Charlie Baker as our Special Guest!

Please join me as I welcome Governor Charlie Baker as my special guest at a Fall Reception to raise funds for my 2016 re-election campaign. I look forward to giving an update on my first six months in office and outlining what I see as the opportunity ahead. We will gather at the Beechwood Hotel in Worcester on Wednesday, October 21st at 7pm. Click here for the invitation. I hope you can join us!

Thank you for all of your support. As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or my terrific Legislative Aide Charlyce Bozzello. Our email addresses are [email protected] and [email protected] and our office number is 617- 722-2430. I welcome your thoughts, perspectives and questions and please know that it an amazing honor to serve as your State Representative.

With sincere gratitude,

H annah Kane

State Representative

11th Worcester District