ML STRATEGIES REPORTED nearly $5.2 million in lobbying fees last year, breaking the previous record of just over $4 million that the company set in 2016. The company, the lobbying […]
State Government
Posted inUncategorized
Temperatures plunged during homeless census count
AS SNOW SQUALLS and plunging temperatures took over Massachusetts for much of the last two days, no one felt it quite as hard as the homeless. The polar vortex arrived […]
Posted inPolitics
House, Senate go different routes on non-disclosures
THE SENATE VOTED UNANIMOUSLY on Thursday to ban the use of non-disclosure agreements one day after the House overwhelmingly refused to take a similar action. “We are using public funds […]
Posted inOpinion
A Kafkaesque health care assessment
EVEN FRANZ KAFKA would be taken aback by the state’s convoluted and self-defeating health care assessment on human service providers. Imagine the following: A non-profit organization provides critical services to […]
Posted inPolitics
Mass. lawmakers, businesses step up for furloughed federal workers
WHILE WASHINGTON and the Trump administration continue their disastrous handling of the federal government’s partial shutdown, legislators, municipalities, and businesses across the Commonwealth are searching for short-term solutions to the […]
Posted inThe Download
Baker’s new tax tone
It was one of the most dissected lines from Gov. Charlie Baker’s recent inaugural address, coming at the end of a victory lap about the recent budget surplus. “And we […]
Posted inEnvironment
Baker takes new tack on taxes
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER, normally a skeptic when it comes to tax hikes, sprinkled new taxes and new tax revenue throughout the annual budget proposal he filed on Wednesday. A proposed increase […]
Posted inUncategorized
Millionaire tax back in play
THE BACKERS of the millionaire tax are preparing to mount a second campaign to get it passed, but this time they are using an approach designed to sidestep the legal […]
Posted inBook Review
How modern leaders got John Winthrop’s ‘City on a Hill’ wrong
AS A CITY ON A HILL The Story of America’s Most Famous Lay Sermon By Daniel T. Rodgers 368 pages, Princeton University Press THE “MORAL CAPITALISM” that Rep. Joe Kennedy […]
Posted inPolitics
Animal House — the sequel
IN ONE OF the more bizarre State House stories in a long time, the Boston Globe is reporting that state Rep. Paul McMurtry of Dedham grabbed the “backside” of a […]
Posted inThe Download
Animal House — the sequel
In one of the more bizarre State House stories in a long time, the Boston Globe is reporting that state Rep. Paul McMurtry of Dedham grabbed the “backside” of a […]
Posted inPolitics
Beacon Hill notes: DeLeo cruises to speaker reelection
REP. ROBERT DELEO cruised to reelection as House speaker for the sixth time on Wednesday, but a small band of lawmakers from his own party registered their disapproval of the […]
Posted inOpinion
A resolution for Legislature: Finish last year’s work
IN A FEW short days, the next legislative session in the Massachusetts State House will begin. New legislators will be sworn in. The governor will give his State of the […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Lawmaker salaries going up 5.9%
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE TWO YEARS AFTER legislators ignited an uproar by voting through a generous package of pay raises for themselves and other public officials, the salaries for top […]
Posted inPolitics
House goes with Senate approach on Grid legislation
HOUSE LEADERSHIP spent all day thinking about it, but in the end decided to go with the Senate’s approach to extending unemployment benefits to locked-out steelworkers – most immediately to […]
Posted inPolitics
House, Senate at odds on Grid legislation
THE SENATE APPROVED legislation on Thursday that would extend the unemployment benefits of 1,250 locked-out National Grid workers, but the measure, at least temporarily, stalled in the House, which passed […]
Posted inOpinion
Ex-lobbyist reveals how the House really works
AT THE MASSACHUSETTS State House, I stepped outside of a packed hearing on updating the state’s bottle bill to speak with a young reporter for a western Massachusetts weekly. I […]
Posted inOpinion
The state’s social contract with utilities
THE ONGOING LOCKOUT of about 1,250 workers by National Grid raises important conflicts between the provisions of labor law and the statutes governing the public service obligations of the state’s […]
Posted inEconomy
Baker backs more worker benefits if Grid lockout doesn’t end soon
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER acknowledged on Wednesday that extending the unemployment benefits of locked-out National Grid workers would be an “unusual precedent,” but he said he was willing to take that […]
Posted inPolitics
Ash aide moves up to take his job
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE IN THE SECOND SHAKEUP of his Cabinet since Gov. Charlie Baker won reelection in November, the Baker administration announced Tuesday afternoon that Secretary Jay Ash is […]
Posted inOpinion
Benjamin LaGuer deserves a break
IT HAS BEEN SAD to see news updates on opposition to long-time Massachusetts inmate Benjamin LaGuer’s bid for a compassionate release because he has liver cancer and only months to […]
Posted inPolitics
House, in informal session, passes Grid legislation
THE MASSACHUSETTS HOUSE, in a sparsely attended informal session on Thursday, approved legislation that would extend unemployment assistance for the 1,250 locked-out workers of National Grid or any other utility […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Big question for lawmakers: When will downturn come?
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE DESPITE A STRONG ECONOMY, last year’s $1 billion budget surplus, and revenue collections that are outperforming expectations so far this year, the potential for an economic […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
National Grid takes pounding on Beacon Hill
NATIONAL GRID took a public relations pounding on Tuesday at a Beacon Hill hearing where steelworkers testified that the utility’s decision to lock them out in June had compromised public […]