STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WITH A VOTE ON FARE HIKES expected Monday, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh on Wednesday gave general support to the idea of charging riders more for MBTA service. “Fare hikes are never positive. They’re never popular, but the MBTA needs money. And that’s the bottom line,” Walsh told reporters before heading into […]
Andy Metzger
Andy Metzger is currently studying law at Temple University in Philadelphia. Previously, he joined CommonWealth Magazine as a reporter in January 2019. He has covered news in Massachusetts since 2007. For more than six years starting in May 2012 he wrote about state politics and government for the State House News Service. At the News Service, he followed three criminal trials from opening statements to verdicts, tracked bills through the flumes and eddies of the Legislature, and sounded out the governor’s point of view on a host of issues – from the proposed Olympics bid to federal politics.
Before that, Metzger worked at the Chelmsford Independent, The Arlington Advocate, the Somerville Journal and the Cambridge Chronicle, weekly community newspapers that cover an array of local topics. Metzger graduated from UMass Boston in 2006. In addition to his written journalism, Metzger produced a work of illustrated journalism about Gov. Charlie Baker’s record regarding the MBTA. He lives in Somerville and commutes mainly by bicycle.
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
T oversight board hears cons, pros on fare hike
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Public comments skewed heavily against fare hikes ahead of an MBTA control board discussion on proposals that would raise rider fares an average of either 6.7 percent or 9.7 percent. Out of 33 commenters who spoke on the fare hikes, 17 opposed the increases, while nine urged the Fiscal and Management […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
MBTA cancels late-night service
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AFTER NO DISCUSSION at Monday’s public meeting, the MBTA control board canceled extended-hours weekend service, authorizing the transit agency to terminate it by March 19. MBTA Assistant General Manager Charles Planck told the T’s Fiscal and Management Control Board that the extended hours, which began as a pilot in March 2014, […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Keolis loses $29.3m in first year
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE The international firm that runs commuter rail trains in and out of Boston racked up $29.3 million in losses over the first year of its long-term contract, requiring its French parent company to subsidize its Massachusetts operations. According to state Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack, Keolis Commuter Services likely failed to fully […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Baker budget expands hiring at DCF
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Forced to reassess itself following high-profile deaths in recent years, the agency charged with protecting children from abuse and neglect has hired hundreds of new workers and, based on Gov. Charlie Baker’s latest budget, could reach a two-year hiring total of 600 new positions. Department of Children and Families Commissioner Linda […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Governor proposes $200 million in roads funding
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THREE DAYS AFTER saying he would file a multiyear local road funding bill, Gov. Charlie Baker submitted a one-year, $200 million borrowing bill that includes $50 million for a five-year small bridge program. With the state on track to hit its debt limit of $21.735 billion in fiscal 2017, the administration […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Baker seeks to redevelop state parcel
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE PLANNING TO MOVE STATE HIGHWAY OFFICES from their perch above Boston’s Big Dig, city and state officials want to develop a large area at the edge of Chinatown, they announced Tuesday. The move is a high-profile example of an effort by Gov. Charlie Baker to convert state-owned land into housing and […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Cordy to retire from SJC
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT Justice Robert Cordy plans to retire in August, the court announced Wednesday, creating the first opportunity for Gov. Charlie Baker to make an appointment to the state’s highest court. The former chief legal counsel to Gov. William Weld, Cordy was appointed to the Supreme Judicial Court by Gov. […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
State board votes 6-4 to close charter
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE IN AN EMOTIONALLY CHARGED GYMNASIUM filled with parents and bureaucrats, the state’s education board voted narrowly on Tuesday to revoke the charter of Dorchester Collegiate Academy Charter School. It appeared Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Mitchell Chester’s recommendation might deadlock before the board until member Michael Moriarty raised his […]
Posted inEnvironment, State House News Service
Baker: Greenhouse gas emission target ‘achievable’
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE LEGAL MANDATE of reducing Massachusetts greenhouse gas emissions to hit a 2020 benchmark is “achievable” if environmental policies are carried out but imperiled if the state neglects a major importation of renewable energy, according to a Baker administration report released Tuesday. The first update to the state’s clean energy and climate […]