As cost-of-living pressures bearing down on Massachusetts residents become painfully obvious, the state’s gubernatorial candidates are centering affordability in their 2026 campaigns.
Colin A. Young I State House News Service
Posted inTransportation
Feds end oversight of MBTA that began in 2022
The Federal Transit Administration officially closed its safety management inspection of the Department of Public Utilities’ safety oversight management of the MBTA.
Posted inState Government
Mass. gives schools a playbook for ICE at the door
The governor’s office shared new guidance for how Massachusetts schools and child care centers should handle federal immigration enforcement.
Posted inImmigration
Healey will sign immigrant protections into law Wednesday
The bill (H 5620) that cleared the House and Senate on split votes last Thursday would expand protections against warrantless civil immigration arrests to courthouses, public schools, child care centers and health care facilities.
Posted inState Government
Spilka to lead Senate into a ninth year, first since Bulger
Spilka was first elected president of the Senate on Thursday, July 26, 2018. Eight years later, she says there’s still “more to do” and suggested she is not thinking about handing off the gavel.
Posted inState Government
Surtax supporters say haul shows wealthy are staying in Mass.
Revenue generated from the state surtax on wealthier households was up more than 13 percent last budget year, totaling more than $3.38 billion, the Department of Revenue reported this week.
Posted inEconomy
World Cup lifts economy, but lower-income households stressed
Increases in tourism and retail spending in New England were contrasted with increased demand for assistance among the region’s low- and moderate-income households.
Posted inState Government
Lawmakers send Healey $63.4 billion annual budget bill
The compromise features an increase of $2.37 billion or 3.9 percent over the budget Healey signed last July and roughly $54.3 million larger than the fiscal year 2027 budget she proposed in January.
Posted inEnvironment
Energy policy pressure points reflected in amendments
The Senate on Wednesday takes up a sweeping energy bill aimed at affordability, one that boosters say will save ratepayers more than $14 billion over a decade. But first, senators have more than 180 ideas to reshape it.
Posted inEnvironment
House committee strips Senate policy plans from environmental bond
The House Ways and Means Committee slimmed the Senate’s bond authorizations (S 3064) down by more than 20 percent, advancing a new draft Tuesday that would authorize $3.078 billion in borrowing compared to the Senate-supported $3.94 billion.
Posted inChild Care
Surtax fueling early ed expansion, but will it last?
The money expanding child care access this year comes from one-time surplus funds. Maintaining long-term funding will mean finding a permanent home for it in next year’s state budget.
Posted inGovernment
Barney Frank, 86, left mark as trailblazer in politics
Barney Frank, the first member of Congress to voluntarily come out publicly as gay and a liberal bulldog who left his fingerprints on the nation’s banking regulations, died May 20, 2026. He was 86.
Posted inState Government
House votes 149-9 to approve annual state budget bill
Fiscal year 2027, which begins July 1, is projected to be “a very, very difficult fiscal year in a truly, truly challenging economic environment,” House Speaker Ron Mariano said this month. Repeatedly throughout the week, Democrats echoed that sentiment as they resisted Republican calls for tax relief or spending cuts.
Posted inCourts
PROTECT Act will disrupt ‘soft diplomacy’ between ICE, state courts
Chief Justice of the Trial Court Heidi Brieger described for lawmakers the more informal relationships that she said she and Court Administrator Thomas Ambrosino have had “at a very deep level” with various leaders of ICE in New England.
Posted inState Government
Mariano weighs in on energy bill savings, audit preferences
“Mariano described the House energy bill as an attempt to strip away some of the public policy charges that have accumulated on electric and gas bills over the last two decades as Massachusetts sought to incentivize a transition away from fossil fuels.”
Posted inHealth Care
Healey signs bill expanding reproductive, transgender care protections
SURROUNDED BY HEALTH CARE advocates and curious tourists peering into Nurses Hall, Gov. Maura Healey signed an expanded shield law giving patients and providers in Massachusetts a new layer of defense against out-of-state intrusion into reproductive and transgender care.
