2024 State House Fifteenth Suffolk District
The Massachusetts House of Representatives is comprised of 160 members, each representing a district of approximately 40,000 people and each elected for a two-year term. As required by the Massachusetts Constitution, the House meets year-round in either formal or informal sessions to consider legislation. The Massachusetts House is led by the Speaker of the House who is elected by the members of the body at the beginning of each two-year legislative session. Base salary for each representative is approximately $66,256.
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Samantha Montaño
(Dem)
Do you support election day voter registration? Why or why not?
What actions should the legislature take to address the climate emergency?
What should the legislature do to increase the supply of affordable and middle-market housing in Massachusetts?
What measures would you support to deal with the needs of the large number of immigrants coming to Massachusetts?
What are your priorities for dealing with transportation statewide and in your district?
Campaign Phone
6175999714
Yes. While I represent a relatively high voter turnout district, I know many others do not. I believe we need as much voter participation as possible in order to have the policies and budgets that serve our Commonwealth in an equitable and cycle breaking way.
I am a grassroots organizer at heart. I also come from an environmental justice background. In practice for me this means making sure we are prioritizing reforms and investments in communities that have disproportionately experienced harm from lack of green space, air pollution, heat island effect, ect. I would like to see us retrofit older housing stock in low-income communities, invest in permeable surfaces in places with lots of concrete, and begin to make the shift to electric.
We need to build. We need to pass policies that bring in money to create subsidized and income restricted housing. Because we have not funded housing we already have built federally or at the state level, often this housing is in disrepair. In order to change that we need to shift how we build and invest in more publically funded housing models. This also requires zoning reform to allow housing to be built more easily and quickly. Often times housing costs rise when we drag on community process for months or years.
I think if we could address this at the federal level we could get most folks working. The next issue would be getting them housing and that is a huge barrier to immigrant success, the high cost of housing. We know our population has to grow in order for the Commonwealth to keep thriving and so immigration is essential. In the State Legislature we should prioritize housing and childcare to support folks as they start their lives in Massachusetts.
My district is fairly well connected by the MBTA and commuter rail, at least compared to others. I believe that Philip Eng is doing an amazing job address long put off repairs and we have made the largest financial investment in the MBTA in years. The Fair Share Act helps with this a lot. Statewide, I think we need to keep building out rail trails. Make the commuter rail less costly and faster so folks will actually want to use it.
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