Eric Convey

While the state’s financial outlook may seem shakier today than it did a year ago, Massachusetts is still sitting on a sizable pot of surplus funds from the revenue and federal grant boom of the early pandemic days.  The Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation, which tracks the state’s spending of ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds, estimates Massachusetts […]

It can’t be any fun to want to be a loyal backer of President Biden, only to look at the ground and realize you are standing on quicksand. Such has been the situation of Gov. Healey, who is watching the migrant crisis suck the oxygen out of her administration, and whose primary option is to complain. Then […]

Come November, the Cannabis Control Commission will roll out new regulations meant to lend the commission more control over local host agreements between cities and towns and marijuana businesses, cap impact fees communities can assess on businesses, allow for social consumption sites and remove barriers to entry for people with criminal records. Host community agreements and the […]

The tragic R.J. Oppenheimer thought he was doing something powerful and good, and so does Rep. Mike Connolly… and so did Mike Dukakis and so did Cathy Judd-Stein and — well, state government is replete with cases where leaders proposed or effected explosive change, only to have it, um, bomb. John Keller explains in his […]

Over three-quarters of Bay Staters support the crown jewel centerpiece of state officials’ long-promised, and long-delayed, tax relief plan — though there’s no word on when it might be delivered to them, as lawmakers enter their sixth week of a long summer break. A new poll by MassINC and sponsored by the Economic Security Project found that 77 […]