Campaigns & Elections

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History In The Making

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There’s been more to talk about in Massachusetts during the past week than we’ve seen in a very long time: Mayor Kim Janey is making history, there’s a multi-million dollar shot in the arm for the Commonwealth’s climate and job goals, a potential game-changer for the gig economy emerging on the horizon, and the call to reverse service cuts on the T is being taken seriously. 

And in the “strange but true” category, did you know that Massachusetts has the second-fewest dispensaries per capita in the entire country? It’s true. More than 30 U.S. states have more dispensaries per person than the Bay State. But that’s about to change…

Politics

Kim Janey Makes History as Boston's First Black/Female Mayor

If we could have reported a year ago that Marty Walsh would resign as Mayor of Boston, there would be some head-scratching going on. What on Earth could cause Walsh to resign? Now, as we all know, President-elect Biden has called Walsh to Washington to fill the position of U.S. Labor Secretary.

A mayor of a prominent U.S. city becoming a cabinet member, although often unexpected, isn’t uncommon. (Transportation Secretary “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg is another example.) However, what is uncommon is when the filling of the vacancy becomes far bigger news. 

Boston City Council President Kim Janey is not the acting mayor making history as Boston’s first female and first person of color to hold the office. Although her position is interim, Janey will have a profound effect on the future of Boston politics.

Janey hasn’t yet come out and announced a run for mayor in the fall, but if she were to do so, she might be the favorite to win. Case in point, city council president Thomas Menino stepped in as interim mayor and went on to win the mayoral election later that year becoming Boston’s longest-serving mayor.

One fact greatly increasing the chance that Boston will continue to make history is that, so far, three women of color have announced they will run for mayor — city councilors Michelle Wu, Andrea Campbell, and Annissa Essaibi George. 

Read all about Janey’s history-making move at U.S.A Today.

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Business

Lawsuit Over Uber, Lyft Driver Status: There’s a Lot At Stake 

As the pace of technological advancement and consumer adoption accelerates, legislation intended to regulate that technology quite often struggles to keep up. Ride-hailing, and the gig economy as a whole, are ground zero in the race to reign in commercial technologies before they can get so entrenched that their defenses are impenetrable.

Here in Massachusetts, a battle is raging to determine whether or not drivers for companies such as Uber and Lyft can be considered contract workers or if they actually qualify as employees. 

As contractors drivers typically have limited legal rights, no minimum wages, and few if any benefits. And declaring them employees greatly increases the cost of doing business and cuts deep into profits of the companies that provide these opportunities. 

In a heated battle last year, much to the relief of Uber and Lyft, California voters declared that so-called “gig workers” are, indeed, contractors and not employees. 

Massachusetts is now fighting a similar battle as the state's attorney general attempts to dismantle Uber's and Lyft's argument that drivers are independent contractors. 

The defendants had requested that a Massachusetts judge dismiss the lawsuit. The motion was denied on Thursday when Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Salinger said the state’s argument has merit.

Was the argument proffered in the California case strong enough to become a nationwide precedent? Or will the Baker Administration deliver a historic and crippling blow to the gig economy? We’ll keep you posted on this important story. 

Meanwhile, BusinessInsider.com has more on this story.

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Energy

Offshore Wind Energy Gets Booster Shot 

President Biden is on a mission to clean up the energy industry in an effort to stem the tide of climate change, accelerate innovation in clean energy, boost the economy, and create jobs. A key goal in the effort is to have all electricity generation in the U.S. carbon neutral by 2035. And a key piece of the plan is offshore wind energy. 

While the Biden administration begins pulling up stakes on drilling for oil on public land, The Department of Interior plans to start selling leases for a new "wind energy area" in the waters between Long Island and the New Jersey coast. 

Although this particular project doesn’t directly impact Massachusetts, others are in the planning stages. In time, the administration envisions a thriving offshore wind industry spanning the entire East Coast. Along with projects in the Gulf of Mexico and along the West Coast the goal is to deploy 30 gigawatts of turbines by 2030, supplying more than 10 million American homes with electricity and creating tens of thousands of jobs in the process. The longer-term goal is to generate a staggering 110 gigawatts of electricity offshore by 2050.

The Department of Energy plans to offer the wind power industry a booster shot in the form of $3 billion in government-backed loans and an additional $8 million in grants for research and development.

The Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is undertaking environmental reviews for potential projects that will directly affect the Bay State including the Vineyard Wind project off Massachusetts and South Fork Wind off Rhode Island. 

NPR has more on this story. 

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Transportation

Mayor Janey Demands Reversal of MBTA Service Cuts

We’ve talked many times in the past year about the MBTA’s budget woes and the controversial service cuts that were recently put into place to stem the tide of red ink as ridership fell to around one-third of pre-pandemic levels. 

However, with the agency about to receive $1 billion in federal COVID-19 relief money, history-making interim Boston Mayor Kim Janey, whom we mentioned above, has joined transportation advocates in imploring the MBTA to restore services to pre-pandemic levels. The argument is that the relief money will more than cover the costs. 

An MBTA spokesperson said the agency is likely to acquiesce and will provide more specifics after a joint meeting of the MassDOT Board of Directors and the MBTA’s Fiscal Management and Control Board happening as we write.

We’ll surely update you on this story next week.

Meanwhile, you can read all about it at NBC Boston.

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Real Estate

Solar Arrays Burn Local Homeowners 

A new study shows the property values of houses located near industrial solar facilities decline, costing homeowners millions of dollars in value.

According to the study, house prices within a mile of Rhode Island or Massachusetts commercial solar arrays fell by an average of 1.7% while homes within a tenth of a mile of the installations declined by a staggering 7%.

Solar energy is an important part of the Bay State’s goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. However, solar arrays use significant amounts of land and “may create local land use disamenities,” say the report’s authors.

According to researchers at the University of Rhode Island, their primary sample consists of 208 solar installations, 71,337 housing transactions in Mass. and Rhode Island, occurring within one mile (treated group), and 347,921 transactions between one to three miles (control group).

Here’s an excerpt from the extensive report:

“We observe 71,337 housing transactions occurring within one mile (treated group), and 347,921 transactions between one to three miles (control croup) of 208 solar installations in MA and RI. Our preferred model suggests that property values in the treatment group decline by 1.7% ($5,751) on average compared to those in the control group after the construction of a nearby solar installation, all else equal. This translates to an annual willingness to pay of $279 per household to avoid disamenities associated with proximity to the installations. However, this average effect obscures heterogeneity. We find substantially larger negative effects for properties within 0.1 miles and properties surrounding solar sites built on farm and forest lands in non-rural areas. 

The entire report can be downloaded here.

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Cannabis

Dispensaries Popping Up Faster Than New Customers

Anyone who is not a stakeholder in the Massachusetts cannabis industry might be surprised to learn that Massachusetts has the second-lowest number of dispensaries per capita. While Mass. has 15 dispensaries per 1 million residents, Illinois has only 7 stores per 1 million people. The greater Boston area has the highest deficit of stores with only two within city limits.

Of course, these numbers are on the rise. More than 200 adult-use dispensaries are currently being developed in Mass. According to a report in Benzinga, the density could reach 47 stores per 1 million people, putting the state in fourth place behind cannabis vanguards Oregon, Colorado, and Washington.

But there’s a problem with that. According to the report, the store count is actually growing faster than sales which means that individual shops will see a smaller and smaller cut of total sales as more and more pot shops open for business.  

Visit Benzinga for more details.

More Cannabis News

More of the Latest Massachusetts News

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Congress Rescues America But Work Isn't Done

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The worldwide story this week is the $1.9 trillion-with-a-T federal COVID relief bill, “The American Rescue Act” — and it’s a stunning achievement for a Democratic Congress. Springfield Democrat Rep. Richard Neal who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee called the package “seismic” and “monumental.”

The bill, signed one year after Gov. Baker declared a state of emergency, marks the first time state governments have been promised any direct federal pandemic relief. Although the federal government already sent more than $61 billion in aid to Massachusetts since the pandemic began, much of that money went directly to businesses, families, non-profits, and regional transit authorities. Massachusetts’ share of the 2021 Rescue Act adds up to about 10 percent of the total state budget in new available spending.

Among other things, the new funds will help boost vaccination efforts, offer rental assistance, and restaurant relief. Massachusetts state government and municipalities can expect to receive more than $8.1 billion in aid:

  • $4.513 billion for the state

  • $3.415 for city, county, and other local government aid

  • $174 million in capital project funding

  • Americans earning less than $80,000 a year will receive payments of up to $1,400. 

  • $300-per-week federal unemployment benefits are extended through early September

Child tax credits and deductions will also see a substantial increase.

In a desperate gamble, Republicans (who unanimously voted against the bill) are painting the mega-measure as a socialist’s dream that will neither help stem the tide of the pandemic nor spur economic growth. However, given the size of this package, it’s highly likely to have a major impact on the economy. And if that happens, the GOP knows they are going to have a much tougher time taking back the reins in Congress come November 2022.

Regardless of the total lack of Republican support, Washington Democrats aren’t stopping. Next on their plate is a gargantuan infrastructure bill. We’ll keep you posted on that.

NBC Boston and CBS Local both have reports explaining how the funds will be used in Mass.

Meanwhile, in other news... 

Politics

Gov. Baker’s Approval Rating Takes a Nosedive

Last week we told you how, despite the economic turmoil and somewhat botched vaccine rollout in Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker’s approval rating stood head and shoulders above other U.S. Governors. 

Well, according to the governor, among the 25 states that have more than 5 million residents, Mass. is number one per-capita for both the first dose and total doses administered. “We’ve first-dosed 74 percent of our individuals that are over the age of 75, and almost half of those over the age of 65 have received at least one dose as well,” he claimed. 

So now that things are improving, wouldn’t you know it, Baker’s approval is falling. Approval of Baker’s handling of the crisis dropped noticeably from mid-January to March, according to a recent survey.

Boston.com reports:

According to a survey released Friday by researchers at Northeastern, Harvard, Rutgers, and Northwestern universities, Baker has seen a gradual decline in residents’ perceptions of his handling of the COVID-19 response — from a “remarkably high” 80 percent approval last April to 59 percent as of March 1.

Northeastern University professor David Lazer believes the vaccine rollout glitches — which got a ton of bad media coverage — are the main cause of the drop in approval. “I think he’s taken a hit as a result,” Lazer told The Boston Globe.

Meanwhile, the state unveiled a new COVID vaccine pre-registration website Friday which is expected to be operational in the very near future.

Oh. And the climate bill has passed the Senate. Again. As has the extension of mail-in voting through June.

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Business

Phase 4 Reopening

Assuming all goes well, Massachusetts is expected to move onto the fourth and final phase of reopening next week. Under Phase 4, indoor and outdoor stadiums, arenas, ballparks, and convention halls will be permitted to operate at 12% capacity. However, in order to do so, each venue must submit their plan to the DOH.

Not everyone is pleased with the plan. Some public health experts are afraid moving too quickly is a gamble. And the city of Boston has not committed to moving into Phase 4 on March 22.

Last month, before moving into Phase 3, Mayor Marty Walsh had this to say:

"Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Boston has taken a cautious approach to reopening. We've prioritized the health and safety of our residents, and we've made decisions based on the latest public health data and metrics. We've only moved forward when it's safe."

Nonetheless, TD Garden and Fenway Park have all notified fans they will be opening their gates soon, as did Gillette Stadium.

For more details check out this piece by NBC Boston.

Also welcome news for Mass. businesses affected by emergency measures, the House passed a bill to waive taxes on PPP loans. 

The Herald has more on that story. 

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Energy

Climate Bill Volleyed Back to the House

The Mass. Senate has passed a revised climate policy bill on to the House including the vast majority of Gov. Baker’s wish list. However, risking another veto, the bill does not address Baker's most meaningful proposals such as the requirement that emissions in 2030 be at least 50% lower than 1990 levels. 

About the bill, Sen. Michael Barrett of Lexington said: 

"Global warming is generating large-scale spectacles — fire in California, floods in the Midwest, freezing infrastructure in Texas — but this particular legislation is not about mega-events. It's about dealing with our business, our everyday climate business right here at home. If you compare Massachusetts and its admissions 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."

The overarching theme of the bill as we all know is to achieve net-zero carbon emissions in the state by 2050. 

Sen. Ryan Fattman, a Sutton Republican, cast the lone vote of dissent.

Read more about the climate bill at WBUR.

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Transportation

MBTA Cuts Services Despite $2 Billion in Federal Aid

Facing potential budget deficits of as much as $400 million, and despite an estimated $1.1 billion in federal aid and another $850 million coming down the pike — so to speak — MBTA service cuts took effect this weekend. 

Under the new schedules, bus routes with high ridership serving “transit-critical communities” will not change. However, many other bus roots will be curtailed. Also service frequency is being reduced by 20% on the Red, Orange and Green Lines, and by up to 5% on the Blue Line.

Julia Wallerce, Boston program manager at the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, called the cuts “deeply disappointing and concerning.” She said:

“The particularly disturbing part is that it will have received about $2 billion in federal aid. To be fair, the T does need every dollar it can get. As a state, we don’t fund mass transit sufficiently. But the T is using relief money intended to fund service today and putting it for service tomorrow because it doesn’t know if it’ll have enough money in the future.”

MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo claims that ridership on the Red, Green and Orange Lines is only seeing one quarter of the foot traffic seen before the coronavirus pandemic. Also, Blue Line ridership is less than one third what it used to be. And bus ridership is currently at about 40% that of pre-COVID levels.

In an email to WCVB, Pesaturo said:

“Through thoughtful service planning and proper management of the federal COVID relief assistance, the MBTA can keep itself on a sustainable path for the next two to three fiscal years. The MBTA will continue to carefully track ridership levels throughout the system, and if there is a need to restore service in certain areas, the T will have the ability to do that.”

More Transportation News

Real Estate

Competition Announced to Make Triple Deckers More Energy Efficient

In the face of a potential global crisis, technology competitions are all the rage. Elon Musk’s recent call for carbon sequestration tech proposals is just one example. 

Now, a competition run by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and funded by the Barr Foundation is being wrapped up here in Massachusetts. The idea of the contest was to spur innovative ideas to make the state’s approximately 1,700 triple-decker apartment buildings more energy efficient. 

A report by Energy News describes the iconic building: 

The multifamily houses known as triple-deckers, or sometimes “three-deckers,” have attracted attention as part of Massachusetts’ attempts to slash emissions from building sources, which are responsible for about 27% of the state’s greenhouse gases. Constructed in the late 1800s and into the 1930s, triple-deckers were designed to provide rental housing to the waves of immigrants coming into the region. Each building had three roughly identical units — one per floor — as well as a flat roof and windows on all four sides. Most also include porches or balconies on each level...

Now a classic building type in eastern Massachusetts, triple-deckers were considered a triumph of their time, packing many residents into a relatively small space, while still giving them plenty of airflow, sunlight, and privacy… Today, some 17,000 remain, though many still sport drafty windows, oil-burning heating systems, and little or no insulation.

The triple decker upgrade contest is the first phase of a multiyear effort. Planned for later this year, the next phase includes funding for demonstration projects using the concepts generated by the design competition, and the third phase would provide incentives for widespread retrofits.

The winners will receive $25,000. A people’s choice awardee and runners-up will get $15,000 each. The contest received 14 entries. 

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Cannabis

Boston-based startup Zip Run is on track to become the first adult-use marijuana delivery service in Massachusetts.

According to a report by THC Net, the company, founded in 2020, “is taking a multi-pronged approach to cannabis delivery that it believes will also enable others to cash in on the so-called ‘green rush.’”

Zip Run will initially focus on delivering cannabis from its Dorchester warehouse to customers in the Greater Boston and Western Massachusetts areas. In order to operate, the company must acquire both Marijuana Courier and Marijuana Delivery Operator licenses. These licenses are exclusively available to social equity applicants for a minimum of three years. The warehouse won’t be licensed and operational until this summer.

In a conversation with THCnet, co-founder and CEO Gabriel said Zip Run is planning to license its e-commerce platform to other social-equity-qualified cannabis entrepreneurs across the country.

Vieira says:

“Our bread and butter will be the delivery operations here in Massachusetts. But I feel like if we didn’t use our tech for the greater good, and license it out to other social equity members, we would essentially be giving up on them… Other tech platforms within the cannabis industry feel more like a directory, and I wanted to change that. We're taking a more consumer-friendly approach. We allow customers to shop by moods and give users that don’t have much experience in cannabis the ability to understand the value and the meaning of what cannabis can bring… If we market ourselves the right way, get ourselves in with the right crowd, and build a strong presence in Massachusetts, that will propel us to the next level and allow us to secure partnerships in other states.”

In order to help launch the business, Viera and partners raised $365,000 from friends and family, and are currently seeking licenses in Boston.

More Cannabis News

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Fighting On

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We have two thrilling bouts on the fight card this week — voting rights and carbon taxes  — both highly partisan topics. Democrats want to extend mail-in voting. Republicans, not so much. Democrats love the idea of carbon taxes (except maybe for POTUS). And most Republicans could do without them. 

However, both parties are in agreement on the need to address one small problem facing 13,000 small businesses that have received pandemic relief grants — actually, it’s a $175 million problem. More on that below.

In other exciting news, five Massachusetts communities are among Expertise.com’s list of the top ten safest communities in the U.S. And the legal cannabis industry continues to eat into black-market marijuana sales and bring MJ states badly needed tax revenues.  

And, as usual, we have a plethora of curated news links related to politics, business, energy, transportation, and real estate. There’s something here for everyone. 

Let us begin.

Politics

Mass. GOP Puts Brakes on Voting Bill

Republican lawmakers are on a tare to roll back voting rights. Considering the Republican party has lost the popular vote for seven out of the past eight presidential elections, who can blame them for pushing back at initiatives that make it easier for folks to vote?

Case in point: Vote-by-mail provisions originally put into place to slow the spread of Covid-19 are slated to expire at the end of March. Democrats would like to extend the measure through June 30. House Democrats had the bill in the fast lane when they were pulled over by four Republicans — Sen. Ryan Fattman and Reps. Marc Lombardo, Shawn Dooley, and Nicholas Boldyga — who charged that the extension of voting-by-mail needs to slow down a bit.

In a letter to House Speaker Ronald Mariano, the four GOP Senators requested that the body hear testimony from the public and receive data from officials such as the secretary of state before rushing to conclusions. Senate Ways and Means Chairman Michael Rodrigues agreed to give until Monday morning before the gavel to hear testimony

Fattman had this to say about the maneuver:

“Our concern was that it seemed to be moving a little bit quickly without really knowing what we were trying to achieve. I think most people say, OK, if a municipality needs to move their election because they’re concerned, we respect that. But there’s a lot of towns that I represent, and many across the commonwealth, that are fearful that they may have to pay for a lot of this.”

Then, brilliantly, Rodrigues raised the stakes. He implied that Dems want to make the measures permanent with this comment:

“[Sen. Fattman] raises some good points about long-term considerations on whether or not we should make these election vote-by-mail or early voting opportunities available long-term, post-pandemic. And we will have full, open debate and discussion on those issues.”

Then the Republican Party tried to reposition the affront by framing the move as “standing up for the voters.“  The statement called House Minority Leader Brad Jones, a co-sponsor of the bill, “complicit with House Democrats in the scheme to shield the proposal from the public.”

By the time you read this, there will almost certainly be more news on the issue. 

Here’s the report from MassLive.com.

More Politics

Business

Small Businesses May Be On the Hook For $175 Million Tax Bill

Another $39.7 million in COVID relief grants has been doled to 1,026 Mass. businesses. The much-welcomed allowances are coming out of a $668 million business relief fund set up in December, plus a $50.8 million fund announced in October. This brings the grand total so far after nine months to over $602 million awarded to 13,346 businesses.

The grants are being handed out by Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation (MGCC). This is the ninth round of COVID relief grants offered by MGCC.

  • Grants went to 280 restaurants, bars, caterers, or food trucks.

  • 207 personal services businesses received funds.

  • 153 independent retailers benefited.

  • 295 minority-owned businesses got grants.

  • 406 women-owned businesses did as well.

  • 295 recipients are located in Gateway Cities.

  • 329 businesses had not received any prior aid. 

Ironically, unless something is done to change it, tens of thousands of struggling Massachusetts small businesses will be on the hook for millions in taxes on various state and federal grants. In total, Mass. small businesses received  $14 billion in federal Paycheck Protection Program loans in 2020 putting the potential tax bill at about $175 million.

Fortunately, however, there is hope as these revenues were not included in Gov. Baker’s 2021 budget. And according to Administration and Finance Secretary Michael Heffernan, the Baker administration hopes to waive taxes on all state and certain federal relief grants.

Some states have already waived taxes on relief monies. 

MassLive.com has more on this story. 

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Energy

Lawmakers Propose Carbon Tax On Transportation and Heating Fuels

A proposal to charge a carbon tax on transportation and heating fuel is in the House. Revenues resulting from the Green Future Act (HD 1972) would help fund local climate projects as well help the state achieve its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. 

Advocates of the plan say would bring in more than half a billion dollars in annual revenue to be split between lower-income households, displaced fossil fuel workers, and cities and towns for projects that would reduce carbon emissions.

Carbon taxes are not a new idea in Mass. The state already participates in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which requires power plants to pay for the carbon they produce. And proposals for carbon taxes on fuels have been tabled in the past — although they’ve been short on details. 

However, the new proposal goes into greater detail on how the program would be administered.

The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. William Driscoll Jr. explains that “[The bill is] pretty comprehensive in terms of not only trying to drive the policy change but also putting a revenue source behind it. It helps to lay out the path forward to how we’re going to decarbonize.”

Energy News has a comprehensive report on this story.

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Transportation

MassDOT has awarded more than $2.8 million in grants under the Shared Winter Streets and Spaces program which provides technical and funding assistance to help Massachusetts cities and towns “conceive, design and implement tactical changes to curbs, streets and parking areas in support of public health, safe mobility and renewed commerce, with a special focus on the challenges of winter,” writes Mass Transit Mag. 

The report continues:

“The Shared Winter Streets and Spaces program provides grants as small as $5,000 and as large as $500,000 for municipalities to quickly launch changes for safer walking, biking, public transit, recreation, commerce and civic activities. These improvements can be intentionally temporary or can be pilots of potentially permanent changes. MassDOT says it is particularly focused on projects that respond to the current public health crisis and provide safe mobility for children, for elders, to public transportation and to open space and parks...

A total of 17 municipalities and two public transit authorities have received funding for 19 projects. The article in Mass Transit spells out exactly how each of the municipalities plans to use the funds. 

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Real Estate

Commonwealth Boasts 5 of Top 10 Safest Communities Nationwide

Expertise.com has listed five Mass. communities in its list of the Top 10 safest cities and towns in America. According to Boston Real Estate Times, each city was evaluated based on the number of violent crimes, other crimes to persons, and other crimes to property per 1,000 residents. 

Top 10 Safest Cities and Towns in America

  1. Wayland, MA

  2. Frederick, CO

  3. Weston, CT

  4. Clinton, MA

  5. Sagamore Hills, OH

  6. Newtown, CT

  7. Madison, CT

  8. Franklin, MA

  9. Medway, MA

  10. Hopkinton, MA

Researchers at Expertise.com used data from the FBI’s 2019 National Incident-Based Reporting System to come up with the ranking. 

Read all about it.

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Cannabis

The Cannabiz Is Booming

Some of the fastest-growing industries of modern times — desktop computers, the internet, cell phones, etc. — all had to start from zero customers and weave their way into society. Today, of course, those industries are ubiquitous and have seen phenomenal growth. But it took decades. 

Cannabis presents a totally different situation. Both the supply and demand were there before marijuana was legalized in 36 states in the form of a massive illicit market. Now, just a few years into the Green Rush, a good chunk of that revenue stream is being rerouted through the U.S. economy. And according to industry market analysts BDSA, U.S. cannabis markets are booming. 

Here are some facts and figures to back that up:

  • Nationwide, marijuana sales passed the $17.5 billion mark, a 46% increase from 2019.

  • Before 2020 was over we had 14 adult-use states and 36 offering medical marijuana. Massachusetts, of course, offers both.

  • California’s cannabis market grew 28.6% from a year ago.

  • Colorado grew 35.5%.

  • Oregon grew 48.2%, respectively.

  • Florida has surpassed 500K MMJ patients up 55% from a year ago and saw a $473 million increase

  • Illinois rose by $784 million to cross the $1 billion marker.

  • About 30% of consumers said they shop for cannabis products more often.

  • 25% say their cannabis usage has increased since before the pandemic.

  • Cannabis deliveries increased 25%.

“We think one of the biggest drivers of legal cannabis market growth is the shift from the illicit market,” writes New Cannabis Ventures publisher Alan Brochstein: 

“The pandemic proved to be very helpful on this front, as states which had previously not permitted delivery or curbside pickup did so, and this changed the market in a big way. Consumers can now order cannabis online the same way they order other goods, something the illicit market can’t match. The very solid growth in mature Western states, especially for flower, is a sign that the legal market is continuing to convert illicit market consumers.”

There’s still room to grow. Illicit cannabis sales are still estimated to be over $100 billion. By 2026, the U.S. legal cannabis market is expected to reach $41 billion, or about the same size as the craft beer industry.

There are three reasons this is exciting news. For one, as we mentioned, all that money that was going to criminals is now flowing through the U.S. economy. For another, U.S. MJ states are raking in badly needed tax revenue. And finally, states that have legalized and decriminalized marijuana are saving vast sums of money and human resources on law enforcement — resources that can now be redirected into more pressing matters. 

Forbes has more on BDSA’s report and the growth of the U.S. cannabis industry. 

More Cannabis 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. 

More Politics

Business

Black and Latino Business Left Behind

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

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

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

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

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

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

More Business

Energy

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

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

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

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

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

Learn more at MORev.org.

More Energy News

Transportation

Gov Baker Signs $16 billion Transportation Bond Bill…Again

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

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

Here’s what Baker had to say:

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

Here are some of the main bullets in the package:

  • $5.1 billion to continue modernizing the MBTA

  • $100 million to improve the pavement condition on state-numbered municipal roads 

  • $50 million to help municipalities encourage the public to travel more on foot and by bicycle via the Complete Streets program

  • $70 million for the Municipal Small Bridge Program

  • $4.4 billion for use as funding for Highway federal aid projects

  • $1.25 billion in Non-Federal Aid for use as funding in Highways projects that are not eligible for federal funding

  • $1.25 billion for the new Next Generation Bridge program

  • $50 million for the popular 

  • $20 million for ‘public realm’ COVID-related Shared Streets and Spaces program

  • $100 million in four new programs to provide financial assistance for municipalities seeking to improve infrastructure

  • $350 million for the Cape Cod Bridges approaches project

  • $825 million for South Coast Rail

  • $595 million for Green Line Extension

  • $89 million for Aeronautics Division

  • $760 million to support the Regional Transit Authorities and Rail & Transit’s Mobility Assistance Program and Rail improvements

MassTransitMag.com has more on this story. 

More Transportation News

Real Estate

Workers May Work from Home but Still Move Out of State

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

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

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

Among the report's other findings:

  • The percentage of companies with 40 percent of their workforce working remotely has grown to 34% from just a few percent prior to the pandemic.

  • 74 percent plan to move at least five percent of their workforce to full-time remote work. And nearly a quarter say at least 20 percent of their workforce will be remote.

Read the full Pioneer Institute report.

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Cannabis

William “Beau” Wrigley Jr. Taking Cannabis Company Public

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

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

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

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

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

The deal is expected to close this summer.

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

More Cannabis News

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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.

More Politics

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.

More Business

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.

More Energy News

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.

More Transportation News

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.

More Real Estate

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.

More Cannabis News

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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.

More Business

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. 

More Energy News

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.

More Transportation News

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.

More Real Estate

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.

More Cannabis News

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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%).

More Politics

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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More of the Latest Massachusetts News

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Democracy Threatened and Restored Again

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Of course, the big news — historic news — this week is the ransacking of the Nation’s Capital by an angry mob of Trump followers. Prior to the incident, the malignant mass of protesters-turned-rioters was assured by Trump that the 2020 election was a sham and the win was stolen. They were then encouraged to march to the Capitol Building where the electoral college votes were being counted and told essentially to demand justice. 

This is all despite the fact that there’s zero evidence that the election was stolen and dozens of losses in state and federal court cases attempting to overturn results in swing states. 

It’s not at all clear what the congregation expected to accomplish. Ironically, their actions could very likely get their beloved leader impeached and removed from office, and possibly even blocked from running for any federal office in the future. Having floated the idea of running again in 2024, it now seems highly improbably that Trump will ever see a second term. In fact, he might not even make it to the end of this first term as the bipartisan call for his removal from office grows in volume. 

In addition to doing Trump no favors, many of those involved in the kerfuffle have potentially earned themselves some pretty stiff prison sentences. (For example, the man in the iconic photo sitting at Nancy Pelosi’s ransacked office with his feet up on her desk has been apprehended by the FBI.) Why these thugs weren’t rounded up and arrested on the spot by Capital Police is still a mystery. Now it’s up to the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to hunt them all down and hold them accountable. 

All the hubbub, however, overshadowed a pivotal moment in Massachusetts politics as POTUS-elect Joe Biden announced that Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is his pick for U.S. Labor Secretary. The announcement opens up an exciting race for Mayor in 2021. 

Let’s look into this and other Massachusetts political news stories for this first week of 2021. 

Politics

Biden Names Boston Mayor Walsh U.S. Labor Secretary

In what will amount to a seismic shift in Boston politics POTUS-elect Joe Biden has named Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as his pick for labor secretary. Walsh’s departure leaves City Councilors Michelle Wu and Andrea Campbell in the race for Mayor. If either Campbell or Wu is elected, they will be the first female mayor of Boston.

However, there is still plenty of time for more challengers to enter the ring. Among those rumored to be eyeing the Mayor’s seat is City Council President Kim Janey, who will be sworn in as mayor if Walsh goes to Washington at which point she will be Boston’s first Black Mayor.

Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo will also presumably be heading to Washington as Biden’s commerce secretary. 

New 2021-2022 Legislative Session Underway

Meanwhile, a new legislative session is underway in Massachusetts. In one of their first official acts of the new session, House members elected Democratic Rep. Ron Mariano as the new House speaker. Mariano replaces former Democratic Speaker Robert DeLeo who resigned last month. Democratic Sen. Karen Spilka was reelected Senate president.

Priorities for the new session listed by Mariano include monitoring vaccine distribution, supporting small businesses, bolstering remote learning, and addressing housing troubles brought on by emergency measures.

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Business

Statewide Restrictions Extended, Relief Increased for Small Businesses

Statewide restrictions have been extended by Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker until at least January 24 as Mass. hit a record-high for single-day Covid-19 cases last Thursday. The capacity limit for outdoor gatherings remains at 25 people, 

“Cases are growing, and hospitalizations continue to climb,” said Baker. “We know that extending those restrictions for any businesses, especially small businesses, is a lot to ask, but we need to stay in this game a little longer.”

While most small businesses in Mass. are suffering as a result of emergency restrictions, restaurant owners are finding it particularly challenging to accommodate comfortable outdoor dining in the face of freezing winter temperatures. 

However, as we mentioned last week, businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic might breathe a small sigh of relief in light of Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker’s $668 million financial assistance program. The new program offers grants up to $75,000 to be used for employee wages and benefits, operational costs, and debt payments.

The online application portal for the new program will close on Friday, Jan. 15 and the state could start releasing millions in new funding to restaurants and other small businesses in the state as soon as next week.

Details on the program including how to apply are available at www.empoweringsmallbusiness.org.

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Energy

Mass. Lawmakers Sign Sweeping Climate Bill

After months of negotiations, Massachusetts lawmakers have signed off on “An Act Creating a Next-generation Roadmap For Massachusetts Climate Policy.” The sweeping legislation is intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, create renewable energy jobs, and protect poorer communities that can be at higher risk from pollution. Passage of the bill was near-unanimous in both the House and Senate. 

The centerpiece of the legislation is the state’s goal of hitting net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The measure also increases requirements for offshore wind energy, improves gas pipeline safety, and increase support for renewable energy workforce development programs.

The law stipulates: that the state must reduce emissions by 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and by 75 percent below 1990 levels by 2040. The legislation also ups the state’s renewable portfolio standard to 40 percent by 2030 and increases its offshore wind targets from 3.2 gigawatts to 5.6 gigawatts.

Last week by Gov. Charlie Baker pushed the Massachusetts 2050 Decarbonization Roadmap Report and an interim 2030 Clean Energy and Climate Plan. The proposal would require all new cars sold in the state to be electric by 2035 and also calls for converting 1 million homes from fossil fuel to electric heating.

The climate bill approved by lawmakers on Monday prioritizes access to the state’s solar programs by low-income communities and creates a pathway into the clean energy industry for minority-owned and women-owned businesses.

In addition to the above points, Bill, S. 2995 also calls for:

  • Setting new energy efficiency standards for 17 common appliances

  • Adopting measures to improve gas pipeline safety, including increased fines for safety violations;

  • Increasing the state's RPS by 3% annually from 2025 to 2029

  • Establishing $12 million in annual funding for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, earmarked for assisting minority-owned and women-owned businesses in the clean energy industry

  • Setting benchmarks for the adoption of electric vehicles, charging stations, solar technology, energy storage, and heat pumps

  • Providing solar incentives for businesses by exempting them from the state's net metering cap.

The bill now awaits the governor’s signature which is all but guaranteed. 

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Transportation

Massachusetts May Require All New Cars To Be Electric by 2035

In support of the net-zero carbon footprint goals outlined in the new climate legislation mentioned above, a new proposal calls for the sale of gas-powered vehicles in the state to end by 2035. It also seeks to have 30 percent of all trucks and busses purchased in the Bay State to be electric by 2030 and 50 percent by 2050. 

Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Kathleen Theoharides released the plan last week. The report reads in part:

"For the Commonwealth to achieve Net Zero, fossil fuel use must be all but completely eliminated in on-road vehicles by 2050. Given the cost and scarcity of low- or zero-carbon drop-in replacement fuels and the current market and growing availability of high-efficiency battery-electric and other zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) alternatives, this likely means reaching near complete electrification of the light-duty fleet."

The move follows California’s lead as Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed an executive order outlining very similar goals. 

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Real Estate

Massachusetts Makes Top 10 List of Out-of-State Moves

Moving enterprise United Van Lines says Massachusetts is one of the top 10 states in the country losing residents since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mass. ranked 8th with New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Connecticut, and California at the top of the list. 

United tracked 3,355 moves in and out of Massachusetts in 2020. According to the company’s report, 56.6 percent of those moves were customers leaving the state. Of those, a little over one-third said it was because of work. About one-quarter said they were leaving to retire or for family. And about one-fifth said they left for a change in lifestyle. 

In a statement released by the company, Michael Stoll, an economist and University of California, Los Angeles professor had this to say:

“United Van Lines’ data makes it clear that migration to western and southern states, a prevalent pattern for the past several years, persisted in 2020. However, we’re seeing that the COVID-19 pandemic has without a doubt accelerated broader moving trends, including retirement driving top inbound regions as the Baby Boomer generation continues to reach that next phase of life.” 

Elsewhere in New England, Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire all saw more people moving into the state than out. Topping the survey for inbound moves was Idaho, followed by South Carolina, Oregon, South Dakota, and Arizona. However, the survey only represents United’s clientele and doesn’t necessarily reflect overall trends.

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Cannabis

Curaleaf Announces $216 Million Stock Offering

In a bid to raise more than $216 million dollars, Multistate cannabis operator Curaleaf Holdings announced a new stock offering after the closing of markets on Wednesday. The company is offering 16.5 million subordinate voting shares priced at CA$16.70 per share. Curaleaf management says the funds will be used “for working capital and general corporate purposes.”

In a news release, Curaleaf Executive Chair Boris Jordan said the company anticipates “the acceleration of legalization at the federal level.” Jordan is referring to the U.S. Senate runoff elections in Georgia in which Democrats won control of the Senate.

Jordan goes on to say:

“With the recent adult-use cannabis deregulation initiatives in New Jersey and Arizona, and New York announcing its proposal to legalize and create a comprehensive system to oversee and regulate cannabis as part of the 2021 State of the State, now is a pivotal time to raise additional capital to support our growth initiatives as we continue to build out our capabilities in these new markets.” 

Curaleaf trades on the Canadian stock exchange under the ticker symbol CURA and on the U.S. over-the-counter markets as CURLF. The company reported record revenues of $182.4 million for its quarter ended September 30., with a net loss of $9.3 million.

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