WITH THREE state-funded youth mental health programs at risk of closing, lawmakers and providers ramped up their opposition this week to Gov. Maura Healey’s proposed budget cuts that come as Massachusetts continues to grapple with a behavioral health care crisis.

Two 15-bed intensive residential treatment programs (IRTP), operated by NFI Massachusetts in Westborough, that serve teenagers with serious mental health and safety issues would close under Healey’s fiscal 2026 spending plan. That would leave just two other IRTPs in the state.

The governor’s budget would also shutter the state’s only clinically intensive residential treatment (CIRT) program, called Three Rivers in Belchertown, that has a dozen beds and treats children ages 6 to 12.

At a budget hearing Monday in Attleboro, Department of Mental Health Commissioner Brooke Doyle said those facilities are slated to close due to low patient counts, inadequate staffing and location hurdles. The cost-saving measure comes as DMH — which would receive a 7 percent overall budget increase under Healey’s proposal — looks to prioritize resources for its over-capacity psychiatric hospitals.

“These programs have been very difficult to maintain adequate and safe staffing within. They’ve been understaffed for extended periods of time, and that has contributed in large part to why we had difficulty keeping all the beds filled,” Doyle said in Attleboro. “The programs do provide a specialized service need, and the reality is, that we haven’t been able to operate them fully today. So what we’re proposing to do is to right-size the IRTP, reflecting the volume that does get utilized.”

Doyle said the state pays for those beds “in full,” regardless of whether or not they are occupied. She argued that makes it “not sustainable to continue to pay for 50 percent utilization.”

Doyle highlighted the state’s investment in community-based mental health resources, though the IRTP and CIRT programs are seen as a last resort to stabilize young patients who repeatedly end up in the hospital and pose significant safety risks to themselves and their family.

“Without these services, youth will continue to cycle through expensive and disruptive emergency and acute hospital services,” Lydia Todd, executive director of NFI Massachusetts, said at a State House budget hearing Tuesday, according to a copy of her prepared remarks. “Their families face income loss because it is impossible to maintain employment when they are regularly needed to respond to mental health crises.”

Todd added, “If this program is closed, the commonwealth will lose a recently renovated facility, a highly credentialed, experienced and skilled multi-disciplinary team of 95 staff, a Joint Commission-accredited program, and most importantly, the ability to help youth and families with the most serious needs to manage their mental health issues in their natural communities, and be less likely to end up in one of our adult systems.”

Todd told the News Service 95 out of 100 positions are filled. 

“We could be fully utilized — no problem,” she said. 

Program leaders and lawmakers contend the programs are underutilized due to a complicated DMH referral process that can leave youth languishing in hospitals for weeks or months before they secure placement. Due to high staff turnover during the COVID pandemic, some hospital mental health providers also were unaware the IRTP and CIRT programs existed, said Sen. Jake Oliveira of Ludlow. 

“It’s my hope that we can restore the funding for these critical programs because everything that we hear from constituents and everything that we read, there is a dire need for youth beds, particularly adolescent mental health beds throughout Massachusetts,” Oliveira told the News Service. “If we have programs that are underutilized, then DMH needs to do a better job with the referral process to get help to families across Massachusetts.”

Doyle admitted the referral process was “too clunky” at the hearing Monday.

“So I’ve actually made some changes to that referral process, going to preview it with stakeholders this month, with a go-live plan for May,” Doyle said.

In another major budget cut, DMH plans to slash the case management workforce in half, which would save the state $12.4 million. That move recently triggered DMH workers represented by SEIU Local 509 to take a vote of no confidence in Doyle. 

Gov. Maura Healey has already hit pause on a controversial plan to shutter a 16-bed psychiatric hospital in Cape Cod. That closure, combined with the three youth mental health programs, would have saved the state a total of $20.1 million, according to a presentation from the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

As House Democrats prepare to release their budget next week, Rep. Aaron Saunders of Belchertown said he plans to fight to ensure the CIRT, operated by Cutchins Programs for Children & Families, receives funding.

“We need it to be there,” Saunders told the News Service. “It is a level of intervention and service that other programs are not designed to provide, and that to me really is the linchpin.”

Saunders added, “In my conversations with the administration, I’ve tried to impress upon them that there needs to be access, in some way, shape or form, to this level of service.”

Tina Champagne, CEO of Cutchins Programs for Children & Families, urged lawmakers Tuesday to “dig deeper and to save our programs.” In prepared remarks, Champagne said the state remains in the throes of a “children’s mental health crisis” and argued “this is no time for a reduction in intensive mental health services in our state.”

“The decision to cut the CIRT is not only in direct opposition to well-established evidence-based practices for children and families with some of the most persistent and challenging mental health and safety concerns, but also puts the the most vulnerable children and families in the commonwealth at even greater risk by perpetuating the cycle of ACES and traumatic experiences,” Champagne said, referring to adverse childhood experiences.

She added, “The degree of safety and mental health challenges that must occur for youth to be considered for a DMH referral for the CIRT is highly intensive and the youth’s safety concerns are typically quite serious. If these youth could be treated elsewhere in the community, they would have been referred to those services, and usually have already utilized these services, but they are not intensive enough to maintain safety and mental health stabilization.”

At the hearing, Oliveira told Doyle he was insulted by her remarks that signaled the Belchertown program was not viable due to its location in western Massachusetts.

“That’s insulting to any western Mass. lawmaker who might be sending people halfway across the state, hours away to get the programs to utilize them,” Oliveira said.

The commissioner told Oliveira she regretted if her testimony seemed to be “disrespectful.”

“It’s more of a matter that we have to weigh parents’ requests and parents’ priorities, as well,” Doyle said. “So, it has always been a western Mass.-located program. It’s not new. And what we’re seeing is that it is getting a bit more challenging, particularly with workforce constraints, that when we don’t have full staff operating, it requires that the department have to make decisions with parents about whether or not their their child can be safely treated in that environment, based on staff that are available at that time.”

Rep. Kelly Pease, a Westfield Republican, questioned whether the adolescent mental health programs represented the “smart place” for DMH to make cuts. Without providing sufficient care to young Bay Staters early on, the state may exacerbate the prison pipeline and end up incurring more costs in the future, Pease told Health and Human Services Secretary Kate Walsh.

Walsh insisted those programs were 50 percent occupied and emphasized EOHHS’s push to “right-size our behavioral health infrastructure.” Pease argued the low patient census was a function of DMH’s “antiquated process to get a referral.”

“I think the question for the Legislature is: Do you want to pay for standby capacity in two or three programs across the state that may or may not be used?” Walsh said at the hearing Monday. “In the meantime, you should challenge us to significantly improve our antiquated or very complicated processes to get people into these systems — some of which, I will remind us, were the result of court decisions. So we have patient referral pathways for people with, for children with behavioral health challenges that were built by lawyers, with due respect.”

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AT A TIME when lawmakers are wrestling with cost, access and regulatory questions, health care industry power players continued to dominate the Beacon Hill lobbying world last year, spending the most on employing influential insiders who sway development of public policy.

The Massachusetts Association of Health Plans spent $1.3 million on lobbyists in 2024, more than any other individual client in the Bay State, according to data from Secretary of State William Galvin’s office. The organization representing insurers newly supplanted the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association, which topped lobbying spending in 2022 and 2023 but ranked second last year with $1.1 million.

Those organizations were the only two clients that spent more than $1 million apiece on lobbying last year.

Many health care- and pharmaceutical-adjacent groups ranked near the top in 2024 lobbying spending, too, including the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council ($866,139), Massachusetts Nurses Association ($519,191), Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts ($460,403) and the Association for Behavioral Healthcare ($459,070).

Health care policy is one of the thorniest and most complex topics for lawmakers to tackle. The Legislature enacted a pair of major reform bills in 2024, including one intended to lower prescription drug costs and another imposing more financial oversight on hospitals following the collapse of Steward Health Care.

But the problems plaguing both providers and patients remain potent. Sen. Cindy Friedman, the Senate’s point person on health care reforms, warned last week that the health care system is “falling apart.”

The total amount paid to lobbyists by all clients across different topics crossed into nine figures in 2024, climbing to $104.1 million.

The same top lobbying shops continue to command the most money from clients.

Each of the five top-earning firms in 2023 retained the same ranking in 2024, led by Smith, Costello and Crawford, which hauled in $6.2 million last year.

Like many lobbying entities around Beacon Hill, Smith, Costello and Crawford counts well-connected former public officials among its ranks. The firm is partly led by former Democrat Reps. Michael Costello, and another former representative, Carlo Basile, is a senior policy advisor. That’s the same title held by Marylou Sudders, who served as health and human services secretary under Gov. Charlie Baker.

Smith, Costello and Crawford’s top-paying client — $180,000 last year — was energy giant Avangrid, a key figure in the state’s push to build out cleaner energy sources including offshore wind.

Tremont Strategies Group earned the second-most of any lobbying firm with about $4.5 million. Former Congressman Chet Atkins, who also served in the Massachusetts House and Senate, is a partner at Tremont.

Rounding out the five top-earning firms were O’Neill and Partners ($4.28 million), Dempsey Associates ($3.77 million) and Kearney, Donovan and McGee ($3.5 million).

The next five ranking spots were all captured by the same firms as 2023, but in a slightly different order. ML Strategies jumped from seventh-most in earnings in 2023 to sixth-most in 2024, flipping with Bay State Strategies Group. Similarly, Issues Management Group climbed from ninth in 2023 to eighth in 2024, swapping places with TSK Associates. The Suffolk Group landed in 10th both years, earning about $2.26 million in 2024.

No individual lobbyist earned more in 2024 than former Senate President Robert Travaglini, who founded what is now known as TSK Associates after leaving the Legislature.

Travaglini hauled in $854,000 from his lobbying clients in 2024, according to data from Galvin’s office. Basile, who was the top earner in 2023, landed in second last year with $830,000 in lobbying salary.

The private sector can be much more lucrative for lawmakers than remaining in the Legislature. The current Senate president, Karen Spilka, earned $203,286 in total pay last year, according to state payroll records, less than one-quarter as much as Travaglini brought in from lobbying clients.

Fourteen lobbyists earned more than half a million dollars from their firms last year, and 56 brought in at least $250,000.

Three other registered lobbyists were paid at least $250,000 directly by clients: Mass. Association of Health Plans President Lora Pellegrini ($469,233 from MAHP), Clark University Vice President for Government and Community Affairs Joseph Corazzini (nearly $235,000 from the Trustees of Clark University), and OpenCape CEO Steven Johnston ($246,159 from OpenCapeCorporation).

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ANNUAL STATE BUDGET hearings got off to a late start this year, but lawmakers packed two hearings into three business days before pausing for an unusual two-week break that is coinciding with a general lack of activity among all legislative committees 10 weeks into the new session.

While it doesn’t explain the full length of the pause, nearly a dozen lawmakers, including the chairs of the House and Senate Ways and Means committees, were out of the country recently for three days.

In response to a News Service inquiry about the longer-than-usual break in budget hearings and possible out-of-state travel, aides to House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate Way and Means Chairman Michael Rodrigues said 11 legislators, all Democrats, left for Canada on Thursday with plans to return Saturday.

Rodrigues spokesman Sean Fitzgerald called it an “alternative energy fact finding trip.”

In an email late Friday, Fitzgerald called the visit “part of a broader strategy to explore affordable, sustainable, and renewable forms of carbon-free energy” and said the legislators planned to tour the HQ James Bay Generating Facility, which is part of Hydro-Québec’s operations. 

“The facility is a two-hour propeller plane flight out of Montreal and is one of several options to ensure the availability and viability of New England’s energy future,” Fitzgerald said. “With uncertainty at the federal government occurring in all sectors of the American economy, it is especially important to maintain the partnership with Hydro Quebec as one avenue to help meet the Commonwealth’s renewable energy goals and future grid demand.”

The trip comes as state energy policies shaped through a series of clean energy laws are suddenly at odds with the new direction of federal energy policy under President Donald Trump.

State policies are geared toward compliance with strict carbon emission reduction mandates, while US Energy Secretary Chris Wright this week emphasized “the critical role of fossil fuels in meeting global energy demands,” according to the energy department, and hyped the the need to “end the Biden administration’s irrational, quasi-religious policies on climate change that imposed endless sacrifices on our citizens.”

In the last week, the US Department of the Interior approved a plan to extend the operational life of Montana’s Spring Creek Mine by 16 years, enabling the production of nearly 40 million tons of coal. The US Department of Energy signed a major liquefied natural gas export permit approval, the White House said, and the Environmental Protection Agency launched the “biggest day of deregulation in American history.”

State officials in Massachusetts also face new and serious questions about federal support for ongoing and future clean energy efforts. As Trump looks to build jobs in fossil fuel-based energy, plans in Massachusetts to grow jobs and produce a major new supply of clean power through offshore wind projects are in doubt.

Sen. Ed Markey and eight other US senators released a letter Friday demanding that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin “cease his illegal witch hunt to claw back nearly $20 billion in congressionally appropriated and legally obligated funds that underpin the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.” The fund is designed to “spur economic development, lower energy costs, and reduce pollution,” Markey said.

Ana Vivas, a spokeswoman for Mariano, said in an email Thursday night that legislators planned to visit the Hydro-Québec Research Institute, the dikes, dam and spillway that are part of the Robert-Bourassa hydroelectric facilities, and an underground generating station that she said are part of “the largest hydroelectric facility in North America” and include a dedicated transmission line to Ayer, Massachusetts.

Budget hearings paused after a March 10 hearing in Gloucester and will resume March 24 in Amherst, starting a string of four budget hearings in six business days. After two final budget hearings in April, the House Ways and Means Committee plans to release its redraft of Gov. Maura Healey’s $62 billion budget during the week of April 14, with floor debate scheduled for the week of April 28.  Healey filed her budget Jan. 22. The Legislature has made a habit of not completing annual budget by the July 1 start of the fiscal year.

Rodrigues, Sens. John Cronin and Jacob Oliveira were on the trip, according to Fitzgerald. Cronin is a member of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy.

House members who went on the Canada trip included Rep. Mark Cusack, the new House chair of the Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy, and vice chair Rep. Michael Kushmerek. Senate co-chair Sen. Michael Barrett and vice chair Michael Brady were not listed as trip participants.

Rep. Jeff Roy, who Mariano moved off his former Energy Committee chairmanship and up into his leadership team, was also on the trip to Canada. Roy has been the focus of Boston Globe reporting over his relationship with an energy sector lobbyist.

The other House members who went to Canada, according to Vivas, are Ways and Means Committee Chair Aaron Michlewitz, Rep. Danielle Gregoire, Rep. Kathy LaNatra, Rep. Meghan Kilcoyne and Rep. Michael Finn. None of those representatives are among the House members of the Energy Committee.

Fitzgerald said senators on the trip were responsible for paying for transportation, lodging and expenses.

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AUDITOR DIANA DIZOGLIO determined the MBTA Communities Act is an “unfunded mandate” from the state, drawing a sharp rebuke from Attorney General Andrea Campbell, a top defender of the zoning law that eases regulations for multifamily housing in neighborhoods close to public transit.

DiZoglio’s office made the pronouncement in a letter to local officials in Wrentham, a town close to the Rhode Island border. The “unfunded mandate” determination came from the auditor’s Division of Local Mandates, which decides whether the Massachusetts state government has provided local governments with the funding required to implement a new law or regulation.

The move prompted Campbell to call the determination incorrect and declare that it carries no impact.

DiZoglio told CommonWealth Beacon she was “surprised and taken aback by the rather harsh response and believe it may be due to some misunderstandings as to what this determination means.” Her office isn’t challenging the MBTA Communities law but instead stating that it’s a mandate and the state is required to cover the costs of implementation, she added, noting that she voted for the law as a state legislator.

Housing advocates say the law is needed to increase supply and decrease costs as housing demand soars in Massachusetts. Gov. Maura Healey’s administration has said more than 220,000 housing units must be built in the coming decade to lower housing costs.

Officials in Milton challenged the MBTA Communities Act, arguing the attorney general could not force them to comply with the law. They lost in front of the Supreme Judicial Court, which ruled that the law is constitutional and the attorney general has the power to enforce it. That is, as long as regulations are rolled out correctly.

Municipalities and advocacy groups have spent the last few weeks hustling to submit comments on a new version of MBTA Communities regulations before the public comment period closed on February 21. 

That same day, DiZoglio’s office sent its letter to Wrentham calling it an “unfunded mandate” for cities and towns. Officials in Wrentham, which in a December town meeting rejected complying with the law, asked DiZoglio’s office for the determination, as did local officials in Methuen and Middleborough.

DiZoglio’s office offered a note of caution, saying “this determination does not guarantee that a municipality will be reimbursed for expenses incurred in complying with the Act. Municipalities can either continue to comply with no guarantee of reimbursement for expenses incurred or … petition the Superior Court for an exemption from compliance until funding is provided.”

DiZoglio’s office said they needed more time to calculate a “thorough analysis” of the specific costs involved with the mandate. The office must review fiscal impact statements from the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, among other data sources, the letter said. “Although the total fiscal impact of implementation cannot be determined without further data collection, it is apparent that, at a minimum direct costs exist in developing compliant zoning that amount to more than incidental local administration expenses,” the letter said.

Campbell hit back in a statement Monday. 

“High housing costs burden our residents and stifle our economy – and responsible zoning is the solution to this crisis, as most of our communities understand,” she said. “The Auditor’s claim that the MBTA Communities Law is an unfunded mandate is wrong, and, more importantly, this letter has no effect whatsoever on implementation of the Law. If those who oppose housing affordability try to make a similar claim in court, the state will vigorously defend the law, and we intend to be successful, as we have been so far.”

Through a public relations company, Wrentham officials said they’re reviewing DiZoglio’s letter with their legal counsel as they weigh next steps. The town’s select board is set to meet and discuss the letter at a meeting on Tuesday evening.

DiZoglio said that the law’s language should’ve included a provision for funding. She acknowledged the establishment of state grant programs to cover the cost of compliance set up in 2024, but based her office’s decision on the fact that did not happen at the same time as the establishment of the law, in January 2021, she said.

“I understand how important this issue is to our AG but think that this determination should have been discussed with our office, first, before threatening to battle municipalities in court so that we could’ve potentially alleviated some of the expressed concerns,” DiZoglio said.

Jennifer Smith contributed to this report.

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FOLLOWING A YEAR of unprecedented wildfires, roughly half a dozen Massachusetts lawmakers are putting their weight behind three bills that would make it easier for the state to conserve water during severe droughts.

Currently, each municipality creates its own water conservation plan, but advocates say that as droughts become more frequent, Massachusetts needs to implement a statewide approach.

Three bills – two in the Senate and one in the House – introduced in mid-January would codify in law a drought management task force under the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs that already exists and give the head of the office the authority to mandate water conservation during severe droughts including the ability to limit nonessential outdoor water use. 

“There’s a growing recognition that water obviously crosses municipal boundaries so why do we continue to have a municipal, local policy for informing residents on water use,” said Sen. Jamie Eldridge, a Democrat who filed the bill in the last legislative session and refiled it this session. “It should be done from a regional point of view, and we should empower the Department of Environmental Protection to have greater oversight over water given the different heat extremes and water extremes that Massachusetts and, of course, the whole world are experiencing.”  

Republican Sen. Bruce Tarr has filed his own version of the legislation. Though similar to Eldridge’s bill, Tarr’s legislation does not explicitly list who should be on the drought management task force. He said that he wanted the environmental secretary to have more flexibility.

“We can no longer take for granted that we’re going to have a sustainable supply of water when we have these environmental extremes happening,” said Tarr, who represents several communities that have been hit hard by drought like Ipswich, Hamilton, and Wenham. “With every day that passes, we understand the threat of drought in a more pronounced way, and it is time for us to act again at the state level.”

In 2001, a drought management task force was created by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency in response to a period of drought in the state that began in 1999. The around 30-member panel, which includes representatives from state and federal agencies, determines when there is drought in the state, creates a drought management plan at least every five years, and assesses the impact of drought across the state.

Julia Blatt, executive director of Mass Rivers Alliance, emphasized the importance of codifying the task force in the law especially as climate change impacts the severity of droughts. 

“Sometimes you think something is going to be there forever, but then a new administration comes in and it disappears,” said Blatt. “If something doesn’t have legal backing, it’s a lot more vulnerable to changes.” 

The state’s climate resiliency plan notes that warmer temperatures due to climate change will likely lead to longer, more severe droughts and a longer, more severe wildfire season. It also predicts that there will be more heavy rains that will be unable to soak into the soil to recharge groundwater supplies.

Drought causes drier conditions, which lead to wildfires and less water available to fight the fires. Last fall was a particularly difficult fire season with more acres burned in just two months than had burned in the past two years combined. 

Rep. Joan Meschino, who filed the drought bill in the House, said coordinating the drought response will help create a sustainable water supply.

“The current patchwork approach leaves towns to fend for themselves and leads to regional inequities,” she said.

Eldridge said he hopes the drought legislation will be rolled up into the environmental bond bill Gov. Maura Healey is expected to file this year. In the last legislative session, the drought bill was added to the 2024 climate and clean energy law on the Senate side but did not make it into the House. Some of the opposition came from the local level, where there is concern about restricting water usage.

Critics of the legislation say that water conservation should be a local decision. Jennifer Pederson, the executive director of the Massachusetts Water Works Association, said that a statewide limit on water use would lead to higher water prices for customers.

“When it comes to water use restrictions, it should be a local decision simply because they know best what they have at their capacity,” said Pederson. 

Pederson said that statewide messaging about drought is helpful, but a statewide mandate on water use is less effective because different parts of Massachusetts might not be experiencing the same drought conditions.  

But Blatt noted that drought and excessive water withdrawal don’t just affect water supply and exacerbate wildfires. They have an outsize impact on rivers and wildlife. River beds dry up and become warmer, allowing algae to grow. That, in turn, can make it difficult for wildlife to survive.

“Drought creates low flow conditions in streams and sometimes dries them up,” said Blatt. “Streams get warmer and you end up with algae. That’s not great for wildlife. It’s certainly not good for people.”

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THERE WAS TALK of no new taxes, fixing the MBTA, and cutting red tape, all while avoiding direct references to Donald Trump.

That was Charlie Baker in his 2017 State of the Commonwealth speech, delivered while the moderate Republican governor was still in his first term and casting wary glances at Washington.

That was also Maura Healey in her speech on Thursday night, as the moderate Democratic governor wades through her first term and braces for Trump’s return to the White House. “I assure you we will take every opportunity to work with the federal government in any way that benefits Massachusetts, and I also promise you we will not change who we are,” she said.

On the education front, Healey announced the formation of a council to come up with a statewide high school graduation standard, after voters last November nixed passage of the MCAS test as a graduation requirement. 

She also touched on the problems within the state’s emergency shelter system, strained by a wave of migrants on top of Massachusetts residents grappling with homelessness. Healey has pitched to the state legislators residency requirements as costs have ballooned. The federal government, she added, must pass a border security bill, which Trump had Republicans deep-six while he was campaigning for a second term.

“I want to be absolutely clear: We are dramatically reducing costs, and we have, and will, prioritize Massachusetts families. In 2025 we’ll get families out of hotels for good,” Healey said. “We’re going to keep working with the Legislature to reform this system. Massachusetts taxpayers should not, and cannot, continue to foot the cost.”

And like Baker’s move to reduce regulations and overhaul the MBTA, Healey pledged that her economic team will review all business and licensing regulations in the first three months of the year, and she touted the general manager she hired, Phil Eng, and his wipeout of the T’s slow zones.

Earlier this week, Healey announced an investment of $8 billion over 10 years into the state’s transportation infrastructure, including a significant infusion of cash for the T, coming from the existing millionaires tax approved by voters in 2022 and closing the agency’s budget gap before it would be forced to implement layoffs and service cuts.

But the T itself offered a reminder of how far it has to go before it’s a fully functioning transit system that can draw people out of their cars and into reliable trains and buses: As Healey delivered her speech inside the State House, the agency was reporting delays.

A Mass. bitcoin strategic reserve?

The debate over states jumping into cryptocurrency – digital currency widely known as bitcoin – could now be coming to Beacon Hill.

State Sen. Peter Durant, a Republican from Worcester County, has filed a bill that would set up a “bitcoin strategic reserve,” arguing bitcoin has gone mainstream. The state-level idea is under consideration in Texas and Pennsylvania. President-elect Donald Trump indicated last year he wants a national reserve, similar to the government’s oil reserves.

Durant’s bill would allow some of the Bay State’s $9 billion rainy day fund to be put into cryptocurrency, and places the state treasurer in charge of the Massachusetts reserve. The bill also institutes a 10 percent cap on how much the treasurer can invest. “It’s not like we’re saying divest everything and put it into bitcoin,” Durant said. “But we do believe it does make sense as a portion of the commonwealth’s portfolio.”

Durant called himself a fan of crypto, and when asked if he has any bitcoin, he chuckled and answered, “more than some, less than others.” Others, like legendary investor Warren Buffett, have called it “rat poison,” or like US Sen. Elizabeth Warren, they’ve called for regulations.

Durant acknowledged he hadn’t yet spoken about his proposal to Deb Goldberg, a Democrat and the state treasurer since 2015.

A Goldberg spokesperson said the treasurer has not yet taken a position on crypto. “When asked, our office will review and offer feedback on this particular bill,” a spokesman said in an email.

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WITH THE STATE’S family shelter system under pressure from mounting costs and violent on-site incidents, Gov. Maura Healey on Wednesday recommended statutory changes to the decades-old Right to Shelter Law, asking House and Senate leadership to fold the reforms into a supplemental budget.

In a new letter, Healey called for “strengthening” criminal background checks for shelter applicants by requiring the Executive Office of Housing to conduct CORI checks before families are placed in the emergency shelters. She had previously told the press that comprehensive background checks were conducted on all shelter residents, before her administration last week said that had not actually been done.

All family members looking to stay in a state shelter would also have to prove their lawful U.S. residency under the governor’s recommendation, unless a child in the family already has lawful residence. Currently, only one member of the family unit must show citizenship or lawful presence.

The governor is also seeking to require families to show proof of eligibility up front before they are given a shelter spot, and removing the option of someone showing their eligibility through “self attestation.”

A massive number of families have arrived in recent years looking to access the state shelter system, competing with Bay State families already seeking shelter access. Around 48,000 people have lived in the state-run sites over the past three years, Healey said last week.

“The Administration proposes requiring in the line item that all members of the household must be residents of Massachusetts, and that anyone receiving EA show an intent to remain in Massachusetts, which may be shown either through independent documentary verification of an intent to remain in Massachusetts, or through three months of physical presence in the state,” Healey wrote in her letter to House Speaker Ronald Mariano, Senate President Karen Spilka, and the two branches’ Ways and Means chairs.

Healey last week filed her mini-budget with another $425 million for the costly shelter system (H 51) and some major policy changes, including a proposed six-month limit on how long families can stay in shelters. The bill is pending before the House Ways and Means Committee.

It was three days after she filed the bill that her administration told the Globe it had not been conducting comprehensive background checks on all shelter residents as the governor had previously stated.  Healey since then has spoken about altering the Right to Shelter Law so it “actually aligns with its original intent.”

She told reporters last Friday that she was going to work with the Legislature on amending the law, which she said was written “to protect and take care of poor women and children” and did not contemplate “a broken immigration system and waves and waves of people arriving in Massachusetts.”

The reforms were not presented as legislation, but rather as bullet-point ideas in a four-page letter.

House Republican Leader Bradley Jones Jr. said the “hasty” followup from Healey “seems a lot more like damage control, full retreat.”

The North Reading Republican said he interpreted the letter as saying, “‘We’re taking on water badly, we gotta do something, and we’ll send a letter to the Legislature saying please save us from ourselves.'”

“Which the Legislature’s happy to do,” he added.

Republican lawmakers this week called for more system transparency and accountability, and GOP lawmakers wrote a letter to Auditor Diana DiZoglio on Tuesday asking her to audit the EA shelter program. DiZoglio indicated her office is already engaged in an audit of the Executive Office of Housing.

“During this incredibly challenging time, in which the shelter system has operated at full capacity, we have heard concerns raised by residents who want to ensure their taxpayer dollars are being spent in a transparent, appropriate, efficient and impactful manner,” DiZoglio wrote in a letter shared by Republicans on Wednesday. 

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr said Healey’s new proposals “fall short of where we need to be,” but “signal her conceptual agreement to what we have been pursuing for so long.”

House budget chief Aaron Michlewitz told the Herald this week that he wanted more information on the spate of shelter-site crimes before advancing the governor’s bill, which will make its next stop on the House floor.

Mariano on Wednesday pointed to previous House efforts to rein in program costs and said the House is open to additional changes.

“As the House continues to work on the supplemental budget proposal that was filed by Gov. Healey earlier this month, we will remain focused on instituting further reforms centered around fiscal responsibility and safety, policies that will be informed by conversations with House members, through continued collaboration with the Healey-Driscoll Administration, and by actions taken at the federal level,” Mariano said.

Sente budget chief Michael Rodrigues, said last week that he thought a proposed residency requirement “raises constitutional issues,” but did not foreclose considering it.

“I have evaluated the Right to Shelter Law and regulations as well as the operational burdens on the system,” Healey said in her letter to legislative Democrats. “Based on that review, and in the face of continued inaction by Congress and no assistance from the federal government, I believe these changes are appropriate and needed to ensure the long-term sustainability of the state shelter system in a way that aligns with the original intent of the law.”

The Republican Party said GOP lawmakers have been calling for reforms for two years, and said changes are only advancing now due to “the release of damaging information that has been known to the administration for some time.”

“These reforms are shocking — not because they’re being implemented, but because they should have been put in place at the onset of this crisis. It is incomprehensible that we’ve been housing adults with children, and those adults weren’t even required to complete a CORI check,” MassGOP spokesperson Logan Trupiano said.

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A SPECIAL COMMISSION tasked with offering solutions to the state’s overwhelmed emergency housing assistance program voted on Tuesday to approve a report with a series of recommendations, but no clear roadmap, to help ease the burden on both the state budget and families that need assistance.

The recommendations, approved during a virtual hearing in a 12-0 vote with two abstentions, are centered around three core principles: that family homelessness should be rare, brief and nonrecurring; the EA shelter system should not be one-size fits all; and the shelter system should be operationally and fiscally sustainable.

Gov. Maura Healey declared a state of emergency in August due to the rising number of migrant families, saying the EA system had reached capacity. Officials had to raise the annual cap to 7,500 families to accommodate demand and add $251 million to the system’s budget, which topped $1 billion in fiscal 2024. Despite the increases, nearly half of the families receiving assistance have been placed in hotel rooms – most of which don’t have kitchens or laundry rooms.

The major difference from a draft report reviewed last week was the addition of a tenth recommendation that the Legislature should further consult experts and stakeholders in the field to continue the work of the commission.

The Healey-Driscoll administration had already shortened the length of stay to nine months with two 90-day extensions. 

The 14 members included Driscoll, Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities Ed Augustus, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kate Walsh, and Secretary of Administration and Finance Matt Gorzkowicz.

One new appendix to the report, offered by Sen. Ryan Fattman, a Republican from Sutton, and Republican Rep. Paul Frost of Auburn, suggested codifying priority for families that have certain medical needs; are at risk of domestic violence; are homeless because of no-fault eviction; have at least one family member who is a veteran; have received a Department of Children and Families (DCF) Health and Safety Assessment that identified a risk of harm; or who are leaving a DCF Young Parent Living Program due to age limits.

Two other recommendations suggest that the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities set a six-month residency requirement for all EA shelter system applications, and that the EA length-of-stay be shortened to six months, instead of nine.

With its current caseload, the EA system is expected to spend another $1 billion in fiscal year 2025.

Hannah Edelheit is a student at Boston University working at CommonWealth Beacon as part of the Boston University Statehouse Program.

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IMPLICIT IN the arrangement between House Democrats and their speaker is loyalty.

The hefty stipends aside, they vote for him and with him, and they get the gazebo they want for their town green. The speaker also seeks to shield his flock from tough votes inside the chamber, and takes the slings and arrows that can come from outside.

He releases some arrows of his own, too, as Speaker Ron Mariano did in coming to the defense of state Rep. Marjorie Decker. Earlier this month, the Cambridge Democrat barely survived a furious primary challenge from her left in the form of a Harvard graduate student who charged that she was too close to Beacon Hill leaders.

In a Thursday scrum with reporters, who asked for his take on her squeaker of a victory, Mariano took aim at her opponent and the Boston Globe. “I was a little bit outraged by the fact that her opponent declared himself the winner,” he said, referring to Evan MacKay, who goes by “they/them” pronouns.

“I was even more concerned that the Globe wrote it up like he was the winner based on what one of his workers said was going to happen. I mean, you guys have an obligation to write what’s really gonna happen,” Mariano huffed. “And when there were all sorts of ballots that were left uncounted, all of the mail-in stuff, we knew that night that this thing wasn’t going to be decided for another day or two. So to read that story really, really angered me.”

A candidate or campaign claiming victory is news, and it’s not unusual to report it with caveats, as the Globe did, noting that Decker had not conceded. But to Mariano, it was an “overstep and an overreach.”

The newspaper had an “agenda,” he continued, deploying a classic accusation leveled by countless pols before him. “Even though they endorsed her, they really gave her a couple of smacks in the story they wrote on the campaign,” he said referring to the endorsement written by the Globe editorial board, which is separate from the newsroom, and the news article written by two reporters previewing the race.

No Globe reporters were in the scrum to hear him. But afterwards, a spokeswoman for the regional newspaper said they have “one agenda when covering election results—to report the facts in real time, with all necessary context, as we did the night of the primary.”

As the scrum wound down, Mariano was asked if he had learned anything from watching the Decker-MacKay match from afar. “No. I don’t campaign the way she does,” Mariano said flatly as he stepped into a waiting elevator. “I’ve never yelled at any constituents.”

Reporters were left puzzled by his parting comment, as Decker does have a reputation for yelling, and not just at constituents.

In a statement after the scrum, Decker said Mariano was “making a joke and referencing the unfounded accusations being made against me” in the Globe, which quoted a constituent and MacKay supporter who said Decker yelled at her.

A Mariano spokeswoman put out her own statement, echoing Decker and saying Mariano was being sarcastic about the yelling. “He congratulates [Public Health Committee] Chair Decker on her primary victory, as she has a proven track record of working incredibly hard on behalf of her constituents, and he looks forward to continuing to work with her to deliver results for the people of Massachusetts,” the statement said.

After all, loyalty goes both ways.

First lady or first partner?

Some reporters this week saw a press release from Gov. Maura Healey’s office and heard wedding bells.

The press release featured Gov. Maura Healey and two first ladies: Her partner Joanna Lydgate, and Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine, who met them at the State House as her country is defending itself against the Russian invasion.

But it was the reference, apparently for the first time, to Lydgate as “first lady,” rather than the usual “first partner,” that raised eyebrows and prompted some phone calls to Healey’s press office to ask whether the Bay State’s first openly gay governor got married. (Massachusetts was the first state to legalize gay marriage in 2004.)

There has been no status change, a spokeswoman said, adding that the office considers “first lady” and “first partner” to be interchangeable terms.

Whatever the title, the role has tended to be a public one, and the State House News Service reported earlier this year that Lydgate, an attorney and the CEO of States United Democracy Center, is taking several steps into the spotlight. In June, Lydgate started the ceremonial role of president of the Doric Docents, volunteers who provide tours of the State House.

The post Political Notebook: Ron Mariano, media critic | First lady or first partner? appeared first on CommonWealth Beacon.

TWO MONTHS AFTER the Legislature gaveled out of formal sessions for the year, leaving promised bills on climate change and economic development unfinished, a new poll shows voters are aren’t happy with Beacon Hill lawmakers.

The survey of likely voters finds that 47 percent disapprove of the job lawmakers are doing. Forty-two percent said they approved, and 11 percent said they were undecided (toplines/crosstabs).

“Usually Massachusetts voters are pretty okay with their State House leaders,” said Jerold Duquette, a professor of political science at Central Connecticut State University and a close watcher of Massachusetts politics. “That’s historically low.”

The findings come from a MassINC Polling Group survey of 800 likely voters, conducted from September 12 to 18, for CommonWealth Beacon and WBUR. The poll was funded by a Knight Election Hub grant and has a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points.

Lawmakers have come in for criticism from progressive activists and the business sector for failing to push several big bills across the finish line when formal sessions ended August 1.  “The consistent inability to enact planned legislation over a two-year session indicates a policymaking process that is not working effectively,” said a report this week from the business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.

Legislative leaders claim the economic development package, which includes investments in artificial intelligence and life sciences, will get done in a special session, though it remains unscheduled.

Asked whether ending formal sessions with so many big bills left undone could be having an impact on the Legislature’s job approval ratings, Duquette said, “I don’t see how it could not be a factor.” At a minimum, he said, “it’s bad press. It’s a reminder of the way they operate. When you focus on it, it doesn’t look good to anybody.”

Voter cynicism driven by national politics – which in recent days has featured Donald Trump falsely claiming that Haitian migrants are eating people’s pets in Ohio – could also be trickling down to state politics, Duquette suggested.

Democratic voters, whose party enjoys a supermajority in both legislative branches on Beacon HIll and holds every statewide constitutional office, are more satisfied with state lawmakers, with 63 percent saying they approve of the job they’re doing, while 73 percent of Republicans say they disapprove.

Forty-nine percent of independents, who make up the largest bloc of the Massachusetts electorate, disapprove, while 45 percent approve.

The poll of likely voters suggests the Legislature’s standing may be slipping. In a poll conducted by MassINC Polling Group for CommonWealth Beacon last October, 51 percent of registered voters approved of the job the Legislature was doing, while 32 percent disapproved, and 16 percent said they didn’t know.

Steve Koczela, president of the MassINC Polling Group, said voters’ dissatisfaction is also  apparent through their answers to other questions in the new poll. 

Fifty-eight percent said they wished more candidates ran for the state Legislature, which this year is expected to see 65 percent of incumbents go unchallenged. Nineteen percent said there are enough candidates running.

Asked whether state government overall operates in a way that is open and transparent, 45 percent said it doesn’t, compared with 36 percent who said it does, and 19 percent who were unsure.

That could help explain why a ballot question authorizing the state auditor to audit the Legislature (Question 1) has the support of a whopping 70 percent of those polled. Just 8 percent say they’re opposed, and 22 percent said they don’t know or refused to answer the question.

Auditor Diana DiZoglio has been campaigning for the ballot question, after lawmakers rebuffed her attempts to get them to submit to an audit.

The poll results, along with campaign finance reports tracking donations to the Question 1 campaign, show both Democrats and Republicans backing her question. The poll found 58 percent of Democrats in support, and 76 percent of Republicans, as well as 78 percent of independents.

The committee behind the ballot question has pulled in roughly $400,000 in donations, though fundraising has slowed as polling has shown the yes side of the ballot question ahead of the no side. 

CommonWealth Beacon previously reported that legislative leaders won’t be mounting an opposition campaign. They are instead widely expected to challenge the measure in court if the ballot question passes.

Duquette, the political science professor, has called the ballot measure constitutionally problematic, arguing that DiZoglio is unable to audit lawmakers without the consent of the Legislature.

He said the best analogue for the ballot measure is the Clean Elections Law, passed overwhelmingly by Massachusetts voters in 1998. Lawmakers resisted efforts to fund the law, which sought to provide public money to candidates who agreed to spending limits. Despite pressure through a court order, lawmakers repealed the law in 2003.

Duquette foresees a similar fate for the audit-the-Legislature question, and isn’t surprised lawmakers are opting against an opposition campaign. “Tactically they are making the decision that makes most sense to them,” he said.

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