After a weekend of more than 100 ‘No Kings’ events across Massachusetts, demonstrators are pushing back against what they call President Trump's authoritarian actions. The administration has threatened to pull the 2026 World Cup games from Gillette Stadium, and he's hinted he could deploy the National Guard to Boston, as he did in Los Angeles after immigration protests. State House News Service reporter Alison Kuznitz explained what Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey and other lawmakers are doing to fight back.
Alison Kuznitz, SHNS: So, Governor Maura Healey and State Police Superintendent Col. Geoffrey Noble held a press conference last Thursday talking about the impact of their first weekend crackdown against these illegal ‘street takeovers’, which have consisted of drag racing and mass street rallies.
And so basically at this press conference, Healey and Colonel Noble were talking about the impact that this crackdown had. They said that they had 232 civil citations, 74 warnings, 20 criminal summons, seven arrests, 15 vehicles towed and they recovered one stolen car. So, it seems that that press conference was really uniquely timed after the president threatened to yank the FIFA World Cup games from Boston, which are really being played at Gillette.
Carrie Healy, NEPM: In Foxborough. Another area of concern, follows the Trump administration's rollbacks at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, commonly known as FEMA, which include cuts to preparedness, funding and key programs on building codes and climate data. Massachusetts is looking to shore up its own emergency management, and this week, lawmakers will hear testimony on several bills, including one aimed at strengthening the state's strategic preparedness stockpile. What would that involve?
So, Senator (William J.) Driscoll (Jr., representing parts of Norfolk, Plymouth and Bristol counties) has a bill that's up for a hearing this week that would require the Department of Public Health (DPH) and MEMA (Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency) to establish a strategic stockpile.
But what's interesting about this bill is that the Department of Public Health actually already took a similar measure last month, they opened up an emergency warehouse stockpile in Franklin, and that has over 21 million medical items, including PPE (personal protective equipment) medical equipment. So, it seems that what Senator Driscoll is proposing may have actually already been launched by state public health officials.
In a broader sense, given everything we've talked about, do you think any of these measures could actually pass if lawmakers here strong enough arguments?
I think it's really a question of financial funding. And really, Beacon Hill has been slow to gather information to really assess how they are going to react to federal funding losses. We still really haven't seen a cohesive response from state leaders about how they're going to handle, you know, Medicaid cuts, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) cuts. So, I think this may just be another item on the agenda of how is the state going to fill in for that loss of federal emergency aid?
A majority of state lawmakers, including Springfield Rep. Carlos Gonzalez, are backing his bill to boost Massachusetts tax collections from multinationals like Apple and Amazon. It could potentially generate over $400 million annually, but the plan to tax offshore profits is stirring legal, economic and political debate. How are legislators weighing the state's urgent need for revenue against the risks that critics warn this change could bring?
Yeah, so there is this compelling proposal that would allow Massachusetts to raise an additional $400 million in state tax revenue. Some tax policy experts, including Doug Howgate (president of) The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, are very wary of this proposal, warning that the proposal is based on a formula called the Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (GILTI) that has since been superseded by a formula NCTI, or Net CFC (controlled foreign corporations) Tested Income from the One Big Beautiful Bill act. So, there's a concern about whether Massachusetts is actually behind the curve.
Now with this formula, there's also some constitutionality issues and that Massachusetts could get sued if it pursues this GILTI change, taxing foreign companies at a greater amount.
Well, the state could use the money. What's the timeline for passage on this?
So, this bill had a hearing at the beginning of October and under new legislative rules. House members have until early December to take action on the bill. Senate members also have until early December to take action on the Senate proposal.
However, as we have continued to see, even with rules reform on Beacon Hill that bills can be extended. So even though the initial time we could see action is December could likely be much later than that, especially as Beacon Hill really tries to understand how much federal funding we're going to see cut, and how desperate lawmakers might be to find a new funding stream.
