Berkshire County — Michael Lavery, who was elected to the Becket Select Board in 2017, is running against State Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli (D) in the general election.
According to his biography on his website, Lavery is originally from Mount Kisco, N.Y. and was raised in South Salem, N.Y. He served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve from 1995 to 2001.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Lavery has an extensive career in Information Technologies, serving as an administrator in Unix; web services; and Linux technologies for the MassMutual Financial Group, St. Vincent’s Hospital, GE Corporate, and PwC.
As of September, he works full-time as a system engineer at General Dynamics Mission Systems in Pittsfield. He was a member of the Democratic Party from 1988 until 2021 when he became a member of the Green-Rainbow Party. He lists on his biography that he has been a member of the Democratic Socialists of America since 2008. “Smitty is a good guy and I’m not anti-Smitty, I’m just trying to represent from a different perspective,” Lavery said to The Berkshire Edge. “I do have some areas of consternation where he voted against having more transparency [in state government].”
Lavery said that there was a bill in the legislature that would have made legislative committee votes public record. “A lot of votes in the State House don’t get recorded as a roll call vote,” Lavery said. “The organization Act On Mass was the group that wanted [transparency] to happen and Smitty voted against this, twice. The Berkshire delegation also voted [against legislation] concerning same day voting. I thought that was really weird because we’re one of the oldest democracies in the country, and Democrats as a whole are representative of voter rights. So I would think that would have been a no brainer for them.”
Lavery said that the state of the environment is his top concern. “I think we are moving towards a carbon-free future,” he said. “I think it might take a lot longer than most folks think. I do know that it is controversial that the state will not allow any fuel powered automobile purchases after 2035. But when you look at the statistics, people buy new cars every 10 years, on average. I don’t think Massachusetts will get to zero carbon emissions by 2050. I do think we need to do more.”
Lavery said that a priority he would work on if elected is obtaining state funds for infrastructure projects. “We need more money for roads in the small towns in the Berkshires,” he said. “At a Becket Select Board meeting, we talked about some cities that haven’t spent their Chapter 90 funds in multiple years.”
As per the state’s website, the Chapter 90 program provides funding to municipalities for capital improvements on local public ways. “We could really use that money,” Lavery said. “Sixty million dollars in bonds would go a long way towards roads.”
When it comes to attracting new businesses to the Berkshires, Lavery said that having fiberoptic internet installed all throughout the Berkshires is key. “I think this could attract a lot of people and new homeowners,” Lavery said. “You have to get the people here first, then businesses will want to move here.”
When asked further about how to bring more residents to the Berkshires, Lavery answered, “I think some of these bigger companies might be [using] the green economy of marijuana and that sort of thing, while alcohol or tobacco or other vices generate a lot of income for some, I put forth a proposal to legalize or at least decriminalized some psychedelics like Psilocybin. I’m going to bring that to town meeting in May in Becket.”
Lavery explained, “People are not being hurt by [psychedelics], and there have been some studies that have been conducted recently for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder that have shown a lot of breakthrough. So far, five cities have decriminalized psychedelics. I’m hoping that a research scientist in the medical field can study [these] drugs more easily if we decriminalize them.”
When it comes to the affordable housing crisis in the Berkshire area, Lavery said “I don’t know what the solution is … I’m in the Berkshire branch of the Democratic Socialists of America, and while the chapter hasn’t seen very much activity lately, we were working with some housing groups and taking surveys of people who were having to move far away from their jobs,” Lavery said. “Let’s say a cleaning person or a staff member of a restaurant in Great Barrington has to rent an apartment in Pittsfield or trailer home just to make ends meet to be able to live sustainably. It’s just not good because then we contribute more carbon to the environment by having people have long commutes. They can’t live where they work.”
When it comes to supporting farmers in the Berkshires, Lavery suggests that they could start farming what he called “alternative crops.”
“Crops like hemp, which was legalized through the Farm Act of 2018, can be shipped and synthesized into CBD oils, which is gaining popularity,” he said. “I think if the Community Supported Aggriculture groups and farmers markets could get together and have a delivery service like Uber or Lyft, drivers could deliver goods to people including [those in] assisted living centers.”
When it comes to gun violence in the Berkshires, Lavery said, “I think it’s just a symptom of the more global gun problem that we have in America.” Lavery continued, “I don’t know why the federal government can’t have a 50 state law [covering gun legislation] and why they put the onus on each state. When you buy a gun out of state or purchase one from an individual at a gun show, you still have to register it with your local chief of police.”
At the conclusion of the interview, Lavery said he wanted to emphasize the environmental advocacy of the Green-Rainbow Party. “As we look at the summer that just took place, where we had droughts, fires, and flooding, along with hurricanes, we have to ask ourselves if we can continue down this path without changing what we’re doing and how we live,” he said. “The Gree-Rainbow Party has a state auditor candidate and state treasurer candidate running in this election. I think the party can do more with the support of people. This is a grassroots effort and we need to turn out in droves to get Congress and the federal government to take action.”
