The retail cannabis sector faces a fraction of the regulatory strictness, compliance checks, and public safety enforcement applied to other age-restricted products.
Government
Posted inBallot Questions
On second thought: Late-moving legislative action injects ‘ambiguity’ into ballot questions
Legislative leaders opted not to engage in serious negotiations with initiative petition proponents earlier in the year, when a compromise might have averted measures going to the ballot. And now, they’re weighing last-minute action that could reshape or even upend a pair of decisions voters will make.
Posted inHousing
Federal housing bill includes modest help for Mass., but buzzy investor limitation unlikely to have much impact here
“It’s not very tailored to Massachusetts related-housing concerns,” said Andrew Mikula, senior housing fellow at the Pioneer Institute. “The bill nibbles at the edges on a number of process and regulatory standards,” which “disproportionately” affect other regions more than the Northeast.
Posted inOpinion
I led efforts to increase primary care spending in Rhode Island. Here are the things Massachusetts must get right.
High-quality primary care must be a common good for all Massachusetts residents. It is the most important part of a health care system, and it needs to be treated as such.
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 inEnergy
A proposed moratorium on data centers hits resistance in Mass. Senate
The back-and-forth nature of data center policy in Massachusetts raises the question: Do Bay State policymakers want to draw in these facilities, which can provide some jobs and property tax benefits, or not?
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 inHousing
Layered over ADU law, Senate duplex bill would allow three units on most residential lots
Lawmakers “could, say, take another 10, 20 years to ask cities and towns to legalize duplexes,” said Amy Dain. “We have learned that is not possible. You could spend 50 years on it and you would only see it at the margins.”
Posted inPublic Records
Senate ready to open access to legislative records, muddying outlook for ballot question
The Senate will take up a bill next week that would subject the governor’s office and Legislature to public records requirements, but huge questions still linger about how legislative action would affect a question on the November ballot seeking a similar goal.
Posted inHealth Care
Small businesses still in line for double-digit health premium increases — with some relief
Newly approved health insurance premium rates in the so-called merged market mean hundreds of thousands of Bay Staters will face average increases of more than 10 percent in 2027.
Posted inOpinion
The Legislature can adopt a simple fix to help Massachusetts communities drowning in student transportation costs
According to the recent IG’s report, 53 percent of Massachusetts school districts received no bid or only one bid for student transportation contracts. When that becomes the rule, not the exception, it is clear what the problem is.
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 inOpinion
SJC ruling shouldn’t be the last word on rent control
State lawmakers must take action to uphold the will of Bay Staters by lifting the ban on rent control and allowing local jurisdictions to pass the rent stabilization ordinances that work best for their communities.
Posted inPolitics
Eleventh-hour Senate move could upend tax rebate ballot question
Democrats in the Senate appear to be coalescing around a late-term push to repeal the law known as Chapter 62F, in the process inviting incendiary anger from groups that want government to control its spending habits.
Posted inBallot Questions
Marijuana question survives as all nine ballot questions get their numbers
It’s official: voters will face nine statewide ballot questions, tying the record last reached in 1994, and the list will include whether to undo recreational cannabis legalization.
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 inEnvironment
Wu, feds unveil plan to tackle sea level rise in Boston
The draft plan is set to act as a roadmap for how New England’s largest city can navigate the more than four feet of sea level rise the Army Corps projects will hit Boston by 2090.
Posted inOpinion
House transparency bill is anything but
The bill is an excellent example of just why the Legislature is so unpopular.
Posted inHousing
In the face of a state housing shortage, could single-family zoning be on the chopping block?
The Senate’s economic development bill, which lawmakers have teed up for a vote next week, includes a provision that would require municipalities to allow duplexes as-of-right on all residentially zoned lots.
Posted inEnergy
A Mass Save reform generating consensus among lawmakers is drawing blowback from advocates
The change under consideration by the Legislature would impose new income verification requirements on only the moderate-income customers in the state’s 21 designated equity communities.
Posted inEducation
Healey seeks $100 million in additional school funding as districts confront mounting financial strain
Deploying a somewhat novel approach to budgeting “Fair Share” dollars, Gov. Maura Healey wants to give K-12 districts another funding injection amid rising economic pressures.
Posted inState Government
House counteroffer to primary care may focus on prescription drugs
Pressed about aspects of a potential health care bill, House Speaker Ron Mariano said, “I know the committee, health care policy, has done an awful lot of work in prescription drug stuff, so we’ll start probably with that, and see where that takes us.”
Posted inCourts
SJC sides with solar developer in dispute with Petersham officials
The case before the justices laid bare the rising tensions over local control between solar developers and small communities across the state that are potential prime spots for large solar arrays thanks to their relatively cheap and abundant land.
Posted inState Government
Healey rolls out $75M loan funds for municipal infrastructure
The new infrastructure lending program would provide cities and towns with flexible, low-interest financing to address funding gaps, advance priority projects, and maximize access to federal resources.
