STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE LAWMAKERS WERE UNABLE to find agreement on a bill aimed at maintaining open spaces across Massachusetts in a marathon final formal session Sunday into Monday, but […]
State Government
Posted inCourts, Drugs, Guns, Marijuana, State Government
Here’s what passed in marathon all-night legislative session
IN A MARATHON all night session, the Massachusetts Legislature finally finished many of their key priorities of the 2021-2022 legislative session, even as one key priority – tax reform – […]
Posted inState Government, State House News Service
Groggy lawmakers pull the plug on $1b tax package
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE HOUSE and Senate pulled an all-nighter to push through approval of a wide assortment of bills before the legislative session ended but ultimately decided Monday […]
Posted inPolitics, State Government, State House News Service
House rejects Baker’s latest ‘dangerousness’ gambit
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WITH THE LEGISLATIVE session expected to end on Sunday night and a large backlog of bills in the pipeline, the House and Senate accomplished relatively little […]
Posted inHealth Care
Budget notes: Disability Law Center questions veto
THE DISABILITY LAW CENTER on Friday released its latest report criticizing the state’s management of Bridgewater State Hospital, a day after Gov. Charlie Baker vetoed money for the center to […]
Posted inOpinion, State Government
On Beacon Hill, it’s last-minute business as usual
AS THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE slogs to the finish line, having once again ceded its super Democratic majority, this time to a lame duck governor, it’s fair to ask how does […]
Posted inState Government
Mariano open to tinkering, scrapping, or postponing tax cap law
HOUSE SPEAKER Ron Mariano, clearly frustrated with Gov. Charlie Baker, suggested on Friday that the Legislature could modify, scrap, or delay the 1986 tax cap law that is expected to […]
Posted inHealth Care
Baker signs abortion rights bill
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Friday signed into law a sweeping abortion rights bill that protects health care providers from prosecutions by other states, requires insurers to fully cover abortion services, […]
Posted inOpinion
Legislative staff union raises some important questions
I HAVE BEEN following efforts to organize the legislative staff at the State House and I have some concerns. As a former legislator, Chair of Ways and Means and Senate […]
Posted inState Government, State House News Service
Spilka sees no path forward for staff unionization
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE LEGISLATIVE STAFF have waited around four months to learn whether Senate President Karen Spilka would recognize their unionization effort with IBEW Local 2222, and on Thursday […]
Posted inState Government
Baker says he’s leaving state in good shape financially
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Thursday signed into law a $52.7 billion state budget for fiscal 2023, representing an unusually high 9.3 percent growth in spending over the prior year. The […]
Posted inState Government, State House News Service
Cap to give ‘north of $2.5b’ in excess tax revenue back to taxpayers
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER said on Thursday that he expects a law passed by voters in 1986 will require the state to return more than $2.5 billion to taxpayers in the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Baker won’t sign no-cost prison calls without dangerousness bill
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER is making another go at passing elements of his criminal dangerousness bill, this time with a bit of high-stakes legislative horse trading. Baker, in signing the fiscal […]
Posted inEnergy, State Government
Is Mass. eyeing out-of-state nuke, wind power for clean energy?
THE CLIMATE AND ENERGY bill sitting on the governor’s desk contains two policy sections that could open the door to clean energy procurements involving onshore wind from Maine and nuclear […]
Posted inHealth Care
Lawmakers reach agreement on Soldiers’ Home governance
LEGISLATIVE NEGOTIATORS have come to an agreement on how to overhaul the governance of the state’s two Soldiers’ Homes in Holyoke and Chelsea. A bill released Wednesday evening lays out […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Ex-senator Tran sues Healey over criminal charges of stealing a constituent’s gun
FORMER STATE SENATOR Dean Tran, who was indicted earlier this month on charges that he stole a gun from an elderly constituent, filed suit in federal court on Wednesday against […]
Posted inHealth, State Government
With time short, lawmakers seek to reshape local public health
THE LEGISLATURE is poised to dramatically reshape Massachusetts’ local public health landscape, after the COVID-19 pandemic spotlighted just how inadequate it is. “I’ve been doing this work for almost 25 […]
Posted inState Government
Long-forgotten tax cap about to be triggered
WHILE LAWMAKERS scramble to put together a package of tax breaks in the final days of the legislative session, a little-known law from the mid-1980s is about to alter the […]
Posted inPolitics
Handful of Democrats called out for voting to suspend rules
A CONSERVATIVE advocacy group on Monday called out a handful of Democratic lawmakers who in early 2021 voted for more time to study bills coming out of conference committees but […]
Posted inHealth Care
Lawmakers reach agreement on abortion legislation
WITH THE CLOCK ticking down on the Legislature’s two-year session, House and Senate leaders announced on Monday that negotiators have reached agreement between the two branches on a bill to […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Lawmakers pass moratorium on prison expansion
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE IT’S ALMOST TIME for Gov. Charlie Baker to decide exactly what he thinks about a legislative mandate preventing his administration from studying or constructing new correctional […]
Posted inEnergy, State Government
Here’s what’s in the Legislature’s energy/climate change legislation
THE LEGISLATURE suspended its rules and whisked through a climate change bill on Thursday that seeks to make Massachusetts the “Saudi Arabia of wind,” promotes the adoption of zero emission […]
Posted inState Government
State budget is a lot more than just a spending plan
FRAIDY REISS, who leads the New Jersey-based advocacy group Unchained At Last, has been fighting to end child marriage in Massachusetts for six years, lobbying lawmakers and testifying at hearings. […]
Posted inState Government
Senate’s $4B economic development bill provides faster tax relief
THE MASSACHUSETTS SENATE released a $4 billion economic development bill on Monday that includes some key spending differences from a House bill in areas like education, human services, and housing. […]