TIME-SENSITIVE LEGISLATION aimed at stabilizing the state’s unemployment system, providing targeted tax relief to employers and workers, and creating a COVID-19 emergency sick leave program requires one final vote in […]
Michael P. Norton I State House News Service
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Lawmakers getting $4,280 hike in base pay
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE MASSACHUSETTS LAWMAKERS are in store for another pay raise. Two years after Gov. Charlie Baker certified a raise of 5.93 percent for the 200 members of […]
Posted inEducation
Promising results with early college programs
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE HIGHLIGHTING NEW DATA showing greater academic success among high school students who take college courses, education experts called Wednesday for Massachusetts to continue investing in early […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Senate deliberations on policing reform bill stall
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A FAR-REACHING proposal to enhance oversight of police officers and ban the use of certain types of force hit a bump on Thursday when Senate Republicans […]
Posted inHealth Care
Lawmakers push for Chelsea Soldiers’ Home probe
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE CITING THE DEATHS of 31 veterans there, Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley on Friday called for an independent investigation into the […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
April tax collections off $2.3b
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE STATE TAX COLLECTIONS tumbled in April by more than $2.3 billion compared to last April, another sign of the damage inflicted on the economy and the […]
Posted inEnvironment
Net-zero target gets mixed reviews
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL Affairs Secretary Kathleen Theoharides used the occasion of Earth Day on Wednesday to finalize the state’s new net-zero greenhouse gas emissions limit, but […]
Posted inUncategorized
Spilka, DeLeo slam crisis care standards
VOWING LEGISLATIVE ACTION, the heads of the Massachusetts House and Senate on Thursday night said they agree with lawmakers who do not believe that Baker administration guidance on COVID-19 crisis […]
Posted inHealth Care
Virus notes: Baker traces origins of crisis
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Thursday traced in broad terms the origins of the coronavirus outbreak in Massachusetts and suggested the state’s recovery will be a long, slow process. With the […]
Posted inHealth Care
Virus notes: Baker cabinet secretary tests positive
THE STATE’S PUBLIC SAFETY SECRETARY has tested positive for COVID-19, he announced Monday night, and is working from home. “This weekend, after experiencing mild symptoms, I was screened for COVID-19 […]
Posted inTransportation
House OKs $18b transportation bond bill
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A DAY AFTER VOTING to raise taxes and fees by as much as $600 million per year, the Massachusetts House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a roughly […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
MTF projects $900m funding gap in FY21
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WITH A SLOWDOWN in tax revenues expected and spending pressures escalating, Gov. Charlie Baker and the Legislature will grapple with a gap between likely revenues and […]
Posted inPolitics
Lawmakers cram a lot in at the end
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE MASSACHUSETTS LAWMAKERS wrapped up work Wednesday on bills calling for long-term K-12 education investments, requiring motorists to use only hands-free technology while driving, and banning flavored […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Baker proposes $175m of tax relief
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE REPUBLICAN GOV. CHARLIE BAKER is pushing a new tax relief proposal that his administration says will benefit 1 million taxpayers with dependents. In a $648 million spending […]
Posted inPolitics
Ranked-choice may be headed to ballot
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE SUPPORTERS OF RANKED CHOICE VOTING plan to file an initiative petition by next week to put the voting reform on the 2020 ballot in case they […]
Posted inPolitics
Unions look for another win with Janus bill
HOUSE SPEAKER ROBERT DeLEO will bring a bill to the floor for a vote this week that would allow unions to charge non-members fees for certain services, a response to […]
Posted inTransportation
Baker: New taxes not needed to address congestion
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE FACING BLAME from Democrats for mounting public frustration with clogged roads and public transit problems, Gov. Charlie Baker touted his administration’s plan to pour more money […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Baker: My hands were tied on compressor station
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE GOV. CHARLIE BAKER said Monday he “basically had no choice” but to approve air quality permits for a natural gas compressor station in Weymouth given the […]
Posted inPolitics
DeLeo acknowledges drafting error in Grid bill
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AS THE HOUSE on Dec. 6 passed legislation authorizing wage benefits for locked out utility workers, House Speaker Robert DeLeo announced that the utility responsible for […]
Posted inEnvironment, State House News Service
Wind firms pay $135m each for offshore tracts
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THREE LEASE WINNERS have each agreed to pay $135 million to gain access to ocean tracts off the coast of Massachusetts where they may someday build […]
Posted inHealth Care
Healey sets conditions on BI-Lahey merger
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE ALTHOUGH REGULATORS PLAN to keep a watchful eye, the path was cleared Thursday at the state and federal levels for a mega-merger that would create the […]
Posted inEconomy
Union to offer Grid a counterproposal
STATE HOUSE NEWS NATIONAL GRID and representatives of its more than 1,200 locked-out gas workers plan to meet for more contract talks on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. “The union […]
Posted inPolitics
New Dem electeds talk race — and racism
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE MASSACHUSETTS DEMOCRATS, who won race after race in Tuesday’s elections, appear to have a some racial tensions within their party. In a televised interview that aired […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
DPU puts Natl. Grid on notice after incident
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AFTER FIELDING DOZENS of safety complaints filed in recent weeks by locked-out National Grid workers, state officials on Monday announced that a natural gas pressurization incident […]