Beacon Hill News

Vargas Lauds House Support of Supplemental Budget Covering Fed Cuts to Health Insurance, More

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State Rep. Andy Vargas is touting the House’s passage last week of a $2.25 billion supplemental budget to fill health care coverage and other gaps and caused by federal cuts earlier this year. Legislation includes $10 million for Health Care for All to conduct health coverage enrollment assistance for those at risk of losing health insurance due to the fed’s new Medicaid reporting requirements. It also includes a public outreach campaign to help communities understand these new requirements to limit eligible residents from being removed from insurance rolls. The supplemental budget also invests $5 million in grants to reproductive health care providers. “This supplemental budget comes at a critical moment for Massachusetts.

Beacon Hill News

Finegold Calls for Policies to Put Cryptocurrency to Use with Added Fraud Protections

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The Massachusetts Senate Joint Committee on Financial Services and Joint Committee on Revenue recently considered legislation filed by Sen. Barry R. Finegold to address rapidly developing cryptocurrency policy. “Cryptocurrency is here. We can and should make wise and careful use of this new financial tool,” said Finegold, who serves as Senate Economic Development chairman. “We have an obligation to protect the wallets of our residents and to responsibly manage our finances as a Commonwealth. These bills can help us make progress on both fronts.”

This month, two joint committees heard Finegold’s proposed cryptocurrency legislation.

Beacon Hill News

Why The Democratic Supermajority on Beacon Hill Won’t Pass Democratic Bills

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by Aaron Singer, CommonWealth Beacon
October 11, 2025
FIVE AND A HALF hours into a tedious rules debate at the Massachusetts State House in January 2019, acting Speaker Tom Petrolati ordered a roll call vote on a noncontroversial amendment, and voted no. Within seconds, red lights, representing “no” votes, lit up the electronic vote-tally board in the House chamber as dozens of rank-and-file members followed his lead. Then, realizing he had made a mistake (but not realizing his mic was still on), Petrolati stammered: “It’s a yes?… Switch ’em. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Beacon Hill News

O’Brien Flags Concerns Over Cannabis Control Votes Taken in Her Absence

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By Colin A. Young

The state Cannabis Control Commission is waiting for word from the attorney general’s office on whether commission votes taken during the two years that Chairwoman Shannon O’Brien was ousted are valid, including the approvals of licenses and two rounds of regulation refinement. The request for legal clarity stems from concerns O’Brien raised about the process by which other commissioners were named acting chair of the CCC after she was, as a judge ruled, unlawfully suspended and then fired by Treasurer Deborah Goldberg in September 2023. When O’Brien was first removed from the CCC, Commissioner Kimberly Roy chaired the next meeting and said she had been “designated as chair.” At subsequent meetings, commissioners voted to make others the acting chair. O’Brien contended that only the chair can designate an acting chair. “My concern is that because we have not, for two years, had an appropriately delegated acting chair, some of the votes that took place may not be valid,” she said.

Beacon Hill News

Haverhill, West Newbury and Lawrence Receive State Help for Weather Preparedness

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Haverhill, West Newbury and Lawrence are sharing in nearly $30 million in state grants designed to help communities prepare for flooding, heat waves and wildfires. Haverhill joins Lynn and Holyoke to use $150,000 for the Building on HEAL program. It supplements a two-year U.S. Environmental Protection Agency effort, Healthy Environments Advance Learning, that ended last year. Led by Massachusetts Asthma Action Partnership, it targeted areas impacted by asthma, extreme heat and COVID-19. The state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs said, however, it made an effort to recruit rural and small towns into the Massachusetts Vulnerability Preparedness Action Grant program, with $11.1 million going specifically to those areas.

Beacon Hill News

Insurance Rebates Coming Soon For 350,000 People in Massachusetts

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By Michael P. Norton

More than 350,000 people in Massachusetts will begin receiving health insurance rebates in September. State insurance regulators said Tuesday the rebates total $75.6 million and benefit people covered by individual or small employer plans issued by five insurance carriers. In 2024, a similar round of rebates totaled $51.6 million. Rebates are required when an insurance carrier’s average medical loss ratio over a three-year period falls below the state threshold that requires insurers to spend at least 88% of premiums on health care services for individuals and small group policyholders. “These rebates are more than just numbers—they’re dollars back in the pockets of families and small business owners across the Commonwealth,” Insurance Commissioner Michael Caljouw said in a statement.

Beacon Hill News

House Advances Haverhill Home Rule Petition to Expand Health Board to Five Members

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The Haverhill Board of Health is a step closer to expanding from three to five members. The state House of Representatives approved sending the city’s home rule petition to enlarge the committee to a required third reading. The city’s petition has been making its way through the legislature since April when it was referred to the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government. As WHAV reported first last October, Mayor Melinda E. Barrett asked city councilors to approve sending the request to the State House after she pointed out a growing problem. “It kind of showed itself, a three-person board is a little tricky if people are out sick or the doctor that is on the panel was working and away.

Beacon Hill News

House Ways and Means Chair Tells Local Biz State is in Good Stead Even as Fed Cuts

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Massachusetts is not backing down on supporting its core values and is prepared to step in if and when the federal government cancels health care and other safety net programs.

That was the message state Rep. Aaron Michlewitz, chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, brought to the Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce Tuesday. He gave the keynote speech at the Chamber’s annual State Representatives Luncheon at the Lawrence campus of Northern Essex Community College. Michlewitz said he is proud the state Legislature was able to pass a $61 billion budget for the next year without needing to raise taxes. He said that while the budget contained some belt tightening measures, it pays for important transportation, housing and educational initiatives including free community college tuition and free lunches at public schools. He also noted the state is an enviable position because it has some surplus money in savings and a positive bond rating.