#2023-1 January 6, 2023

Governor Maura Healey Takes Offices; Offers Policy Pledges; Mariano, Spilka Retain Top Legislative Posts

On Thursday, less than one year since she launched her gubernatorial campaign in East Boston, Maura Healey took the oath of office as the 73rd governor of Massachusetts, asking the people of the Bay State to join her in writing “the next chapter of the Massachusetts story.”

Governor Healey (D – Boston) took the oath of office administered by Senate President Karen Spilka, ascending to the state’s top job after two terms as attorney general and pledging to tackle the “barriers that are holding back our people and our state,” like the “out of control” cost of housing, the “nightmare of high costs” for everyday goods, the “unacceptable” state of transportation infrastructure, and the “climate crisis.”

Drawing on the theme of Massachusetts as a home for all of its residents, the Democrat who grew up in New Hampshire asked Bay Staters to help her “chart a path forward and walk it together, into the next chapter of our Massachusetts story.”  Healey, 51, had been considered the Democrats’ odds-on favorite to become the state’s chief executive for a good portion of her two terms as attorney general.  She won 1,584,403 votes in the November general election, easily topping Republican Geoff Diehl in the race to succeed Republican Governor Charlie Baker, a popular chief executive whose decision not to seek a third term further cemented Healey’s status as frontrunner in the race.

In addition to being the first woman and first openly gay person elected governor in Massachusetts, Healey’s inauguration makes her the first out lesbian governor to take office in any state in America.  She was also the first sitting Massachusetts attorney general elected to the corner office since Attorney General became an elected, not appointed, office more than a century ago and just the third Democrat elected governor of the Bay State over the last 40 years.  Along with Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll (D- Salem), the new governing duo represents one of two all-woman gubernatorial leadership teams in the country.

Governor Healey made a handful of firm commitments in her inaugural address to a joint session of the House and Senate, and to the people of Massachusetts.  Pledging to: Create a standalone secretary of housing to “work across government and support every city and town to make sure we meet our goals” within her first 100 days; Have her administration and finance secretary “identify unused state-owned land that we can turn into rental housing or homes within one year;” Expand tax deductions for renters; Include in her first budget proposal a “MassReconnect” program to make community college free for people 25 and older without a college degree; Increase funding to the state university system; Appoint a safety chief at the MBTA within 60 days; Fund the hiring of 1,000 new workers to focus on the operation of the MBTA within her first year; Form an interagency task force dedicated to competing for federal infrastructure money; Direct each agency under her administration to conduct a full equity audit; Double the state’s offshore wind and solar power procurement targets, and quadruple energy storage deployment; and electrify the state’s public vehicle fleet and put a million electric vehicles on the road by 2030.

Her final pledge, to commit at least 1 percent of the state’s budget to environmental and energy agencies, triple the budget of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, and create a “green bank” to invest in resilient infrastructure and to attract new businesses to Massachusetts, is something the Association will be monitoring closely throughout the 2023-2024 session.

Healey worked closely with some lawmakers as attorney general.  But to get done most of what she promised Thursday will require the new governor to become comfortable with the power dynamics inherent in the executive-legislative relationship and how she fits into the so-called “Big Three” – a group that will once again include House Speaker Ronald Mariano (D- Quincy) and Senate President Karen Spilka (D- Ashland) after each were re-elected as head of their respective chambers during House and Senate sessions held on Wednesday - as its newest member.  

Lawmakers Dump Dozens of Bills on Baker’s Desk in Final Hours of 2021-2022 Legislative Session

Over the course of 13 hour-sessions to close out the 2021-2022 lawmaking term, the House and Senate worked together to pile more than five dozen bills on Governor Baker’s desk, including legislation clarifying foster parents’ rights and expanding MassHealth coverage for postpartum care.

Most of the bills that secured final enactment votes Tuesday or very early Wednesday were local in nature.  Almost all of them have been pending for weeks, months or more than a year, but lawmakers left them right up until the very end.  The stretch of lawmaking right before the finish line is also littered with bills that got close, but not close enough, in one or both branches.  All bills that fell short of earning Baker’s signature this session will now need to restart their legislative journey from the first step in the 2023-2024 term.

One of the bills that landed on Baker’s desk seeks to create a “Foster Parents’ Bill of Rights” (S 2980) that would instruct the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to craft a clear policy outlining its relationship with foster parents and the options foster parents have as they navigate the system.  The bill requires DCF to communicate with parents about available payments and other financial aid they may receive for fostering, develop a standardized “pre-service training” for foster parents, and provide foster parents with information about a foster child’s physical and behavioral health, history of trauma and high-risk behavior, and education needs before placement.

Additional measures lawmakers sent Baker during their final session include a bill imposing new record-keeping regulations in transactions involving motor vehicle catalytic converters (H 5356) and a bill keeping eligible Bay Staters on MassHealth coverage for 12 months beyond the end of a pregnancy (S 2731).

Both branches gaveled out “sine die,” using the Latin phrase “without a day” to mark that they ended the service of the 192nd General Court early Wednesday morning.

DOR: Flat Tax Collections Influenced by Payment Timing

State tax collectors hauled in $3.839 billion in December, pushing the state’s coffers to more than $1 billion over expectations at the halfway point of fiscal year 2023.

On Thursday, the Department of Revenue (DOR), which is still under the leadership of former Governor Charlie Baker’s commissioner Geoffrey Snyder, announced that last month’s collections were $398 million or 9.4 percent less than the actual collections from December 2021, but were $333 million or 9.5 percent above the monthly benchmark.  DOR said December is “a significant month for revenues” that usually generates about 9.5 percent of the state’s annual take.

Six months through fiscal year 2023, the state has collected $17.789 billion from residents, workers and businesses -- $56 million or 0.3 percent less than what was collected in the same period of fiscal 2022, but $1.087 billion or 6.5 percent more than the year-to-date expectation.

January tax receipts are due from DOR by February 3 and the monthly benchmark has been set at $4.019 billion.