GILL — In a visit to Gill Town Hall last week, state Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, urged her constituents to continue using their voice to advocate for legislative priorities and state policy changes.
Town Hall was filled with just under 30 people for the discussion, and Comerford began by voicing her appreciation for the work of the Gill Selectboard and Town Administrator Ray Purington before detailing legislative work she’s accomplished.
“We’ve passed a number of bills already and we’ve sent a lot of money out the door, but this is the moment where you should expect an environmental bond bill … a fiscal year budget, a Fair Share supplemental,” she said, also noting the hopeful passage of the Municipal Empowerment Act and rule reform within the Legislature to help increase transparency and expediency.
Comerford shared her dedication to securing funding for rural schools. She said this subject is where most of her time is spent, and that it is important that local Selectboards, like Gill, share their thoughts on rural school aid, even after the governor’s budget comes out later this month. Conversations around rural school aid are “existential conversations” for towns like Gill, when a majority of the budget is spent on supporting schools.
“I invite your pointed conversations with the Legislature, with me, with leadership, with the governor,” Comerford said. “I do think that one of the reasons we’ve gotten as far as we’ve gotten is because people have been absolutely not willing to take it anymore.”
Selectboard
As Comerford wrapped up her opening remarks, the Selectboard asked its questions, with member Greg Snedeker asking about impacts to state revenue amid federal cuts and what benefits could come to Gill from reform to the payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) program for state-owned land.
Comerford sits on the commission that was established by the governor to look at what options exist for reforming the PILOT program, which offers compensation to municipalities that lose tax revenue from state-owned land. In Gill, the town has $2.6 million in state-owned land value in fiscal year 2026, according to the Department of Revenue, and the state owns around 274 acres of land.
Comerford said this review of the PILOT program can include the algorithm and valuation system to make compensation fairer for western Massachusetts communities, which have the majority of state-owned land, but receive less compensation than municipalities in eastern Massachusetts with similar acreage. For Gill, she said involvement in the reform process by writing letters and attending hearings will be important.
“I do think that could have some real game-changing consequences in good ways,” Comerford said about the reform.
On the topic of bolstering revenue, Comerford said efforts are underway to examine revenue streams, including through a bill called “An Act Combating Offshore Tax Avoidance” (H.3110/S.2033), which aims to tax profits going to offshore tax havens from mega corporations.
She also said there needs to be a decoupling from the federal government, meaning the state detaches from specific federal tax codes to avoid revenue loss, and that a ballot question that aims to cut the income tax is a “bad ballot question.”
Selectboard Chair Charles Garbiel asked about the status of the audit of the Legislature that voters authorized in a 2024 ballot question.
A report by State House News Service in December 2024 explains that this question grants the office of State Auditor Diana DiZoglio the “power to audit the ‘accounts, programs, activities and functions’ of all ‘departments, offices, commissions, institutions’ in the state, including those created by the Legislature and the Legislature itself.”
According to Comerford, the Senate has been “exceedingly active” on the audit process, but she noted there are several moving parts. She said there is a separation of powers and conflict of interest issues at play between DiZoglio and the Legislature, along with the constitutionality of the ballot question. These factors have stalled the audit, and Comerford wishes these troubles were addressed with the Attorney General’s Office.
“I appreciate the answer, because we usually just get the noise and not the inside of what’s going on,” Garbiel said in response.
Resident questions
When it came time to take questions from residents, the first two were related to environmental issues locally. Michael Bathory inquired about the status of an appeal to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) over the Water Quality Certification it issued to FirstLight Hydro Generating Co. for the relicensing of the Turners Falls Dam and Northfield Mountain Pump Storage Project. Comerford said she had inquired with MassDEP the week before to check the status of its response to the appeal.
Claire Chang then asked where Comerford stands on “An Act Relative to Energy Affordability, Clean Power and Economic Competitiveness” (H.4744), which includes the repeal of a 1982 referendum that requires a statewide vote for a new nuclear facility. Comerford said she opposes this repeal.
The final questions related to state policy around Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity. Comerford clarified what existing precedent exists for law enforcement interactions with ICE, including the 2017 Lunn v. Commonwealth decision, which doesn’t allow local and state law enforcement to arrest someone at the request of federal authorities with a civil immigration detainer.
Comerford said she’s had “really meaningful conversations” with police chiefs in western Massachusetts, and noted that she wrote a Facebook post addressing some of her advocacy points related to ICE in Massachusetts in the wake of local protests after the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis by ICE agent Jonathan Ross.
“There’s lots of good people who are directly doing the work, who are weighing in from a law enforcement perspective,” Comerford said.
A full recording of this meeting with Comerford is available on Montague Community Television at tinyurl.com/yz5tfwbp.