Uncertainty driven by macroeconomic, geopolitical, and instability in federal policy has now surpassed affordability as the top concern facing Roundtable members – leaders of some of the largest employers across Massachusetts.
Economy
Posted inEconomy
Seeing the future? Massachusetts wants to see your license
It would be easy to assume that most psychics, tarot card readers, and mediums want to do away with the red tape, but that isn’t necessarily the case. Salem licenses more fortune tellers than any other community in the state, and many say although the archaic statute may have been rooted in distrust and prejudice, there are tangible benefits of the law today.
Posted inEconomy
Study pegs median net wealth of Massachusetts families at $370,000
A survey sent to 32,817 randomly selected Massachusetts addresses and yielding 5,018 responses highlighted long-standing racial wealth gaps.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Senate quietly launches another push for juvenile justice reforms
House and Senate negotiators hashing out a final deal on a sweeping jobs and business support package need to decide whether the measure should also embrace a major criminal justice reform: allowing many 18-year-olds to be tried in the youth justice system, not adult courts.
Posted inOpinion
Boston hosted the world. Let’s make it a habit.
Greater Boston can host the world. Now we need to make sure we are willing and able to do it again and again because doing so brings lasting economic and civic benefits to our region.
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook: House Speaker foretells Senate tax swerve
He was joking when he described “fortune-telling” as a preferred pastime, but House Speaker Ron Mariano still managed to divine the way electoral politics would affect a Senate tax cap proposal.
Posted inOpinion
In the panic over a talent exodus, Massachusetts is forgetting the underutilized talent it has
Most states compete for the workers everyone else wants. Talent activation is a different discipline. It starts not with who might move to the state, but with who is already here.
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
Complicated decisions ahead as lawmakers crystallize Big Tech response
With a bevy of bills in play, legislators need to figure out not just which policies they want to advance to protect user data and shield minors from addictive feeds, but which vehicles will host the proposed reforms.
Posted inEconomy
Coca-Cola’s Northampton plant closing will trigger 175 layoffs
The plant on Industrial Drive will close on December 15, after the company previously eyed shutting down the facility in 2023.
Posted inBallot Questions
SJC blocks high-stakes income tax cut question from the November ballot
In a blockbuster ruling just as ballot measure campaigns submit their final signatures, Massachusetts’s highest court cut the fuse of a revenue bomb that was set to blow $5 billion out of the state budget. An initiative aiming to cut income taxes is blocked from the ballot because of errors in the attorney general’s summary.
Posted inOpinion
Don’t ban data centers. Build better rules.
Through policies rooted in transparency, stewardship, and innovation, Massachusetts can open the door to right-sized, smartly sited data centers.
Posted inEconomy
Raj Chetty’s prescription for reviving the American dream
As the American dream has slipped out of reach for many, few have done more than Chetty to try to understand the fading of the American dream and what could be done to change that dispiriting trendline.
Posted inOpinion
A new high school or housing? Here’s how Boston could have both.
Facing shortages of housing and open land in our densest cities, we should not construct a police station, a fire station, a library, or a school without providing opportunities for housing to be constructed above.
Posted inTransportation
Gateway City leaders celebrate one year of South Coast Rail, but final phase remains in limbo
Getting Phase 1 across the finish line was no easy feat. And just over a year later, state officials still have not rolled out a plan to finance and finish the second phase — also called the “full build” — that was proposed nearly a decade ago.
Posted inOpinion
Congress must act now on AI
No federal agency has clear authority to step in when something goes wrong. While some have argued there is still plenty of time for Congress to act, I would say, look around.
Posted inEnvironment
Controversial private jet expansion proposal at Hanscom faces setbacks as developers look to move project ahead
The proposed hangar expansion has roiled activists and officials alike. Critics fear that a spike in air traffic will bring extra noise and emissions, as private flights are widely considered to be the most polluting source of transportation.
Posted inEnergy
Port cities try to weather shifting winds
Salem and New Bedford both received millions from the state to develop the sites of retired fossil fuel power plants into terminals that would serve as logistics and operations centers for the construction of offshore wind. But wind projects have long been struggling to get off the ground.
Posted inMiddle class
‘I want a legacy for my family’
For years, small business ownership has served as a “gateway” to the middle class, particularly for residents in Gateway Cities like Holyoke where economic mobility is otherwise limited and educational attainment is low. But since the pandemic, experts and advocates have warned that Massachusetts’s small businesses are struggling to survive.
Posted inMiddle class
It’s hard work making it in the middle class
If there’s a single unifying theme to the Massachusetts middle-class outlook in 2026, it’s contradiction: We have more than ever, and in many cases, that’s not enough to enjoy the stability of prior generations.
Posted inOpinion
Massachusetts has a once-in-a-decade chance to stop predatory electric suppliers
The bill’s consumer protections would move Massachusetts from having some of the weakest safeguards for residential electricity customers to some of the strongest.
Posted inState Government
House Democrats spike bill to let legislative staffers unionize
It’s looking like another term without success for unionizing legislative staffers, who were unable to get House support for their bill and continue to face skepticism from Senate leadership.
Posted inEnvironment
Climate reckoning: Mass. communities stare down the prospect — and complications — of a retreat from rising waters
Massachusetts is right now engaging in the most robust dialogue in state history around the concept of relocating people, homes, and communities away from places prone to flooding.
Posted inOpinion
Socially responsible investing still makes sense — and cents
Sustainable investing has never been about sacrificing returns for virtue. It has always been about aligning capital with long-term value creation.
