COVID-19

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The Beginning of the End

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In this week’s top story, today marks the beginning of the end of emergency restrictions put in place to combat the spread of COVID-19 here in Massachusetts. The fourth and final stage of the state’s reopening plan is officially underway.

While several parts of the country are starting to see another spike in covid cases, things seem to be going a little more smoothly here in Massachusetts. So far three million vaccine doses have arrived in the Bay State and nearly 1 million Massachusetts residents have been fully vaccinated.  

Under Phase 4 rules, outdoor stadiums such as TD Garden and Fenway Park as well as convention halls can reopen under a 12 percent capacity limit. The limits will be eased over time if all goes as planned. (Nightclubs and amusement parks must remain closed.)

Not everyone is excited about the move. The Massachusetts Public Health Association unsuccessfully urged the governor to delay changes affecting indoor public venues. In a letter to Baker, MPHA Executive Director Carlene Pavlos called Baker’s decision “premature and reckless.” The letter pointed to the rise of more contagious variants of COVID-19, as well as the fact that the vaccination rate among people of color in Massachusetts has lagged disproportionately.

The other big news stories here in Massachusetts this week include the mail-in voting extension, the wrapup of the climate bill, another look at MBTA cuts, and ongoing investments by Google and cannabis conglomerate Cresco Labs into the Mass. economy. Let’s do this. 

Politics

Mail-in Voting Extended Through June 30

The right to vote has been getting tossed around like a rag doll lately. Lawmakers in several red states are working to make it harder to vote while the U.S. House works on a new voting rights bill to counter the trend. Now Gov. Charlie Baker, a red governor in a blue state, is one of the first governors in the U.S. to sign a bill (post election) aimed at making voting more accessible. The bill calls for an extension of mail-in-voting through June 30 among other measures. 

The legislation calls on local election officials to accommodate voters with disabilities “every way possible, to every extent possible.” 

MassLive.com has more on the story.

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Business

Tax Relief For Pandemic Assistance Imminent

Both the House and Senate have now passed legislation to forgo taxes technically due on pandemic relief money. Under current state law, companies such as LLCs, partnerships, independent contractors, sole proprietors and those who are self-employed would pay state income tax of 5% on any debts that are forgiven. If relief grants are considered to be “forgiven debts,” then the taxes due on loans totalling $6.5 billion would be around $325 million.

The good news: The bill helps thousands of businesses avert “potentially insurmountable” tax bills.

The bad news: NBC10 “crunched the numbers” and found about 70,000 of the roughly 118,000 businesses in Massachusetts that received PPP loans last year might still potentially be responsible to pay the 5% tax.

Lawmakers are expected to reconcile differences between the House and Senate bills this week. The governor is expected to sign the final version. 

Check out the report at NBC Boston for more details.

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Energy

Climate Bill Makes Its Way Back To Governor’s Desk

Hopefully this is the second to last time we talk about negotiations on the climate bill. If all goes well, next week’s report will cover Gov. Baker’s signing of the bill. After passing both the House and Senate now, the landmark climate legislation has been volleyed back to the governor’s desk with the majority of his suggested revisions in place. 

One of the requests — a requirement that emissions in 2030 be at least 50% lower than 1990 levels to a 45% target — was left out of the revised bill as was a proposed amendment that would strip some language from a new municipal building code that promotes "net-zero" construction.

Sen. Michael Barrett of Lexington commented:

"If you compare Massachusetts and its emissions with emissions across the world or even across the United States, it's the differences that pop out in you… Transportation are 42% of the Massachusetts problem compared to 29% in the U.S. Buildings are 27% of our issue, compared to about 12% in the U.S. ... It's pretty clear why we put a special emphasis on lower emissions in this bill from transportation and buildings."

Unless you’ve been hiding under a manhole cover, you know the bill calls for Massachusetts to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. 

Solar Power World has a more detailed report on this story.

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Transportation

Lawmakers Demand MBTA Make a U-Turn on Service Cuts

In previous newsletters, we’ve talked about how a drop in T ridership during the pandemic was causing a ballooning budget deficit that could hit $1.8 billion by 2026, and how the MBTA had begun implementing sweeping services cuts as a result. Now state and federal lawmakers are demanding that the MBTA make a U-turn on those measures citing the $1 billion in federal stimulus funds coming down the track. 

After working to pass a $1.9 trillion federal relief package meant to deal with all aspects of the crisis — including public transportation — the entire Massachusetts congressional delegation sent a letter to MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak asking him to either re-justify the cuts or reverse them. Among those signing on to the letter were U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark and State Sen. Joseph Boncore. 

Consumer advocates are also joining in on the chorus. Olivia Nichols, Transit Justice Organizer from GreenRoots had this to say:

"These cuts are completely unnecessary. The MBTA is receiving billions in funds from the federal government. Our Governor and the (Fiscal Management Control Board) should focus on using that money to reverse the cuts and to make the MBTA more affordable and accessible, instead of making it more difficult for our community members to get around."

The federal package promises an influx of $1 billion, while the planned service cuts would only save the T about $21 million this fiscal year.

Mass Transit has more on this story.

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Real Estate

Google has announced plans to invest more than $7 billion and create at least 10,000 new full-time Google jobs across the United States this year, says Boston Real Estate Times. According to the report Google has extensive expansion plans here in the Bay State:

“Google has more than 1,900 employees in Massachusetts, and will continue to invest in its long-term presence in Cambridge. The company’s 3 Cambridge Center office (325 Main Street) under construction in Kendall Square will be opening next year, where Google will be occupying 14 floors in the  ground up building being redeveloped by Boston Properties.

In Cambridge, Google has employees working in sales, advertising, Android, YouTube, networking infrastructure, and Google Play. 

Since 2011 Google has donated $56M to nonprofits and schools in Massachusetts.

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Cannabis

Cresco Labs To Acquire Cultivate In $158 Million Deal

The buzz this week in Massachusetts cannabis news is Cresco Labs’ acquisition of Cultivate. The deal, valued at $90 million, plus a potential earn out of up to $68 million, puts Cresco into a Top 3 position in the race to dominate the Mass cannabis industry. 

With the acquisition of Cultivate, Cresco will receive approximately 42,000 sq. ft. of flowering canopy. The company also has plans for a 20,000 sq. ft. expansion. Cultivate also operates two dispensaries with a third under development. 

Charles Bachtell, CEO of Cresco Labs had this to say about the deal:

“At the precipice of a transformational moment in U.S. cannabis, now is the time to further our leadership in the country’s largest and most important markets. Through this acquisition, Cresco Labs will immediately vault to a top 3 share position in Massachusetts, the third $1B+ cannabis market where we’ve achieved this status.”

Bachtell told Benzinga that no outside financial advisors were used for the transaction:

"We’ve spent a lot of time developing our internal M&A and integration teams, and part of the reason is we wanted to be able to source deals and vet them ourselves so should we move forward we already have a deep understanding of the company and what it takes to integrate in to our existing model.”

Massachusetts did nearly $1B in total retail sales in 2020 with a whopping $83.4M in adult use sales for the 4 weeks ending 3/7/21. 

Cresco has a footprint in five other states as well – Arizona, Illinois, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. 

The Cultivate deal isn’t expected to close until the fourth quarter of 2021.

Read all about it at MJ Business Daily.

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Running Underwater

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Have you ever dreamed that you’re trying to run away from something but for some reason, you feel like you’re running underwater and getting nowhere fast? If you haven’t, you can get some idea of what it feels like by comparing it to Massachusetts’ efforts to stem the tide of Covid-19 and the rollout of vaccinations.

But even running underwater modest progress can be made. As of Wednesday of last week, more than 1.5M vaccine doses have been administered in Massachusetts. According to the Mass. Department of Public Health, more than one million people had received at least one dose of a vaccine and well over 400 thousand people have gotten both doses. That puts the state over the 75% mark for the 1.9 million doses delivered by the federal government.

Also, last week, as the covid curve continued to bend, the Baker-Polito Administration announced that Massachusetts would advance to Phase III, Step 2 of the state’s reopening plan starting today (March 1). 

Also announced was a plan to transition to Phase IV, Step 1 on Monday, March 22, and large venues such as Fenway Park and the TD Garden will see partial re-openings at the end of March. 

You can read the full Reopening Plan From Gov. Baker at NBCBoston.com.

Now that we’ve got covid news out of the way, let’s get on with the show.

Politics

Baker Takes Heat from Democrats Over Vaccine Rollout Glitches

As we mentioned above, Gov. Baker spoke to the legislature last Thursday about the glitches in the vaccine appointment website and hotline. At the event, the governor took some heat from Democrats for a change. 

As we discussed just last week, Baker still remains popular in the state despite troubles and has one of the highest approval ratings of any governor in the country. A MassINC poll released last week showed Baker's approval rating holding at 74 percent. 

According to a report by WGBH.org, the Democrats’ tone during the meeting of the branches “could be an indication of deeper changes in Massachusetts politics, as Baker looks ahead to a gubernatorial race against the new backdrop of a Biden presidency and a new House speaker.”

Check out the full story at WGBH.org.

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Business

$1 Million Grant Fund To Bolster Black-Owned Businesses

The Power Forward Grant program has announced a $1M fund aimed at bolstering black-owned small businesses across New England. Under the program, black-owned small businesses in Massachusetts and the five other New England states can apply for grants of up $25,000. Recipients will also receive strategic assistance to help them grow their business.

The grant program is three-prong-spearheaded by Vistaprint, the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation, and the NAACP. 

Vistaprint Founder and CEO, Robert Keane, had this to say in a statement regarding the program:

“The pandemic has placed monumental strain on small businesses, and the past year has made clear our society’s need to work harder for equality, equity, and opportunity for all. We are proud to partner with like-minded organizations like the NAACP and the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation to help small business owners find success and achieve their dreams.”

And, according to NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson:

“The NAACP is proud to partner with Vistaprint and the Celtics to support these businesses and the communities they serve. Black-owned businesses are vital to the neighborhoods in New England and nationwide. We look forward to seeing the lasting impact and change the grants provide for our small businesses.

Celtics Managing Partner & Alternate Governor and Chairman of the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation, Steve Pagliuca, added:

“A primary focus of Boston Celtics United is to make a meaningful impact through programs that support Economic Opportunity and Empowerment. The Power Forward Small Business Grant is a major step in these efforts, and we are grateful to partner with Vistaprint and the NAACP in this shared vision.” 

Black-owned small businesses in New England can apply for Power Forward Grant money at NAACP.org.

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Energy

FCA-15 Auction Confirms Sufficient Electricity Resources Through 2024

Got electricity? New England’s 15th annual Forward Capacity Market (FCM) capacity auction (FCA 15) concluded with sufficient secured resources to meet projected electricity needs for New England for June 1, 2024, to May 31, 2025. ISO New England Inc. filed the results with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last Friday. 

Total commitments of more than 34,621 megawatts (MW) were secured including 29,243 MW of generation, 3,891 MW of demand resources, and 1,487 of imports from New York, Québec, Canada, and New Brunswick, Canada. 

The capacity market is separate from the day-to-day energy market where providers compete to provide power on a daily basis. The estimated value of the capacity market in 2024-2025 is about $1.36 billion.

More Energy News

Transportation

Overhauled Transportation Bill Filed

Senate Transportation Committee Co-chair Sen. Joseph Boncore filed a transportation overhaul bill, Friday. The 49-page bill (SD 2315) proposes some major changes to funding and planning for roads, bridges, and transit in the state.

Here are some of the details of the bill Boncore dubbed the “New Deal for Transportation.”

  • A three-step, 50 percent gas tax increase by 2025

  • Fare-free MBTA and regional transit authority buses

  • A 6.25 percent statewide surcharge on parking space rentals and purchases

  • Higher ride-hailing fees

  • MBTA to put between 5 and 10 percent of federal stimulus funding toward planning and designing capital projects

  • Creation of a new seven-member MBTA board of directors 

Several of the ideas in the bill were approved by both branches during the previous session. One of the most dramatic measures in the bill calls for all MBTA and RTA bus trips to be fare-free. The change would affect millions of riders. The state’s 15 RTAs logged more than 23 million riders while the MBTA reported more than 93 million over fiscal year 2020. Boncore estimated that free bus fares would cost the state between $30 million and $60 million annually. Some feel that estimate is a low ball.

In a statement on the development Boncore told the press:

“I’m not so naive as to think there’s no cost associated with this bill. But what I really want to talk about is what’s the cost of doing nothing. When our transportation system is in such dire need of modernization and we choose to do nothing, the price of those actions falls on our economy and falls on those who rely on public transit. The bottom line number is what the bottom line number is. Whatever the number is, if we’re serious about making public transit a public good and shifting the paradigms in Massachusetts, I think we’re going to have to come up with ways to fund this bill...

The bill has reignited the debate on how to relieve traffic congestion (when it comes back), as well as on upgrading unreliable public transit infrastructure. It also lays out a plan to fund the upgrades — which is nice considering the Sensate scuttled a House-approved set of transportation taxes and fees last year.

Meanwhile, researchers at the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, published a study claiming that investments in making cities more walkable and adding more bike lanes — changes proposed by the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) — could save as many as 770 lives and $7.6 billion annually. 

According to a statement on the report: 

“The analysis shows that the economic benefit of lives saved from increased walking and cycling far exceeds the estimated annual investment it would cost to promote such infrastructure, without even considering the added benefits of reducing air pollution and increasing access to climate-friendly transportation modes.”

Read all about Boncore’s bill at WHDH.com.

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Real Estate

U.S. Residential Real Estate Market Booming

We’ve talked about how the Mass. residential real estate market is on fire. Apparently, we’re not alone. Low mortgage rates and high demand have propelled the U.S. homes market to its fastest pace of price growth in seven years. 

  • The S&P Case-Shiller US home-price index rose to a 10.4% annualized increase in December, up from 9.5%.

  • The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller US National Home Price Index posted a 10.4% annualized increase in December

  • S&P Dow Jones Indices' 10-City Composite index rose to an annualized gain of 9.8% from 8.9%. 

  • The 20-City Composite rose to a 10.1% year-over-year jump from November's 9.2% reading.

The biggest price increases were seen in Phoenix, Seattle, and San Diego.

Craig Lazzara, managing director and global head of index investment strategy at S&P DJI, said in a statement:

"These data are consistent with the view that COVID has encouraged potential buyers to move from urban apartments to suburban homes. This may indicate a secular shift in housing demand, or may simply represent an acceleration of moves that would have taken place over the next several years anyway."

That being said, the momentum has slowed in recent weeks due to an uptick in the 30-year fixed mortgage rate. Nonetheless, the boom will probably continue through 2021 as demand is likely to outpace supply until the pandemic tapers off. 

Read the full press release here.

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Cannabis

IRS Presses Congress To Act On Marijuana Policy Reform

The head of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) told Congress this week that the federal agency would “prefer” state-legal marijuana businesses to pay taxes electronically — that is rather than with a mountain of cash. 

Due to the federal prohibition of marijuana, most banks will not work with cannabis industry businesses (hemp excluded). As a result, they must pay their taxes with cash piled so high the IRS has had to build “cash rooms” to hold it all.

According to MarijuanaMoment.com, Rep. David Joyce (R-OH), who serves as a co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, recently said that barring marijuana companies from traditional financial services is a security issue and that not being able to access financial services creates opportunities for criminal acts.

House Democrats have already approved The SAFE Banking Act, a bill that would provide legal protection to financial institutions that service the marijuana industry. SAFE Act aside, the cash payments issue would completely vanish if Congress would just pass legislation to federally deschedule marijuana. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), along with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), is in the process of drafting a legalization bill. The trio recently held a meeting with representatives from a variety of advocacy groups and business associations to get input on the policy change.

It’s important that any federal legislation remove marijuana from the fed’s list of controlled substances rather than merely rescheduling the drug. The reason being that rescheduling from Schedule I to, say, Schedule 4, would put the regulation of marijuana into the hands of the FDA rather than in the hands of state lawmakers where it belongs, opening up a whole new can of worms.

Most advocates and stakeholders believe 2021 will be the year that the dominoes begin to fall at the federal level. 

Read all about it at MarijuanaMoment.com.

More Cannabis News

More of the Latest Massachusetts News

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Still One of the Most Popular Governors in America

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Looking Toward the Future of Massachusetts

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We’re not going to talk about COVID-19 this week -- the saturation coverage of the vaccine roll out is probably enough for you -- but cases are trending in a positive direction. With infection rates steadily decreasing, communities in the high-risk category dropped by 153 from early February. 

For those who need more on COVID-19, WCVB has some really nice graphics of COVID-19 data.

This week we’re looking into the Reimagining Massachusetts Committee proposed by Senate President Karen Spilka. We’re also wrestling with the fact that manufacturers are struggling to find workers at the same time unemployment is high in the Bay State. 

And did you know that the air in Boston’s subways is massively polluted and might actually shorten the lifespan of riders and workers alike? Sad but true.

All this and more in this week’s episode.

Politics

Senate Forms Committee For Post-COVID Policy

What will become of Massachusetts after the COVID-19 emergency has run its course? In an effort to answer that question, Senate President Karen Spilka has announced the formation of the Senate Special Committee on Reimagining Massachusetts: Post-Pandemic Resiliency. 

The purpose of the committee, according to MassLive.com, is “to act a clearinghouse of policies, practices, and ideas that could prepare Massachusetts for whatever waits on the other side of the pandemic,” and will be tasked with “examining the short- and long-term challenges that could follow the pandemic response.” 

Spilka said the committee could serve as a “funnel” for the issues and proposals that will require attention post-COVID. 

Speaking to the State House News Service on Thursday morning, Spilka had this to say:

“We know that the COVID-19 pandemic has totally upended all of our assumptions about the way we live, we work, travel, play, spend time, [and] it’s also, as we acknowledge, laid bare the longstanding inequities in aspects of our economy and communities. So I really believe that as we look to the future and as we recover from this pandemic, we have a rare opportunity as well as a responsibility to question the status quo and reimagine the path towards continued vibrancy for our commonwealth.”

The committee expects to hold “virtual listening sessions” and to solicit testimony from residents and industry-specific stakeholders. 

One of the specific missions mentioned by Spilka is coming up with ways to keep downtowns across Massachusetts vibrant as fewer people travel to them for work. The panel, which has yet to be named, will also examine the shifts that remote work might have on the state’s housing market.

Also, mentioned in the MassLive.com report, Spilka and House Speaker Ronald Mariano plan to create three additional committees aimed at providing ‘sustained attention and policy expertise’ in the areas of COVID-19 oversight and emergency management, racial equity, and cybersecurity.” These include:

  • The Joint Committees on Advanced Information Technology, the Internet and Cybersecurity

  • COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management

  • Racial Equity, Civil Rights and Inclusion 

“While the joint COVID-19 committee that the House and Senate are creating is focused on today and the pandemic response, the Senate Special Committee on Reimagining Massachusetts is focused on tomorrow and the next day, and the next day, and so forth,” Spilka said.

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Business

Massachusetts Businesses Struggle To Fill Job Openings. Really.

Although restaurant owners are grateful for increased capacity limits on Valentine's Day Weekend, local business owners still struggle to get customers in their door. More importantly, however, many manufacturing businesses in the state are having a hard time getting employees in the door over the course of the pandemic. 

That might sound strange considering massive unemployment in the Bay State. By June, the Mass. unemployment rate had skyrocketed to 17.7% — the highest since the Great Depression, according to a report at MassLive.com. 

Responses to employment ads placed by staffing firm United Personnel have fallen by 90% since the emergency measures were first implemented last March. As of late December, United Personnel had 200 job listings running. The company was also forced to lay off some of its own office staff and shorten the workweek early on.

The fact that employers are struggling to find candidates might be attributed to extended unemployment benefits and two rounds of federal stimulus checks that have been buoying many Mass. residents during the pandemic. Another major contributing factor, however, is that many parents are doing everything they can to stay at home and watch their kids as well as for fear of bringing the virus home. 

While the state unemployment rate is still relatively high, it has gone down ten points since June. 

MassLive.com has an extensive report on hiring challenges.

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Energy

Deadline Coming Up Fast For Submitting Comments on DOER Clean Peak Energy Certificate Program 

The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (“DOER”) recently released a proposed procurement process for clean peak energy certificates. This was back in late January. According to a recent report by JD Supra, the objective of the program is to “spur new and incremental clean peak resource development, provide revenue certainty for clean peak resources to enable financing, and provide cost-effective clean peak energy credit supply (CPEC).” 

The deadline for submitting comments on the proposed procurement process is Friday, February 19, 2021.

Here are some more details directly from the JS Supra report:

  • DOER proposes that EDCs issue requests for proposals (“RFP”) twice-per-year to select winning bids from resources that produce CPECs. Awarded bids will be enrolled in a tariff for payment. That tariff will provide $/CPEC as awarded for a 6-year term. DOER intends to exclude new projects receiving SMART incentives, 83C contracted offshore wind resources, new energy storage projects receiving a SMART adder incentive for energy storage, and connected solutions Energy Storage Systems (“ESS”) because these projects already receive long-term revenue from other state programs. DOER proposes that, initially, only 30% of the EDCs’ procurement target will be met through the RFP and tariff process. DOER plans to count CPECs from EDC owned CPS resources, SMART Solar Tariff Generation Units, and Section 83C offshore wind towards the remaining procurement requirements but will not include these resources in the procurement or compensate them through the tariff.

DOER is authorized to adjust the tariff size up or down depending on market conditions. 

DOER hopes to have the EDCs file its tariffs and draft the initial RFPs, in consultation with DOER, this spring and release the first RFPs by the end of 2021.

JD Supra also has detailed information on clean peak standard final regulations and implementation. And a DOER summarized Questions and Answers document is available here.

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Transportation

Toxic Pollutants in Subways More Than Eight Times Higher Than Outdoor Air Quality

A recent study from New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine has found that subway air in Boston is gross and is exposing both transit workers and riders to high concentrations of toxic pollutants. The polluted air makes Boston’s subterranean travelers more susceptible to long-term illnesses such as asthma, lung cancer, and heart disease.

Researchers took more than 300 air samples during rush hour at nearly 70 stations across the country and found at least twice as many airborne toxins in subway air as in fresh air. That is according to a recent report in the Washington Post. 

The air in Boston’s subway stations measured up to 140 micrograms per cubic meter. By comparison, aboveground air averaged 16 micrograms of pollutants per cubic meter — or less than 1/8 that of above-ground air. According to the story, iron and organic carbon made up three-fourths of the pollutants found. 

Lisa Battiston, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said in a statement: “The health and safety of riders and the workforce is a top priority for the MBTA, including issues that involve ventilation and air quality within its stations and on platform areas.”

Major ventilation improvements are underway at Back Bay Station in Boston. However, the study shows that Boston needs to put far more effort into reducing pollutants in underground public transit systems. 

Read all about it at The Washington Post.

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Real Estate

Court Sides With Tenant In First-Of-Its-Kind “Frustration of Purpose” Case

Superior Court Judge Kenneth W. Salinger ruled last week that Caffé Nero did not have to pay rent to Newbury LLC (dba UrbanMeritage, one of the Back Bay’s bigger commercial landlords) for the nearly three months that the diner was prevented from serving customers indoors. Moreover, the eviction and default notices served during the time frame were invalid according to the ruling.

According to Salinger a legal doctrine known as "frustration of purpose," says that rent payments are to be excused when "performance becomes impossible through no fault of either party." The case is believed to be one of the first of its kind. 

In a note to clients, attorneys at Prince Lobel said the ruling might be overturned on appeal but that frustration of purpose provisions are found in most "well-drafted" commercial real estate leases. Given that fact, the ruling could give leverage to other small businesses trying to negotiate rent reductions with their landlords. 

Having closed its doors in October, the Downtown location in question was the only one of 30 Caffé Nero locations to shut down as a result of the pandemic. Back in June, of 2020, UrbanMeritage sued Caffé Nero for more than $300,000 in back rent, damages, and legal fees. (Caffé Nero's monthly rent was about $13,000 per month.)

Patch.com has more on this story.

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Cannabis

New York and Connecticut Both Gunning For Share of Legal Pot Markets

Any discussion of the future of the cannabis industry in Massachusetts must also include discussions of neighboring states such as Vermont and New Hampshire and in particular upcoming policy reforms in New York and Connecticut where markets could be much more robust. 

Legalization in New York and Connecticut, in particular, might affect cannabis operations in more ways than one. For starters, a good chunk of the business being done at Massachusetts dispensaries is made up of out-of-state buyers. Moreover, depending on how the markets are structured, legalization in border states could mean additional opportunities for Mass.-based companies. 

During his budget address on Feb. 10, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont tabled a 163-page legislative proposal for a comprehensive framework for the cultivation, manufacture, sale, possession, use, and taxation of recreational cannabis. Under the proposal, sales would begin in May 2022. 

Lamont said in his address: 

“Massachusetts dispensaries are advertising extensively here in Connecticut. And rather than surrender this market to out-of-staters, or worse, to the unregulated underground market, our budget provides for the legalization of recreational marijuana.”

Lamont’s cannabis legislation package is titled “An Act Responsibly and Equitably Regulating Adult-Use Cannabis,” 

Under the proposed legislation, adults 21 and older would be allowed to possess 1.5 ounces of marijuana or equivalent amounts of other cannabis products. Home growing would be prohibited.

According to a report by Cannabis Dispensary, recreational marijuana tax revenue would generate roughly $100 million by fiscal 2026. More information on Gov. Lamont’s legalization proposal can be found here. And for more information on proposals being considered in New York, check out this article at PIX11.com.

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Better Days Might Be Ahead

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Things are looking up here in Massachusetts. Sort of. 

While the COVID-19 curve has been bending in an encouraging direction (the seven-day positive test rate rolling average dropped below 3 percent Sunday), the rise of the more ominous U.K. strain has just begun. There have now been at least 7 confirmed cases of the variant here in the Bay State. Across the Northeast, there have been 17 cases reported in Connecticut, 42 in New York, 12 in Pennsylvania, and 11 in New Jersey. 

With infection rates dropping, foodies and gym rats rejoice as state-imposed business capacity limits have increased for the second time in as many weeks. Moreover, tax collections of almost half a billion dollars in January “obliterated the Baker administration’s expectations.” 

But the big news this week again centers around the game of vetoball on Beacon Hill. While Governor Baker has volleyed the resubmitted energy bill back to the legislature, lawmakers prepare to serve a reinflated transportation bond bill back into his court.

Here’s what we’ve got this week:

Politics

Candidates Begin Lining Up For 2022 Gubernatorial Race

Candidates have begun gathering to determine pole position in the 2022 Mass. governor’s race. The first to the line is former state senator Ben Downing (D) who represented Pittsfield and surrounding communities for a ten-year stretch from 2007 to 2017. During his ten-year tenure, Downing filled the chair of the Senate utilities and energy committee. 

Downing’s experience with clean energy policy was put to good use when he landed an executive position at solar energy startup Nexamp. Today, Downing is well-regarded by renewable clean energy advocates.  

In an interview with GBH News Downing stated that the essence of his campaign will be to instill a "sense of urgency" in Massachusetts politics and government.

Downing had this to say:

"Massachusetts has all of the tools, all of the potential to solve the big problems that we're facing. Economic injustice, racial injustice, climate change, and all of the related issues. What we don't have is the sense of urgency that allows us to make the progress we need to make on them.”

Having already served three consecutive four-year terms, Gov. Charlie Baker (R) has not yet announced whether he will be in the race in 2020. However, Harvard political science professor Danielle Allen and Quincy Democrat Scott Khourie have both stated that they are considering entering the race.

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Business

COVID-19-Related Restrictions Eased For Second Time In 10 Days

Good news for Mass. foodies, bargoers, and gym rats. With hospitalizations now down 33 percent since their peak in January, restaurants and other businesses that have been kept warm at 25 percent capacity are now simmering at 40 percent capacity as of Monday. (Just in time for Valentine’s Day.)

Gov. Baker credited the second major easing of restrictions in ten days to the fact that the seven day rolling average of COVID-19 cases dropped by more than 50 percent since its peak. On January 25, the governor lifted a stay-at-home order and 9:30 pm business curfew.

In a statement on the matter, Gov. Baker remarked:

"We know that these restrictions have been and continue to be enormously difficult for large and small businesses, their employees and individuals everywhere, but we're making progress in this battle against COVID, and everyone's hard work and preparation is now making it possible for us to continue to step back to what we might call a new normal.”

Restaurants still have a 6-person cap per table with a 90-minute time limit and indoor and outdoor gatherings are still limited to 10 and 25 people respectively.

Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Polito announced updates to the state’s COVID-19 relief fund. This week more than 4,000 businesses received grant money, including 1,300 restaurants, bars, caterers, and food trucks.

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Energy

Baker Volleys Energy Bill Back to Legislature

Gov. Charlie Baker has once again volleyed the climate bill back to the legislature, this time with a laundry list of proposed amendments. The landmark climate bill calls for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and sets stricter appliance energy efficiency standards, among other matters. Baker has said he supports the overall goals of the bill but has problems with some of the details of the legislation.

In his statement to lawmakers, Baker wrote:

"The science is clear — the Commonwealth, the nation and the world must achieve net zero emissions by 2050 if we are to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. In 2020, my Administration adopted net zero as a legally binding limit for 2050 emissions ... This legislation enshrines net zero emissions in statute, further binding the Commonwealth to this important goal."

Baker’s proposed amendments include the creation of an opt-in municipal stretch energy code, a 2030 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target, and sector-specific emission reductions.

Now there are two possible outcomes: either the legislature folds the governor’s suggestions into the bill, otherwise, the votes are there to simply override the veto. 

Changes might also be made to the bill in the future. Sen. Michael Barrett, one of the chief sponsors of the climate bill, has suggested that the Legislature might be willing to negotiate on the 2030 emissions target.

WBUR has more details on this story.

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Transportation

Lawmakers To Reinflate Transportation Bond Bill 

In addition to testing the state legislature’s patience on the climate bill, Baker also vetoed portions of a $16.5 billion transportation bond bill last month. Although Baker approved most of the details, he nixed, among other ideas, what he feels are excessive fees on ride-hailing services.

As with the climate bill, the transportation bond bill went over the net at the very end of the previous legislative session eliminating the ability to override the veto. However, whereas the climate bill was quickly volleyed back to the Governor, the fate of the transportation bill is less clear.

One of the lead negotiators on the bill, Transportation Committee Co-chair Sen. Joseph Boncore, said this:

“What we’ve agreed on and what there’s consensus on between the House and Senate, something like TNC fees and data collection, is something that we don’t have to do a lot of planning around. That’s ready, so I’m hoping that in the short term, we can take action on those items quickly.”

In response, Stacy Thompson, executive director of the LivableStreets Alliance, said this:

“For a governor who really prides himself on his business chops, he’s not making good short-term or long-term decisions for the state in terms of dollars and cents. Those solutions require policy changes, they require spending money, they require changing the way we proverbially do business in the state. I see a lot of lip service, I see a lot of commissions, I see a lot of reports. I don’t see a lot of action.”

MBTA and Department of Transportation board member Monica Tibbits-Nutt, called Baker’s veto “heart-breaking” in a lengthy Twitter thread.

MassLive.com has a full report.

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Real Estate

Home Prices Are Up But Rents Are Down

While home and condo prices have been on the rise for the past year, the median rental price for a one-bedroom apartment has fallen sharply in some Mass. communities. In Everett, for example, rents dropped more than 22 percent from January 2019 to January 2020. That is according to a report by Zumper.

Other communities also saw big drops: 

  • Boston: -19.2%

  • Cambridge: -15.1%

  • Waltham: -14.9%

  • Brookline: -14.8%

  • Revere: -14.8%

The median rent in January for a one-bedroom apartment was just over $1,700.

Meanwhile, according to the report, the most expensive communities for renters last month were Cambridge, Brookline, and Boston (no surprise there). And the least expensive communities for Mass. renters were Brockton, Worcester, and Lowell.

A complete running list of year-over-year rents for more than two dozen Mass. communities can be found here.

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Cannabis

Cambridge Joins Somerville in Decriminalization of Psychedelics

Let’s not talk about pot this week. Let’s instead talk about psychedelics. Should entheogenic plants and fungi like ayahuasca, ibogaine, and psilocybin mushrooms be decriminalized in Mass.? The Cambridge City Council thinks so. 

Cambridge is now the second city in Mass. to decriminalize psychedelics and call on police to stop arresting people for drug possession. The Somerville City Council did the same last month. Cambridge City Councilors voted 8-1 in favor of the idea that criminalizing drugs is neither just nor effective.

The text of the ordinance states:

“Drug policy in the United States and the so-called ‘War on Drugs’ has historically led to unnecessary penalization, arrest, and incarceration of vulnerable people, particularly people of color and of limited financial means, instead of prioritizing harm-reduction policies that treat drug abuse as an issue of public health.”

According to the measure, “the arrest of adult persons for using or possessing controlled substances shall be amongst the lowest law enforcement priority for the City of Cambridge.” 

A growing number of cities across the U.S. have enacted psychedelics decriminalization beginning with Washington, D.C. Also, Oakland, Santa Cruz, and Ann Arbor have decriminalized possession of plant-and fungi-based psychedelics. And in Oregon, voters passed an initiative to legalize psilocybin mushrooms for therapeutic purposes as well as decriminalized possession of all drugs. Lawmakers in California, New York, Virginia, Washington, and other states are also considering similar reforms.

The moves in Somerville and Cambridge might be just the beginning of a larger trend here in the Bay State, but it’s important to point out, however, that it’s unlikely the state will create a retail market for psychedelics as it has for marijuana. 

Marijuana Moment has more on this story.

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One Year Later...

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We’ve had one heck of a lap around the sun since the first confirmed coronavirus infections in Massachusetts on the first of February, 2020. Things didn’t get real for residents, however, until March 15 when Gov. Charlie Baker ordered all Massachusetts schools to close. Restaurants were limited to take-out and delivery service, and gatherings of groups larger than 25 were prohibited. At this point, there were still fewer than 200 confirmed cases in the state. Today there are more than 20 times as many cases reported on a daily basis.

The emergency rules were initially set to end on April 7. However, just a little over a week later, with the number of coronavirus cases in the state having more than tripled, all non-essential businesses were ordered to close and Bay State residents were asked to shelter at home. After a brief bending of the curve over the summer, COVID came roaring back post-holiday season. 

Since the beginning, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, about half a million people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in Massachusetts. More than 14,000 people have died. Now, according to the DPH interactive coronavirus dashboard, having peaked in the second week of January, the curve is again bending downward. The number of estimated active cases dropped from about 81,000 last Wednesday to 78,000 on Thursday, and the percentage of positive coronavirus tests decreased to 4.44% from 4.67%.

But the Bay State isn’t out of the woods yet. Last week, for the first time, a more contagious COVID-19 variant from the United Kingdom was reported in Massachusetts.

In other news, Governor Baker delivered his annual State of the Commonwealth Address; the state legislature re-passed the vetoed climate bill; Mass. transportation got another shot in the arm; and Mass. General said it’s setting aside $2 billion for expansion. 

Meanwhile in Washington, newly anointed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is talking about shuffling together numerous marijuana bills into one big one in order to make some major headway on ending the federal prohibition of cannabis and finally putting Reefer Madness behind us. 

Politics

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker delivered his State of the Commonwealth address last week, and in light of the pandemic, the address was streamed live from his office at the State House. In his remarks, the governor reminded us that “2020 was a year like no other… It came with economic calamity. Severe job loss. Business closures. Anxiety. Fear. Civil unrest. Riots. Racial injustice. Isolation. Death. And Loss.” 

Pointing out that the state is in much better shape economically now than it was last spring, Baker made the caveat that “far too many people still can’t find a job. Our downtowns are hurting. And many of our small businesses have been crushed by the pandemic.”

One of the centerpieces of the governor’s presentation was the state’s Small Business Relief Program which Baker boasted was “the largest of its kind in the country.”  The program draws from a fund of over $700 million to assist thousands of struggling small companies across the state.

Also highlighted were major advances in transportation infrastructure:

“On transportation, the new law accelerates bridge reconstruction, so we can move faster to modernize every bridge that needs major repairs. It also provides the funding we need to complete the South Coast Rail expansion. Fall River and New Bedford have been waiting for over 30 years for this to get done. Now it will be available in 2023. This law also funds the final piece of the long-promised Green Line Extension into Somerville. These are big promises made and kept.”

And clean, renewable energy:

“On climate change, Massachusetts continues to be a national leader. “In the last several weeks alone, we put forth a science based roadmap to reach net zero emissions by 2050. And we’ve spearheaded a first of its kind, multi-state program to reduce carbon emissions in the transportation sector. We’ve invested over $935 million in climate change mitigation and adaptation since we took office. And we’re on track to meet our commitment to invest $1 billion in climate action by 2022. Partnering with the Legislature, we secured historic clean energy procurements at the lowest price for rate payers. This set the table for an explosion in offshore wind development up and down the East Coast of this country.”

A complete transcript of the governor’s 2021 State of the State address can be found here: Governor Baker Delivers 2021 State of the Commonwealth Address

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Business

As Gov. Baker pointed out in his State Of the State address, Massachusetts’ Covid relief program for small businesses is the largest program of its kind in the U.S. It’s a good thing the state is leading in economic relief, as the Bay State is lagging behind the country in vaccinations. 

The program provides financial relief for businesses hit hard by emergency restrictions and shutdowns, particularly in the hospitality and entertainment sectors. Since the emergency cash began flowing in December, $277 million in grants have been awarded from a $688 million relief fund and a separate $50.8 million economic recovery package. 

Baker said. “This is a $720 million program, so we obviously have a long way to go and a lot of opportunity to continue to support small businesses as they work their way through the second surge.”

According to Baker, additional grant announcements will continue “pretty much every week.” Unfortunately, so will the hanging of “out of business” signs. 

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Energy

Over the last few weeks, we have reported on Gov. Baker's unexpected veto of the state’s sweeping climate bill and the new legislature’s mission to quickly send the measures back to Baker’s desk — which is exactly what they’ve done.

In scenes from last week’s episode, because the previous legislative session ran out the clock, Baker vetoed the bill too late for lawmakers to override or amend it. Nonetheless, Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ronald Mariano brought the monstrous bill back to life shortly into the new legislative session. The measure was quickly re-approved in both chambers and sent back to Gov. Charlie Baker.

The legislation outlines steps to reaching the state’s goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Baker supports most of the bill but worries that as written it could possibly prevent the construction of affordable housing.

Baker is expected to again send the measure back to the legislature with recommended changes. However, the bill was passed by a veto-killing margin in both chambers and is but guaranteed to become the law of the land.

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Transportation

At the recent Massachusetts Municipal Association’s Annual Meeting, the Baker administration announced that it has filed “An Act Financing Improvements to Municipal Roads and Bridges,” in an effort to raise $200 million in funding to help all 351 cities and towns in that state improve transportation infrastructure. The funds will add to the $39.5 million increase in local aid already included in the Administration’s proposed Fiscal Year 2022 budget.

Governor Baker’s statement included this: 

“Investing in local roads and bridges helps connect residents with jobs and opportunities across the Commonwealth, and promotes economic growth and development. We are pleased to continue providing support and resources to cities and towns throughout Massachusetts and ensuring municipalities have the flexibility and resources to address their unique needs.”

The municipal funds are made available under the “Chapter 90” program administered by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. If approved by the legislature, it will bring the total funds released since Baker took office in 2015 to a healthy $1.56 billion.

Massachusetts governor files for $200M in Chapter 90 funding for transportation

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Real Estate

Massachusetts’s largest hospital owner, Mass General Brigham, has announced that the company will move forward on planned $2 billion in construction projects. That is according to the Boston Business Journal which claims:

“Based on public filings with the state Department of Public Health, the planned developments will include a $1 billion building at Massachusetts General Hospital in the West End, a $400 million project to open four outpatient sites in communities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and a $250 million addition at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital. The total projects’ cost could be closer to $2 billion when including ancillary expenses… The projects are part of $6.1 billion in work that Mass General Brigham, formerly known as Partners HealthCare, has planned in capital spending over the next five years. The pandemic delayed half of the planned spending in fiscal 2020, however, sidelining $550 million of work in the face of hundreds of millions of dollars in expected revenue shortfalls.”

Anne Klibanski, president and CEO of Mass General Brigham, was quoted in the report: 

“These projects will enable us to meet the needs of our patients by bringing lower-cost care options to their home and community, making community-hospital investments to accommodate more routine care, and improving access for the most complex cases at one of our flagship hospitals. While the pandemic temporarily postponed our long-standing plans, it also reinforced the need to provide more health care options for our patients.”

Read all about it at Boston Real Estate Times.

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Cannabis

According to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), lawmakers are working to merge various pieces of marijuana legislation into one bill to be debated in the early days of the 117th Congress. 

During an interview with former NBA player Al Harrington, Schumer talked about his plan to deschedule marijuana, reinvest tax revenue into communities impacted by the drug war, and to fund efforts to expunge prior cannabis records. (Harrington markets a line of cannabis products under the name Viola Brands.)

Schumer filed legislation in both of the two previous congressional sessions including the Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act. Also on the table is the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act which passed the House last year but was not taken up by the Republican-controlled Senate.

In another interview with Rachel Madow, Schumer stated:

“I’m a big fighter for racial justice, and the marijuana laws have been one of the biggest examples of racial injustice, and so to change them makes sense. And that fits in with all of the movement now to bring equality in the policing, in economics and in everything else. Our bill is, in a certain sense, at the nexus of racial justice, individual freedom and states’ rights.”

Prior to Democrats reclaiming the Senate majority, Schumer pledged that he would “put his cannabis legislation on the floor” should he become Senate majority leader.

Now with Democrats in control, advocates and lawmakers are expecting a tsunami of federal cannabis policy reforms. However, the extent to which marijuana will be un-prohibited remains to be seen as President Biden’s support for legalization is seedy. Although Biden backs the idea of modest reforms, he’s not in favor of full legalization. That doesn’t mean that he’ll veto sweeping marijuana legislation — but it doesn’t mean he won’t, either.

Already in 2021, two congressional marijuana bills have been filed. One proposal seeks to prevent the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs from denying veterans benefits because they use medical marijuana. The other would move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act — a move which many advocates and stakeholders fear will cause more problems than it solves. If marijuana remains a controlled substance, the Food and Drug Administration would be able to impose federal regulations on state cannabis markets.

Marijuana Moment has more on this story.

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COVID Restrictions Loosened but Contagiousness Increases

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The good news is that Gov. Baker is easing emergency restrictions and lifting a stay-at-home advisory and 9:30 pm curfew.. This comes as experts at Massachusetts General Hospital say they expect to see a decrease in hospital admissions over the next few weeks. 

The bad news is that this comes as a second case of a new COVID-19 variant was confirmed in Massachusetts. The nasty bug was brought home by a Boston woman who had recently traveled to the U.K. where cases of this new, more contagious strain have been escalating swiftly (the woman had tested negative before boarding her flight). 

Models suggest that the new strain could be dominant in the U.S. by springtime. That is according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Friday. 

Aside from that, the big story in Massachusetts politics this week is a continuation of the flurry of figures with Boston ties heading to Washington to be part of the Biden/Harris Administration. 

All this plus the latest in business, energy, transportation, real estate, and cannabis news coming right up... 

Politics

Romney Says Second Trump Impeachment Trial Completely Justified

On the most recent episode of “Fox News Sunday,” Mass. Sen. Mitt Romney, one of the few voices of reason on the Republican bench, stepped up the plate to take a swing at former President Donald Trump and insisted that the second impeachment trial (which is being shrugged off by the Republican party at large) is completely justified.

Pointing to Trump’s call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Romney also called out the former president’s efforts “to corrupt the election of the United States.” (On that call, Trump blatantly pressured state officials to find him 11,000 votes.)

When pressed by anchor Chris Wallace on how the GOP might find a balance between the “traditional Republicans and the Trump Republicans,” Romney cited the importance of having “new faces” in changing the tenor of the GOP, specifically mentioning Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker as one of the next prominent leaders for the party.

Romney had this to say: 

“There are going to be new faces that are going to be the spokespeople for our party and their own vision. That can be Larry Hogan, it can be Charlie Baker, it could be Marco Rubio … or Ben Sasse. So there will be some new faces. President Trump of course will continue to have influence. But I think our party is going to return to some of our more fundamental principles — which is fiscal responsibility, believing in the importance of character, standing with our allies, and pushing back against people like Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin.”

Romney also said that it’s critical for the GOP to communicate more effectively that its policies are designed to help working men and women “and to give them and their families a better future.”

The question is, of which Republican party does Romney speak? Over the past four years of Republican rule and massive corporate tax cuts, American’s have seen an accelerated rise in wealth inequality — even before the pandemic. 

Watch the video of Romney’s interview with Fox.

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Business

Healthcare and Tech Are Big Business in Massachusetts — and Getting Bigger

While unemployment spiked in Massachusetts over the past last year, the state’s biotech and technology companies have been on a growth spurt and accompanying hiring spree. According to a report in the Boston Globe, the pandemic hasn't slowed hiring at Mass. biotech and tech companies. 

Here are some specific highlights from the report:

  • Amazon added about 700 white-collar jobs with more than 400 openings still posted in the Boston area. 

  • The Mass. Amazon hub ended 2020 with about 3,700 employees.

  • At Amazon, engineers can be offered a starting salary of $160,000 to $300,000.

  • CarGuru hired about 90 people from August to the end of the year and is expected to grow by about 75 to 80 employees this year. 

  • EQRx, which aims to develop and license more affordable drugs for a range of diseases, hired about 112 people in 2020, and plans to add 130 more this year.

  • Forma Therapeutics hired about 40 people in 2020 and plans to hire another 40 to 50 employees in 2021.

According to recruiter Beverly Kahn: 

“This has been a tough time… It’s not at all like previous recessions. There isn’t this negativity. I think people have acclimated to what’s going on, they’ve acclimated to remote work and remote hiring...”

Khan, who started her firm in 1979 and who has lived through several recessions, remembers stretches when Massachusetts tech companies like Data General and Wang Laboratories were cutting jobs by the thousands.

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Energy

The big news in the energy department last week was Gov. Baker’s veto of the state’s omnibus climate bill. The bill, which called for Massachusetts to become carbon neutral by 2050, is one of the most ambitious timelines for carbon emission reductions in the country. It cleared both branches last session by veto-proof votes of 145-9 in the House 38-2 in the Senate. 

Because the legislative session in which the bill was passed disbanded just days after it was signed, lawmakers in the Bay State were not able to override the veto. If the refiled bill is vetoed again, the legislature will have the opportunity to override it this time. However, Baker can also now return the re-filed legislation with proposed amendments. 

In a joint statement, Senate President Karen Spilka's Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano called the bipartisan legislation an "ambitious and groundbreaking climate bill." The statement goes on to say:

"Months of work was exhaustively studied by members of the conference committee, and the result was a bill that rejects the false choice between economic growth and addressing climate change. We must combat climate change while also maintaining a thriving economy and expanding the housing stock that will ensure future, sustainable growth. The legislation sent to the Governor showed how it can be done. We are confident that members of the House and Senate will again act with urgency by swiftly sending this bill back to Governor Baker’s desk." 

Although Baker supports the 2050 net-zero goal, he has expressed concerns — one of which is that the bill, as written, could slow housing production. 

Although Baker hopes to persuade lawmakers to consider amendments to the bill, his administration has not yet made specific proposals. 

Read all about it at WBUR.org. 

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Transportation

Among other Mass. officials heading for Washington, six-year Massachusetts Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack has been tapped by the Biden-Harris administration to serve as Deputy Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration. 

In a statement regarding the move, Gov. Baker said:

“Stephanie has led MassDOT through many difficult challenges over the past six years; from the historic blizzards that exposed the problems of the MBTA, through saving the GLX project, instituting a data-driven Capital Improvement Plan, and guiding the RMV through a crisis last summer. She has provided MassDOT with stability and leadership through the last six years, serving longer than her three predecessors combined. She has allowed the agency to focus on long term efforts developing the FMCB and upgrading the MBTA’s infrastructure, service and customer relations and much more.”

And in her official statement, Pollack said this:

“It has been a privilege to lead MassDOT’s exceptional team these last six years and to work with the MBTA’s senior leadership and the Fiscal and Management Control Board. Massachusetts has become a leader in delivering a transportation system that puts people first and provides them with safer and better choices for walking, biking, using transit, or driving and I am confident that Jamey will be able to continue that good work.”

Jamey Tesler will replace her as acting secretary. Tesler assumed the role of acting Registrar of Motor Vehicles during the height of the agency's records scandal in June, 2019.

Governor Signs $16.5B Transportation Bond Bill

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has signed a $16.5 billion — with a B — transportation bond bill to raise funding for rail, bus, and roadway improvements across the state.

According to a report in Railway Age, “Gov. Baker approved most details in the bill but vetoed others, such as requiring the 15 regional transit authorities to study ‘means-tested fares’ and Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) to offer a low-income fare program...”

In a response to legislators, Gov. Baker wrote: 

“‘More study is needed to understand how transit authorities can implement fare systems that depend on gathering information about riders’ incomes and to understand what the revenue loss would be and how that revenue would be replaced. No means-tested fares can be implemented until the MBTA and RTAs have a financially sustainable plan in place to replace the lost revenue.”

Bill H-5248, an Act Authorizing and Accelerating Transportation Investment, provides funds for upgrading the South Coast Rail, a Green Line Extension, East-West rail projects, MBTA bus and Green Line upgrades, electrification of sections of the Fairmount and Stoughton commuter rail lines, and extending the Blue Line to the Charles/MGH Station on the Red Line.

Railway Age has more on this story.

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Real Estate

Amid Pandemic Home Sales in Massachusetts Hit 16-Year High 

Pandemic notwithstanding, Mass. home sales are on fire and have reached a 16-year high. According to The Warren Group, more than 61,000 single-family homes were sold in 2020 at a median sale price of $445,500, 11.4% higher than the year prior. In December alone, a record 6,410 single-family homes were sold in the Bay State — a 28.6% increase from December 2019. It was the sixth consecutive month with median sale prices greater than $450,000.

According to Warren Group, the shift towards remote work during the pandemic has spurred a migration away from cities boosting home sales in areas such as Cape Cod and the Berkshires, typically known to be vacation destinations.

On a Warren Group's podcast, Tim Warren, CEO of the Warren Group says he did not see this coming and hopes it won’t lead to a real estate bubble in the region:

"In the wake of the first COVID-19 lockdown way back in March, single-family home sales took a nosedive for the entire second quarter. If you told me back then that by the end of the year that the total number of sales would surpass 2019, there's no way I would have believed you ... yet here we are. Another record-setting year in the books for Massachusetts real estate… The hot market has continued right into December, four straight months of sales gains of 25 percent or more… The more time they spend at home, the more they think about the home and some ask what they want to change… The one thing I worry about is the rapidly-rising median price across the state. For six straight years, we saw a very good market but with restrained growth in price -- just two to five percent. The tail end of 2020 saw huge changes and prices rose by 14 percent or more for five straight months. For the year as a whole, prices rose 11.4 percent. I consider that to be unsustainable. I hope we see the market cool and consolidate its gains before we create a bubble in prices as we did in 2005. The collapse of the market in 2006 and beyond was very painful."

Warren expects the trend to continue well into 2021.

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Cannabis

Commonwealth Dispensary Association Sues CCC… Then Doesn’t

All in one week, the Commonwealth Dispensary Association filed suit against the Mass. Cannabis Control Commission in an attempt to block new delivery rules and then dropped the suit in an effort to prevent a mass exodus of members. 

At question was a new type of delivery license that would allow operators to sidestep the storefront and instead sell out of a warehouse. The rule is intended to increase the number of local and minority-owned cannabis businesses in the state. Making matters worse, for the first three years, the license will only be available only to applicants in social equity programs locking out existing dispensaries until 2024. However, this doesn’t seem to be a problem for many dispensary owners.

The CDA argued that the rules, as written might backfire and lead to the “possibility of an ‘Amazon’ scale operation undermining both brick and mortar retail and smaller delivery operators.”

In the days after the suit was filed, at least ten prominent CDA members including New England Treatment Access (the largest marijuana operator in Massachusetts), Garden Remedies, and In Good Health, announced they were quitting the group claiming the action conflicted with their commitment to social equity in the Mass. cannabis industry.

A statement from Garden Remedies reads: 

“Decades of the ‘war on drugs’ and the disproportionate harm such policies caused to members of specific communities cannot simply be erased by ignoring the past or leveling the playing field ‘from now on. Specific, targeted and aggressive action must be taken to acknowledge the issues and create a roadmap to a better, more inclusive industry.”

The CDA had this to say about that:

“The CDA has determined it is in the best interest of the industry and our members to drop the lawsuit against the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC). We all need to be working together on achieving our many shared objectives, including increasing the participation of a diverse set of entrepreneurs in the industry… [The CDA is] confident that our membership fully supports the goal of increasing diversity of ownership and wealth generation opportunities in the Massachusetts cannabis industry… The past several days have motivated our organization to look inwards, and outwards, to work together to create real positive change.

Boston.com has a thorough report on this story.

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Major Bills Pass but Baker Vetoes Climate Change Legislation

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The most notable news narratives in Massachusetts politics this week are Gov. Charlie Baker’s signing of a major economic development bill and his veto of far reaching climate change legislation. Although Baker has been a cheerleader for the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, he found some sticking points in the energy bill that will have to be cleaned up by the newly sworn-in legislature. Find more on both of theses stories below.

And, of course, the pandemic still looms large and long here in Massachusetts. Rather than getting into the particulars (since we’ve all been bombarded with them on a daily basis for the past 10 months) here are some of the Covid-related challenges residents and businesses are currently facing here in the Bay State:

With that out of the way, let’s go over this week’s top news in Massachusetts politics, business, energy, transportation, and real estate. We’ll also touch on some big changes coming to the Mass. Cannabis Control Commission board and what they mean to the Massachusetts cannabis industry. 

Politics

Boston Mayor’s Race Shaping Up 

As we mentioned last week, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh will be leaving City Hall bound for Washington D.C. Meanwhile, being only the second vacant Mayor’s office seat in 28 years, the race to replace Walsh is quickly shaping up to be an exciting one. 

  • So far, two entrants, Boston City Councilors Michelle Wu and Andrea Campbell, have gotten a head start. 

  • The may have stiff competition in Boston Police Commissioner William Gross who is strongly considering a run. 

  • City Council President Kim Janey (who will soon become acting mayor when Walsh takes his cabinet seat) is a probable candidate. 

  • Two other City Councilors Annissa Essaibi-George and Michael Flaherty are also likely to take a crack at it. 

  • State Sen. Nick Collins could enter the race. 

  • Boston economic development chief John Barros might run.

  • Boston’s chief of Health and Human Services Marty Martinez is considering mounting a campaign. 

  • State Rep. Jon Santiago has said that he might run.

Two other potential candidates, State Rep. Aaron Michlewitz and Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins have officially opted out of the race.

With so many candidates in the race, it won’t take a majority of voters for candidates to advance to the general election. Back in 2013’s preliminary election, with 12 candidates in the race and a turnout of just 31%, 113,300 ballots were cast. Walsh and John Connolly each received less than one-fifth of the vote. Walsh received a mere 20,800 primary votes. However, Walsh won the general election with just over half of the vote (51.5%).

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Business

$78.5 Million in Covid Relief Grants Given to Small Businesses

The Baker Administration recently announced that just under 1,600 Mass. businesses have been awarded a total of $78.5 million in small business grants to help them weather the pandemic storm. The state has now awarded $195 million to more than 4,100 businesses since December through Mass Growth Capital Corporation. Governor Baker hopes the money will help more Mass. businesses — “especially those in the hospitality and entertainment business” — to survive the winter. 

Under this program businesses in specific sectors of the economy (such as restaurants, bars, caterers, food trucks, gyms, indoor recreation businesses, event photographers and other event companies, nail salons, barbershops, independent pharmacies and independent retailers) will receive grants of up to $75,000 or three months of operating expenses.

With another $473 million remaining to be passed out, officials are expected to announce more grants in February. (However, the deadline to apply fot grant money has passed.)

Watch: Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker to discuss small business grants in Boston’s North End

Additionally, another $8.6 million in grants were awarded to cities, towns and nonprofit organizations under the Community Transit Grant program. The annual program, which is administered by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), awards money earmarked for transit operating costs, mobility management, or new capital investments.

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Energy

Even bigger news than Baker’s shuffle off to Washington this week is his pocket veto of landmark climate legislation passed by lawmakers last week. Baker claimed that, among other concerns, the measure would slow housing production goals outlined in his “housing choice” proposal which is written into the economic development bill Baker signed into law Thursday. 

In a letter to lawmakers, Baker wrote:

“While my administration wholeheartedly supports the environmental justice goals of this bill, intent without the tools to address those issues are empty promises. The bill does not have language or funding to address the ongoing impacts of climate change faced by those communities.”

The Next Generation Roadmap is the most comprehensive climate legislation to be passed in more than a decade with an ambitious net-zero emissions goal by 2050. The legislation also calls for interim emissions reduction targets of 50% by 2030 and 75% by 2040, as well as requiring 40% of the state’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030. 

Alli Gold Roberts, director or state policy at the sustainability nonprofit Ceres called the development, “extremely disappointing and a step in the wrong direction,” adding:

“From a rise in floods to worsening air pollution, this last decade made it abundantly clear that the severity of the climate crisis requires immediate action,” Roberts added. “Massachusetts legislators understood the need for this urgency as they pushed forward comprehensive, bold climate policy in the midst of dealing with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The resulting legislation that was sent to Gov. Baker included input from the business community, the clean energy industry, community organizers, environmental justice advocates and the public health community. The collaboration among lawmakers and numerous stakeholders helped produce a bill that would have led to climate action, new clean energy job growth and the necessary transition away from fossil fuels to power and heat our homes and buildings, at a time when we need it most. We call on legislators to reintroduce the legislation immediately and send it back to the governor for consideration as soon as possible. Businesses are already making strides toward meeting their own net-zero goals and the Commonwealth cannot afford to delay the transition to a net-zero emissions future that is already underway.” 

It’s not that the Governor is against the proposed legislation altogether. As we reported last week, prior to passage of the bill, the Baker administration had released two reports detailing his plans to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Baker was also instrumental in launching the regional Transportation and Climate Initiative, a plan to decarbonize the transportation sector. However, Baker did not have time to propose amendments to the bill because it passed one day before the end of a  two-year legislative session. 

More details are available at MassLive.com.

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Transportation

USDOT Grants $344 Million In Federal Aid to Transit Authorities 

The MBTA and 15 Reginional Transit Authorities are soon to receive roughly $344 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation to help Massachusetts avoid public transportation service cuts or fare increases.

MBTA General Manager Steve Pollack said Monday that he believes that the agency will receive between $250 million and $300 million of the total funds. However, Pollak also says that despite the injection of federal funding the agnecy plants to keep most of the T’s planned service cuts in place for at least the rest of the winter.

There has been a lot of criticism over the MBTA's push to cut services. Advocates claim that the current plan focuses too much on professionals and office workers, many of whom have some flexibility, at the expense of essential employees and lower-income residents.

At a Regional Transit Authority Council meeting, Pollack stated:

"I don't think 2021 is going to look like 2019, and I'm not sure on the transportation side it's ever going to look like 2019. Things have happened in the past year that will linger, even after the pandemic is over, so part of our job and our challenge is to understand what's changed, what is changing, and how we can continue to provide the service our customers need."

Read all about it at Railway Age. 

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Real Estate

Baker Signs Major Economic Development Bill

In recent years, Massachusetts has been a laggart in the development of new housing. To help remedy the issue, Gov. Baker has (mostly) signed legislation allocating $626 million over the next five years to programs designed to make it easier to build new housing in the Bay State. Baked called the measure “the first significant zoning reform in decades.” 

One of the key pieces of the legislation encourages multifamily zoning in MBTA communities. The bill also sets aside $40 million to revitalize underutilized properties.

Although Baker signed 100 of the bill’s most important sections, he vetoed 11. Among the measures vetoed were three that would have required at least 10 percent affordable units housing for development projects that benefit from a housing development incentive program tax credit. The requirement would have made projects more difficult to finance, Baker said. 

Another line item vetoed by the governor was a proposed rural jobs tax credit that baker claims is more likely to benefit corporate investors than the rural communities it is supposed to help. 

In a statement the governor had this to say:

“This legislation will drive economic growth and improve housing stability, neighborhood stabilization and transit oriented development. Combined with our $668 million small business relief grant program that is supporting local businesses impacted by COVID-19, this legislation will support future growth and expand opportunity for people across Massachusetts, and we appreciate the work of our legislative colleagues throughout this process.”

Because the Legislature that passed the bill has expired and a new Legislature has been sworn in, the governor’s vetoes cannot be overturned. 

WWLP.com has more on this story. 

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Cannabis

Third New Member Named to Cannabis Control Commission

Ava Callender Concepcion has been chosen by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey to fill the Mass. Cannabis Control Commission’s public safety position. The seat was recently vacated by Britte McBride.

In recent years, Concepcion has filled a variety of roles in public safety and previously served as the director of governmental affairs and external partnerships for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office.

Mass. AG Healey said in a statement:

“Ava brings a strong background in public safety and experience working with a range of stakeholders including law enforcement, advocacy organizations, and constituents on important policy matters.  As a lifelong resident of Boston, Ava has dedicated her career to social justice and her perspective will be extremely valuable to the Commission in promoting safety, equity, and opportunity.”

In here acceptance statement, Concepcion said:

“I am honored and humbled by this appointment and want to thank Attorney General Healey for the opportunity to continue serving the Commonwealth. I look forward to working with my fellow commissioners to implement regulations that foster thoughtfulness, transparency, and equity.”

With Concepcion’s appointment, three of five members are new to the CCC. At the end of December, Nurys Z. Camargo and Bruce Stebbins were appointed to replace Shaleen Title and Kay Doyle.

Check out this piece at the Boston Business Journal to see where the CCC is expected to go from here.

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