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POLITICAL NOTEBOOK: Just a month after Gov. Maura Healey signed a $63.4 billion budget for fiscal year 2027, the quasi-public Massachusetts Clean Energy Center has laid off 11 people as federal and state policy whipsaw the green energy sector. Plus, signature upheaval in Rachael Rollins’ district attorney bid and a Hanscom hangar retrofit. Jordan Wolman and Chris Lisinski report. excerpt: A $40 million question at HanscomThe developers of a controversial and high-profile effort to add 17 new hangars for private jets at Hanscom Field airport have closed on a $40 million loan to retrofit one existing hangar, according to a bank document reviewed by CommonWealth Beacon —though progress on the larger project remains stalled. The developers have finalized the financial transaction with Needham Bank to fund construction of one hangar previously used by the Navy, confirmed Rick Muse, director of operations for the Hanscom redevelopment proposal. That part of Hanscom will be used by Merlin Labs to pilot autonomous flights. State officials approved that limited “change of use” of Hanscom last year. The influx of cash reignites questions about when the developers will pursue the larger project to add new private jet hangars at the Massport-owned airport. The state rejected an earlier environmental plan in 2024 and sent it back to the developers to resubmit, which they thus far have failed to do. Public records obtained by CommonWealth Beacon show a resubmitted environmental impact review continues to face delays as the developers cite shifting customer preferences and even the presence of a rare flower on the site that has caused hiccups. |
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LET THE SUN SHINE: Massachusetts regulators have adopted a proposal with buy-in from the energy industry, advocates, and state officials that would dramatically reduce solar connection costs for some homeowners and will take effect this fall. Jordan Woman digs in. |
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DEPARTURES: Massachusetts Higher Education Commissioner Noe Ortega will step down this September, after about four years on the job. He has overseen major expansions of higher education programs and financial aid growth, as money poured into education through the income surtax on high-earners. Sam Drysdale of State House News Service has more. |
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OPINION: Primary polling is useful but far from a perfect predictor, writes Steve Koczela, president of the MassINC Polling Group. Primary polling challenges stem from a fairly durable set of issues that have little to do with the newer methodological challenges of election polling, he says. |
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| | | By CommonWealth Beacon Staff |
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The communities that ring the Quabbin Reservoir have long found themselves in a double bind. They protect the state's largest drinking water source, but don't get to drink from it. And they're barred from developing the land around it, but say they aren't compensated enough to make that tradeoff fair. |
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That tension has only grown with persistent drought. The Central Massachusetts region, where the Quabbin sits, remains at Level 2 – Significant Drought status even as other parts of the state have recovered somewhat. |
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This week on The Codcast, Jennifer Smith talks with senior reporter Jordan Wolman about his recent reporting on the towns surrounding the reservoir — a manmade lake built a century ago that now supplies drinking water to 3.1 million people in and around Greater Boston. The surrounding towns rely on smaller wells and municipal sources that are far more exposed to drought and contamination. |
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Wolman noticed the board of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, which operates the Quabbin, was holding a rare meeting in Belchertown, one of the Quabbin's seven "host communities," and once he tuned in, he said, "there was this just sense of desperation.” |
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The first half of 2026 was so dry it wasn't safe for Belchertown athletes to play soccer and football on their home fields this fall. The well serving New Salem's town hall ran dry, forcing staff without water and workable restrooms into borrowed office space. |
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The mood is dour, Wolman said. “It just creates this dynamic that’s festering of, ‘Why do we live near the biggest body of water in Massachusetts and we can't drink from it? And we’re struggling ourselves with access to water because of drought, because of contamination, whereas Greater Boston is fairly insulated from this,’” he said. “And so it creates that sort of us-versus-them mentality, I think, that's started to really spill over here.” |
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Underneath it is a fight about money and equity. |
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The towns get payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs, for the state-owned land around the reservoir that they can't develop to protect the critical watershed, but they say those payments aren’t cutting it. Five of the Quabbin's seven host communities have received flat PILOT payments for five straight years running. New Salem's payment works out to $21 an acre, against a statewide median of $127. |
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Wolman said MWRA officials counter that raising those payments could mean higher water rates for customers in lower-income communities served by the Quabbin, like Chelsea and Everett. |
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That fight is now tucked into an environmental bond bill in closed-door conference committee negotiations. Gov. Maura Healey has waded in, too, writing a letter to the MWRA this month urging it to "more fully recognize" Quabbin communities. Wolman said the letter matters more for what it signals politically than any specific policy requirement. |
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“She's asking not necessarily directly for increased pilot payments, not necessarily for a permanent seat on the board of the authority,” he said. “She’s asking the MWRA to sort of take good faith measures to collaborate and partner with and coordinate with these towns on their water access concerns, on their local police and fire response.” |
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More from CommonWealth Beacon |
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FORTUNE-TELLING: There's no shortage of quirky state laws still on the books, including a measure requiring fortune tellers to be licensed after fulfilling a residency requirement and paying a fee. Hallie Claflin interviews a lawmaker, a witch, and a warlock about what goes into psychic readings and whether it's time to revisit the statute. |
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ENVIRONMENT: A proposed multi-purpose machine gun range proposed for Joint Base Cape Cod is back, after it was effectively killed by Gov. Maura Healey in 2024. The move is set to restart fierce debate over how the proposed gun range could impact the Cape’s environment, especially water quality. (CAI) |
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TRANSPORTATION: The T agreed to pay an employee close to half a million dollars in supplemental wages, damages, and legal fees after she said General Manager Phil Eng pulled her hair at a 2024 staff dinner. (WBUR) |
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COURTS: The FBI arrested Lawrence Mayor Brian DePena on wire fraud and money laundering charges, accusing him of fraudulently obtaining more than $1.5 million in COVID small-business loans and steering the money into his campaign account, personal tax debts, and hard-money mortgages on properties he owned in the city. (GBH News) |
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NURSING: The state has granted nearly $500,000 to MassHire Greater New Bedford Workforce Board Inc. to train over 100 workers as nursing assistants. The grant comes amid a worsening shortage of nursing assistants, who help nursing home residents with direct daily care such as eating, bathing, and moving around. (The New Bedford Light) |
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ENVIRONMENT: The small town of Oakham is fighting a proposed battery park that received a key state approval earlier this year. The town has appealed the decision to the state’s highest court. (The Boston Globe – paywall) |
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