STATE TAX REVENUES are likely to tank by between $1.2 and $3.6 billion this year compared to last year, amid significant uncertainty generated by the COVID-19 pandemic and by federal inaction, according to the state’s top revenue official. That represents a drop of as high as 12 percent year over year. Compared to the amount lawmakers […]
State Government
Posted inArts and Culture
Baker not calling a halt to Halloween
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER said on Tuesday that he won’t try to stop Halloween from happening, saying it is much safer for people to engage in outdoor trick-or-treating than it is to hold parties indoors. “A whole bunch of people say to me, ‘Why don’t you just cancel Halloween?’ And the reason we’re not canceling Halloween […]
Posted inEconomy
Mass. tax collections continue to roll along
DESPITE ALL THE gloom and doom among budget officials on Beacon Hill, Massachusetts tax collections continue to roll along surprisingly well. The state Department of Revenue said on Monday that tax revenues in September were down 1.4 percent compared to the same month last year, but overall through the first three months of fiscal 2021 […]
Posted inUncategorized
Eviction protection bill clears Housing Committee
A BILL THAT WOULD BAN most evictions and foreclosures for up to a year after Gov. Charlie Baker ends the coronavirus state of emergency cleared a key legislative hurdle on Thursday. The Joint Committee on Housing advanced the bill in a party line vote, 14-2, just 18 days before the state’s eviction ban is set to expire. The effort, led the House chairman of […]
Posted inUncategorized
Where is the state’s $1.1b in federal funds going?
THE LEGISLATURE may control the purse strings – but Gov. Charlie Baker holds the purse. That Beacon Hill truism was on display clearly in a report Secretary of Administration and Finance Michael Heffernan wrote to the chairs of the House and Senate Ways and Means Committees on Wednesday. The report, required by statute, detailed how […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Number of high-risk communities rises sharply
THE NUMBER of communities considered high risk for COVID-19 increased sharply on Wednesday, with Boston, Lowell, Haverhill, North Andover, and Springfield joining the group for the first time; Nantucket cementing its position as a hotspot, and Lawrence continuing to lose ground. Overall, 21 communities were listed as high-risk, the highest number since the Baker administration […]
Posted inEconomy
Massachusetts ends fiscal 2020 with $700 million budget hole
MASSACHUSETTS ENDED 2020 with a nearly $700 million budget gap, Gov. Charlie Baker said Wednesday, as he filed a proposed closeout budget with the Legislature. Baker, in his filing letter, wrote that tax collections for the fiscal year that ended July 30, 2020, were $693 million below expectations, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of this was […]
Posted inUncategorized
Baker all-in on COVID-19 community approach
THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION on Tuesday went all-in on its community-by-community approach to COVID-19, allowing lower-risk municipalities to move forward with reopening plans while putting cities and towns considered high risk on hold. Since community-by-community COVID-19 data were broken out in August, the Baker administration has used the information to target testing and other resources where […]
Posted inPolitics
Legislative candidates seek election do-overs
DOING THE SAME thing again and expecting a different result may be the definition of insanity, as the saying goes, but some legislative candidates are doing it anyway. This November, voters will be asked to choose sides – again – in several legislative rematches. Democratic state Sen. Sue Moran, Democratic state Sen. John Velis, and Democratic state Rep. Carol Doherty […]
Posted inHealth Care
Critics say Holyoke Soldiers’ Home chronically underfunded
THE OUTCOME OF COVID-19 at the state-run Holyoke and Chelsea soldiers’ homes could not have been more different. The Holyoke home was the site of a massive outbreak in which 76 veterans died, and it became a national example of how not to handle a pandemic. Attorney General Maura Healey announced criminal charges Friday against the former Holyoke Soldiers’ Home superintendent […]