Governor Charlie Baker is “pissed off” about how the state’s vaccine rollout is going. And he’s taking a lot of heat for it — apparently enough to set his hair aflame. But not enough, evidently, to burn his bridges as his approval rating remains amongst the highest in the nation for a sitting governor.

In his defense, the governor says the job is a lot harder than he thought it would be. No one (except Bill Gates, apparently) was expecting a global pandemic would knock us on our collective aft. On the other hand, you would think that with his executive experience in healthcare operations we’d be in ship-shape by now.

Anyway, the point is that even in this ship storm, the Unsinkable Charlie Baker — now being called “Teflon Charlie” by some — seems to be coming out of the storm relatively unscathed.

But why does Massachusetts still love Teflon Charlie? All aboard for this story and more fascinating facts in this week’s news.

Politics

“Teflon Charlie” Still Unsinkable

“My hair’s on fire about the whole thing. I can’t begin to tell you how pissed off I am.” So said Mass. Gov. Charlie in an interview with GBH about his frustration with the state’s swamped Covid-19 vaccination website. The Thursday morning shipwreck of vaxfinder.mass.gov lasted hours as disappointed residents piled onto the site. (To make matters worse, the state’s senior hotline was also down.)

The state’s slow and confusing vaccination rollout has the governor under fire from lawmakers, business owners, and residents alike. Business leaders are angry over closures for non-essential businesses. And conservatives are still protesting the mask mandate. And progressives say he was too slow to offer testing in Black and brown communities. State leaders have even called for an inquiry into the vaccination rollout.

Baker’s thoughts on the heat he’s been taking:

“I think sometimes in the swordplay of politics, what’s really going on with regular people kind of gets lost. I have a job that’s way more complicated than I thought it was going to be. People have all sorts of thoughts on how well I’m doing or how well I’m not doing. That is nothing compared to people who’ve lost everything just because they were on the wrong side of the COVID arc. It’s important for us in public life to remember that.”

Indeed, Baker has been facing the perfect storm since taking office.

Despite the controversy, Baker, a Republican, remains well-liked amongst voters in this mostly blue state. A poll published this week (but conducted last month) indicated a 74% approval rating and a 20% disapproval rating. However, MPG President Steve Koczela wrote that voters seemed largely unaware that at one point Massachusetts was lagging behind most of the country in vaccine distribution. (We has since closed the gap somewhat.)

Baker is also widely favored to win reelection if he chooses to run for a third term in 2022. And none of the state’s most popular Democrats has shown any interest in challenging Baker.

Baker’s approval ratings have been floating around the 70% mark for his entire term. And some polls have shown Baker to be the country's most popular governor. In fact, 89% of likely Democratic primary voters approved of Baker’s performance.

All things considered, Baker has a lot going in his favor. Despite the pandemic, the state’s economy remains strong. Moreover, Baker has maintained a solidly progressive stance on issues such as gay and transgender rights, abortion rights, and cannabis policy reform.

Another reason most would like to see Baker remain in office is that the liberal legislature and conservative executive branch bring balance to the state’s political agendas. Many state lawmakers feel that Baker has been fair. Speaker of the House, Ronald Mariano, says Baker has “probably worked with the Legislature better than any governor.”

According to a report by WBUR, Baker has “mastered being the non-political politician.” Baker, writes the author, “exudes moderation and borderline nerdiness, while his lack of conservative ardor angers many rank-and-file of his own party.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

Check out the links below for more on this topic.

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Business

Black and Latino Business Left Behind

Ethnic diversity has been increasing in Massachusetts for quite some time. But the number of black and brown business owners has not. According to a report by WGBH:

“Black and Latino people now make up more than a fifth of the state's population but own just over 3% of businesses with employees — less than half the national rate of Black and Latino business ownership, according to a U.S. Census survey of entrepreneurs released in 2018… even worse in the construction and design industries… The reports commissioned by DCAMM found a significant disparity between minority firms available to do the work and the percentages actually receiving contracts from state agencies, according to the report.”

Malia Lazu, a lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management told GBH:

“We're an exceptional state. We're a wealthy state. Our numbers should look better than they do. Mayors and the governor really need to incentivize how to hold people accountable. You have to feed the supply side of creating businesses.”

Accessing capital appears to be the biggest barrier facing Black and Latino small businesses. “However,” says GBH, “many Black and Latino-led companies are reticent to apply for loans — and when they do, they experience much higher rates of rejection than white male applicants, according to recent studies by the Federal Reserve.”

Read this eye-opening and informative report in its entirety at WGBH.org.

More Business

Energy

MOR-EV Program Offering up to $90,000 Rebates on Purchase of Electric Trucks

Truckers, trucking companies, and truck lovers everywhere, if you’re interested in going electric, listen up.

Massachusetts and 14 other states made a pact last year to slash greenhouse gas emissions from trucks. As a result, beginning next week, buyers of private, commercial, and government fleet vehicles will be eligible for rebates ranging from $7,500 for pickup trucks up to $90,000 for tractor-trailer trucks. The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources has allocated $10 million for the program.

The MOR-EV program which began offering EV rebates in 2014 ran out of funding in 2019. However, in 2020 and 2021, the Baker administration pumped $54 million into the program. The goal of the program is to have 30% percent of new truck and bus sales to be zero-emission by 2030, and 100% by 2050.

Don’t lollygag. Rebate amounts will decrease over time.

Learn more at MORev.org.

More Energy News

Transportation

Gov Baker Signs $16 billion Transportation Bond Bill…Again

The ink is probably by now dry on the $16-billion transportation bond legislation signed by Gov. Baker. The massive package supports the efforts of MassDOT and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) to modernize the state’s transportation systems.

Although the bill passed in mid-Jan., kickoff took place after a ceremonial virtual signing program.

Here’s what Baker had to say:

“The Transportation Bond Bill builds upon our administration’s ongoing commitment to create a 21st-Century mobility infrastructure that will prepare the commonwealth to capitalize on emerging changes in transportation technology and behavior,. MassDOT and the MBTA have continued to implement widespread improvements throughout the transportation system and this new bond authorization will further support capital investment planning to rebuild, modernize, and expand the capacity of the commonwealth’s transportation infrastructure.

Here are some of the main bullets in the package:

$5.1 billion to continue modernizing the MBTA
$100 million to improve the pavement condition on state-numbered municipal roads
$50 million to help municipalities encourage the public to travel more on foot and by bicycle via the Complete Streets program
$70 million for the Municipal Small Bridge Program
$4.4 billion for use as funding for Highway federal aid projects
$1.25 billion in Non-Federal Aid for use as funding in Highways projects that are not eligible for federal funding
$1.25 billion for the new Next Generation Bridge program
$50 million for the popular
$20 million for ‘public realm’ COVID-related Shared Streets and Spaces program
$100 million in four new programs to provide financial assistance for municipalities seeking to improve infrastructure
$350 million for the Cape Cod Bridges approaches project
$825 million for South Coast Rail
$595 million for Green Line Extension
$89 million for Aeronautics Division
$760 million to support the Regional Transit Authorities and Rail & Transit’s Mobility Assistance Program and Rail improvements

MassTransitMag.com has more on this story.

More Transportation News

Real Estate

Workers May Work from Home but Still Move Out of State

Between 25% and 30% of people will work from home two or more days per week by the end of 2021. That is according to estimates by San Diego-based consulting company, Global Workplace Analytics. Prior to the pandemic, that number stood at a mere 3.6%. While that’s great news for stakeholders in work-at-home enterprises, it’s not so great news for Massachusetts.

While white-collar workers who no longer have to commute to work are fleeing the big city and the state's high-income tax rates, employers in the Bay State are looking at cutting down their office space footprint.

According to a report at Patch.com, a recent Massachusetts Competitive Partnership survey showed 28 percent of the state's companies were considering moving jobs out of state, while another showed 38 percent of companies considering selling off real estate in Massachusetts.

Among the report's other findings:

The percentage of companies with 40 percent of their workforce working remotely has grown to 34% from just a few percent prior to the pandemic.
74 percent plan to move at least five percent of their workforce to full-time remote work. And nearly a quarter say at least 20 percent of their workforce will be remote.

Read the full Pioneer Institute report.

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Cannabis

William “Beau” Wrigley Jr. Taking Cannabis Company Public

SPACs are all the rage. By merging with a publicly held acquisition corporation, companies can avoid an IPO and come charging out of the gate.

That’s exactly how Parallel, a company that owns several dispensaries in Mass., will merge with Ceres Acquisition Corp. Ceres is already trading on the Canadian Stock Exchange and has a $1.8 billion valuation. The merger will give the company $430 million in cash to play with. Also, investors, led by Ceres and Parallel, have committed to a $225 million private placement at closing. Parallel will own 81% of the newly formed company’s equity.

Fourth-generation Chewing gum magnate Beau Wrigley is chairman and CEO of Parallel. “I think this can be bigger than the Wrigley company,” he told Forbes during an interview last month. “At Wrigley, we brought joy to people’s lives. This is much bigger than that.”

Parallel currently operates 42 dispensaries in Mass. Nevada, and Florida. with sights on doubling that number and opening pot shops in eight states including Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and New Jersey, and Georgia by the end of 2022. Moreover, Parallel is in talks to acquire a dispensary chain in Chicago and considering future expansion into California, Michigan, and New York.

Apparently, Wrigley is not a pot smoker, himself. His delivery method of choice is edibles. However, his company sells flower, mints, gummies, and vape pens and is working on a cannabis-infused seltzer.

The deal is expected to close this summer.

More details on the merger are available at Forbes.com.

Still One of the Most Popular Governors in America