Caljouw sat down to discuss how his office is navigating a changing landscape.
Maura Healey
Posted inOpinion
Proposed rollback of Mass. health aide program previews the coming pain from Medicaid cuts
Cuts to home care are merely a precursor to the devastation that will follow as Medicaid cuts reach our hospitals, community health centers, and nursing homes.
Posted inEnergy
Shifting politics around data centers scramble Healey AI push
A backlash to data centers is scrambling whether and how the AI industry takes hold in Massachusetts, how it plays politically for Democrats in a deep-blue state, and how state officials manage the tradeoffs.
Posted inEnvironment
Ratepayer revolt: Has the affordability debate soured Mass. on climate commitments?
Fighting climate change was once a badge of honor in Massachusetts, embraced by virtually all Democrats and even a lot of Republicans. But as households grapple with soaring energy bills, elected officials have become much more squeamish about the topic.
Posted inEnergy
Healey’s shift toward nuclear energy raises affordability, feasibility questions
The argument for nuclear is, in some ways, simple. It doesn’t generate greenhouse gas emissions and reliably produces power. But it’s no slam dunk either. Building new nuclear facilities is notoriously expensive and time-consuming.
Posted inState Government
‘Frustration’ remains among lawmakers despite shrinking unemployment delays
Although a legislative response appears not to be a priority, some lawmakers used Labor Secretary Lauren Jones’s appearance at a budget hearing to prod the Healey administration on the unemployment payment delays that plunged the system to worst-in-the-nation performance last year.
Posted inThe Codcast
How energy affordability in Massachusetts reached crisis mode
This week on The Codcast, we unpack how increasingly expensive utility bills are shaping the energy debate in Massachusetts and reaching a fever pitch on Beacon Hill. With energy costs now the top household concern in the Bay State, how should policymakers respond to the affordability crisis as power demand is expected to rise and with the due date on ambitious climate commitments creeping closer? Our guests, Kyle Murray, director of state program implementation in Massachusetts at the environmental nonprofit Acadia Center, and Dan Dolan, president of the New England Power Generators Association, hash it all out.
Posted inThe Codcast
How ‘universal’ is universal pre-K?
This week on The Codcast, we dive into Gov. Maura Healey’s “Gateway to Pre-K” agenda. By the end of 2026, her administration declared that every family of a 4-year-old in the state’s 26 Gateway Cities would have the opportunity – at low or no cost – to enroll their child in a preschool program that prepares them for kindergarten. But local providers say they won’t get there.
Posted inEnergy
House passes landmark energy bill with deep cuts to Mass Save, sending it to Senate
The legislation reflects the larger tradeoffs around energy policy as Beacon Hill grapples with rising power demand, soaring costs, and quickly approaching climate commitments.
Posted inOpinion
Behind closed doors, big decisions loom on health care affordability
The rationale for closed-door talks is that it allows participants to take real risks. Without that courage, privacy becomes insulation rather than incubation.
Posted inEducation
Massachusetts is poised to shake up literacy instruction — and some educators don’t like it
The Bay State is poised to enact what its supporters call some of the strongest reading legislation in the nation — and some educators worry it goes too far in imposing new standards that override teacher control of classrooms.
Posted inEnergy
House tees up sprawling energy package that would cut $1B from Mass Save
The legislation thrust Beacon Hill’s Democratic supermajority into a fierce debate when an earlier version of the bill that would have weakened the state’s 2030 climate targets advanced out of committee.
Posted inOpinion
In Wellesley, a determined effort to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory
What’s unfolding in the wealthy Boston suburb is not that different from other situations across the state when communities and leaders with the best of intentions lose their resolve.
Posted inPolitics
Healey won’t attend White House events with governors
“‘For years, Governors of both parties met with Presidents of both parties annually,” Healey said in a statement released after 4 p.m. Thursday. ‘This has always been an important opportunity for us to discuss the most pressing issues facing our country and how we can work together on solutions. But it should come as no surprise to anyone that President Trump has completely politicized this.'”
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook: Wu and Rooney on collision course, again
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce chief Jim Rooney are cruising toward another political fight that could strain their sometimes-friendly, sometimes-cool relationship. Over the course of the past week, Wu came out in support of a rent control ballot question, while Rooney’s organization joined the real estate-led campaign seeking to defeat the measure.
Posted inHousing
Ed Augustus becomes eighth member of Healey’s Cabinet to depart
Housing Secretary Ed Augustus will step down next week to take over a Central Massachusetts bank, and the governor picked former HUD official — and onetime MassINC chief operating officer — Juana Matias to succeed him.
Posted inImmigration
It’s anyone’s guess when Beacon Hill will agree on an immigration response
Three weeks after both Gov. Maura Healey and the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus offered separate roadmaps for action, it’s still unclear how or when House and Senate Democrats will proceed amid national pressure to respond to ICE raids.
Posted inEducation
Healey has called for universal pre-K in every Gateway City by the year’s end. Providers say they won’t get there.
Seven of the 26 cities are not currently participating in the state’s pre-K implementation program. Child care providers in cities that are participating say that while it enforces a mixed-delivery approach highly valued by preschool advocates, universal access for every 4-year-old by the end of the year is a pipe dream.
Posted inEnvironment
Mass. falling short of key climate targets, with some bright spots, after one year of Trump attacks
The state’s self-assessment comes as it races to reduce its carbon pollution to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and produce no new net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 — all while confronting a hostile federal government and an affordability crisis sweeping the state.
Posted inState Government
‘It just requires people to be destitute’: Healey draws criticism over push to tighten eligibility for safety-net program
Five years after lawmakers scrapped the asset limit attached to the Emergency Aid to the Elderly, Disabled, and Children program, Gov. Maura Healey wants to bring it back at a higher threshold — a move that advocates say will impose unnecessary burdens on at-risk recipients.
Posted inState Government
Governor’s budget proposal seeks to trim environmental programs roughly 4 percent
The impact of the federal reconciliation package enacted by President Trump last year coupled with slower growth are forcing Healey to reexamine funding across the board. EEA is not immune from the shifting budget landscape.
Posted inEnvironment
Mass. climate chief missed her own deadline to calculate the cost of state’s climate commitments
Hoffer set out to put a price tag on the state’s net-zero climate commitment and develop a menu of options for how to pay for it. That price is still not yet known more than a year after the report was due.
Posted inHousing
Holyoke’s unsheltered homeless count hits new record as threats to federal aid loom
The state and federal funding landscape continues to shift while homelessness in Western Massachusetts has reached unprecedented levels in the aftermath of the pandemic. Holyoke had the highest unsheltered count in all of Hampden County this year, according to preliminary numbers.
