Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
Gov. Maura Healey (center) gives her inaugural address on Jan. 5.
Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll were sworn into office today before a joint session of the House and Senate in Boston. In her inaugural address, the new governor set an optimistic tone for tackling the many challenges facing the Commonwealth.
She made several policy pledges expected to be part of the administration’s work in its first several months, as well as what may appear in her fiscal 2024 state budget recommendation, which is due by March 1. Her identified priorities include housing, tax reform, child care, workforce development, education, transportation, equity, and climate change.
She said her early work will include:
• Creating a secretary of housing, to support cities and towns with tools to address housing needs
• Identifying unused state-owned land that could be used for building housing units within one year
• Expanding the child tax credit for every child and family
• Developing a program to make community college free for adults 25 and older
• Forming an interagency task force to improve the Commonwealth’s competitive position for billions in federal infrastructure funding, and providing necessary support for the state’s roads and bridges
• Providing funding to hire 1,000 additional employees at the MBTA
• Performing an equity audit across all state agencies
• Doubling the state’s offshore wind and solar targets
• Electrifying the state’s vehicle fleet by 2030
• Allocating at least 1% of the entire state budget to environmental agencies, including a tripling of funding for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center
She said her first executive order, coming tomorrow, will create the state’s first cabinet-level climate chief, reporting directly to her to help the state and cities and towns meet climate goals.
Speaking moments before Gov. Healey, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, a longtime mayor of Salem, underscored the new administration’s commitment to working in close partnership with cities and towns.
“Local officials are on the front lines doing some of the most important work residents rely on, educating our kids, keeping our neighborhoods safe, investing in the places where we make memories, and supporting healthy and vibrant communities, good cities and towns,” she said. “They don’t just happen by accident. It takes intentional and thoughtful leadership, and a whole lot of work and collaboration among state and federal governments, private and public sector partners, and institutions of all sizes and magnitude.”
Over the past several weeks, the governor has appointed a number of top-level staff, bringing in veterans of state government and her former Office of the Attorney General, all of whom will be pivotal in advancing the administration’s agenda in the months ahead.