HAPPY DAYS are here again. That may not be the case for most Massachusetts residents, still in the grip of the COVID pandemic, but it appears to be the case for state budget writers – at least for now. The House Ways and Means Committee budget proposal released Wednesday would spend $47.649 billion in fiscal […]
Massachusetts Legislature
Posted inUncategorized
What you need to know about COVID-19 variants
MASSACHUSETTS HAS some of the highest numbers of COVID-19 variants of any state in the country. Some of the variants that exist today are more contagious and may cause more severe disease than the initial virus. Some may also be able to break through the vaccines that are currently available. And, experts agree, more variants […]
Posted inRace/Racism
Senate committee to probe post-COVID society
WHEN SEN. ADAM HINDS looks at the disproportionate toll COVID-19 has taken on poor people and communities of color in Massachusetts, he said, “It’s hard not to experience it as a massive policy failure.” Hinds, a Pittsfield Democrat who now chairs a special Senate Committee on Reimagining Massachusetts Post-Pandemic Resiliency, said inequity will be a […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Film tax credit backers say they have the votes
SUPPORTERS OF THE state’s film tax credit, which came under fire this week from a commission examining Massachusetts tax breaks, say they have the votes to pass legislation that would make the tax credit permanent. The credit, which under current law is scheduled to sunset on January 1, 2023, provides a tax credit equal to […]
Posted inEnvironment
Baker signs climate change bill into law
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE IT TOOK BASICALLY all of the last legislative session and the first three months of the new one to get major climate policy signed into law, but the real work begins now that Gov. Charlie Baker has put his signature on the law. After it took a long, winding and sometimes […]
Posted inUncategorized
Virus Notes: Senator calls for vaccine passes
SEN. BARRY FINEGOLD of Andover urged the Baker administration on Tuesday to develop some sort of identification that could be used to prove a person has been vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to gain admission to public venues such as Fenway Park. At a legislative oversight hearing on COVID-19 and the vaccination rollout, Finegold said […]
Posted inUncategorized
Lawmakers press Baker on scrapping local vaccination playbook
FOR 20 YEARS, Massachusetts public health officials prepared for an emergency scenario that would require local boards of health to set up vaccination clinics across the state. But when COVID-19 hit the state and a vaccination network needed to be set up, the Baker administration threw out the playbook, improvised, and went in a different […]
Posted inEconomy
Lawmakers find common ground on unemployment insurance bill
TIME-SENSITIVE LEGISLATION aimed at stabilizing the state’s unemployment system, providing targeted tax relief to employers and workers, and creating a COVID-19 emergency sick leave program requires one final vote in each chamber after the House and Senate reached agreement on the bill’s details Monday. After hours of talks, lawmakers ironed out differences between the underlying […]
Posted inThe Download
Beacon Hill’s public health priorities
The cochairs of the Legislature’s Public Health Committee say inequity is their top concern in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. “The COVID epidemic ripped through the Commonwealth and exposed inequities that we’ve all known have been long present in our midst,” said Sen. Jo Comerford of Northampton, the […]
Posted inUncategorized
Beacon Hill’s public health priorities
THE COCHAIRS of the Legislature’s Public Health Committee say inequity is their top concern in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. “The COVID epidemic ripped through the Commonwealth and exposed inequities that we’ve all known have been long present in our midst,” said Sen. Jo Comerford of Northampton, the […]