Massachusetts
Should cameras catch drivers speeding in Mass. as Healey proposes?
Massachusetts has become notorious for bad driving – a behavior that proponents of speed cameras say leads to hundreds of fatalities every year.
Gov. Maura Healey is one of those supporters who is trying to get the Legislature to pass her proposal that’s attached to her next spending budget.
The proposal would allow speed cameras only and not cameras that catch people running red lights.
“I think for us, it’s a quality of life issue,” Healey told a crowd during the Massachusetts Municipal Association Connect 351 conference in Boston Friday morning.
The measure would leave it up to cities and towns in Massachusetts to decide if they want to install the street cameras.
“Many communities have put forward a home rule petition on speeding enforcement, and we can’t have a cop on every corner,” said Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll at the same event. “We know we can use technology. This isn’t about revenue, it’s about keeping roads safe, impacting the quality of neighborhoods.”
According to state data, Massachusetts recorded more than 130,000 crashes last year, with a year-average of 380 fatalities over the past decade.
“Speeding is probably the biggest risk factor in terms of whether somebody survives or dies in a crash,” said StreetsBlog Mass Editor Christian Milneil.
Milneil has been keeping track of similar proposals for years. About half of all U.S. states have cities that have implemented traffic enforcement cameras.
He said the bill addresses privacy concerns, as well, limiting how long the images can be kept, and limiting what they can be used for outside of traffic enforcement.
“They initially catch a lot of people breaking the law, but over time, they’re very effective, and they actually don’t issue that many fines, because people know that they need to obey the speed limit, which isn’t really the case right now,” he added.
“Boston and Cambridge have been on the record in supporting this type of technology,” noted Massachusetts Municipal Association CEO Adam Champdelaine. “It gives the local government official, the police chief, the mayor, the manager, the ability to make a decision about what they think is best to keep their streets safe.”
“It doesn’t seem like a lot of speeding tickets are being given out, and people are driving faster than ever,” complained Boston resident Noah Sachs.
“We really don’t like them at all. We just think it’s not, good like it’s sort of invading your privacy,” said California resident Laurie Romero, who was visiting Boston on Friday.
Milneil said the cameras would issue a warning for a first speeding, then a $25 fine for every violation after the first.
The Legislature has until the end of June to vote on the governor’s budget, which the camera measure is tied to. If passed, it would still take about a year before municipalities can implement the technology.
BOSTON (WWLP) – The Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) announced Wednesday that it is distributing 5,063 internet-enabled devices to 45 organizations across the state.
The statewide effort, administered through the Connected and Online program, aims to expand economic opportunity by increasing digital access. This program is a $31.6 million initiative funded through the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund that provides Massachusetts-based organizations with laptops, tablets, and desktop computers to help residents access the internet.
Equipment provided through the program also includes supportive items, such as braille keyboards, intended to assist vulnerable populations.
Both Gateway Cities and rural communities are supported by the Connected and Online program, as residents are provided with direct access to devices through lending programs or resources at publicly accessible locations.
“The Connected and Online program opens doors for communities to access critical services and build relationships with their neighbors,” said Governor Maura Healey. “By partnering with trusted local organizations, we’re helping more people get online, access essential services, and connect to new educational and economic opportunities.”
To date, the program has provided nearly 32,000 devices and more than 13,000 pieces of supportive equipment. These devices have been distributed to hospitals, municipalities, nonprofits, public libraries, elder and youth aid groups, and workforce training organizations across the Commonwealth.
This latest award announcement follows a prior distribution launched by MBI on April 2, which included nearly 27,000 devices to over 200 organizations across the state.
“MBI is leveraging strong relationships with local and regional organizations to deliver digital devices for Massachusetts residents,” said MBI Program Executive Jody Jones. “The Connected and Online program is a statewide effort to expand access, increase digital skills training, and, at its core, expand the ability to connect to the internet.”
For a full list of awardees, visit broadband.mass.tech.org.
Local News Headlines
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If you want to help people in poverty, don’t drive the wealthy out of state.
That might be something the state senators in the Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities should keep in mind after they advanced a sweeping bill going full bore at reducing the state’s poverty rate.
Sen. Sal DiDomenico told the State House News his proposal (S 3095) “is a compilation of many bills that have already been filed.” According to his office, the bill, as originally filed, included provisions that would increase the Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children cash benefits for pregnant people, families and caregivers; increase Emergency Aid to the Elderly, Disabled and Children cash benefits; codify related benefits and allowances; and bar the government from taking any amount of child support payments from low-income parents.
His office also said the bill would direct the state to replace Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program cash benefits “stolen by criminal rings through skimming or phishing”; ensure access to free menstrual products in public schools, homeless shelters, prisons and county jails; raise farmworker wages to at least the state’s minimum wage; establish a “baby bonds program”; and “enhance” the attorney general’s ability to “ensure companies pay their employees the wages they deserve and hold employers accountable when they steal workers’ wages.”
It’s a tall order, and an impressive one. But the hurdle isn’t just getting it on the Senate’s agenda before the July 31 deadline, it’s how to pay for it.
The idea of front-loading assistance appears sound: helping people escape poverty means they won’t need to rely on social services down the line. But it will still take a sustainable revenue source to keep it all going.
And Massachusetts has been shooting itself in the foot when it comes to keeping revenue inside state borders.
According to Moneywise, Massachusetts millionaires took $4.2 billion in income out of the state in 2023, new Internal Revenue Service data revealed.
As reported by Bloomberg, that’s an 8% increase from the year before, and it comes just as the state began enforcing a new 4% surtax on incomes above $1 million. Higher-income households are now accounting for a larger share of total departures from the state. In 2023, top earners accounted for roughly 70% of total income outflow. That doubles their share from just a few years earlier.
We need to keep them, and their tax payments, here.
But that won’t happen if efforts to lower taxes are met with derision, and the notion that tax breaks only benefit the very rich. The deep-pocketed set that’s heading to tax-friendlier states are gifting their new home turf with a cumulative windfall, even if the individual tax amount is lower than the Bay State.
The same goes for companies who see better opportunities elsewhere.
The senators working on anti-poverty measures have some great ideas, and they should have a budget to implement them. Lifting people up from poverty uplifts the state.
But we can’t pay the bill if we keep driving out high-earning taxpayers. To help the poor, we must keep the rich.
Trombetta’s Farm, at 655 Farm Rd., is listed as a Central Massachusetts stop on the Massachusetts Ice Cream Trail, a state-backed guide launched in 2024 to promote ice cream shops, farm stands, and dairy farms that use Massachusetts dairy products, according to GBH.
The trail features more than 100 destinations across Massachusetts and is managed by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources. The map includes dairy farms with ice cream stands, farms selling packaged ice cream, and shops selling Massachusetts ice cream products, according to the tourism office.
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