Two items from last week’s news call me to question the quality of our representation in the Legislature.
The Harvard Press reported last week that, despite the efforts of Jamie Eldridge, the State Senate had jettisoned his language providing equitable tax treatment for the Harvard Solar Garden. Isn’t the environment supposed to be his great cause?
I read in a different source that Senator Eldridge was one of only two members of the entire state Legislature to vote against a bill providing very modest state funding to upgrade facilities at Hanscom AFB in order to preserve jobs in the area.
Eldridge is a “Legislature lifer,” having been an aide to former Senator Pamela Resor, then our State Representative, and now our State Senator since 2009. So it’s not surprising that he could care less about the jobs of defense contractors in the private sector. But he seems equally clueless about how to get a solar energy bill that should be in his wheelhouse, and everyone agrees is needed, through the only organization he has known his entire adult life.
A review of the legislation he has sponsored, taken from his own website, shows a history of relegation to the trash bin by his fellow members. Harvard has steadfastly voted to send Eldridge to the State House since 2002. Exactly what have we been getting for that loyalty?
Bill Marinelli
Stow Road
