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By CHRIS LISINSKI

Voters will not be asked next year whether Massachusetts should revive local-option rent control after organizers working on a 2024 ballot question suspended their campaign late Friday.After facing pushback from other housing justice and progressive...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

Massachusetts continued to record more births than deaths from July 2021 to July 2022 even though the state’s total population shrunk in that span, suggesting that residents decamping to other locales is the primary driver of a trend that has ramped...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — The Healey administration wants to give cities and towns the power to impose a new fee on high-price real estate transactions and steer the revenue into affordable housing development, pitching a local-option transfer tax alongside more than...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Pointing to a shooting in Holyoke last week that left a pregnant mother critically injured and killed her baby, House Democrats have resurrected their campaign to overhaul the state’s firearms laws, rolling out a redrafted bill that continues...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Twenty months elapsed between Republican Gov. Charlie Baker using his final State of the Commonwealth address in January 2022 to ignite debate about slashing taxes and the final enactment of a roughly $1 billion package.So what was the...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

State and federal regulators appear to have made a breakthrough to move forward with a voter-approved vehicle repair data law after legal battles and safety concerns stalled its implementation.A bit more than two months after the National Highway...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Community Action Pioneer Valley is looking at scaling back a host of programs that support low-income residents throughout the Valley after Gov. Maura Healey this month vetoed significant funding for the state’s 23 community action...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — In a move that one Massachusetts social worker described as an “answered prayer,” the state will repay more than $140 million in student loans for almost 3,000 health care providers who serve communities in need.An estimated 2,935 primary...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

One of the Legislature’s point people on veterans’ affairs threw his support behind a campaign to give service members a bigger role in Massachusetts Democratic Party conventions.Sen. John Velis of Westfield, who co-chairs the Veterans and Federal...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

In her most significant legislative action since taking office in January, Gov. Maura Healey on Wednesday signed into law her first annual state budget.Healey approved a $56 billion budget for fiscal year 2024 that increases spending roughly 6.2% over...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Lawmakers intend to schedule this year’s mandatory sales tax holiday for the weekend of Aug. 12-13, Senate President Karen Spilka said Monday.With a Thursday deadline to set the dates approaching, Spilka told reporters the Legislature intends...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

Sen. Anne Gobi will leave the Legislature to become the state’s first director of rural affairs, a newly created post in the Healey administration.Gov. Maura Healey announced Monday that she tapped the Spencer Democrat to serve “as a dedicated...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Top House and Senate Democrats have not publicly mentioned legalizing medical aid in dying as a priority, but one legislative sponsor believes the chances of action are better than ever now that Gov. Maura Healey is in the corner office.Rep....

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Criminal proceedings can proceed against two former Holyoke Soldiers’ Home officials accused of negligence that led to the deaths of dozens of veterans early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the state’s highest court ruled Thursday.In a 5-2 decision...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — A sizable majority of Massachusetts voters would prefer for Beacon Hill to deploy its budget surplus toward reducing taxes rather than increasing overall spending, according to a new poll.Three-quarters of the voters surveyed by polling and...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

Some of the last vestiges of the COVID-19 emergency declaration will end in May when Gov. Maura Healey will lift the modified public health emergency and walk back a vaccine mandate for tens of thousands of executive branch workers.The Healey...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey checked off one long-unanswered priority for municipal leaders by proposing two years’ worth of road and bridge maintenance funding in a single bill, but after years of inflation, city and town leaders are worried this...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

The state House of Representatives on Wednesday unanimously approved injecting more than $280 million into emergency shelter, school meals and food aid programs on the verge of running out of capacity or money.And with the governor already making a...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

The $15 minimum wage that kicked into effect Jan. 1 was years in the making and took more than five more years to be implemented. Now, with the new rate just setting in, key power players have set their sights on making Massachusetts the first state...