MassBudget's Commitment to an Inclusive Democracy

Statement from MassBudget

Throughout the year, Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center(MassBudget) listens to and works with our grassroots, community, and union partners on how to build a strong, inclusive democracy. Our partners elevate the voices of the extraordinary people who make Massachusetts and the United States better. In collaboration with these partners, we research, analyze, and advocate for progressive policies that create an equitable tax system. Through the state budget, the we must invest in services and programs that allow all residents to thrive, regardless of their racial or socioeconomic background, or their immigration status. 

We continue to see how collective progress towards building an inclusive democracy is being dismantled through harmful federal policies and budgetary decisions. Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs have beeneliminated. Affirmative Action in college admissions has been repealed. Medicaid, SNAP, WIC, and Head Start are being underfunded or cut entirely. These are all programs that attempt to repair systemic racial and economic inequities in the United States. These are all intentional and purposefully crafted decisions, aimed at communities of color and those with low incomes. These policies have been enacted to prevent specific people from having the most basic resources to survive and block their ability to succeed academically and professionally. 

Every day we see new evidence of the federal government’s comprehensive implementation of the politics of exclusion across our country. Federal immigration policies have focused on massive raids, leading to the detention and deportation of immigrants without status and are the most devastating policies executed so far. These policies are built on the dehumanization of immigrants, portraying them as a threat to the nation.

The politics of exclusion we are experiencing is already having devastating effects on communities here across the Commonwealth. The violent removal of residents has disrupted communities, separated families, instilledcollective fear, and upended local and state-wide economies. In communities targeted by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, regardless of their immigration status, workers are failing to show up for work,creating significant labor shortages in many industries, such as construction, hospitality, and agriculture. Children have stopped attending school and are suffering from anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression. Schools are reporting chronic absenteeism, delaying students’ academic progress and hindering their ability to academically succeed. This has also led to some districts losing critical funding support needed for their schools. 

As the 2025-2026 Massachusetts legislative session comes to a close in the next few months, coupled with the start of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 state budget cycle, it is imperative that we all - particularly those with decision-making power - listen to the voices of grassroots, community, and labor organizations. These voices drive change from the bottom up, rooted in the lived experience and wisdom of our community members. Massachusetts’s partners are elevating the urgency of protecting our communities, neighbors, classmates, families, and socioeconomic ecosystems from the politics of exclusion. Not doing so will make us an accomplice.