DERAILED — Even the best laid MBTA plans can veer off track, and Gov. Maura Healey’s $8 billion transportation funding plan is no exception.
Healey touted the plan as “historic” and has been pitching it to constituents as a response to “decades of underinvestment ” at stops on her transportation “road show.”
Just one problem:She doesn’t yet have buy-in from the top Democratic lawmakers who control the state’s purse strings.
Senate Democrats last week scrapped Healey’s plan to shuttle $780 million in surplus revenue from the so-called millionaire’s tax to the MBTA, calling instead for $370 million for the beleaguered transit system that’s on the precipice of a fiscal cliff after it blew through its reserves last year.
They’re also allocating less than Healey and the House in their version of the fiscal year 2026 budget they unveiled Tuesday. The Senate plan calls for $500 million, compared to the more than $600 million the House and Healey proposed.
The chamber’s Democratic leaders say it’s all in the name of regional equity. The rail system is heavily concentrated in Greater Boston and doesn’t currently extend into the western part of the state. And the money the Senate wants to pour into the T is still a “very significant” investment , Senate Ways and Means Chief Michael Rodrigues told reporters Tuesday.
“We believe it's enough money,” on top of the money that flows to the T from the state’s sales tax, the Westport Democrat said.
Past governors have tried to fix the T to varying degrees of success/failure. There’s more to Healey’s transportation plan than just solving the system’s money woes, but she’s made bringing the T up to snuff one of the centerpieces of her administration, hiring a new general manager who oversaw fixes to the rail that helped get trains back up to speed, literally .
The tracks aren’t completely laid yet. The Senate still has to vote on both budgets before negotiations with the House begin.
GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. Then again, debate over spending could all be for naught.
If the commonwealth loses access to certain federal funds — say, Medicaid reimbursements — “all bets are off,” Rodrigues told reporters.
TODAY — Gov. Maura Healey speaks at a re-dedication ceremony at Brighton Marine at 11:15 a.m. and meets with Ambassador H.E. Chen Li of China at 2 p.m. at the State House. Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll chairs a Governor’s Council meeting at noon and hosts the 2025 STEM Summit at 1 p.m. in Foxborough. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is on Java with Jimmy at 9:30 a.m. and announces the neighborhoods and dates for Open Streets 2025 at 10:30 a.m. in Mattapan. Attorney General Andrea Campbell participates in a fireside chat at the All Raise’s “Agents of Change Summit” at 10:30 a.m. and speaks at the Boston Housing Authority’s family self sufficiency program graduation at 5:30 p.m. in Boston. Auditor Diana DiZoglio attends the Northern Essex Community College Impact Awards at 9 a.m. in Haverhill.
Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for the Playbook? Drop me a line: kgarrity@politico.com .
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DATELINE BEACON HILL
MORE ON THE BUDGET — Like the House and Healey, Senate Democrats aren’t letting the possibility of federal funding cuts get in the way of spending. The roughly $61 billion budget plan they unveiled Tuesday would boost state spending by 6 percent, nixing the tax adjustments Healey called for in her spending plan and instead leaning on about $1.2 billion in one-time funds.
One area that is seeing a slowdown in funding: The state’s emergency shelter system. Senate budget writers, like the House, set aside $275 million for the system — well below the nearly $1 billion the state has shelled out to keep the overburdened system afloat in recent years. Rodrigues said he believes that will be enough to cover the costs for the system through the next fiscal year.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS — For those following the joint rules debate, House and Senate negotiators will hold their second public conference committee meeting at 2 p.m. on May 15.
— Healey names inaugural director of AI Hub, announces funding for AI innovation by Eli Chavez, Boston Business Journal: “At IBM’s global THINK conference today, the governor announced that Sabrina Mansur will join the Massachusetts AI hub as its inaugural leader. Mansur is the former head of strategic planning and execution at Torc Robotics, a Virginia-based company developing self-driving trucks.”
THE RACE FOR CITY HALL
— Frank Baker ‘looking at’ a return to the Boston City Council after past 12-year stint by Gayla Cawley, Boston Herald: “Frank Baker is eying a possible return to the Boston City Council, just two years after he decided against pursuing a reelection bid for the Dorchester-centric district seat he held for more than a decade. Baker, a past conservative voice on a left-leaning City Council, confirmed that he is considering a run for the Council, but wouldn’t say which way he was leaning. ‘I’ll neither confirm nor deny, but I’ll tell you I’m looking at it,’ Baker told the Herald Tuesday.”
***CAREFULLY SCRUTINIZE THE PROPOSALS OFFERED BY THE CARPETBAGGING NEWTON NEBBISH! SOME ARE NOT AS EASILY ACCOMPLISHED AS HE PRETENDS!***
— Josh Kraft releases plan for BPS, featuring more exam school seats, hybrid School Committee, central office changes by Niki Griswold, The Boston Globe: “Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft on Wednesday released his plans for how he would address Boston Public Schools’ persistent challenges, unveiling a platform that includes adding more exam school seats, changing the district’s leadership structure and transitioning to a partially elected School Committee. For years, the district has posed one of the stickiest political and logistical challenges for the city’s leadership, as several mayoral administrations have struggled to fix its crumbling buildings, plummeting enrollment, and significant achievement gaps for students of different backgrounds, among other problems.”
****STEWARD BANKRUPTCY EFFECTED HEALTHCARE ACROSS THE NATION!***
— One year after Steward bankruptcy, Warren, Markey demand criminal probe by Jessica Bartlett, The Boston Globe: “One year after Steward Health Care filed for bankruptcy protection, Massachusetts lawmakers are renewing calls for the Justice Department to take action against the company’s chief executive, Dr. Ralph de la Torre. Despite the closure of two hospitals in Massachusetts, hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars being spent to sustain Steward’s other flailing hospitals, and millions of dollars still owed and being clawed back from Massachusetts businesses, de la Torre has yet to be held accountable, wrote Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey in a letter to US Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday.”
What appear to be ICE agents detain a man in Great Barrington, Ma. on Tuesday, May 6, 2025.
Federal agents made two arrests at an apartment complex in Great Barrington early Tuesday morning. The town's police chief, Paul Storti, said they received a phone call from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security at around 5:30 a.m. to let them know that they were in the area, but they didn't know where they were going.
"We don't know anything because we don't communicate or assist them. We don't enforce immigration law,” Storti said.
He said the town's trust policy prohibits their department from assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Residents also witnessed federal immigration agents at the apartment complex downtown.
Ben Elliot, a select board member who works at The Triplex Cinema — the movie theater near where the ICE raid took place — said he saw a large SWAT-like vehicle outside the Barrington House complex.
"Officers came out escorting a man and placed him in the back of the SWAT vehicle,” Elliot said. “They were all wearing tactical gear, bulletproof vests and heavy, high powered weapons on their persons. One officer had a battering ram that I don't believe they ended up using.”
Elliot said the federal agents did not readily identify themselves to himself and the other people gathered and that they were not wearing badges.
NEPM reached out to ICE for comment, but they have not responded.
President Donald Trump’s campaign-promised plan to send millions of immigrant residents back to their home countries and his administration’s proposals to sharply curtail the number of immigrants legally allowed to enter the U.S. will have severe economic impacts on Massachusetts, according to a pair of experts.
Academic work shows that immigrants — legal or otherwise — can have a profoundly positive impact on the state economy and their absence may be keenly felt by residents, according to Josh Bedi, the senior fellow in Economic Opportunity at the Pioneer Institute and a professor of Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, and Mark Williams, a master lecturer in Finance at Boston University.
“I want to articulate how much the financial hit will be to Massachusetts: I’m estimating that next year, that tax revenue will decline by $1 billion, GDP will decline by at least $12.8 billion, and over the Trump Administration — through 2028 — we’re looking at these numbers doubling,” Williams said Tuesday during a webinar hosted by the Pioneer Institute.
That is because, according to Bedi’s research, “in general, immigrants make us more productive.” Entrepreneurial immigrants have contributed significantly to some of the state’s fastest growing economic sectors, he said, and the results of their efforts speak for themselves.
“In Massachusetts, specifically, they own or started half of Fortune 500 companies — either a first or second generation immigrant did,” he said.
According to Bedi, that equates to “billions of dollars in revenue” annually and “hundreds of thousands of jobs” for Bay State residents, regardless of their citizenship status.
Williams said immigrants make up about 15% of the U.S. population at the moment. Of that 48 million immigrants, about 12 million are thought to be “undocumented” or residing in the U.S. without a lawful presence.
“Both groups combined not only provide population growth, which we need within our U.S. population. They also provide growth within our labor supply and also with regard to needing certain jobs specifically for our economy,” he said.
In Massachusetts, about 29% of immigrant neighbors fill a “core role” in the labor force, Williams said.
“That is in STEM related jobs and that helps drive our knowledge-based economy,” he said.
Williams said that immigrants bring so much value to the Bay State, that they represent both an economic strength and a sort of financial curse.
“This is our Achilles’ heel, in a sense. We’re used to importing top talent and now all of the sudden, that flow of talent is potentially being restricted and reduced,” he said.
Immigrants don’t take work away from anyone already residing in the U.S., Bedi said. Instead they fill roles that Americans aren’t doing or aren’t qualified to do, and in that sense “they actually don’t take jobs, they create more jobs, even if they are not entrepreneurs themselves.”
“Which implies that when we remove them, we also remove some jobs,” he said.
A policy brief released by Pioneer on Tuesday shows that the state cannot afford to lose any jobs at the moment.
The report, which comes bearing the title of “Massachusetts at Risk: The Alarming Decline of Private Sector Employment Growth,” found the Bay State third from last in job growth nationally over the last five years, “with a net contraction of 0.74 percent.”
“To stay competitive, vibrant, and prosperous Massachusetts must prioritize private sector growth. It must attract and retain talent, create a healthy business climate, and generate the conditions for startups and established firms alike to invest and expand,” the report reads.
Bedi said the solution to the immigration situation is a sort of “DOGE for immigration policy,” by which he means “regulatory slashing of our current immigration system.” There are too many barriers to entry, and too many hurdles to enter the economy, he said.
Bedi added, “We need to let them work, let them contribute, let them be taxpayers, let them open up businesses. Honestly, we need to get out of the way.”
Originally Published:
FROM THE 413
— Pelham may strengthen Safe Communities bylaw at Town Meeting Saturday by Scott Merzbach, Daily Hampshire Gazette: “A citizen petition seeking to strengthen the town’s Safe Communities bylaw, which instructs police officers and town employees not to inquire about a person’s immigration status, comes before annual Town Meeting Saturday.”
— What to know about Worcester’s near billion-dollar proposed budget by Adam Bass, MassLive: “Worcester City Manager Eric D. Batista is proposing an operational budget for Fiscal Year 26 that is just shy of $1 billion. The budget proposed by Batista is $947,928,261, a 3.3% increase in revenues and expenses from the present fiscal year, according to the budget.”
— 21 people apply for New Bedford police chief job by Frank Mulligan, The Standard-Times: “There are 21 applicants to become the city of New Bedford’s next chief of police. The city received ‘significant interest in the chief of police position,’ said Jonathan Darling, city public information officer. Chief Paul Oliveira retired from the New Bedford Police Department on May 3, and Assistant Deputy Chief Derek Belong was promoted to acting chief May 2.”
— Framingham mayor proposes 7% increase in fiscal '26 budget by Tom Benoit, The MetroWest Daily News: “Framingham Mayor Charlie Sisitsky has proposed to city councilors a fiscal 2026 budget of $383.2 million, about $24 million (7%) higher than the current year's budget of $358.8 million. … If approved, the budget would increase property taxes by about $195 for a Framingham home valued at $653,116, roughly the city's average.”
— Attleboro mayor appoints new water superintendent by The Sun Chronicle staff: “Mayor Cathleen DeSimone announced Tuesday that she has appointed a new water superintendent following last year’s emergency shortage that was brought on partly by a major debacle at the city water department.”
TRANSITIONS — Sean Finnerty will be the new CEO of solar company BlueWave.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY — to Emma Riley, Nancy White, Chris Lindahl, M.J. Tidwell, Nicholas Harrer and Brian Dunn.
Want to make an impact? POLITICO Massachusetts has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Bay State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness among this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: jshapiro@politico.com .
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