GOV. CHARLIE BAKER said on Friday that he intends in November to start mailing taxpayers tax cap checks equal to an estimated 13 percent of their 2021 personal income tax liability. An expert on the tax cap law says Baker’s move to mail out checks worth $2.94 billion before he leaves office is inconsistent with […]
Government
Posted inEconomy
Convention business rebounding strongly in 2022
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AFTER TWO YEARS when its gathering halls were nearly empty of traditional big events, save for COVID vaccination clinics, Massachusetts Convention Center Authority officials on Thursday declared that they just completed their most successful financial year in history. “After two challenging years, we rebounded stronger than we could have expected,” Massachusetts […]
Posted inState Government
Auditor certification paves way for $2.9b in tax cap credits
MASSACHUSETTS RESIDENTS could soon be receiving tax refunds in the mail after state Auditor Suzanne Bump officially certified that the state’s tax cap law has been triggered and taxpayers are owed $2.94 billion. Bump announced her certification Thursday morning, five days ahead of the deadline for action. Her decision means the Baker administration can now […]
Posted inPolitics
Did Charlie Baker win last week’s state primary?
HE WAS NOT on last week’s primary ballot, but Charlie Baker – or at least his brand of more middle-of-the-road pragmatism – had a good day at the polls, at least, ironically, in the Democratic primary. That was one big takeaway from the Massachusetts primary results offered up on this week’s Codcast by Samantha Gross, […]
Posted inGovernment
Wu dialed back search for fire commissioner
WHEN BOSTON Mayor Michelle Wu went looking for a new police commissioner, the search was extensive. She assembled a five-member search committee headed by former Supreme Judicial Court justice Geraldine Hines. The panel spent three months talking to community leaders, holding listening sessions with the public, and conducting a multilingual survey of Boston residents. The city […]
Posted inState Government
Opposing camps evenly matched on millionaire tax fight
IT’S UNIONS VERSUS businesses in a high-stakes and so far evenly matched battle to raise the tax rate on high-income earners. This November, Massachusetts voters will decide whether to pass a constitutional amendment that would raise the tax rate by 4 percentage points on income over $1 million. If the initiative passes, the extra tax […]
Posted inOpinion
End-of-session cram is no way to conduct legislative business
THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE passed more substantive legislation in the last 18 days of its two-year session than it had in the previous 550. In those 18 days of July, it passed the state’s annual budget, over a dozen other major pieces of policy legislation, and over 100 minor bills. In just the last six days […]
Posted inPolitics
SJC hears Sal DiMasi lobbying case
FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER Sal DiMasi is a convicted felon. But can he become a lobbyist? State law prohibits someone convicted of a felony under certain state laws from lobbying for 10 years. The Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday heard arguments in a case over whether a federal felony conviction – rather than a state conviction […]
Posted inEconomy, State Government
Big money and unfinished Beacon Hill business
THE LEGISLATURE PASSED a slew of bills at the end of the session, but there was still a lot of unfinished business, according to two Massachusetts policy analysts who compared notes on The Codcast. Evan Horowitz, executive director of the Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University and the host of this week’s podcast, […]
Posted inOpinion
Planning by pieces isn’t working in Charlestown
IN THE FIELD of urban planning, a master plan is a document and policy guide designed to help communities create a vision of what they want to look like in the future. A master plan should be comprehensive and include existing development, planning initiatives, social and economic considerations regarding all facets of land use. In […]