Running a state government these days is like being captain of a ship under hostile fire. The best you can do at times is repair damage from land, sea and air assaults to keep the vessel afloat. Survival becomes the first order of business. The rest can mostly wait. But not for long.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, facing weaponized budget and policy attacks from President Donald Trump, has deployed measures to plug federal funding gaps in health care and nutrition support and help federal workers, many of them Black and Brown, furloughed or fired by Trump. She has opposed the White House’s obsession with inflation-boosting tariffs, many of them fueled by naked political paybacks. But Healey has also taken steps to address long-term challenges to public transit and education that predated Trump’s rise and that will long outlast his hold on power.
Standing in the House Chamber on Beacon Hill last week for her third annual state-of-the-state address, the first-term governor laid out an agenda to reduce soaring utility bills in the short run, oppose ICE raids on immigrant communities, increase access to affordable housing, maintain access to vaccines and extend health coverage to families.
“The reality is that these are tough times,” said Healey before a packed audience. “People are feeling it. Everything is more expensive. Groceries, a cup of coffee, the new coat or boots you want, or the water heater you need. Sports fees for your kids, dinner out once in a while. It’s all harder now. I get it.”
Healey allies from the Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus affirmed their support of the governor but reasonably pointed out areas where she might have been more specific in talking about how the issues impact communities of color, which have suffered the most from rising social and economic inequities.
Healey, who announced her re-election campaign two days before the Jan. 22 speech, dived into specifics on housing affordability, outlining accomplishments in housing starts and looking down the road to further growth in affordable units. State Sen. Lydia Edwards, who met Healey in 2010 during her tenure as head of the state attorney general’s civil rights office, wished the governor had said the quiet part out loud about resistance to affordable housing in the suburbs. “I know where her North Star is,” said Edwards, who praised Healey’s work on education and transportation. “She created the Executive Office of Housing and established a fair housing office within it. She knows the history of redlining in this state and the reasons our suburbs look the way they do because of discrimination.”
From housing, Healey pivoted in her speech to energy affordability, announcing a plan to cut energy costs by using $180 million collected from utilities and electricity suppliers to finance temporary reductions in consumer bills. The governor’s commitment prompted applauding legislators in the wood-paneled chamber to jump to their feet.
The 25 percent reduction in electricity bills and 10 percent in gas charges for every residential utility customer in February and March will eventually be recovered by utilities from all ratepayers — proving, once again, there’s no so thing as a free lunch. Critics of the Healey plan called it a gimmick, but you can’t blame the governor for responding to an energy cost crisis.
To address long-term cost challenges, Healey touted the recent opening of a new hydropower line from Canada, comprehensive energy affordability legislation to reduce costs by $13 billion and a $220 million rebate plan.
On health care, Healey recalled the threat of rising premiums to some 270,000 Massachusetts residents on Obamacare as a result of President Trump’s refusal to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits. An infusion of an additional $250 million in state money helped cover the hikes, a move that kept Massachusetts under Healey in the forefront of states committed to affordable health care. Healey also said she would ban medical debt from being reported to credit agencies. “It’s bad enough to get a huge bill, when you’re dealing with an illness,” she said. “It shouldn’t wreck your credit too, so we’re not going to let that happen.”
Healey has responded to cuts in federal SNAP nutrition benefits as well, leading efforts to raise funds for food pantries, advancing millions to food banks and pledging to increase money for food banks in the upcoming budget.
At a time that the administration and federal courts increasingly strike down efforts to promote diversity in hiring and contracts in the public and private sectors, we urge the Democratic incumbent to show more leadership. The state’s first openly gay chief executive has stood up strongly for LGBT rights, appointed a diverse cabinet, and established an Advisory Council on Black Empowerment. Finding pathways to protect gains in minority-business contracting and hiring in the post-George Floyd reckoning did not get a shout-out in the “State of the Commonwealth” address and deserve more attention.
For state Sen. Liz Miranda, vice chair of the Black and Latino Caucus on Beacon Hill, hearing Healey take on Trump while promoting affordability measures sent the right message. She wanted to hear more, however, about righting inequities in the criminal justice system and extending pathways to re-joining society through pardons and re-integration programs. “It’s not just about affordability,” said the 2nd Suffolk District senator, citing structural inequities in a state that was the first to ban slavery as well as the first to legalize it. “Addressing the racial wealth gap, the gender pay cap and injustices in the criminal justice system are ways to lift us all.”
In her closing, the governor looked ahead to the 250th celebration of the nation’s birth — from July 4th fireworks and Tall Ships to marking the significant role Massachusetts played in the American Revolution. That leadership, she added, is still needed — and we fully agree. “Our nation faces new tests, and Massachusetts will lead again,” she said. “As a place where everyone can be safe and have their rights protected.”
This year more that ever we need leaders who do not compromise on their commitment to human rights, because that is what is at stake in this battle for our democracy.
Ronald Mitchell
Editor and Publisher, Bay State Banner
