Author: Kirstin Beatty, Founder
This is the reason I formed Last Tree Laws, L.L.C., instead of joining another campaign—I need to make sure minority voices are also heard and respected, even when it challenges conventional thought and economic engines.
We need funded, deep critique of our state government in Massachusetts, of the influence of special interests, in order to create public support for change and to develop model legislation for solutions – legislation other states can follow. For one, I wish to create a unique team to propose reforms that insure government integrity, which then allow other common sense changes that benefit everyone to pass into law.
When I look around, I see nothing being done that will work to support independent science or fair, representative election campaigns. I will admit, I see some good ideas, such as the design of the stipend reform ballot question, which ties legislative bonus pay to required work and transparency. You can read more about it online at www.stipendreform.com.
But if the stipend reform ballot question becomes law and triggers transparency, the next issue for me is whether legislators will support minority voices, because with transparency legislators may choose to vote for majority preferences so as to win more reelection votes – even if that majority view is a lie manufactured by special interests.
Since I’m sensitive to wireless and other types of radiation emitted from technology (see ICBE-EMF dot org for more information), I personally know industry can spin public opinion. Some people can only believe what they are told by ‘authorities’ and cannot imagine why government, the medical system, or elite colleges might have an interest in ignoring evidence.
Over the past decade, I reached out to many organizations intended to help the disabled, the environment, for truth and justice for all and hit a wall on this issue. This isn’t the only ‘hot potato’ issue, either, which deserves to be addressed or which causes systemic isolation.
Although conflicts of interest may exist other than clear-cut business or financial concerns, I’ve seen too many special interests, particularly financial, intervene and push forward legislation harmful to the public at large. This needs to stop.
As a former teacher, I have seen the outcome in in our classrooms. As one example, early technology use has been shown to be harmful to social skills and learning ability, yet is required by our state educational standards.
Tech requirements were added when the state education department was deeply tied to tech interests under Governor Baker. Still today, in 2026, our state legislature has moved forward a bill that restricts academic freedom, which will likely favor for-profit curriculum and restrict teacher-designed curriculum because phonics or reading curriculum must be pre-approved by the state. The legislature passed this bill despite public opposition, ignoring the professional knowledge of teacher unions who presented valid ‘special interests’ and community concerns. The spin on supporting the bill given was that it improves reading skills, but other avenues exist to improve reading skills that would not curtail academic freedom and undermine teacher-created lessons.
As just mentioned, more than a decade ago I became extremely sensitive to the radiation emitted by every day technology – e.g. wireless routers, keyboard harmonics, screen electric and magnetic fields. Let’s just say this was terrifying.
I thought that legislators would not understand the condition and thus would not be able to write a helpful bill, and so I began to write legislation.
My first drafts were incredibly naive. I thought I should throw in everything. The medical profession could educate patients on how environmental toxins can cause sensitivities whether chemical or anything else, provide science-backed nutritional supplementation, reduce electromagnetic radiation exposures, and so on. Yet, too much at once can be hard to explain and getting even one item to move forward in our state legislature is difficult. Over time, I began to ask for single item changes – such as for hard-wired schools, reduced school screen time, or meaningful cell tower insurance.
You can find some examples online at malegislature.gov if you input ‘Beatty’ and leave out my first name, as it is misspelled on the site. To get a full list, the refiner ‘General Court’ must be reset to include bills from 2015 – 2016 (the 189th General Court) to the present.
I know that the state legislature in Massachusetts has not passed any of the bills put forward to help reduce electromagnetic radiation exposures–except perhaps to limit cellphones in schools. I also know that many other decent bills on other subjects have also failed to move, despite powerful testimonies or massive public support.
The state legislature and executive branch have been resistant to transparency. The signs suggest our state government is easily influenced to pass harmful legislation by special interests with money. An enormous, well-funded effort appears necessary for the public just to stall terrible, financially-motivated proposals, and even with such efforts the public is often ignored–such as regarding the placement of toxic environmental industries in densely populated areas or over water protection sites. Topics such as privacy protection may move forward stripped of substantial meaning just so the legislature can pretend success.
The many advocates who fight against terribly selfish proposals in the legislative or executive branch often lack financial backers and often are in ill health, poor, or alone. Their personal stories are often moving and should inform the legislature to act with compassion, but often only serve to modify or stall harm rather than create truly positive remediation.
Many terrible bills lack any opposition, because knowledge of them and their details is beyond the ability of the public and the legislature to fully examine given the many thousands of bills. Yet, upon inspection, many terrible bills advance.
This is why I have set up a page for monthly grassroots funding. I am now looking for business sponsors as well.
I wish to create a team that can be professionally and fully dedicated to changing the system to respect the voice of the people. This team needs to be expert, to have a uniquely reformist perspective, and to work together with me to investigate, identify issues, build public support, align with other supportive groups, and enact reforms. By investigation, I mean examining both individuals in office and existing systems, exposing corruption and applauding integrity in order to correct faults and advance honesty.
In addition, I hope to build a team that can professionally support decent ballot questions, developing a smoothly functioning system, a network, and campaigns.
Progress towards building a team and monthly revenue will be updated on our blog under the category ‘progress’ – starting here.
As I get older and as I am sensitive, I have found that I cannot do it all or follow through as well as I once did. I also see many volunteers are simply too busy, and cannot maintain constant and dependable support. There’s so much to do. I can provide guidance, but I need a fully funded team. With funding and a team, Last Tree Laws, L.L.C., can support election reforms, government integrity, independent science, and more. These are topics that big business may eschew and which often lack financial support.
For example, given wide spread disappointment with the legislature, campaigns for office must insure fairness for challengers to incumbents. Currently, challengers have the deck stacked against them, and this is a form of censorship. Not only must voting be fair and transparent, but campaigns for office must be as well.
The difficulty of getting a ballot question passed in Massachusetts means that any selection of a ballot question must be one with a likelihood of being supported by the public and legislature (or making it one very difficult to refuse) and be key to systemic reform. I need a professional team to help not only with legislation, but to help run campaigns efficiently.
I believe the best source of funding is simply grassroots funding from the public to help cover expenses and salaries–grassroots support is needed to provide the basis for political change. I will be shifting away from applicant search to doing more of the work intended, and hope to convince you to provide financial and moral support.
If you can, please contribute monthly support here.
Last Tree Laws, L.L.C., is not going be advancing typically well-funded business interests, and instead may incur some opposition from wealthy and business interests in topic choice; for example, independent science appears anathema to the chemical industry. Identification of loopholes and corrupting influences is absolutely necessary for positive reform, but doing so can trigger opposition and reduce the likelihood of public sponsorships. Nevertheless, I will need to make a case for why we deserve support from everyone, poor and wealthy interests alike.
Many nonprofits receive substantial support by advancing wealthy or business interests, whereas our focus is simply everyone’s interest. On the right, wealthy donors support religious perspectives and school choice, the latter which may serve business interests. On the left, large donations to nonprofits like the Massachusetts Sierra Club or Environmental League of Massachusetts often are tied to alternative energy, as expressed by how many environmental nonprofits spend far more time promoting clean energy than, as I think needs attention, trees and healthy ecosystems.
In Massachusetts, many are working to enact changes through the ballot question simply because little legislation desired by most moves through the state legislature. Forty-four ballot questions were submitted in 2025, and ten will be on the ballot for voters to decide in 2026 – not that I agree with every proposal, but each one has much more than 70K signatures.
Of these proposals, several help provide structural reforms, and are worth mentioning as deserving of support and in alignment with the above goals:
- Same-day voter registration helps address how difficult it is to be registered again if you mistakenly fail to complete your census or ‘fail’ in some other way. This burdensome process is discussed by Jonathan Hecht via CROL here.
- Providing that public records of the governor and legislative branch are public would increase transparency as well. The governor’s office and legislative branch both claim exemptions to public records law, which is self serving rather than helpful. Most every state recognizes that public record laws means these laws refer to all branches and parts of government, with only very specific, limited exceptions.
- Stipend reform, discussed previously, would require legislative bonus pay to be tied to work completed and transparent voting. [Update: This proposal put forward by another group was considered unconstitutional as written and will not be on the ballot.]