Dear Neighbor,

As we enter a new year and a new legislative session I am honored to represent the most diverse district and neighborhoods not just in Boston or Massachusetts but nation-wide.

Entering my second term, my commitment remains the same with education, public safety, employment and youth being the focus. We have long faced tough issues as individuals, families, and as a community. It is time we increase our knowledge, organization, and activism for the purpose of increasing our collective gains.

As your state representative, I feel it is my duty to represent your needs each day in the House of Representatives but more importantly to work with you in the community each day. My roots and experience as a community organizer keep me grounded to this mission.

We are beginning a new legislative session soon to be followed by budget debates. Whether you are a high school student, retired teacher, successful business person, or out of work, I ask that you join me in this process.

Over the next three months, I will lead a legislative tour across the district to discuss proposed bills and budget items that will impact the daily lives of each of us. We will speak and work together as if we are at the dining room table not the board room. We will be calm, concerned and constructive.

We will not achieve every goal we set but what we will achieve through this continued process is progress. We will improve the policies that govern us. We will protect vulnerable consumers with a check-cashing bill. We will look to educate teens regarding sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy. We will work to remove obstacles to employment by limiting the use of credit checks for employment. These are just a few of the many bills and policies before us.

Also, the state and city budgets will be smaller this year. For many families and individuals living check to check we have long existed on a “fiscal cliff.” However, budget cuts should not mean that we who depend on critical funding levels to keep our community safe, healthy, educated, and employed should have to lose any of that. It will be our work to protect what we have earned and seek increases and efficiency even amid cuts.

This is our work, this is our duty, and this is our community. I ask that you join me in the upcoming weeks and months as we engage neighbors, stakeholders, and our partners in government. Each of us can play a role. Some can make calls, send emails, attend meetings, write letters and more. I look forward to working with you. Please do contact your state representative’s office at 617-722-2060 or via e-mail at Carlos.Henriquez@MAHouse.gov

Serving Community,
Carlos A. Henriquez