With the oldest millennials reaching their mid-30s and Generation Y potentially proving a more significant factor in politics and government, the Massachusetts Senate is kicking off an effort to better engage young citizens born in the 1980’s and after. Senate President Stanley announced the initiative
News that Senator Benjamin Downing would not seek a sixth term sent ripples throughout the commonwealth on Monday. Words of disappointment and gratitude flooded social media after Downing announced his plans, but the 34 year-old senator’s ambitions for the remainder of his term suggest he
CHICOPEE—The image, especially in the social media era, is familiar: a politician reading to a classroom of children. Indeed, Senator Eric Lesser had actually read to students at Fairview Elementary School before. Taken in isolation such visits may seem somewhat unremarkable. Yet visits like this
This post is the second in a two-part series on Stanley Rosenberg, the first leader of a Massachusetts legislative chamber from the 413 in four decades. BOSTON—By the time the roll call vote for senate president reached him this past January, Rosenberg’s election had long been
EAST LONGMEADOW—The whir and hum of machines sorting, folding and packing markers, die and tokens hovered over every station. Different board games boxed for shipment, were packed together in bricks of Sorry, Monopoly, Connect Four and more, to be sent off to retailers or intermediary distributors
This post is the first in a two-part series on Stanley Rosenberg, the first leader of a Massachusetts legislative chamber from the 413 in four decades. BOSTON—With its Fall session underway the Massachusetts legislature is shifting into a higher gear after a spring focused on the budget.
On balance the budget passed by the legislature and under review by Governor Charlie Baker is not bad. Like many a budget, it includes goodies for members, some substantive, others less so. One non-politician political winner is the poor, who saw the Earned Income Tax
This week the Massachusetts Senate made a long overdue move in a fiscally responsible way that reflects the needs of our commonwealth and its neediest citizens. By a 29-11 vote—sufficient to override a veto if the House concurs—the Senate voted to permanently freeze the income
UPDATED 5/7/15 4:03PM: To reflect a correction. A previous version of this story indicated that local aid formulas from the state were affected by property values. While this is true, the implications upon Proposition 2 ½ and property taxes, and not local aid, is the
After a winter of discontent that paralyzed the commonwealth, mostly its Eastern regions, there emerged from the cocoon a most bizarre creature. Governor Charlie Baker, who scraped into office with 48.4% of the vote by a gimp 1.9% margin, now finds himself with a stratospheric