LWV Newton logo

Visit us on Facebook!

LEARN - Topics of Interest

The League Presents: Newton’s Municipal Budget

Newton City Councilor Becky Grossman, Ward 7
Newton City Councilor Becky Grossman, Ward 7
Newton COO Jonathan Yeo
Newton COO Jonathan Yeo

Given that it is budget season at the local and state level, Marcia Johnson was able to have a conversation about Newton’s Municipal Budget with Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Yeo and Councilor-at-Large, Ward 7, Becky Grossman, Finance Committee Chair.  For many, the city’s budgeting processes seem to be somewhat of an enigma, so the League has taken this opportunity to provide more insight into the process and ways in which citizens can be engaged.  They talked about the following:

  • The process that the Mayor, her executive team, and department heads follow to prepare the budget document and how they contribute to the City Council’s deliberations.
  • Important fiscal-year milestones, most importantly mayoral budget presentations.
  • The steps that the City Council, its Standing Committees, and the Finance Committee follow to have input into the process, review, amend, and approve the budget document.
  • The timing of various meetings, which will be held via Zoom and where community members can find important documents.
  • How best for community members to be engaged.

Watch the video now!

Read more →

Webinar – Voting Rights: Where Do We Go From Here? May 13 at 7pm

2021-05-13 Gloria J. Browne-Marshall Overdue page no reg link

As part of its Overdue: Confronting Race and Racism in Newton series of events, the Newton Free Library in partnership with Historic Newton, will be presenting the webinar – Voting Rights: Where Do We Go From Here?  Thursday, May 13 at 7:00pm.

Join Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, author of, The Voting Rights War, for a session that will examine laws posing challenges to American voters — especially African-Americans — from enslavement and woman’s suffrage through current controversies of voter suppression.

Please register here. Space is limited. Registration will remain open until 5pm on Thursday, May 13.

Overdue: Confronting Race and Racism in Newton is a coalition of organizations and individuals that aims to equip and empower our community with the understanding, knowledge, and skills to actively fight racism both in Newton and beyond.  They provide residents with opportunities to listen, to learn, and to act in order to dismantle systemic racism within our city.

For more information on Overdue and the session, Voting Rights: Where Do We Go From Here?, visit the City of Newton’s website page on Overdue here.

Transportation and Climate Initiative – May 20th at 4:00PM

Webinar banner

Join League members from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island for this special, tri-state League sponsored event to learn how we can all help reduce pollution that causes respiratory diseases such as asthma while investing equitably in modern, clean, regional transportation solutions.

When: Thursday, May 20th, 2021 from 4:00-5:00pm

RSVP at: tinyURL.com/lwv2021tci

Cosponsors: League of Women Voters of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, Transportation Team of LWV US Climate Interest Group, The Acadia Center, Ceres, Green Energy Consumer Alliance, and Transportation for Massachusetts

 

How Does the MA Legislature Work?

How the Massachusetts Legislature WorksJoin the Massachusetts League of Women Voters and Beacon Bloc on Tuesday, January 5, 2021 at 7:00 PM via Zoom for a briefing by current legislative staffers who comprise Beacon BLOC (Building Leaders of Color). Read more about Beacon BLOC and their mission.

Submit your questions ahead of time or bring them with you for an interactive discussion.

Register here.

Call to Action on Potential MBTA Service Cuts

The LWVN Board of Directors is joining with other civic organizations  to sign on to Transitisessential.org, which is urging the MBTA to make the following commitments:

  1. Make no permanent or long-term decisions regarding service, especially potential cuts, before the legislature concludes its current session.
  2. Advance affordability for all transit riders.
  3. Ensure critical transformative capital investments, climate justice, and air quality improvements move forward in 2020 and 2021.
  4. Sustainably fund transit in the short-term and long-term.

Cuts to transit service could not be coming at a worse time, and the damage caused by service reductions could take years to reverse.

We encourage you to contact members of our state delegation using the link above.  Many voices are needed for this important effort to save public transportation.