Massachusetts among 17 States offering Inflation Relief

MassLive – Inflation has been high for much of this year, peaking in June at 9.1%. In August, the inflation rate was 8.3% year over year, according to U.S. Labor Department data released earlier this month.  

Meanwhile, 17 states including Massachusetts are offering money back to taxpayers, in some cases at a flat rate and in others as a percentage of what residents paid in taxes the previous year.  

The labor department revealed that inflation rose nearly across the board on essential items, but that the rates varied, with fuel oil leading the way at nearly 70%.  

For other items, the inflation rates were as follows:  

• Food: 11.4%  

• Energy: 23.8%  
• Gasoline: 25.6%  
• Fuel oil: 68.8%  
• Electricity: 15.8%  
• Utility (piped) gas service: 33%  

• New vehicles: 10.1%  
• Used cars and trucks: 7.8%  
• Apparel: 5.1%  

Inflation relief is flowing to taxpayers in 17 states, according to CNBC. Those states are California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia.  

In Massachusetts, that relief is taking the form of tax rebate mandated by a 1986 tax cap law passed by ballot measure called Chapter 62F.  

Grants to Drive Production, Jobs at Greenfield, South Deerfield Manufacturing Plants  

Gazette Net – Two Franklin County manufacturers each received $250,000 grants to invest in new equipment that will drive production and job growth.  

Valley Steel Stamp in Greenfield and South Deerfield-based Worthington Assembly were each awarded $250,000 from the Baker-Polito administration last month. Worthington Assembly was also recognized by the state Legislature for its leadership in the manufacturing industry.  

Both companies will use the grants to invest in machines and tools that will expand their business, while also offering high-paying jobs to residents in the region.  

Worthington Assembly has invested its grant into new pick-and-place machines that will assist in constructing circuit boards and other technology so small a microscope is needed to inspect it.  

Co-owners Neil Scanlon and Rafal Dybacki said Worthington Assembly, which assembles circuit boards mainly for the medical industry, along with other, smaller orders, said this “totally critical” grant helps a small manufacturing center invest a large amount of money toward replacing machines from 2007 with ones made this year. They estimated these machine upgrades and other investments totaled $1 million, which is “difficult for a small business.”  

“What a lot of people don’t realize with this, is how quickly this equipment becomes obsolete,” Scanlon said. “If you go back to 2007, that was a big investment. It’s a dinosaur.”  

Worthington Assembly employs 36 people at its South Deerfield manufacturing site and Scanlon said this investment will “help with new hires,” especially as they take on “more advanced work.”  

More Shippers on Board after $850 Million Expansion of Boston Freight Terminal  

Boston Globe – The Massachusetts Port Authority says the $850 million invested in the recent Boston Harbor dredging project and expansion of the state’s primary freight terminal is already starting to pay off.  

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Conley Container Terminal was served by two shipping routes connecting Boston with seven ports. Starting later this fall, Conley will be served by six routes that connect with 25 ports around the globe.  

Massport CEO Lisa Wieland credits the dredging and expansion projects — funded by a combination of state, federal, and port authority money over nearly a decade — for the terminal’s increased appeal. The port authority hosted an event on Friday at the South Boston terminal to highlight the completion of the projects. (The final piece of the dredging was done in June.)  

Governor Charlie Baker attended, as did Mayor Michelle Wu, along with members of the state’s congressional delegation and other political leaders. Robert Kraft, whose International Forest Products company counts as Conley’s largest customer, also was there.  

The projects, among other changes, added three cranes to Conley and more depth to the harbor’s main shipping lanes to accommodate larger ships. One of the larger ships — the Ever Fortune, in use by the Ocean Alliance consortium — docked at the Conley on Thursday.  

“Conley Terminal really is New England’s gateway to the world,” Wieland said. “We’ve seen an increase in global connectivity. It’s really exciting for New England’s importers and exporters.”  

As recently as two years ago, Boston was served by two shipping routes run by MSC and Ocean Alliance, connecting Boston with Europe and China, respectively. Now, MSC will offer three routes, including one to India and one to China. Shipping company ZIM now offers Southeast Asia service, as does COSCO, whose ships will also stop in the Middle East. Obtaining access to ports in Southeast Asia has been a longtime goal of Massport.  

Wu tells Greater Boston Chamber Audience that Her Interests Align with Theirs  

Boston Globe – In her highest-profile speech focused on business since taking office last fall, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu made her case on Thursday morning to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce that her interests and goals were aligned with the executives in the room.  

Speaking at the Sheraton hotel in the Back Bay, Wu focused on four issues that are priorities for local business leaders — transportation, affordable housing, downtown revitalization, and workforce development.  

Some in the room — particularly those in construction and development — have been wary as the new mayor prioritizes affordability and climate resilience in the city’s permitting process, while many development proposals remain in limbo.  

With that in mind, Wu chose to emphasize shared priorities instead of bringing up differences.  

“The Boston business community has always been tough, willing to take on the odds … believing in the possibility and the promise of our communities,” she said. 

Chamber chief executive Jim Rooney later said the speech shows Wu wants to open up channels of communication with the business community on these issues.  

“That was clearly a strategic element of the speech,” Rooney said. “There’s likely to be bumps in the road in terms of how different communities think about the best approach, [but] in terms of the aspirations, and the focus, there is great alignment.”    

House Committee Votes are Secret. A Ballot Question is Trying to Change That  

  WBUR – In the November election, Massachusetts voters in 20 House districts will tell their representatives whether or not they want lawmakers’ committee votes to be made public.  

These legislative committee votes, often taken electronically and with no public notice, can either move bills forward in the lawmaking process, or lead to a dead end on Beacon Hill. A yes vote on this non-binding question would indicate voters want their representatives in the House to change the rules next session to make votes in committee publicly available on the Legislature’s website.  

 Advocacy group Act on Mass has led the campaign to include this question on the ballot in certain districts. Massachusetts is considered one of the most opaque governments in the country — it’s the only state in which the Legislature, courts, and governor’s office all claim to be exempt from public records laws.

This ballot question is part of the nonprofit’s long-term strategy to change that.  

Democratic leadership of the House has long been hesitant to expand transparency in their work. Currently, the House provides only the names of lawmakers who voted “no” in committee, with an anonymized total of affirmative and withheld votes. Some suggest that making legislators’ work more public would provide fodder to political opponents during campaigns.  

Voters in 20 out of 160 House districts will see the transparency question on the ballot, according to Act on Mass. Check this list to see if the question will appear on your ballot.

Immigrant License Law Takes Center Stage in WBZ Debate   

State House News – Is Massachusetts’ new law to allow immigrants living here without legal status in the country to apply for state driver’s licenses a matter of public safety or a statement of lax immigration policy? It depends who you ask.  

The lines were pretty clearly drawn this weekend in a WBZ-TV debate between Democratic Sen. Lydia Edwards and Republican nominee for attorney general Jay McMahon. Edwards, advocating for a “yes” vote when the question of whether to keep the law in place appears on the November statewide ballot, repeatedly argued that the measure is nothing more than making sure that more people driving on Massachusetts roads are “licensed, tested and insured.”

McMahon, urging voters to say “no” to the law and repeal it, said it unduly rewards people who did not enter the United States “the right way” and makes Massachusetts a “magnet” for illegal immigration.  

The Legislature passed the law over Gov. Charlie Baker’s veto and opponents easily gathered more than enough signatures to give voters the opportunity to repeal the policy on the November ballot. The Republican Party and some of its statewide candidates like McMahon expect that the repeal effort will gin up enthusiasm for their campaigns.  

Under the new law effective July 1, 2023, all Massachusetts residents who are old enough will be eligible to apply for standard driver’s licenses, regardless of their immigration status. Immigrants who do not have legal status in the United States will need to submit other documents — including either a valid, unexpired foreign passport or a valid, unexpired consular identification document — to prove their identity, date of birth and current residency.  

Sustainability, Climate and Energy 

 Boston’s Net-Zero Emissions Zoning Code Raises Concerns among Developers  

Boston Globe – A new zoning code proposed by the City of Boston would require that newly constructed buildings with more than 20,000 square feet — including labs, offices, and housing projects with more than 15 units — must immediately hit net zero emissions goals. 

The move accelerates the city’s push to reduce buildings’ reliance on fossil fuels by several years, but is raising concerns among developers.  

The Zero Net Carbon Building Zoning Initiative, released this week by the Boston Planning and Development Agency, would also require new buildings over 20,000 square feet to be built to the LEED Gold standard — a marked boost from the current standard.  

“Every new development in our city — whether it’s affordable housing, commercial offices, lab or life science spaces — is an opportunity to implement our zero net carbon building framework,” Boston  

Mayor Michelle Wu wrote in a report announcing the new zoning code. “This initiative ensures that large, new buildings in Boston don’t come at the cost of our future.”  

The city has already targeted net zero emissions by 2050 for existing buildings, with some buildings required to start cutting emissions by 2025.  

Adding a net-zero-carbon building standard to the zoning code for newly constructed buildings, the city said this week, “prioritizes low carbon building construction practices and the use of on-and-off site renewable electricity sources.”  

The zoning change is not finalized or approved, and the BPDA has kicked off a public comment period. It also plans to create an advisory committee to maintain the code.  

The proposed changes have sent jitters through the real estate development industry, with some wondering about the kind of impact further electrifying commercial and residential real estate would have on the state’s power grid — particularly as the state prepares for the possibility of rolling blackouts this winter.  

Other developers who spoke with the Globe expressed concern about the economic feasibility, particularly for smaller projects.  

Trouble Brewing in the Power Grid as Officials Warn of Possible Electricity Shortages 

The prospect is alarming: rolling blackouts across New England as temperatures plummet below freezing for days on end, the result of a power grid that can’t keep up.  

Mindful of the debacle in Texas, where failures in the power grid resulted in hundreds of deaths during a freezing spell in February 2021, energy officials here are issuing unusually strident warnings about the potential for shortages if this winter turns out to be especially cold.  

The culprit? Russia’s war with Ukraine has destabilized energy markets, particularly supplies of liquefied natural gas, while pipelines that bring natural gas in from other parts of the United States remained constrained.  

The threat also underscores the stark choices New England faces for its energy future, as gas and pipeline companies push to bring more gas to the region, while clean energy and climate advocates warn that will harm the planet and only make the region’s dependence on gas worse.  

The concern is great enough that earlier this month, the five commissioners of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission made a rare visit to New England to hold a daylong meeting in Burlington to come to grips with just how serious the problem is.  

“We’re going into this winter basically crossing our fingers and hoping,” FERC commissioner James Danly said at the event, which included representatives from the regional grid operator, ISO-New England, energy and pipeline companies, state regulators, and clean energy advocates.  

The challenge is daunting, as New England has limited ways to bring in natural gas — pipeline, ship, truck, or barge. In addition to being the dominant fuel for home heating, natural gas is used to generate more than half of the electricity in New England. And in winter, when demand is high, gas goes to heating buildings first before generating electricity.  

“The underlying problem is that we’re overly dependent on a single fuel,” said Rebecca Tepper, chief of the energy and environment bureau at the Massachusetts attorney general’s office. “We’re overly dependent on natural gas and the entire region is at risk any time we have any disruption on that system.”  

But while the region is racing to switch from fossil-fuel-fired power plants to renewable energy, some experts say this winter is exposing the challenges of that transition, with the best clean energy solutions, such as offshore wind, not yet on line, leaving officials to scramble for solutions that don’t further tie the region to fossil fuels.  

When ISO-New England has issued similar warnings in previous years, clean energy advocates say, the grid has looked first to solve the problem by securing more supplies of gas.  

Florida’s Strengthened Electric Grid Mostly Withstood Hurricane Ian  

Multibillion-dollar upgrades by Florida’s largest utilities to strengthen the electric grid in recent years appear to have mostly withstood the destructive winds and flooding wrought by Hurricane Ian.  

Initial assessments have revealed that much of Florida’s grid, particularly the transmission system, fared the storm relatively well, in part because of the major investments in recent years. But storm surge and winds reaching 150 miles an hour still wreaked havoc on distribution networks delivering power to homes and businesses.   

Utilities have said it may take weeks to restore power in some places, particularly on several small islands along the southwestern coast where the storm made landfall. The winds downed distribution wires and the poles supporting them, while saltwater and debris contaminated and damaged some equipment.   

Florida’s large investor-owned utilities have said that their systems fared better than anticipated in many places, partly as a result of billions of dollars spent strengthening transmission lines carrying power over long distances and improving or burying distribution lines. Legislation signed in 2019 required the companies to file 10-year storm protection plans and made it easier for them to bury the lines.  

The costs of the upgrades have lately come under scrutiny amid historic inflation, and a sharp run-up in natural-gas prices that has made it more expensive for utilities to procure or purchase power. The Florida Public Service Commission is now considering whether some of the proposed spending is appropriate.   

Utility executives maintain that the upgrades are necessary and have improved the reliability of the system during catastrophic storms. TECO Energy, a subsidiary of Emera Inc., determined that its system serving Tampa performed relatively well during the storm.   

TECO Chief Executive Archie Collins said it would be a matter of days instead of weeks to restore power because it appears the storm spared the power poles and transformers that remain above ground. Much of the system is underground.   

“It’s becoming abundantly clear to us that we’re not dealing with a lot of infrastructure damage,” Mr. Collins said. “Now it is just a matter of clearing the debris and the branches and the trees that have come down.”  

Florida Power & Light, a unit of NextEra Energy Inc., determined that its system fared better than it might have otherwise following sweeping overhauls of its transmission and distribution systems. The company has been investing about $7 billion in capital a year on improvements.   

The company says it didn’t lose a single transmission structure during Ian, a strong Category 4 storm, after replacing the majority of wooden structures with ones made of concrete or steel. The process began after Hurricane Wilma, a Category 3 storm in 2005 during which it lost 100 transmission structures, and is now almost complete.   

“That makes a big difference because we’re not rebuilding transmission,” Florida Power & Light CEO Eric Silagy said. “That is the backbone. If you don’t have that, you don’t have anything.”  

The company has also been working to strengthen or bury its main distribution lines, with about 40% of the system now underground. During the storm, underground wires performed five to nine times better than those overhead, Mr. Silagy said.   

Though the hardened infrastructure fared well overall, areas that took a direct hit from the storm didn’t escape damage. Some parts of Florida Power & Light’s system, including Fort Myers Beach, will require total reconstruction. The company said it expects to have restored power to most customers in the hardest-hit counties by Oct. 9.   

“It is just a reminder of the power of Mother Nature, and it is humbling,” Mr. Silagy said. “You can engineer and you can build to very strong standards, but there’s no grid in the world that’s hurricane proof.”  

Some utilities were harder hit than others. Lee County Electric Cooperative, a small electricity provider serving parts of six southwestern counties, experienced significant damage. The company expects to have to rebuild substantial portions of its systems on Sanibel Island and Pine Island because the distribution networks there are partially or totally destroyed.  

Allan Ruth, the cooperative’s restoration director, said it may take as long as four weeks to fully restore power to customers on the mainland, and that rebuilding the island systems will likely take several weeks longer. The company will have to airlift workers to Sanibel because parts of the bridge connecting the island with the mainland were destroyed.   

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Saturday urged the cooperative to accept additional mutual aid to expedite power restoration. At the time, Florida Power & Light had restored power to more than 45% of its accounts in Lee County, while the cooperative had restored 9%.  

Mr. Ruth said the cooperative has adopted industry best practices in its inspection and maintenance programs and become more proactive in replacing equipment before it fails, often with stronger materials. But all equipment is vulnerable to failure if it is in the direct path of a strong hurricane, Mr. Ruth said, adding that this storm was the worst he has seen in the 37 years since he joined the company.  

Health Care 

MassHealth Agreement Will Improve Homeless Insurance Coverage, Hospital Funding  

Boston.com – The state has signed a new $67 billion five-year agreement with the federal government on a number of reforms for Medicaid, an approval that will increase federal money to Massachusetts hospitals and fuel changes in how the state’s Medicaid program insures the homeless.  

The agreement allows the state to make changes to its Medicaid program, known as MassHealth, outside certain federal standards. The agreement has been continuously renewed and updated since its initial approval in 1995.  

Among the updates for Massachusetts, the plan will provide at least 12 months of continuous eligibility for those recently released from a correctional institution and for members experiencing homelessness.  

“We know that many individuals eligible for Medicaid lose coverage at full month renewal not because they’re not eligible, but because they did not get a piece of paper in the mail,” said Daniel Tsai, deputy administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  

Tsai, who previously oversaw Massachusetts’ Medicaid program, spoke about the approval during a media briefing Wednesday. The waiver also will provide additional federal funding to hospitals by agreeing to match dollars raised by an increased assessment on state hospitals. Ultimately, the hospital financing package will generate over $600 million in benefits to hospitals per year over the next five years, state officials said.  

Massachusetts Considered using Health-Care Subsidy Funds in Case of Shortfall  

Axios – Baker administration officials considered using money from a $225 million fund meant to cover health-care costs for low-income people to plug a budget hole in the event that the state would have faced a deficit because of a 1986 law that triggered automatic tax refunds.  

Documents obtained by Axios through a records request and reviewed by more than two state budget experts indicate the administration explored the scenario in mid-June as they considered what to do if they faced a nine-figure budget deficit.  

Massachusetts had a historic surplus of $5.3 billion at the end of fiscal 2022, and officials didn’t have to use the health-care subsidy to pay the bills. Baker administration officials say they were never concerned about a potential deficit, and that they routinely monitor how spending bills, fluctuating tax revenue totals and other factors affect finances.  

The records indicate that if state budget officials did have trouble avoiding a budget shortfall, they would have considered diverting the funds — typically dedicated to health-care costs for the state’s poorest residents — to plug any deficit.  

Few others on Beacon Hill seemed to realize until weeks later that a decades-old tax refund law was coming into play, requiring the state to return nearly $3 billion of the surplus to taxpayers.  

Evan Horowitz, executive director of Tufts University’s Center for State Policy Analysis, who reviewed these documents for Axios, says budget analysts faced a complex “accounting game” before June 30 because of the automatic tax refunds.  

“They were playing a game that nobody else even realized was being played or was necessary,” he said.  

“I’m really disappointed that there was consideration of sweeping a trust fund specifically to pay for health care for low- and moderate-income people to balance the budget, especially in a time of both really great need coming out of COVID and more surplus revenues than we’ve seen in years,” Rep. Christine Barber (D) told Axios in an interview. 

Heath-Care Costs in Massachusetts Approach Unaffordability

Boston.com – For the first time in years, health-care spending fell in Massachusetts in 2020. But the drop may only be a temporary change driven by the pandemic, and there is still cause for concern in the state’s health system, a new report says.   

Without intervention, the commonwealth’s health system is likely destined for a future that is “increasingly unaffordable” for residents and businesses, and rife with growing inequalities, the Health Policy Commission’s most recent report says.   

Improved state oversight and accountability in limiting spending benchmark growth; constraining excessive provider and pharmaceutical prices; and limiting increases in insurance premiums and cost sharing are just three of the things the Health Policy Commission says the legislature should focus on this year.   

“We believe that urgent action is needed by policymakers to strengthen and evolve our approach, or else we will continue to have a health care system that is increasingly unaffordable for Massachusetts residents and businesses and that will contribute to growing health inequities,” David Seltz, the commission’s executive director, said.  

The Health Policy Commission, an independent state agency, was founded in 2012 and was tasked with monitoring health care spending growth in the state and providing data-driven policy recommendations. The commission’s annual report, released Tuesday, does just that.  

Taxation and Budget 

Data Shows Few Home Sales in Worcester, Springfield Would be Impacted by New Tax  

MassLive – Virtually all home-sale net gains in Worcester and Springfield land far below the threshold needed to trigger the so-called millionaires’ tax, according to a new analysis on a controversial ballot referendum facing voters this November.  

Should it succeed at the polls, Ballot Question 1 — also known as the Fair Share Amendment — would impose a 4% surtax on income exceeding $1 million. The new infusion of tax dollars would be earmarked, at the discretion of the Massachusetts Legislature, for transportation and public education expenses.  

Opponents of the ballot measure contend that one-time earnings, including the capital gain from home sales, would unfairly trigger the millionaires tax for residents typically not subject to the surtax. But a report published Thursday from the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center contradicts that claim.  

The net gain from a home sale likely needs to hit at least $1.5 million for the millionaires tax to take effect, policy analyst and development coordinator La-Brina Almeida wrote in the report. That’s because married couples who sell a primary residence can file a tax deduction of $500,000 on their taxable capital gain, meaning sales gaining less than $1.5 million would not trigger the millionaires tax.  

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 

The first Black Woman-Owned Cannabis Shop in Boston has Opened  

NBC Boston – For Nike John, trailblazing is the name of the game.  

At age 30, John has become first Black woman — and youngest person — to open a cannabis dispensary in Boston. The Heritage Club opened on Cambridge Street in Charlestown on Sept. 6 with plans to change the course of the industry through education, diversity and quality products.  

A Dorchester native and current resident, John attended George Washington University as a pre-med major, looking for a career to help people live better. She ended up transferring back to Boston, however, where she completed a finance degree at Northeastern University with a minor in psychology.  

“My idea was that if I could understand money and people, I didn’t have to know what I wanted to do. But I could apply that to just about anything,” she said. After college, John launched her own real estate brokerage and was working there when her mother approached her three years ago and encouraged her to get into the cannabis business.  

John’s response? “Mom, I don’t smoke weed.”  

But after researching how the war on drugs continues to affect Black and brown people today, she was inspired to take action.  

Education 

Massachusetts Plan to use ARPA Funds could Literally Clear the Air in Classrooms

MassLive (Opinion) – There’s a good chance COVID-19 relief money could provide a literal breath of fresh air to public school classrooms all across the state from Boston to the Berkshires.  

The American Rescue Plan Act could bring Springfield nearly $6.3 million to improve air quality and ventilation in its classrooms. Boston is in line to receive $15 million, and Worcester would receive $7.5 million, according to figures from the Baker Administration.  

This would be welcome news for all. It’s not the first time Springfield has paid attention to air quality in its schools. In 2021, it completed a $1.5 million project to improve ventilation systems in schools and some other municipal buildings by installing state-of-the-art, germ-killing devices.  

That investment was done in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, but officials said they were already looking beyond the virus and to the future. Some 55 schools, along with police and fire stations and some municipal buildings, were upgraded.  

Districts must submit grant applications by the end of October. The money will be dispersed with the highest-need districts in line for the most funding, including those with a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students or English-language learners.  

In Massachusetts, that puts Springfield near the front of the line. The grants could also cover replacement of windows and doors that are broken and block fresh air flow.