• From his position on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, Mark has successfully fought to bring record local aid to cities and towns through Chapter 70 Education Assistance, Lottery Distributions, and Additional Assistance to Municipalities
  
• Similarly, this year Mark has worked hard and successfully to remove the cap for state Lottery Aid to cities and towns.
  
• Mark has delivered large grants to communities in his district from his seat on the Ways and Means Committee.
  

Education is Mark’s highest priority, and he has successfully supported increases in K through 12 school aid, and major new funding initiatives for our state’s higher education system, and the new Department of Early Childhood Education.  Perhaps most important, Mark was a leader in getting the School Building Assistance Program back on a sound financial footing so we can get significant state aid for building new schools and renovation.

• Mark has successfully supported K through 12 education with increases in Chapter 70 education funding to cities and towns, and with the removal of the cap on State Lottery Aid.
• Mark has been a leader in rescuing the Massachusetts School Building Assistance Program from its moratorium on new projects by providing a secure source of prompt and reliable funding to assist cities and towns for building new schools and for school renovations.  One penny on the state sales tax now goes for this purpose.
  
• Mark has supported major new initiatives to better fund state colleges and universities, and to support their infrastructure and give more financial aid to their students.
  
• Mark has supported the establishment and funding of the new Department of Early Childhood Education so that young children get off to an excellent start and providers get the resources and training that they need.  An investment at this level has been shown to provide the best return for success throughout a student’s future educational career.
  
• Mark has supported science and technology in our schools in the forms of research at our institutions of higher education, curricula that provide enhanced career opportunities, and educational tools that enhance learning for our students.  All of these contribute to our future prosperity in Massachusetts.    

Mark is known as a leader in the fight against the outrageous cost of prescription drugs through his support of full funding for the Prescription Advantage Program and of bulk purchasing of pharmaceuticals.  Mark has successfully fought for the new major initiative to expand healthcare access and availability so that everyone in Massachusetts has healthcare coverage, and this new law is being looked at by other states as a national model.  Mark is currently working hard to improve the quality of healthcare delivered in Massachusetts and to support the research and technology that can enhance the performance of this important sector of the Massachusetts economy and the quality jobs and careers it provides.

• Mark has consistently fought against the outrageous cost of prescription drugs by supporting programs such as Prescription Advantage and the bulk purchasing of pharmaceuticals.
• Mark has supported major state initiatives to make healthcare and health insurance available and affordable for every Massachusetts resident.  Our Commonwealth now has recently put in place a program for universal health insurance that is looked to as a model for the nation.
  
• Mark recognizes that our next major step in healthcare must be to initiate major enhancements in the quality of Massachusetts healthcare, for better protection against illness and injury and to ensure that our quality of services enables healthcare to remain a leading sector of the Massachusetts economy with secure and high-caliber jobs. 

Mark has worked hard to bring secure, quality jobs to Massachusetts. He has a record of fighting 100% for working men and women and their families through increases in the minimum wage, access to quality healthcare and education, keeping job training in the economic stimulus bill, and protecting the right to organize.

• Mark has a 100% voting record as rated by the Massachusetts AFL-CIO.
  
• Mark has the endorsement for his re-election from the North Shore Labor Council.
  
• Mark has been endorsed by many unions including nurses, teachers, carpenters, and police.
  
• Mark has given strong support to increases of the Minimum Wage and its indexing.
  
• Mark has worked hard to ensure that job training is a major component of the recently enacted economic stimulus package.
  
• Mark has always been a strong supporter of the right of labor to organize.
  
• Mark has made his highest priorities include access to quality education and healthcare that are affordable for working men and women and their families.

Mark has a great 100% environmental voting record and has made a priority of fighting overdevelopment.

• Mark has a 100% pro-environment voting record as rated by the Massachusetts Audubon Society.
• Mark has received the endorsement for his re-election from every environmental group that chooses to support candidates, including the Sierra Club and Clean Water Action.
  
• MassPIRG has designated Mark as a Global Warming Hero for his effort to return Massachusetts to the regional compact established to reduce greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.
  
• Mark supports major legislation to find safer alternatives so that toxic chemicals can be removed from our environment and no longer endanger us with exposure in our everyday lives.
  
• In particular, Mark has supported legislation to remove mercury from our environment, to require safer cleaning products, to require producer take-back for disposal of electronic products and thereby save money for local government, and to assist local recycling efforts.
  
• Mark is a long-time member of the local environmental group SAVE, the Friends of Lake Quannapowitt, and a supporter of the Saugus River Watershed Association.
  
• Mark has successfully sponsored and supported legislation to help clean up local lakes, ponds, rivers and wetlands, and to remove invasive and unhealthy weeds.

Mark has fought to take the pressure off of regressive property taxes and fees by successfully bringing more state funds to cities and towns, removing the Lottery Aid cap, increasing Chapter 70 education assistance, and bringing in extra state money in large grants for his district.  He supports the Senior Circuit Breaker Tax Credit for the elderly and the Special Education Circuit Breaker which has saved large amounts of local money for the communities he serves.

• Mark has fought for the Special Education Circuit Breaker that assists municipalities from being overburdened by expenses that are both significant and difficult to predict.
  
• Mark has worked hard to protect the sources of state revenue that enable the increases in local aid, such as those listed here. These in turn help every city and town to enhance its local services, such as education and public safety, while taking the pressure off of regressive property taxes and fees.  Local taxes and fees are especially burdensome on the elderly who are on fixed incomes, and on the parents of children in school.
  
• Mark has been a leader in support of the Senior Circuit Breaker Tax Credit that refunds money to senior citizens who pay a large portion of their income in either property taxes or rent.

Mark is always fighting for senior citizens to reduce the outrageous cost of prescription drugs, to take the pressure off of property taxes, and to bring more funds to our Council on Aging and an extra $100,000 for the Saugus Senior Center.  Mark is a sponsor of the bill to give seniors the choice to receive services at home if they prefer rather than going to a nursing home, and he is a big supporter of the Prescription Advantage Program for seniors and the Senior Circuit Breaker Tax Credit.

• Mark has supported major increases in funding for local Councils on Aging and Senior Centers, and has delivered more than $100,000 annually in grants to senior center programs in his district.
• Mark has fought the outrageous cost of prescription drugs with strong support for full funding of the Prescription Advantage Program and for bulk purchasing of pharmaceuticals.  He has worked to adapt the Prescription Advantage Program so that it provides supplementary wrap-around insurance to help fill the holes in the new federal Part D Medicare Program.
  
• Mark has sponsored legislation to provide seniors with homecare services so that they have a choice between continuing to live at home and moving into a nursing home setting.
  
• Mark has fought to take the pressure off of the property tax for our senior citizens by successfully supporting increases in state funds for local aid, and by successfully creating more flexible and accessible local options for cities and towns to exempt and postpone property taxes for the elderly population, many of whom are constrained by fixed incomes.
  
• Mark has been a leader in support of the Senior Circuit Breaker Income Tax Credit that refunds money to seniors who pay a large portion of their income in property taxes or rent.

As the Legislature’s only Information Technology professional, Mark has saved the state millions of dollars in plans to purchase its computer systems and networks.  He has made the House of Representatives more efficient and cost-effective in its use of technology, and has supported technology initiatives in the economic stimulus bill that will bring more quality jobs to Massachusetts.

• Mark is the only Information Technology professional elected to the Massachusetts Legislature, having run his own IT company installing computer networks for businesses and teaching courses in advanced computer network engineering.
• Mark has saved millions on dollars for the state by preventing problems in the planned computer network systems of the Massachusetts Judiciary through his position on the House Committee on Post Audit and Oversight.
  
• As a member of the House Special Committee on Automation, Mark helped make the Legislature more efficient as it modernized its systems of information and communication.
  
• Mark has strongly supported cutting-edge technologies in the recently passed economic stimulus package.
  
• Mark has worked to fund technology and research in our educational institutions and has supported financial aid to students.
  
• Mark has strongly supported state programs that turn technology and research into quality jobs and careers in such technology areas as biotechnology, information technology, medical technology, nanotechnology, marine biology, and technology to produce clean, efficient and renewable energy.  These knowledge-based sectors of our Massachusetts economy will enhance our future prosperity and are already assisting our local economy through such applications as the building of wind turbines at the GE plant in Lynn.