As a student at UMass Amherst, Darlene Arcese changed her major three times before realizing the traditional college experience wasn’t for her. So Arcese went off the beaten education path and enrolled in the Power Utility Technology Program at Bunker Hill Community College, where she received the hands-on training she needed to start a career […]
Adam Sennott
Posted inEconomy, Health Care
Bush hit and miss on new tech tax
The new computer and software services tax is stirring strong opposition in the business community – and a large dose of confusion as well. Jonathan Bush, the president of Watertown-based athenahealth, which uses cloud-based services to help medical practices coordinate electronic health records and care, said after an event this week with Gov. Deval Patrick […]
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
Lawmakers dismiss Patrick warnings, vote to override
The Legislature on Wednesday dismissed Gov. Deval Patrick’s warnings about a future shortage of transportation funds, voting overwhelmingly to override the governor’s veto of a $500 million revenue package made up of tax increases on custom software modifications, cigarettes, and gasoline. Patrick said the bill was “good” but “not good enough” when he vetoed the […]
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
Transportation bill vetoed by Patrick
Saying the Legislature’s “good bill isn’t good enough,” Gov. Deval Patrick on Friday vetoed legislation that would have pumped $500 million into the state’s transportation system and helped avoid steep cuts in local aid and transit spending. Patrick had said he would veto the bill unless it included an amendment that called for a 3 […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics
State facility tests wind turbine blades
PERCHED ON THE edge of Boston Harbor in Charlestown is a long white box about the length of a football field. Inside is a testing facility where the Patrick administration hopes the future of wind turbine technology will be discovered. The Wind Technology Testing Center is the largest facility of its kind in the country, […]
Posted inEconomy
The Massachusetts H-1B connection
MORE THAN 1,200 Massachusetts companies hired 5,481 skilled foreign workers last year through a controversial visa program that is simultaneously being praised for helping to plug holes in the state’s tech workforce and criticized as a way to replace US employees with cheaper foreign labor. The H-1B visa program, which allows skilled foreign workers to […]
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
Patrick signs budget, vetoes local aid, T funds
GOV. DEVAL PATRICK on Friday signed a $33.6 billion budget for the already-underway fiscal year, but vetoed $417 million in transportation and local aid funds because of an ongoing dispute he is having with the Legislature. Patrick said he only signs budgets that are balanced and couldn’t in good conscience sign a budget that depended […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Bills push tax credits for angel investors
TWO STATE LAWMAKERS are pushing legislation that would create a new tax credit benefitting investors in Massachusetts startup companies, particularly firms located in struggling areas of the state. Rep. Claire Cronin, a Democrat from Easton, and Sen. Bruce Tarr, a Republican from Gloucester, filed bills establishing a tax credit for so-called angel investors. Cronin’s bill […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Naughton’s gun tour
The school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, sparked an intense national debate about gun control, but the issue soon faded in the face of a split Congress. The debate has also disappeared from the front pages in Massachusetts, but it hasn’t gone away. Rep. Harold Naughton, a Democrat from Clinton and the House chair of the […]