Massachusetts
Here's Who Pays for Massachusetts Governor Healey's Trip to Italy
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey seems to be among the most-traveled chief executives in recent memory, given the number of trips she has taken in the short time she has been in office.
When you think she is home to stay for a while, she is off again on another adventure. Some of it is even business-related.
Since assuming office on January 5, 2023, Healey has racked up the frequent flier miles.
In March 2024, Healey’s handlers and some in the press had a dust-up over whether the governor should have to announce when she is leaving town and where she goes. The administration blinked.
In the first 16 months of her administration, Healey traveled to Florida, Washington, North Carolina, Ireland, Puerto Rico and New Hampshire, that I can recall. She has been to DC at least a couple of times.
A March 19, 2024 report by Politico said up to that point, “Healey has spent at least 47 nights and 65 days out of state since taking office, according to a Playbook analysis of her calendars, news reports, and information from the governor’s office.”
Here’s Who Pays For Massachusetts Governor Healey’s Trip To Italy
Upon completing a trade mission to Ireland last year, Healey bypassed Massachusetts on the return trip and spent the following week vacationing in Rhode Island.
Healey’s Irish sojourn cost an estimated $83,000, paid for with state funds and some private dollars.
Maura’s next big adventure is on you.
From May 14-17, 2024, Governor Healey, her climate chief Melissa Hoffer and three aides will visit Rome. The trip is paid for with taxpayer money from the Massachusetts Tourism Trust Fund, the intent of which is to “promote tourism in the state and help regional tourism councils.”
The trip includes a private meeting with Pope Francis.
State House News Service reported Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu will “provide a keynote address at the opening session of a climate-focused conference hosted by the Vatican.” Boston taxpayers will foot the bill for Wu’s expenses.
The governor’s office won’t know how much you and I are on the hook for until the trip ends.
The Best Reviews From People Who Had The Worst Time Visiting The White House
Gallery Credit: Rob Carroll
LET’S GO: The most popular historic sites in America
RANDOLPH, Mass. (WWLP) – A Randolph resident has won a $1 million prize through the final drawing of the Massachusetts State Lottery “$4,000,000 Monopoly Doubler” instant ticket game.
Brenda Mellor of Randolph claimed the game’s tenth and final $1 million prize.
She selected the cash option and received a one-time payment of $650,000 before taxes. Mellor said she plans to use the winnings to pay for home improvements, including renovations to her roof and pool.
The winning ticket was purchased at The Variety Store at 2 Mazzeo Drive in Randolph. The retailer will receive a $10,000 bonus for selling the ticket.
Local News Headlines
WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Download the 22News Plus app on your TV to watch live-streaming newscasts and video on demand.
Massachusetts
Mass. is getting more granny flats. But it’s still hard to build them. – The Boston Globe
Massachusetts took a big step in 2024 when the Legislature legalized so-called “accessory dwelling units” statewide as part of an effort to rein in the state’s housing crisis. More than a year later, it’s clear that the law is working — but that it also needs tweaks before accessory units can meet their full potential.
These small units, nicknamed “granny flats,” can be constructed in someone’s backyard, or they can simply be renovated third floors, garages, or basements. They’re a popular option for seniors seeking to downsize and families looking for some rental income.
Prior to the state law, some communities allowed accessory units, but many did not. Even among those cities and towns that did tolerate accessory dwelling units, zoning often varied from one municipality to the next, making it difficult for builders who needed to decode each municipality’s rules. Some towns also included unreasonable restrictions, like requiring that only a homeowner’s family members could live in the accessory units.
Housing advocates viewed allowing accessory dwelling units statewide as a “low-hanging fruit” policy — a way to add housing that was relatively cheap and avoided some of the cost and political obstacles that housing measures often encounter. The state legislation also overrode some zoning restrictions, including those that limited accessory units to family, while leaving some other local rules intact.
One year after the law went into effect, this approach has proved fruitful: Towns across the state have approved 1,200 ADU permits and seen even more applications, in some cases up to a threefold increase from previous years.
A study published last week by Boston Indicators (the research branch of the Boston Foundation) and Abundant Housing Massachusetts found that forcing the hand of municipalities on accessory dwelling units accomplished more in one year than 50 years of zoning reform efforts at the local level.
The problem, though, is that municipalities retained too much power. As the study recommends, there should be clear, uniform state regulatory standards for ADUs, with minimal opportunities for municipal-level variation.
“A comprehensive agenda is needed to address regulatory barriers to housing production, spanning building, fire, energy, septic system, wetlands, and stormwater rules,” the study’s authors wrote. “The barriers include the fragmented complexity of the regulatory system itself.”
Making standards more uniform doesn’t have to mean lowering them — it just means moving away from patchwork rules that make it harder for companies to build accessory units at scale.
Chris Lee at Backyard ADUs, a company that designs and builds modular dwelling units in New England, says the report’s findings make sense. The inconsistent interpretations across 350 towns and cities cause builders and engineers to “struggle to design work for the town that will be accepted,” he said. (The state’s 351st municipality, Boston, isn’t covered by the law.)
The potential is significant. The report calculates that if just 2 percent of single-family homes in Massachusetts added an accessory unit, the state would see more than 30,000 new homes that advocates say are generally more affordable. Building an accessory dwelling unit inside a pre-existing house can cost between $75,000 and $100,000; and a detached unit usually runs between $250,000 to $350,000, making them much more affordable than purchasing a single-family home in most regions of the country.
“For developers of missing middle housing to benefit from an economy of scale, they have to undertake many projects, across jurisdictional lines,” according to the study. “The ADU case study has shown just how challenging this is.”
Lee estimated that he could reduce up to $30,000 of preconstruction costs such as surveying and architecture if his company could work with consistent regulations across towns, which he said could enable them to double their production.
Streamlining permitting for accessory dwelling units isn’t a panacea. Landlords still must be willing to actually build them and rent them to long-term residents. Retirees must believe it’s worth downsizing to one. But the fact that so many have been permitted over the last year point to the clear demand and makes the case for policy makers to keep refining the law.
There is precedent. California, for example, had an equally ambitious goal but has blown past it, going from only 1,300 permits approved its first year to more than 30,000 nine years later. “It is important to understand that California did not accomplish its ADU outcomes with one legislative reform,” the study’s authors wrote. “California’s success required sustained legislative attention.”
Massachusetts should be able to realize those kinds of results too. Conversely, if even the “low-hanging fruit” of zoning reform falters in the Commonwealth because of local red tape, then the state has bigger problems ahead to solve its housing crisis.
Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us @GlobeOpinion.
Massachusetts
Meteor over Massachusetts causes explosion reports, sightings from Delaware to Montreal
Reports of an explosion from people across New England Saturday afternoon sent police agencies and others scrambling to understand what caused a double boom that shook buildings in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
The American Meteor Society said that the booms heard about 2:30 p.m. were actually caused by a meteor about 3 feet (nearly 1 meter) wide entering the atmosphere around the New Hampshire border with Massachusetts, north of Boston.
Fire program monitor Robert Lunsford said the society received dozens of reports from Delaware to Montreal with people either hearing the double boom, feeling the ground shake or seeing the fireball — which he said looked like a shooting star in the daytime sky.
“It was definitely bigger than a normal fireball, about a yard wide,” he said.
But Lunsford said it’s unlikely the meteor struck the ground.
“We would need more information about the trajectory the speed and other aspects to know for sure if it hit the ground, but if it didn’t burn up, then it would have landed in the ocean,” he said. “Most of them do burn up before they hit the ground.”
People in a handful of states posted on social media about feeling the buildings they were in shaking. Several videos on the X platform captured what sounded like two quick booms, with no fire, smoke or other visual causes.
Several people filed reports with the U.S. Geological Survey, registering the shaking they felt with the National Earthquake Information Center, agency spokesman Steve Sobie confirmed.
The agency opened an event page, based on the number of “Did you feel it?” reports it received on its website. But Sobie said there was no event registered on the agency’s seismographs. meaning the shaking was not due to an earthquake.
-
New Jersey32 seconds agoVisits to restart at New Jersey migrant detention center | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
-
New Mexico4 minutes agoValencia County first responders busy with UTV crashes
-
North Carolina9 minutes agoSuspect seen on North Carolina camera after shooting Virginia deputies
-
North Dakota16 minutes agoMotorcyclist seriously injured in crash south of Devils Lake
-
Ohio18 minutes agoLarge police presence breaks up fight at Boardman Park
-
Oklahoma23 minutes ago
PHOTOS: NCAA Regionals vs. Oklahoma (5/31)
-
Oregon30 minutes agoSuspect in custody, shelter-in-place lifted after shooting investigation in Sandy, police say
-
Pennsylvania33 minutes agoLuzerne County Sports Hall of Fame induction June 7 at Mohegan Pennsylvania
