Thursday, May 16, 2013
Ways & Means Committee budget falls short of many of Gov. Deval Patrick's proposals.
The Massachusetts State Senate Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday released a fiscal year 2014 budget proposal that is just shy of $34 billion and which falls short of several of Gov. Deval Patrick's budget recommendations. According to the Boston Globe, the Senate $33.92 billion budget would increase spending by 4.4 percent as opposed to Patrick's budget, which hikes spending by 6.9 percent. The Senate budget is roughly in line in terms of spending with the $33.8 billion House budget proposed last month. The Globe reported that the Senate budget increases spending for elderly services and special education but does not reach Patrick's recommendations for expanding transportation and providing universal childcare access. Committee …
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Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Bill is supported by the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts.
A hearing will be held Tuesday morning on a new comprehensive sex education bill before the Joint Committee on Education, according to the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. The bill, "An Act Relative to Healthy Youth," is supported by PPLM, which said the bill "would ensure that schools providing sexuality education use a comprehensive, medically-accurate, and age-appropriate curriculum" in a Monday statement. The hearing will be held in room A-1 of the State House at 10 a.m. PPLM said parents, youths, educations, health care professionals, religious leaders, advocates and other members
42.35763
-71.063499
Massachusetts State House
24 Beacon St, Boston, MA
/articles/hearing-tuesday-on-comprehensive-sex-ed-bill
1465768
/locations/9382281
Monday, April 8, 2013
Dozens of elderly and disabled riders say the cuts would make the paratransit service too expensive to use.
Police arrested several people who were blocking Beacon Street in front of the State House as part of a protest against cuts to the MBTA's service for disabled and elderly passengers. The protest began peacefully around noon but moved into the street 20 minutes later. After seven in folding chairs or wheelchairs stopped traffic for another 20 minutes, police moved in arrested "four to five" of them, according to an officer on the scene. The rally, organized by MassUniting and the Massachusetts Senior Action Coaltion, was called to protest the large fare hikes to the MBTA's paratransit service The RIDE. According to MassUniting, while fares for regular MBTA service went up 23 percent, the cost of The Ride has ballooned up to 150 percent …
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
The new plan would create $500 million in new revenue over the next five years.
House and Senate lawmakers have announced a joint transportation plan which would close an estimated five-year $2.3 billion transportation budget gap through tax increases to cigarettes, gas and new taxes on business technologies. The plan, which would create $500 million in new revenue, focuses on long-term financing for the state’s regional transit authorities and the state department of transportation, it asks the MBTA and MassDOT to continue to hit revenue and savings targets, it moves employees off of the capital budget for three years and it fully funds the state ice and snow budget. The plan was unveiled at a State House news conference Tuesday led by Massachusetts Speaker of the House Robert A. DeLeo and Senate President Therese …
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Advocates come together to let legislators know the water system needs funding to stay sustainable.
Pop quiz: If people in the greater Boston area consumed 340 million gallons of water per day in the 1980s, how much do you think they consume today? 400 million? 500? More? Less? The answer, thanks to sustained but largely behind-the-scenes efforts of conservationists, is that we consume dramatically less water today than in the 1980s. Last year, greater Boston consumed 200 million gallons. "The great result is we've saved a whole bunch of precious drinking water, which is important to our residents and to the state that that conservation effort has been successful," Fred Laskey, executive director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. Laskey was one of many conservationists at the State House Friday as part of the Massachusetts…
Thursday, March 21, 2013
The former Patriots quarterback was back in town today, not to reminisce about his days playing ball, but to change the way Massachusetts handles shipping wine.
Massachusetts is one of 11 states that doesn't allow out-of-state vineyards to directly ship wine to their customers, and former New England Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe is urging Beacon Hill legislators to pass a bill that would change that law. "Very simply put, this bill is fair, and it's right. It's fair to the consumers to be able to purchase wine directly from the wineries, it's fair to the small businesses like ours who want to sell directly to the customers, it's right for the state – it actually increases revenue to the state – and in the states that this has happened, it's also benefitted the package stores and the distributors," Bledsoe said during a press conference on the State House steps Thursday afternoon. The bill, …
The Patrick administration announced this week that 31 state boards have adopted new procedures to enable military members to transfer their skills to the civilian world.
As a follow-up to the act passed last year calling for state agencies that oversee professional licensing to establish guidelines to assist members of the armed forces, veterans and their spouses find jobs in Massachusetts, the Patrick administration announced this week that such guidelines are in now place. "This component of the (Veterans' Access, Livelihood, Opportunity and Resources) Act was inspired by a request from First Lady Michelle Obama and the Joining Forces Initiative to ensure that those who have served in the military have a streamlined and efficient process through which to obtain appropriate licensure for jobs when they are home," the administration said in a press release. Each of the state's 31 boards that oversee …
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
The grounds were closed after Sept. 11, 2001, but Patrick has said he wants to make the State House's iconic statue of JFK available once more.
More than three years after Gov. Deval Patrick said he'd make the State House grounds open to the public, the gates remain shut. The grounds were closed after Sept. 11, 2001, and Patrick has said he wants to make the State House's iconic statue of JFK, in particular, available once more. However, Boston Herald reporters were recently turned away from the plaza and told that it is open during the summer during official tours of the State House, the Herald reported. The governor seemed unaware that the grounds were never reopened. “Well, the JFK statue is accessible now, which is great,” he told Herald reporters Friday. “The rangers can take you out. You just have to ask them. It doesn’t have to be a tour, and that’s a great thing.” …
Friday, March 8, 2013
Sen. Robert Hedlund asked for a prompt hearing on his bill regulating drone use in Massachusetts.
With U.S. drone policy recently pushed into the national spotlight by Sen. Rand Paul's marathon filibuster, a Massachusetts senator is using the momentum to call for action on his anti-drone bill. Sen. Robert Hedlund (R-Weymouth) on Thursday asked the Joint Committee on Transportation for a prompt hearing on a bill he filed in January regulating the use of drones in Massachusetts, according to a State House News Service report. "I thought Sen. Paul’s filibuster was remarkable. It shined a bright light on the rapid erosion of privacy and civil liberties in America and hopefully energized all those who want to protect the constitution," Hedlund said, according to the news service. Hedlund's bill, which was drafted with the American Civil …
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Or do you have something else in mind?
A little more than a week after a bill was filed to make "Roadrunner" by The Modern Lovers the state's official rock song, two legislators responded by filing their own bill to make Aerosmith's "Dream On" the anthem. "("Dream On" is a) classic ballad that's all about holding on to your dreams and seizing opportunity," Rep. Josh Cutler (D-Duxbury) said. Cutler is co-sponsoring the bill with Rep. James Cantwell (D-Marshfield). The two songs represent very different stories, both about rock and roll, and about Massachusetts. One is a buoyant tribute to the thrill of being young in Massachusetts, speeding down Route 128. The other is a wistful look back by a Boston band that was just at its beginnings as one of the most famous in rock …
John D
6:14 pm on Wednesday, April 3, 2013
yeah, that's fair cause the tax on gas and cigarettes isn't anywhere near as high as it should be. and what a good idea to increase tax on business equipment. it just makes the state an all the more attractive place to operate a business. idiots. I'm so glad I moved out of Massachusetts. more ›