March 2026

Hi, happy Women’s History Month!

As with February, this month has offered little news to celebrate. Since the last newsletter, our world has plunged further into crisis. The Trump administration’s siege of Iran has killed thousands of people, while the closure of the strait of Hormuz has produced spiraling fuel shortages across the world, especially in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Meanwhile, Israel has launched an invasion of southern Lebanon and attempted to poison the peoples of Iran and Lebanon through chemical warfare and attacks on energy infrastructure. These events and their downstream effects — a brewing food crisis among them — have brought all levels of political and economic organization around the world into unprecedented states of precarity. Without urgent and decisive anti-fascist struggle, we are standing on the precipice of disaster at a scale that we cannot currently comprehend.

As of March 29th, one tanker bearing over 100,000 tons of crude oil has reached Cuba, marking the first relief in this new phase of siege which has killed untold numbers of people. I attended the annual US-Cuba Normalization conference again earlier this month, noting the tremendous political clarity and resilience of the Cuban delegation (who were only able to enter the country as diplomatic representatives to the United Nations, and took substantial risks to attend the conference in person). For more information on the history of this struggle, why it matters for all of us and how you can get involved, visit nnoc.org.

The Western Massachusetts club took this same sense of urgency with us to the third No Kings event on March 28th.

As much as our city tends to navigate its politics in a bubble (to our collective detriment), these developments are already causing profound economic, social and political damage in Northampton — including the recent announcement of a $10M increase to the estimated cost of the Picture Main Street project. Supporters of the project in city administration and the wider public have argued that this dramatic cost increase comes from alleged permit violations by Eversource, and can be largely recouped through a lawsuit. Irrespective of any prospects of litigation, I will refer to DPW director LaScaleia’s remarks on rising costs owing to the US assault on Iran: the damage from fuel shortages is already vast and unpredictable.

As I noted during the 2025 campaign, the Sciarra administration is looking to take up a multi-year, multi-stage project on a set of political and economic assumptions that it cannot safely make. I suspect that similar issues will arise with Rep. McGovern’s ~$500,000 earmark for the Resilience Hub, which will not be sufficient to complete repairs without supplementary local funds (let alone to staff the facility, even along the lines of the public-private model advocated by our city’s Democratic machine).

This crisis is unlike anything we have ever confronted, and it’s past time that our city’s leadership acted like it. Outside of the NPS district, we have seen no movement on city protocols or legislation for ICE response; meanwhile, the Sciarra administration’s “target” budget aims to starve our public schools of a further $500,000 below level services. It is a glaring hypocrisy to deliver yet another speech at an anti-Trump rally while governing in contempt of democracy, in the name of putting profits before people.

Recent council business

• The council voted in one reading to approve a $90,000 appropriation of free cash for “economic development”, without any specified uses or receipts. Chief of staff Alan Wolf was unwilling or unable to answer questions from councilors and the public about specific receipts for prior expenditures out of this appropriation.
  • Unlike many municipalities of Northampton’s size, our city government lacks a written strategic plan for economic development. This means that the broader public has no mechanism for accountability for how this money is spent. The Sciarra administration keeps no statistics or public written record on the effects of this funding over time.
    • Business owners who spoke during public comment suggested that they had directly received payments from the city from prior economic development appropriations. If true, this constitutes a brazen and definitionally corrupt abuse of public resources.
  • I am alarmed at the emerging culture of voting on items in one reading, especially financial orders. This political tactic erodes public space to scrutinize and engage with the city’s spending, demonstrating contempt for democratic process.
• Per DPW director LaScaleia, municipal water and sewer rates will remain stable through FY27, with prospects of an increase in FY28. The full hearing is available at this timestamp.
• After a 4-4 tied vote to refer the entire capital improvement program (CIP) to the finance committee for further study (councilors Maiore, Loisel, Nabad and Klemer opposed; councilor Davis absent), the FY27 CIP was carved into two “packages” of items for the consent agenda and finance committee.
  • Though Ward 5’s roads (namely Landy, Riverside, Hillcrest and Stilson) are slated for significant and long-overdue improvements this year, other critical capital needs remain unmet. For example, the Sciarra administration currently has no written plan for repairs to the Federal St. culvert, for sinkholes on Garfield St. or other dangerous infrastructure issues.
  • The finance committee provided a 2:2 recommendation (councilors Maiore and Robbins neutral; councilors Klemer and Davis positive) on a batch of requests involving NPS, as members of the school committee intervened to call for a voice in the CIP process. Members of the school committee were not — and have not been, in municipal precedent — consulted on line items for NPS, despite their responsibility to make budget recommendations on behalf of the district. Member Martyn, Ward 5’s representative on school committee, will present on the state of the schools at the council meeting on Tuesday, March 31st, (now tomorrow at the time of publication!) prior to these items being put to a vote.
• During the same meeting, the council will discuss a set of orders regarding the proposed restructuring of the Elm St. intersection to include a traffic light. The current proposal is likely to place additional strain on surrounding roads, particularly Vernon St. and Federal St., which are already contending with increased erosion on account of the failing culvert; fees for busing in our district further exacerbate these issues.

Recent labor news

• The Western Massachusetts Area Labor Federation held its annual legislative breakfast on March 6th, where public- and private-sector unions across the region presented their political goals for the remainder of this legislative term. Several state and federal officials attended, including Senator Markey.
  • I am deeply concerned with the political program of State Auditor DiZoglio, which the Massachusetts GOP sees as the extreme right’s path to power in our state. You can read more in our one-page analysis, which was circulated among attending organizations.
  • Governor Healey’s shameful and antagonistic speech included defending her administration’s collaboration with OpenAI, failure to prioritize Chapter 70 reform and imposition of severe austerity measures across the public sector. After asserting that the working class and labor movement should “want her” to win another term, she (and Lt. Gov. Driscoll) failed to answer a question on oversight of public-private initiatives and charter funding in our state education system.

• Amherst DPW workers are making significant progress in contract negotiations, with broad support from other unions, elected officials and community organizations. This model of labor-community alliance should lend us clues to improving political conditions in Northampton, where DPW workers have faced restrictions on their rights of speech and expression.
• Benefits for public-sector workers in the state will retain their healthcare benefits without direct added costs, after a successful labor-led campaign to compel the Healey administration to back off on proposed changes to the negotiated positions of the Group Insurance Commission (GIC). This protects 460,000 people from increased health insurance costs in this coming fiscal year — not only state employees, but most faculty and staff at UMass, municipal workers in cities like Northampton, families of public-sector workers and many others. (This is technically February’s news, but I won’t let it go unmentioned!)

That’s all for this month. As always, feel free to reach me at any time by email or at (413) 404-0405. Stay safe, stay healthy and stay in the struggle!

-Luke