“Corporate Crimes Against Health Care” bill that would establish new penalties and guardrails for business leaders who endanger patient safety.
State House News Service
Posted inEconomy
Lawmakers from Lowell, Springfield say cities would welcome economic jolt
Two Democrats who have a chance to stamp their mark on Gov. Maura Healey’s plan to reinvigorate the state’s business climate want the benefits to stretch beyond the Boston metropolitan area.
Posted inTransportation
‘Terrible options’ if T budget isn’t straightened out, watchdog says
Public transportation is on the verge of an “existential crisis,” cities and towns that help fund the system warned, as the MBTA moves ahead with a budget plan that drains its reserves in the face of a looming deficit.
Posted inBallot Questions
Top Dem says talks occurring on rideshare, MCAS question alternatives
The Legislature last month ruled out acting on any of the 2024 ballot questions as proposed by the petitioners, but lawmakers have not ruled out the idea of intervening to keep some of the questions from being decided this fall by voters.
Posted inHousing
House Democrats outline $6.2 billion housing plan
With sky-high sale prices and rents suffocating residents, the House will try to shift the tide by pumping more money into existing housing programs and rolling out a few new strategies.
Posted inEconomy
House approves liquor licenses for under-served Boston neighborhoods
The redrafted bill steers 180 non-transferable licenses over three years to 12 ZIP codes in Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, East Boston, Roslindale, West Roxbury, Hyde Park, Charlestown, and Jamaica Plain.
Posted inTransportation
Coming this summer, T riders can use credit cards, phones to pay their fares
The start of contactless payment — a feature in place in other major transit systems, including New York City’s subway — will mark a milestone in a delayed, over-budget project to modernize fare collection at the T.
Posted inState Government
Millionaire surtax revenues far exceed expectations
Massachusetts has collected about $1.8 billion from a voter-approved surtax on the state’s highest earners through the first nine months of the fiscal year, the Department of Revenue said Monday in a quarterly report.
Posted inHealth Care
House passes broad health care legislation
The House voted 152-1 to approve a bill that combines reforms intended to avert a repeat of the Steward Health Care crisis with changes designed to boost state oversight of facility expansions and closures, refine cost control tools to better account for fluctuations, and increase funding for hospitals that typically serve high shares of low-income patients and people of color.
Posted inHousing
Mariano having doubts about local option transfer tax
The controversial policy idea may be what is holding up the House in taking up Gov. Maura Healey’s $4.1 billion housing bond bill, which she filed last October and has said is critical to addressing the shortage of affordable and available homes in Massachusetts.
Posted inState Government
Former prison in Norfolk to reopen as overflow shelter
A razor fence around the facility will be removed, according to a spokesperson for the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities.
Posted inBallot Questions
DiZoglio targets Uber, Lyft with supercharged hypothetical audit
The analysis estimated the on-demand ride platforms would have owed the state about $266 million in combined workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, and the paid family and medical leave payments over the past decade if their tens of thousands of drivers were treated as full employees.
Posted inState Government
Rivera steps down at MassDevelopment
Dan O’Connell, MassDevelopment board member and former secretary of housing and economic development under Gov. Deval Patrick, will step in as interim CEO while the board conducts a search for a new leader.
Posted inRace/Racism
Antisemetic incidents surge in New England
Rabbi Ron Fish, ADL New England’s interim region director, called the data “simply stunning.”
Posted inState Government
Despite flat tax collections, House budget plan would boost spending 3.3%
The House plan does not call for any major tax hikes or draw from the state’s long-term “rainy day” savings account, whose balance could surpass $9 billion by July 2025 under the House’s latest projection.
Posted inHealth Care
Markey, Warren do tag team on Steward’s de la Torre
“So that seat for their testimony was empty today, as empty as the promises which Steward and Ralph de la Torre had made to the state of Massachusetts,” Markey told reporters after the hearing.
Posted inState Government
Amid budget uncertainty, Healey hits breaks on hiring
With some exceptions, all new Executive Branch hiring between April 3 and June 30 will need to be approved by the Executive Office of Administration and Finance based on time-sensitivity and the importance of positions, the office said.
Posted inHealth Care
Steward seeks to sell physician network to Optum
“This is a significant proposed change involving two large medical providers, both in Massachusetts and nationally, with important implications for the delivery and cost of health care across Massachusetts,” HPC Director David Seltz said.
Posted inImmigration
Healey makes another tweak to the emergency shelter law
Gov. Maura Healey made a new change in the program, imposing one-month restrictions on families staying in overflow housing shelters while they wait for shelter spots to open up.
Posted inEnvironment
House eyes MWRA expansion
The MWRA was created by the Legislature in 1984 and currently provides wholesale water and sewer services to 3.1 million people and more than 5,500 businesses in 61 communities in eastern and central Massachusetts.
Posted inEducation
State officials seek ‘more coherent financial aid system’
The Department of Higher Education plans to evaluate gaps in financial support as officials consider redesigning the mix of tuition reimbursement, grant, loan forgiveness, and tax programs, said Michael Dannenberg, deputy commissioner of policy.
Posted inImmigration
Senate bill also backs cap on stays in emergency shelter system
Like the bill that cleared the House earlier this month, the Senate bill could push some people out of the system after nine months, which would mark a shift in a state that by law guarantees access to shelter for eligible families and pregnant women.
Posted inHealth Care
Lots of finger-pointing at health care cost growth hearing
A report released Wednesday estimated total health care spending in Massachusetts at $71.7 billion in 2022, and a per capita health care expenditure of $10,264 per resident, according to the Center for Health Information and Analysis.
Posted inMarijuana
Healey makes history with marijuana mega-pardon
Healey said her move makes Massachusetts “the first state to take action” since President Joseph Biden in 2022 asked the nation’s governors to follow his lead on pardoning simple cannabis possession convictions.
