By Bob Katzen

“We set high goals for our first year in office. I stood here a year ago and made promises. And because we came together, and we acted with urgency, we delivered results. We met every one of our goals. Today, Massachusetts is more affordable, more competitive and more equitable than it was a year ago. And the state of our commonwealth, like the spirit of our people, is stronger than ever.”

—Gov. Maura Healey from her State of the State” address last week.

“Gov. Healey also needs to address the elephant in the room, which is the immigration crisis precipitated by our open southern border, as well as the budget and housing crises that have accompanied it. Massachusetts desperately needs our governor to confront the Biden-Harris administration for failing to secure our southern border.”
–Paul Craney, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.

“No we’re not going to raise taxes, we just lowered taxes. We’re not schizophrenic. We’ve chosen the course of action and we think the competitiveness that the tax cut gets us is an important fact.”
—House Speaker Ron Mariano when asked if he would consider tax hikes to pay for some of the proposals in Gov. Healy’s “State of the State” address.

“It’s in the bag. Plastic bag bans work to reduce waste and pollution.”
—Janet Domenitz of MASSPIRG on its new report, which estimates that, on average, plastic bag bans similar to those studied can eliminate almost 300 single-use plastic bags per person, per year.