Forget November 2022. It will likely be a long time before Uber and Lyft drivers get certainty about their employment status in Massachusetts. Today, drivers are considered independent contractors, but Attorney General Maura Healey has sued, arguing that, under state law, they should be classified as employees. After the Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday tossed […]
Elections
Posted inHealth Care
SJC lets dental insurance question proceed to ballot
THE NOVEMBER BALLOT is coming into focus as the Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday ruled that a question regulating dental insurance can proceed to the ballot. The ballot question would require dental insurers to spend at least 83 percent of premiums on clinical costs and quality improvements, rather than administrative costs. This is referred to […]
Posted inPolitics
Where does battle over app drivers go now?
FORGET NOVEMBER 2022. It will likely be a long time before Uber and Lyft drivers get certainty about their employment status in Massachusetts. Today, drivers are considered independent contractors, but Attorney General Maura Healey has sued, arguing that, under state law, they should be classified as employees. After the Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday tossed […]
Posted inPolitics
Auditor candidates both claiming to be outsiders
THE TWO DEMOCRATIC candidates for state auditor are both claiming to be the outsider in the race and insisting they have the edge heading toward the September primary. Chris Dempsey, a first-time candidate, previously headed the organization Transportation for Massachusetts and helped lead the opposition to hosting the 2024 Olympics in Boston. He bases his […]
Posted inThe Download
Auditor candidates both claiming to be outsiders
The two Democratic candidates for state auditor are both claiming to be the outsider in the race and insisting they have the edge heading toward the September primary. Chris Dempsey, a first-time candidate, previously headed the organization Transportation for Massachusetts and helped lead the opposition to hosting the 2024 Olympics in Boston. He bases his […]
Posted inPolitics
More than half of lawmakers face no challenger this year
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE MOST MASSACHUSETTS state lawmakers will stroll into another term in office unopposed, poised to face no declared opponents in both the September 6 primary and November 8 general elections. All 160 House districts and 40 Senate districts are up for grabs every two years. Among the pool of lawmakers seeking reelection, […]
Posted inOpinion
GOP’s Amore says his opponents are not ‘evil’
TWENTY YEARS AGO, Charles Krauthammer famously said of the divide between the right and the left that “Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.” This, he claimed, was a fundamental law of America politics. While that was true in 2002, today, it seems, a more apt law would state “Both sides think […]
Posted inOpinion
Liability not an issue with rideshare ballot question
MASSACHUSETTS VOTERS this fall may be asked to decide, through a proposed ballot question, whether app-based rideshare and delivery drivers are independent contractors with unprecedented flexibility and substantial benefits. The proposed ballot question has presented proponents and opponents alike with plenty of arguments and points of debate. However, the trial lawyers at the helm of […]
Posted inOpinion
Rideshare ballot question could affect non-drivers
MUCH OF THE DEBATE over the app-based-driver initiative petition has focused on how it would affect the drivers themselves. As important as those issues are, there is another aspect that has been overlooked. If the initiative petition establishes in law that drivers for Uber, Lyft, GrubHub, and other apps are “independent contractors” for all purposes, […]
Posted inThe Download
SJC will consider challenges to all four ballot questions
State law lays out the steps needed to file an initiative petition to put a question before voters on the state ballot: get certified by the attorney general, collect signatures, go to the Legislature. What’s not included, but may as well be, is defend the petition before the Supreme Judicial Court. In what has essentially […]