The proposal cleared the Legislature’s Committee on Revenue a week after lawmakers raised questions about it at a hearing.
Gintautas Dumcius
Posted inOlympics
20-20 hindsight on Boston 2024
Asked this week to reflect on the long-gone possibility of Boston hosting the 2024 Olympics, Senate President Karen Spilka didn’t hesitate. “I’m glad it’s in Paris,” she said. “That’s my quote.”
Posted inImmigration
Healey keeps pulling up the emergency shelter system’s welcome mat
“Massachusetts is out of shelter space, and we simply cannot afford the current size of this system,” said Gov. Maura Healey.
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook: Wu-Kraft race looking more and more likely | Full-tilt toward artificial intelligence
The official word from Josh Kraft is that he’s not a candidate for mayor of Boston and has to plans or timeline for such an announcement, but some coffee shop chatter overheard this week suggests a run could be in his future.
Posted inPolitics
Mass. delegates explain why they’re backing Biden in new survey
While President Biden faces unprecedented calls from within his party to step down as the Democratic nominee, members of the Massachusetts delegation who are headed to the national convention in Chicago appear largely supportive of Biden staying at the top of the ticket, according to a new survey.
Posted inGovernment
Wu tells lawmakers potential residential tax spike ‘keeps me up at night’
City Hall is seeking to keep that 60-40 balance and mitigate an increase next year in homeowner tax bills that could come as valuations for commercial property fall, driven by the downtown still seeing less foot traffic, on top of office vacancies and some continuing to work from home in Covid pandemic’s aftermath.
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook: Flanagan may face challenge | No month off for task force
State regulators earlier this year accused Flanagan of repeatedly misleading them as they tried to find out who was behind a phony mailer sent to voters in 2022, before he confessed it was him.
Posted inState Government
More consolidation of economic development agencies proposed
Senators are expected to vote Thursday on the $2.4 billion borrowing bill, which also includes $350 million in tax credits, a provision helping the prospects of a soccer stadium on the Mystic River waterfront in Everett, and the reauthorization of a long-running initiative boosting the state’s life sciences industry.
Posted inPolitics
Marty Walsh, Biden’s former labor chief and ex-mayor, gets married
Walsh and Lorrie Higgins, who have been together for about two decades, quietly married in March, almost a year after he left public service for the private sector, according to their marriage certificate. A local justice of the peace performed the ceremony.
Posted inBallot Questions
Ballot question fundraising and spending largely hidden from public view
In contrast to state election laws governing candidates for office, which require regular reporting throughout the year on campaign donations and expenditures, ballot question committees operate under relatively lax reporting requirements.
Posted inEducation
Political Notebook: Celtics win = end-of-school loss for Boston students | The definition of a publicity stunt
The Celtics victory celebration ended up raining on the parade of the Boston school students last day of classes, which were abruptly canceled. Meanwhile, the Mass GOP has a selective view of what qualifies as a publicity stunt at the US-Mexico border.
Posted inMedia
Navigating Mass. media sector’s choppy waters
Journalists have been compared to priests and ditch-diggers, but a better parallel can be found on the high seas. Like sailors and the call of the running tide, reporters and editors have the rush of chasing a scoop. But over the last two decades, the tide has been going out.
Posted inMarijuana
Cannabis oversight agency needs a ‘different direction,’ Healey says
In a statement, Treasurer Goldberg acknowledged there are “many areas of concern” at the agency. “Although my office’s purview is limited to appointing one commissioner and jointly appointing two others, we recognize the need to address those concerns,” she said.
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook: ‘Tool kit’ transportation revenues | Cold shoulder for Wu tax plan | Healey ethics disclosure
Hayes Morrison, the undersecretary of transportation, gave an update on the transportation revenue task force’s progress at this week’s MassDOT board meeting that made it sound as if it started pretty much from scratch using a very touchy-feely approach.
Posted inPolitics
SJC clerk candidate steps into MBTA Communities fight that’s now before the court
As the SJC weighs the MBTA Communities rezoning law, Erin Murphy has stepped into the political fight over it. While seeking votes in Winthrop earlier this month, Murphy joined a roadside rally taking aim at the law. Signs at the rally said, “Stop State Mandated Zoning.”
Posted inArts and Culture
Rename Logan Airport for Celtics legend Bill Russell? Mass. officials don’t rule it out
“Naming the airport for Russell would send a powerful message about the region it serves,” wrote Mark Leibovich.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Political Notebook: Never-ending State Police problems | Transit beer summit? | Ranking Boston’s choices
The woes of the Massachusetts State Police never seem to end, with the latest black eye coming at the high-profile murder trail of Karen Read, where a State Police investigator copped to making comments about the defendant that Gov. Maura Healey termed “disgusting.”
Posted inTransportation
MBTA is ‘barely treading water’
“We have 13 months to figure out how we’re going to solve the problem,” said Tom Glynn, a former T general manager who now chairs its oversight board.
Posted inPolitics
The most interesting part of your 2024 ballot could deal with this obscure panel
The race for an obscure Governor’s Council post – a rematch two years in the making – may be the buzziest local 2024 matchup for some voters.
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook: Cain skips vote | Anonymous donor | Ballot title battle
Quincy City Councilor Ian Cain, who recently called his rival for the Republican US Senate nomination, John Deaton, evasive for brushing off a call to debate, did some evading of his own this week, skipping a council vote on the massive pay raise approved for Quincy’s mayor.
Posted inPolitics
Inside Wu fundraiser, 2025 is already underway
Michelle Wu has held off on a formal reelection launch, but the scene inside the Omni Parker House had the unmistakable vibes of a Boston mayor gearing up to defend her seat.
Posted inCourts
Political Notebook: Judicial mischief | Incumbent stronghold | Home equity reckoning
“Chief Justice Gants has said that if he couldn’t have played for the Red Sox, being chief justice ultimately was a good second, solid choice,” Gov. Maura Healey said.
Posted inState Government
Crunch time is coming to Beacon Hill
“It’s always been part of the process that no matter what you do, or who’s doing it, that there will be a lot of serious work left for the last few days of session,” said Marc Pacheco, a Taunton Democrat who is leaving the Senate after 32 years in the chamber.
Posted inPolitics
65% of incumbents in Legislature face no opponents
130 incumbents appear to be going without a challenger in either a primary or the general election. Democrats are expected to continue to hold a super-majority in both chambers.