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Yes, the MBTA operating budget has increased significantly – and that’s a good thing
To provide the services we need, want, and expect from our public transit system, the T needs to do more things and hire more people and pay them competitively. There’s nothing controversial or troubling about this.
Flexible financing or illegal reverse mortgage? Court allows suit over home equity investments to move forward
Though states including Massachusetts are considering possible rules for this novel product, which exchanges a lump sum for a share in home equity, HEI companies operate largely without regulation.
Massachusetts can’t afford to overlook the power of its Hispanic/Latino workforce
Hispanics/Latinos represent more than one in eight workers in Massachusetts, yet persistent gaps in education, workforce access, and wealth threaten to limit both Hispanic/Latino progress and the Commonwealth’s economic resilience.
Back for another term: Bruce Stebbins on his reappointment to the cannabis commission and his vision for the coming five years
“We continue to be a place that people want to come and work,” said Bruce Stebbins, acting chair of the Cannabis Control Commission in a Q&A about his reappointment to the board.
Restoring blighted properties is easier said than done in Western Mass.
This week on the Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon editor Laura Colarusso sits down with Gateway Cities reporter Hallie Claflin to talk about her recent reporting in Holyoke – where city leaders and housing developers have struggled to restore vacant mills and blighted industrial buildings.
Without a watchdog, T operating costs spiral
But making T finances more sustainable by bringing them in line with other large urban transit agencies takes more than just capital improvements. It will require legislative leaders and Gov. Healey to reinstate and empower an entity like the Fiscal and Management Control Board to explicitly focus on operating cost control.
Cuts to federal solar tax credits send Mass. farmers ‘scrambling’
Federal solar tax credits that once covered 30 percent of project costs are being phased out. For farmers, that can mean fewer opportunities to use agrivoltaics to offset rising costs and keep farmland in production.
The new Seaport District? Restoration of Lynn’s waterfront has developers closing in on city’s South Harbor
The waterfront is one of Lynn’s major attractions and has been a key part of the city’s ongoing growth and economic revitalization plans. But affordable housing advocates have raised concerns about the kind of development that Harbor Park has attracted – comparing the South Harbor to Boston’s wealthy Seaport District.
“They’re in everything:” Massachusetts lawmakers explore solutions to forever chemicals
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, at least 45% of the nation’s tap drinking water is estimated to have one or more types of PFAS. State data show that at least 171 public water systems in 96 cities in Massachusetts have contaminated water that exceeds the state’s limit.
Tax change lifts plans for “hyperscale” data center campus in Westfield
The increasingly digital world — in which people and businesses are constantly searching the Internet, turning to AI for help, or storing information in the cloud — has led to a growing need for data centers to support online activity.
At a moment of crisis, Boston’s top two public media leaders argue that building community is the way forward. They’re right.
Boston’s two leading public media executives say that rebuilding trust and community are the keys to survival in the face of the loss of $1.1 billion in federal funds for public broadcasting over the next two years.
Rent control measure triggers ballot eligibility debate
The months ahead could feature court battles, a hefty signature-gathering effort and a bruising campaign to sway voters.
The Fair Share Amendment is delivering
Nearly three years after its passage, it’s becoming clear that the millionaires tax has been a total success, and an incredible benefit for our state’s businesses.
Legacy admissions must go
Some argue that the practice builds alumni tradition and a culture of financial giving, but it remains an affront to equity in education.
Massachusetts signals new gas customers may soon have to pay full hookup costs
Line extension allowances – which allow gas companies to charge the cost of hooking up new customers to existing ones – may be on their way out in Massachusetts.
Don’t let public access TV go dark
In communities across the Commonwealth, these stations have kept the lights on in meeting halls and school auditoriums, ensuring that local democracy happens in the open.
Ali Noorani tapped as new Barr Foundation president
Noorani will succeed Jim Canales, the foundation’s longtime president who announced in January that he planned to step down after 11 years in the role.
Galvin pursuing ballot question on same-day voter registration
Galvin understands the ideal often put forth that lawmaking is best done through the give and take of legislative deliberation. But he also knows the difference between thoughtful deliberation and bill-killing delay tactics.
In Lynn, new ‘Calm Team’ offers alternative to police response
We are joining the growing number of communities across the US that are exploring ways to handle calls for help other than by sending police officers.
Real estate developers in Gateway Cities grappling with Trump’s tariffs
Housing and real estate developers are beginning to feel the effects of President Trump’s taxes on imports – a move the administration claims will boost American-made products, but market experts say will hike already-elevated real estate production costs. Some are struggling to factor uncertain material costs into their current project plans.
Can Mass. turn the health care crisis around?
John McDonough and Paul Hattis welcome Eric Dickson, president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health, to discuss the primary care crisis and a troubling federal landscape. Dickson lays out a grim picture of health care in Massachusetts if the state and federal trajectory does not change.
In the face of federal cuts, Mass. must spend transportation dollars right
Now is the moment to take careful stock of how we’ve spent federal funds and where we should invest going forward.
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.