GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Monday refused to sign a bill overhauling the state’s public health system, instead returning it to the Legislature with an amendment. The intention of the bill had been to introduce state funding and state standards into a system that has until now been controlled entirely by local governments. Baker, worried about […]
Charlie Baker
Posted inEnergy, Environment
Baker proposes major changes to climate change bill
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER sent the Legislature’s climate change bill back with amendments that appear to rewrite it significantly, including reinstating the governor’s original call for using $750 million in federal aid to jumpstart clean energy innovation in the state. The governor’s 19-page letter to the Legislature noted he filed his climate change bill last October […]
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 return roughly $3 billion to Massachusetts taxpayers. “It’s an option,” Mariano said. “Sure it’s an option, everything’s on the table. We could undo the law. […]
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 high growth was fueled by tax revenues coming in higher than expected and an influx in federal COVID recovery money. The budget includes higher spending […]
Posted inState Government
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 coming year. The governor sounded definitive, but officials in his administration and from the Pioneer Institute think tank suggested the amount of money to be […]
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 2023 budget on Thursday, refused to sign into law free phone calls for prison inmates and other prison reforms, instead returning those sections with an […]
Posted inOpinion
Rep. Day and Sen. Eldridge belittle our stories as victims
A “WELL-CRAFTED public relations tour?” For over eight months, more than a dozen survivors have gathered the courage to tell the public how we survived being beaten, threatened, and harassed by the abusers in our lives, and how those horrible crimes could have been prevented had legislation like the Baker-Polito administration’s dangerousness bill been law […]
Posted inRace/Racism
Baker signs law banning hairstyle discrimination
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Tuesday signed the CROWN Act into law, making Massachusetts the 18th state to ban discrimination based on “natural hairstyles.” The governor held a joyous bill signing ceremony in his office, surrounded by advocates and lawmakers, the first such ceremony in his office since before the pandemic. The bill was prompted in […]
Posted inTransportation
MBTA turnaround taking longer than we want
THE INITIAL TURNAROUND of the MBTA in Gov. Charlie Baker’s first term had been such a good story that it is a whole chapter in his recent book. But pandemic-induced staffing shortages and a string of troubling safety incidents have written an unwelcome plot twist. Political support for the administration’s handling of the MBTA has […]
Posted inState Government
Abortion bill nears finish line, with one hurdle left
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE MASSACHUSETTS LAWMAKERS can get to work crafting a final reproductive rights bill following the Senate’s unanimous vote Wednesday, and distance between the branches on an approach to late-term abortions looms as a speedbump with the window for action closing. In the latest state-level volley prompted by a US Supreme Court decision […]