WITH STATE GOVERNMENT sitting on a huge pile of cash, Gov. Charlie Baker is suddenly eager to spend it. Early last week he proposed putting up $10 million in federal relief funding as prize money for a lottery game that would be free to play for anyone who is fully vaccinated. Later in the week […]
Charlie Baker
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Baker proposes 2-month, not 2-day, sales tax holiday
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WITH MASSACHUSETTS on track to end the year with a multi-billion dollar surplus, Gov. Charlie Baker on Wednesday proposed a two-month sales tax holiday that would give consumers a break from the state’s 6.25 percent sales tax in August and September in an effort to drive shoppers to local businesses. The […]
Posted inPolitics
Baker, Healey watch as field for governor forms
ANOTHER DAY, another candidate in the race for Massachusetts governor not named Baker. Or Healey, for that matter. With today’s campaign launch by Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, three Democrats have now formally announced bids for the state’s top job. The Jamaica Plain lawmaker joins former Senate colleague Ben Downing and Harvard professor Danielle Allen in the […]
Posted inUncategorized
House votes to put fed funds through budget-like process
THE HOUSE VOTED overwhelmingly on Tuesday to put nearly all of the roughly $5 billion in unrestricted federal stimulus money through a budget-like process, giving Gov. Charlie Baker immediate control over just $200 million – far less than the $2.8 billion he had sought last week. House officials said they wanted to make spending decisions […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Baker pitches fed aid spending deal to lawmakers
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE IN AN ATTEMPT to end the battle over who gets to spend nearly $5.2 billion in federal relief money, Gov. Charlie Baker on Thursday pitched a plan that would see him cede to the Legislature control over much of the aid as long as lawmakers agree quickly to spend more than […]
Posted inUncategorized
Baker releases $109m to 4 hard-hit communities
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Friday released $109 million in federal money for four communities hard-hit by COVID-19, ending a brief spat with the Legislature over the process of appropriating the money. Baker in March announced that he would give $100 million to Chelsea, Methuen, Everett, and Randolph to compensate for a shortfall in federal funding […]
Posted inUncategorized
Aid for 4 cities tied up in budget spat on Beacon Hill
LEGISLATIVE LEADERS, members of Congress, and Gov. Charlie Baker appear to be in agreement that $100 million in federal funding should be released quickly to Chelsea, Everett, Methuen, and Randolph, even as the money has become part of an ongoing spat over who should control the process of releasing it. The four cities with large minority communities were […]
Posted inUncategorized
Lawmakers, in split with Baker, seek control of $5.28b
THE MONEY is in the bank – and the Massachusetts Legislature is seeking control of it. Massachusetts state government has now received $5.286 billion from the federal government through the American Rescue Plan, which Congress passed and President Biden signed into law in March. On Tuesday, lawmakers took a decisive step to ensure that they, not Gov. Charlie Baker, will have control over […]
Posted inHealth Care
Baker: I forgot about Walsh interview
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER said Friday he “forgot” he had spoken with former Holyoke Soldiers’ Home Superintendent Bennett Walsh before naming him to the post, and expressed interest in taking action to implement reforms at the home after last year’s deadly COVID-19 outbreak. Though Baker had previously said he first met Walsh, who was hired despite […]
Posted inHealth Care
Holyoke Soldiers’ Home report details ‘crisis of leadership’
A REPORT BY a legislative committee formed to investigate the COVID-19 outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home that left 77 veterans dead faulted a “crisis of leadership” for substantially contributing to what it called a “perfect storm” and a “preventable tragedy.” “As we outline in this report, the causes were both immediate, including inexplicable decisions […]