Gov. Maura Healey has pledged loyalty to President Joe Biden’s re-election marketing campaign as a surrogate working to persuade voters that the 81-year-old is the fitting individual for an additional time period within the White Home.
Has the transfer paid off for residents in Massachusetts?
From internet hosting a fundraiser within the glimmering Seaport final month to backing Biden’s government motion on the nation’s southern border and selling the administration’s workforce agenda earlier this yr to formally serving as a “super-surrogate,” Healey has ingrained herself in Biden’s bid to carry onto the presidency.
On the similar time, cash for the rundown Cape Cod bridges has began to circulation, Massachusetts scored one of many coveted ARPA-H hubs, secured tens of millions to arrange the Northeast Microelectronics hub, and pulled in $67 million from federal regulators to enhance accessibility on the Inexperienced Line. The record goes on.
If it had been marketing campaign season for Healey’s personal re-election, she’d have fairly just a few issues to tout. However contemplate how massive of a task, if any, the governor’s relationship with the president performed into all of these awards.
In an interview with the Herald, Healey mentioned “relationships matter,” together with those state officers in her administration have constructed with their counterparts in Washington working for Biden.
Additionally it is the explanation, Healey mentioned, why she and her crew have hung out in D.C. pitching the feds on native local weather, infrastructure, transportation, and financial growth targets.
“It’s important that we be there explaining that to administration officials as they’re making these awards of dollars. I have an office in D.C. that is there to help facilitate that. I’ve certainly spent time in D.C. myself making the case for Massachusetts and explaining how we’re positioned to really quickly deploy federal funding for the good of our residents and the state,” Healey mentioned.
Healey’s lobbying of the president has gone past cash.
There was a profitable enchantment to Biden to obtain a catastrophe declaration for Bristol and Worcester counties after devastating storms and convincing Homeland Safety officers to journey to the Boston space to host a piece allow workshop for arriving migrants.
Each points noticed vital advocacy from Healey and members of the state’s federal delegation, who argued and pleaded with the administration to help Massachusetts in its time of want.
Healey mentioned it was “critically important” that point was made for her to talk on to Biden and Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about immigration points within the Bay State.
“Same on the disaster relief,” she mentioned. “It’s important that I be able to talk directly to the president, which I did, and also directly to the FEMA administrator, which I did, to make the case for Massachusetts. So that’s just to me, that’s part of my responsibility as governor.”
Not everyone seems to be impressed with what has come by throughout Healey’s tenure.
MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale mentioned lots of the grants that landed this previous yr “certainly involved significant effort by the Baker-Polito administration during their tenure.”
“I’m certain the Healey-Driscoll administration would like to take credit score for all of those federal grants. Nevertheless, the funding processes don’t occur in a single day,” Carnevale mentioned in a press release to the Herald. “The groundwork was done by Baker-Polito, and the funding is a testament to the excellence of the business and non-profit sectors in our region.”
There may be little doubt Biden will carry out effectively in Massachusetts through the common election this fall.
The president’s probabilities throughout the remainder of the nation to win one other time period, nonetheless, are up within the air and if former President Donald Trump takes workplace, Massachusetts is certain to lose the direct line to the White Home that it has been cultivated beneath Biden.
“This is why people need to understand what’s at stake in this election,” Healey mentioned.
As loss of life bells begin ringing for a neighborhood possibility switch payment, supporters nonetheless have hope
After a prime Senate funds author this previous week expressed “concerns” with a payment on high-value property gross sales, advocates of the measure had been possible shaking their heads as the trail to passing the measure on Beacon Hill turned extra sophisticated.
However not less than one vocal supporter of the coverage shouldn’t be giving up hope that it might find yourself within the Senate’s model of a multi-billion borrowing invoice centered on housing manufacturing and spurring extra reasonably priced items.
Sen. Julian Cyr, a Truro Democrat who has lengthy advocated for a neighborhood possibility switch tax, mentioned he was “not disappointed” when he heard that Senate funds author Michael Rodrigues was cool to the thought.
“Whether it gets done in this vehicle or in a subsequent vehicle, I’m convinced that when my colleagues truly look deeply at the housing challenges we face on the Cape and the Islands, they too will come to support a transfer fee for us,” Cyr advised the Herald whereas standing outdoors the Senate Chamber.
Cyr has felt the strain from his district to persuade his Beacon Hill colleagues to again a neighborhood possibility switch payment. The vast majority of cities and cities in his Cape Cod Senate District have both endorsed house rule petitions on the topic or taken motion at city conferences in help of the coverage, he mentioned.
There are different allies of the payment on the State Home, together with Gov. Maura Healey, who included it in her model of the housing bond invoice. That language was later carved out by Home Speaker Ron Mariano, who argued it was a “patchwork” strategy to funding reasonably priced housing.
Within the face of opposition, Cyr mentioned there’s a “real active conversation in the Senate around what tools do we deploy to solve the housing crisis.”
“If you look at what’s been happening with home prices and housing costs across Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket, it is deeply alarming. We are facing the very real prospect of needing to subsidize housing, not just for those who make below area median income, but for most all working, year-round Cape Coders and Islanders,” he mentioned.
