A Record of Results: Working for You

As state representative, Will worked hard and achieved results in many important areas. These are the same priorities he continues to work hard on as a State Senator.

Standing for transparency and fiscal responsibility

Will Brownsberger has:

  • Fought for reforms in public employee benefits. Will believes that employee benefit reform is necessary to preserve jobs and protect services. Public employees should have good basic benefits, like employees in a good private sector company. That means capping public pensions, radically simplifying the byzantine rules of the pension system and assuring that future taxpayers do not bear all the risk of poor stock market performance. It also means standardizing health benefits at a reasonable level. Will advocated for the major reforms in health and pension benefits achieved over the past two years and has been publicly recognized for his fair and thoughtful approach. Major reforms to pensions will only affect newly hired employees. Read more »
  • Opened up the bid process for House contracts. Until Will made an issue of it, the House of Representatives was spending millions each year on secret contracts awarded on a no-bid basis. The objects of spending were legitimate (technology, sound systems, etc.), but the business approach was antiquated and unlike that of any other state or local agency. As a result Will's efforts, the House now has a public bidding process for large contracts and the contracts are accessible to House members. Read more »
  • Made state spending details available online. If we are spending the taxpayers’ money, the taxpayers have every right to know just how we are spending it, whenever they want to and regardless of their reasons for wanting to. Yet, many experienced, thoughtful legislators who are in politics to serve feel that transparency creates distractions that are not in the real interest of the public. Will's website offers information on state spending that until recently was available nowhere else. As a result of his personal commitment to transparency and his advocacy (together with other legislators) for greater transparency, state law now requires that all state spending be readily viewable by the public online. Read more »
  • Stood against special interest tax deals. Will favors a much simpler business tax code. The state shoudln't be in the business of picking business winners and losers and handing out special deals to particular businesses or industries. In part as a result of his efforts, information about where tax benefits are going is now more accessible. Additionally, he has voted for repeal of the film tax credit, which pays 25% of film company production costs for film's produced in Massachusetts. Much of the benefit of that credit goes to out-of-state millionaires. These costly tax deals take away critical funds better spent on valuable state and local services such as schools, public safety and human services. Read more »
  • Taken a stand with contributions to his own campaign. In 2008, Will put in place a policy that his committee shall not accept contributions from Political Action Committees or from individual lobbyists who are not constituents. View Will's campaign reports »

Fighting for our future - the economy, education, the environment

Will Brownsberger has:

  • Moved bill to ease barriers to innovation. Together with Rep. Lori Ehrlich, Will has led efforts to reduce the use of non-competition agreements in Massachusetts. These agreements prohibit employees from working for or creating potential competitors of an employer. While there is a legitimate need to protect intellectual property and other business assets, these agreements are overused and prevent people from forming new companies and even from getting new jobs after having been fired. Will has led a very collaborative process to strike the right balance on this issue including businesses and employee represenatives. A result of that process received a favorable committee report in 2010 and is under consideration again this year. Read more »
  • Led in passage of state's clean energy plan. In the 2007-8 session, Will worked hard to get the legislature to pass the Global Warming Solutions Act, a bill which requires the state to inventory its greenhouse gas sources and develop a plan to reduce them. He was recognized for his successful efforts by the Massachusetts League of Environmental Voters. (See the MLEV honor roll in this PDF pamphlet) In the current session, Will is working to strengthen that plan. Read more »
  • Won green transportation and bicycle laws. Will's efforts in the 2009 session contributed to inclusion of green transportation planning provisions in the transportation reform act. (Read more about green transportation) He also led in passage of a bicycle safety bill that would give cyclists more rights on the road, while at the same time holding them to a higher standard of behavior by making it easier to ticket them. Read more about the bicycle safety bill »
  • Opened doors for virtual learning technology. We can do a much better at helping children realize their full potential. Every child is different. We are not doing a good job training young engineers and at the same time we are losing to the streets many kids who have struggled academically. Differentiated learning technology will help us do much better by all of our children. Will has advanced legislation to create new types of schools that make better use of technology. Read more »

Working hard at the state house

Will Brownsberger has:

  • Won increases in annual education aid. Will has always been extremely attentive to the conversation about local aid in the state house, standing whenever feasible for increases in local aid, especially Chapter 70 and special education aid. He played a role in 2007 in identifying and fixing problems with the education aid formula that understated aid due to his communities. While entirely committed to increasing local aid, Will has been responsible about balancing this with other legitimate state budget priorities. Read more »
  • Improved roads, paths, parks and housing. As a former local official, Will has a strong handle on the infrastructure priorities in his district and how to make sure that they are addressed. He has consistently played a very constructive role in moving infrastructure projects forward. Read more »
  • Monitored and helped control flooding. Over the past ten years, Will has played a strong leadership role in bringing together a regional collaboration to address the problem of flooding in the Alewife area. His leadership has resulted in the definition of a well-documented agenda for improvement, including completed items -- channel clearance along the Alewife Brook, sewer reconstruction in the Winn Brook area -- and major projects on the drawing board -- increased flow capacity at the Craddock Dam, increased pumping capacity at the Amelia Earhart Dam, dredging of Blaire Pond and the Alewife Brook. Read more »
  • Helped many people fight bureaucracy. Will understands how to help people work with the state. He has a professional respect and understanding for the rules and regulations that define state government and knows how to ask the right questions to make sure that everyone is getting a fair shake.

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