Boston Mayor Michelle Wu called the proposed commuter rail fare cuts “low-hanging fruit that is there to get more people onto reliable public transportation, ease congestion, and help the flow of traffic as we continue to fix the larger system.”
Wu backs bill cutting commuter rail fares in Boston
Posted inCriminal Justice
Incarceration and crime rates both down sharply since 2018 reforms
Five years after Massachusetts enacted sweeping reforms aimed at reducing incarceration and addressing racial disparities in the criminal justice system, a new study says the state has seen sharp decreases in both incarceration and crime rates.
Posted inImmigration
Healey seeks $893m for shelter system
“The situation is evolving and we continue to evolve with it,” said Mathew Gorzkowicz, the governor’s top budget official.
Posted inTransportation
Healey’s $58b state spending plan boosts T, education funding with one-time revenues, cuts
Amid a forecast for little to no tax revenue growth, Healey’s team balanced their plan by trimming $450 million from various line items, proposing to prevent about half a billion dollars in other spending growth, and deploying $1.25 billion from other available state resources.
Posted inOpinion
Another chance for Mass. to back South African freedom struggle
Massachusetts has a long connection with the freedom and justice movement in South Africa, and those ties will be renewed this week when a key leader of the current fight for democracy there arrives in Boston to draw attention to that cause.
Posted inImmigration
Healey on board with reforms at southern border
AS SENATE NEGOTIATORS in Washington edge closer to a deal on immigration, Gov. Maura Healey is signaling a willingness to support steps that restrict access to migrants at the border. […]
Posted inMarijuana
Hemp-based THC products are showing up all over
The reason hemp is treated differently is because the 2018 federal Farm Act removed hemp from the definition of marijuana, which is considered a controlled substance under federal law.
Posted inOpinion
Some thoughts on how to deal with the Steward situation
STEWARD HEALTH CARE appears to be in serious financial trouble. In some ways, it’s surprising the for-profit health care system — with 33 hospitals, including eight in Massachusetts, plus a physicians […]
Posted inPolitics
Donors to DiZoglio ballot campaign mostly hail from business sector
The ballot question is championed by state Auditor Diana DiZoglio, who is in effect launching another statewide campaign after jumping from a state Senate seat to the auditor’s office in 2022.
Posted inEducation
Striking Newton teachers get support from Boston congresswoman
Some of the loudest voices of support among political leaders for striking teachers are again coming from officials who are far removed from the day-to-day oversight of the schools or state policy governing teachers’ strikes, which are illegal under current law.
Posted inOpinion
We propose new tiered discounts on electricity
IT’S AN UNWELCOME FACT that far too many utility customers across Massachusetts struggle to afford their monthly bills. While utilities, including National Grid, offer discounted rates and other assistance programs, […]
Posted inState Government
Healey scratches liquor license provision from municipal bill
GOV. MAURA HEALEY touched off a bit of political intrigue on Monday when she filed “municipal empowerment” legislation that lacked one of the powers she had trumpeted just three days […]
Posted inTransportation
Healey says no new taxes — for now
Gov. Maura Healey says she won’t be relying on new taxes and fees to balance her budget proposal for the coming fiscal year, but it seems new taxes and fees are not far away on the horizon.
Posted inThe Codcast
Reading Healey’s transportation tea leaves
Gov. Maura Healey’s State of the Commonwealth address included ambitious language about supporting transportation, but the details remain to be seen. This week on The Codcast, former Sec. of Transportation Jim Aloisi and Executive Director of the MBTA Advisory Board Brian Kane join CommonWealth Beacon’s Bruce Mohl to discuss what kind of support Massachusetts’s transportation system needs and is likely to get.
Posted inEducation
Is tutoring the answer to pandemic learning loss?
Tutoring has a stronger base of solid positive evidence than almost any other school intervention, but joins lots of other innovations in education that seem to offer great promise but have been stubbornly difficult to implement at the kind of scale that would really drive population-wide improvements.
Posted inOpinion
Big ideas for dealing with congestion at Logan
Massport should partner with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and the MBTA to expand passenger rail capacity from South Station, including consideration of a new rail tunnel to Logan.
Posted inTransportation
MBTA, going over the cliff, seeks more funding
The T today finds itself in a precarious situation. Under Healey and MBTA General Manager Philip Eng, the T is spending far more than it is taking in, and spending is accelerating as more employees are hired under recently negotiated generous union contracts that pay a lot more.
Posted inGovernment
Healey pitches new revenue source for cities and towns: vehicle surcharge
Cities and towns would be given the ability to levy a new surcharge atop the motor vehicle excise tax and bypass Beacon Hill on issuing liquor licenses.
Posted inEconomy
Short takes: Healey backs Everett soccer stadium
The New England Revolution’s bid to bring a soccer stadium to Everett’s waterfront appears to have a new center forward who could help them score a win: Gov. Maura Healey.
Posted inOpinion
Avoid beach landings, connect offshore wind at Canal plant
Standing idle more than 98 percent of the year, Canal’s under-utilized interconnection capacity of approximately 1,200 megawatts sits largely untapped.