Twenty years after Massachusetts passed landmark health care reform legislation that gave the state the highest rate of insurance coverage in the country, the leading players behind the law gathered in the same storied meeting hall where the 2006 bill was signed to celebrate their uncommon achievement.
Maura Healey
Posted inEnergy
Gasoline price spike bears down on Massachusetts
Average regular gas prices in Massachusetts are now $3.97 per gallon, up sharply from $3.47 a month earlier – and $2.96 a year ago, according to AAA.
Posted inBallot Questions
Lawmakers offer mixed messages on income tax ballot question
The House and Senate took different approaches toward conditioning tax relief on the fate of a ballot question, and legislative leaders continue to fling criticism about the process even as they open the door for negotiations.
Posted inEnergy
‘It’s like Russian roulette’: A Bellingham man’s plan to add solar and battery storage to his home meets a nearly $12K utility price tag
In Massachusetts, as in most states, utilities charge the customer that triggers the need for a grid upgrade the full cost, even if it benefits multiple homes. That turns the system for connecting residential solar projects into a game of chance.
Posted inOpinion
My all-of-the-above approach will lower energy costs and advance our climate goals
This is not about choosing one source over another. It is a practical approach to building enough energy from different sources to lower costs, improve reliability, and create jobs.
Posted inEnvironment
Climate reckoning: Mass. communities stare down the prospect — and complications — of a retreat from rising waters
Massachusetts is right now engaging in the most robust dialogue in state history around the concept of relocating people, homes, and communities away from places prone to flooding.
Posted inEconomy
‘Blunt optimist’: Mass. insurance commissioner Michael Caljouw tries to manage sea change in the industry
Caljouw sat down to discuss how his office is navigating a changing landscape.
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.
