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Massachusetts millionaire’s tax supporting MBTA projects

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Massachusetts millionaire’s tax supporting MBTA projects


The MBTA is dumping nearly a billion dollars in revenue from the Massachusetts millionaire’s tax on projects officials say are aimed at enhancing safety and reliability, while the agency transitions to an in-house bus maintenance program.

The network’s Board of Directors has approved using $850 million from the millionaire’s tax to fund four “major infrastructure projects,” including a battery-electric bus maintenance facility that will support up to 200 vehicles.

This is the second allocation that the T has used to bolster its infrastructure from what officials refer to as the Fair Share Amendment. The board approved a $200.8-million initial pool in January 2024 that addressed safety and hiring and retaining employees.

Bay State voters in November 2022 approved a 4% surtax on incomes above $1 million annually, with the revenue dedicated to improving education and transportation.

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With the second batch generated from the tax in hand, the MBTA is set to complete power upgrades, track reconfigurations and signal system updates on the Green Line; procure new Commuter Rail locomotives; and work on the first phase of a Widett Regional Rail Layover Facility project

“The MBTA has been making significant progress to improve safety and reliability across the system, and this funding will help them continue this essential work,” Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement. “Together with the Legislature, we are making sure that the T has a balanced budget and the resources it needs to deliver the world-class service that the people of Massachusetts deserve.”

The MBTA is expecting to bring in massive savings, in the tens of millions, as the transit network moves to “in-house” bus repair services instead of contracting with a third-party to overhaul the vehicles.

A fleet of 175 buses that the agency purchased in 2016 and 2017 is due for what officials describe as a “mid-life overhaul,” and they’ve determined that the repair work can be completed within the agency rather than paying an outside vendor to do the job.

The move is expected to generate some $73 million in savings – the difference between the $116 million that it costs to outsource the work and the $43 million it would take for the MBTA workforce to get the job done.

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MBTA General Manager Phil Eng is looking at the transition as a short- and long-term investment that he believes will improve bus maintenance and service, making the vehicles durable for longer stretches.

“The investment in transportation, the investment in our workforce,” Eng told the Board of Directors on Thursday, “we have an obligation to show that that investment is delivering for the public, not only with improved service, safe service, better service, but we can actually save taxpayer dollars, and that we can do quality work.”

Thursday’s meeting marked the first time Eng has addressed the board as the state’s transportation secretary. He is maintaining his GM role, but he has replaced Monica Tibbits-Nutt as the leader of MassDOT in the interim.

Tibbits-Nutt will stay on until the end of the year in an advisory capacity, on the taxpayer’s dime, as she is also keeping her $200,000 pay.

To support the in-house bus repairs, officials say the agency will be looking to a crew of machinists, sheet metal workers, painters and an engineer. The work will be implemented in three phases over four years at four buses per month.

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“It’s a massive, massive savings,” Chief Operating Officer Ryan Coholan said. “And it goes beyond dollars, because when you talk about the quality of a program like this, the pride that a program like this can build in-house with our workforce. … I’m going to put the value even higher than the cost savings.”



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How did Damon, Affleck, Fallon handle Cape Cod town names trying to recite all 351 in MA?

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How did Damon, Affleck, Fallon handle Cape Cod town names trying to recite all 351 in MA?


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Can Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Jimmy Fallon pronounce every city and town in Massachusetts correctly, including those on Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard?

In a promotion for Damon and Affleck’s upcoming thriller film, “The Rip,” the trio hammered through every single one of the state’s 351 municipalities on NBC’s “The Tonight Show” on Tuesday, Jan. 13 – in thick Boston accents.

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Having grown up in Massachusetts, the two actors are no strangers to Boston accents – famously putting them to use in “Good Will Hunting.” And while their newest movie is set in Miami, not Boston, the actors jumped at the chance to slip into their New England personas on “The Tonight Show.”

Wearing their most “Boston” outfits – Red Sox merch and cold-weather gear – Damon, Affleck, and Fallon took turns reciting the names of each Massachusetts town in alphabetical order as soft music played in the background.

“Abington, Acton, Acushnet, Adams, Agawam,” Damon started, with a deadpan expression on his face.

“Alford, Amesbury, Amherst, Andover, Aquinnah,” Affleck continued, with a gruff Boston accent.

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“Arlington, Ashburnham, Ashby, Ashfield, Ashland,” Fallon went on, trying his hand at an accent as well.

And yes, the segment continued like this for about five minutes.

Were there any slip-ups on the Massachusetts town names?

For the most part, the three flew through the Massachusetts town names, even though it’s easy for tongues to get twisted when reciting them all at top speed.

Fallon stumbled briefly over Winchendon, repeating it a few times before he sounded confident. Damon pronounced “Uxbridge” as “Oxbridge.”

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Cape and Islands towns seemed to get a fair shake. Fallon made a point to enunciate each “r” in the town of Truro. Chatham and Eastham, spelled similarly, but pronounced differently, were each said correctly. Yarmouth got a little more airtime as the final town on the list, when Affleck threw up his hands in celebration while drawing out his Boston-accented “Yaaaah,” then bowed.

Affleck, a Massachusetts town-name natural, couldn’t resist a cheeky comment when he reached the home of the New England Patriots.

“Foxboro for your mother,” he quipped.

Another notable moment was when Affleck seemed to learn mid-recitation that Peru is, in fact, the name of a town in Massachusetts.

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You can find a list of all 351 Massachusetts towns and cities here – if you’re feeling up to the challenge of reciting them all.

Where, when to watch the new Matt Damon and Ben Affleck movie

You can watch “The Rip” on Netflix on Friday, Jan. 16.

Damon and Affleck are featured in the film alongside actors Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor, Kyle Chandler, Scott Adkins, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Sasha Calle, Nestor Carbonell, and Lina Esco, according to Netflix. The movie is directed by Joe Carnahan, whose other works include “Narc,” “The A-Team,” and “Copshop.” Damon and Affleck are also producers of the film.

Here’s the official movie synopsis for “The Rip,” provided by Netflix:

“Upon discovering millions in cash in a derelict stash house, trust among a team of Miami cops begins to fray. As outside forces learn about the size of the seizure, everything is called into question — including who they can rely on.”

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At Massachusetts stores, the demise of the penny is adding up to one big headache – The Boston Globe

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At Massachusetts stores, the demise of the penny is adding up to one big headache – The Boston Globe


With little government guidance on how to lawfully undertake the transition, and loath to give up even a few cents by rounding transactions down to the nearest nickel, Maloney is instead trying to kick the coin jar down the road.

“We’re sort of hoarding,” said Maloney, who has run Julio’s since 2000, “so that we don’t have to deal with this problem.”

It’s a problem playing out in cash registers across Massachusetts and the country as the realities of a penniless future begin to present themselves.

Julio’s Liquors in Westborough is offering to convert customers’ pennies into paper cash.Lane Turner/Globe Staff

When Canada phased out its one-cent coin a little more than a decade ago, it offered retailers and consumers a clear path forward, suggesting that cash transactions be rounded up or down to the nearest nickel — $1.61 and $1.62 become $1.60, while $1.63 and $1.64 become $1.65 — with sales tax applied before rounding. In Massachusetts, retailers say they have been given little such direction from the federal or state government, bringing about a patchwork of solutions as stores try to navigate the changing tides of change on their own.

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“I didn’t really think it was going to cause much of an issue, but then it started causing an issue,” said Sara-Ann Turner, a cashier at Warren Hardware in the South End. The shop has begun rounding transactions to the nearest five-cent increment when customers don’t have exact change, which has left some shoppers feeling nickel-and-dimed when the sum comes down in the store’s favor.

The penny remains legal tender, with billions of the coin still in circulation — many likely sitting in jacket pockets, under couch cushions, and between sidewalk cracks. But the lack of fresh ones shipping out of the US Mint means that cash transactions will soon have to sidestep the one-cent coin. And even in an increasingly cashless economy, that’s no simple endeavor.

In a recent survey conducted by the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, 65 percent of members said they planned to take Canada’s recommended approach and round cash transactions up or down to the nearest nickel. The other 35 percent said they would always round down in the customer’s favor, a policy Dunkin’ has recommended for its franchisees. (The survey did not give respondents the option to say they would always round up.)

As pennies grow fewer, Dunkin’ has advised its franchisees to round up its change to the nearest five-cent increment in cash transactions where the customer doesn’t have exact change.Dunkin’

But any rounding policy stores choose risks running afoul of a tangle of bureaucratic regulations, said Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts. Consider, for instance, a Massachusetts law that prohibits surcharges on customers who use credit cards over cash, or the federal statute that mandates food stamp customers be charged the same as those using cash.

“The sellers just need some guidance, number one, and number two, some protection,” Hurst said.

In a letter in early December, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and California Representative Maxine Waters sought answers from the heads of the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, and the US Mint, writing that the absence of guidance could “risk worsening inconsistencies in customer transactions, uncertainty in pricing approaches, legal compliance, tax calculations, and more.”

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Late last month, the Treasury Department published a frequently-asked-questions webpage that pointed to the technique of rounding to the nearest nickel but ultimately passed the buck to states, which it said “will approach this issue differently based on unique considerations.”

Both chambers of Congress have introduced bipartisan federal legislation, called the Common Cents Act, that would codify for US businesses the same rounding practices as Canada recommended, but progress for the bills appears to have stalled.

A die for a penny press, at the US Mint in Philadelphia.Matt Slocum/Associated Press

And while states including Georgia and Utah have come out with basic guidelines for retailers — leaving rounding decisions up to individual merchants but clarifying that sales tax should be applied before rounding — Massachusetts has yet to do the same.

In a statement, a Massachusetts Department of Revenue spokesperson said the office is “considering what if any guidance is needed.”

The Massachusetts attorney general’s office said any legal changes to retailers’ practices would have to come from lawmakers.

“It’s more involved than any of us thought it would be on the first glance,” said state Representative Tackey Chan, who is looking into the penny issue.

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Merchants may soon get some temporary relief, thanks to the Federal Reserve, which distributes coins to banks. This week, all seven of the Federal Reserve bank distribution sites in the Boston district will once again accept deposits of pennies from banks, a move the Fed said it made “to better support the circulation of pennies for commercial activity.” This may eventually allow banks to order the coins again, which could then allow supply to trickle down to retailers.

Amid all the unknowns, Julio’s isn’t the only one trying to put off the inevitable. In November, the supermarkets Price Chopper and Market 32 held a promotion in which customers could bring in pennies and receive double their value in a gift card to the grocers. The event amassed roughly 20 million pennies, or $200,000, according to director of customer service Michele McKeever — about $11,900 of which came from the chains’ 14 Massachusetts stores.

In November, Price Chopper and Market 32 held a promotion offering customers a deal on their pennies.Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist for The Boston Globe

“We were hoping that we could buy some time and get legislation passed to give us clear direction,” McKeever said.

For stores that have already begun their own rounding policies, there can be growing pains as they explain the new system to clientele. Turner, the Warren Hardware cashier, said she dealt with one customer who grew particularly upset at being shortchanged.

“‘I work hard for these two pennies,’” Turner recalled the customer saying.

Andrea Pendergast, co-owner of the Cape Cod Package Store Fine Wine & Spirits in Centerville, is also worried about inadvertently driving away business.

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“We end all of our pricing with nine,” she said, a common consumer psychology trick known as charm pricing. Rounding up to the next dollar, she knows, would “look, psychologically, from a customer standpoint, like maybe the prices are going up.”

While some retailers are concerned about the effects of rounding policies on their profits, research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond last year estimated that rounding to the nearest nickel would end up costing shoppers, not retailers, about $6 million annually. This was because, the researchers found, prices tended to end on digits that would round up.

Nevertheless, Maloney, the Julio’s Liquors owner, worries about the potential hit to his bottom line once his penny-pinching days run out. Choosing to always round down could cost him the equivalent of a part-time employee’s pay.

“I know everybody’s going to say, ‘It’s just pennies,’” he said. “I go, ‘Yes, but pennies add up.’”

Rolls of pennies stacked inside the store safe at Julio’s Liquors in Westborough earlier this month.Lane Turner/Globe Staff

Dana Gerber can be reached at dana.gerber@globe.com. Follow her @danagerber6.





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Massachusetts native earns Patriots collaboration through social media design campaign

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Massachusetts native earns Patriots collaboration through social media design campaign


Building a brand, sharing her funky graphic designs and garnering the attention of major brands and professional sports teams, Kate Weinberg has proven the power of social media, amassing more than 500,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram.

Her latest campaign, designing fresh merchandise for the NFL, has now resulted in a massive collaboration with the Patriots.

“The whole team has been amazing,” Weinberg told NBC 10 News. “They’ve trusted in my creative vision the whole way through.”

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NBC 10’s Erin Coogan reports that a Massachusetts native caught the eye of the Patriots with her eye-catching designs.

The collaboration is the result of months of planning, designing, and editing.

“It was hard to pull together so quickly,” she continued. “From coming up with the design and getting the production to happen and making sure they were approved by the league, there’s so much I’ve been learning.”

Weinberg says as a Massachusetts native and generational Pats fan, inspiration came naturally — the designs feature lobsters, sailboats, and everything uniquely New England.

“I try to make every design unique and tell a story with it … the story of the team,” Weinberg said.

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They were placed on display just in time for the Patriots’ 2026 playoff debut.

“They went on display, Friday, right before the big game. Sunday was the big sales day, I think they sold out at 2 p.m.,” Weinberg said.

She said come this Sunday, she’ll be proudly repping her merch, while rooting for the Pats as they take on the Texans at 3 p.m.



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