STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE LEADERSHIP OF THE Massachusetts Teachers Association has vowed to fight a ballot initiative to expand charter schools with everything it has, but the issue has exposed strife within the union heading into new leadership elections in May. The MTA Board of Directors over the weekend backed away from a plan put […]
Matt Murphy
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Baker budget’s focus is fiscal restraint
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE GOV. CHARLIE BAKER’S ANNUAL BUDGET PROPOSAL filed Wednesday featured the administration’s focus on fiscal restraint, with an emphasis on limiting overall spending growth and growing state government’s savings account. While the $39.6 billion budget proposed for fiscal 2017 makes new investments in targeted areas such as local aid, child welfare, substance abuse prevention, and […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Downing will not run for sixth term
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WITH A DECISION that surprised many of his colleagues, Sen. Benjamin Downing, a rising star in state Democratic politics, said Monday he would not seek a sixth term this fall, adding his name to the list of experienced and influential lawmakers leaving the Senate at a time of flux for the […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Baker slashes $50M in spending
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Friday slashed nearly $50 million from the state budget to partially close what his administration identified as a $320 million gap between projected spending and revenues through end of the fiscal year. The emergency budget cuts, which come almost exactly at the half-way point in the fiscal […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Baker prepares mid-year budget cuts
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WITH HIS ANNUAL SPENDING PLAN for the fiscal year that begins in July due to the Legislature in just over three weeks, Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday said emergency cuts to the current budget are “likely” for the second year in a row, but like last year local aid is expected to […]
Posted inEducation, Politics, State House News Service
Charter school expansion ‘uphill climb’
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE SENATE PRESIDENT STANLEY ROSENBERG, who still expects to determine by the end of the month whether a majority in his branch could support an expansion of charter schools in Massachusetts this year, described the prospects of pushing a bill through the Legislature as an “uphill climb.” “This is not rocket science […]
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Legislative panel releases opioid abuse bill
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE PATIENTS PRESCRIBED OPIOIDS for the first time would be limited to a seven-day supply and any individual admitted to the emergency room with an apparent drug overdose would be required to undergo a substance abuse evaluation within 24 hours, under a redrafted House bill. Setting the ball in motion for what […]
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The Big Three: One happy family
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE IN THE THROES OF A GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION over a year ago now, House Speaker Robert DeLeo didn’t know what to think of the man who would become the next governor. DeLeo, a Democrat, was backing his party’s nominee to succeed outgoing Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick and the reviews of Charlie Baker, […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
No go: Hefner’s ‘due diligence’ didn’t take long
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE JUST DAYS AFTER SAYING he was “seriously considering” running for a soon-to-be vacant state Senate seat, the fiancé of Senate President Stanley Rosenberg has decided not to run for office, according to a source with knowledge of his decision. Bryon Hefner, 28, had been giving thought to campaigning for a seat […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Baker bill empowers municipalities
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE REVIVING AN EFFORT that stalled under his predecessor, Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday proposed legislation that would give local officials control over the number of liquor licenses that can be handed out to bars and restaurants in their communities. The liquor license proposal, an economic development idea that faltered in the […]