As we head into the final days of December, we took a moment to recap 2025 in Massachusetts politics and government.
With 2026 on the horizon, it is time to take a moment and look back at some of the biggest political and governmental stories in Massachusetts.
State House News Service reporter Sam Drysdale recapped with NEPM's Carrie Healy he plot line that overshadowed everything in 2025.
Sam Drysdale, SHNS: I think we have to start with President Donald Trump and his impacts here on Beacon Hill. The federal impacts in Massachusetts have played into every single story that we've seen so far this year. It's impacted our energy policy. There's economic uncertainties tied to Washington fiscal impacts, tax impacts. And, the government shutdown! That also had a lot of impacts up here on Beacon Hill while we were also dealing with immigration and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in Massachusetts. Healthcare and whether people in the Baystate were going to get Medicaid and access to MassHealth continuously... I think that whatever way you look at the most important policy stories of the year here in Massachusetts, almost all of them got tied back to Washington as the state and federal governments are so intertwined and have been at odds this year.
Carrie Healy, NEPM: Oh for sure! And that includes the shelter crisis. State spending was pushed towards $1 billion as Massachusetts officials struggled to house thousands of migrant and local families. To resolve the fiscal strain, the state then implemented a capacity cap. They limited stay lengths. They had to shift away from using hotels and motels as temporary housing. So, is this something that is likely to come before lawmakers again in 2026?
It continues to be an issue! It's something that the state has now spent billions of dollars on over the last two and a half, to three years during the Healey administration. That system had been really strained for a few years by new immigrants coming into the state and seeking to settle here, but first needing a transitional step. And that transitional step being the emergency family shelter system.
Since the Trump administration has been cracking down on immigration, it has also curbed the demand a bit, which state leaders, mostly Democrats... it's a little politically complicated for them, as they're also looking to curb the demand, but don't necessarily want to endorse Trump's immigration policies.
And those are ever changing as well.
Yes, exactly. So, it's something that we we can't exactly anticipate the ebb and flow of as it's exactly as you said, it's ever changing.
Beacon Hill lawmakers reaffirmed a commitment to transparency in March 2025 that led to new rules that were enacted in October, which required salary ranges and job postings and disclosures. They made what they called a more accessible legislature with public votes and testimony. So, so much transparency going on at the state House. Sam, are they now ready to allow the State Auditor to conduct that audit of the Legislature?
Yeah, they have talked a big game on transparency this year after years of criticism for being, some say, the most un-transparent Legislature in the country. Massachusetts is one of the only Legislatures that is not subject to the public records law.
I don't think that they are planning to allow a audit of the Legislature. Lawmakers here are still incredibly resistant to that idea, even though voters approved that in 2024 by a vast majority.
I think that we're still going to see a good amount of resistance to that, and that the transparency measures that lawmakers chose to adopt earlier this year, to impose upon themselves, are somewhat limited. And I'm not ungrateful for them. As a journalist, I appreciate what they give us, but I don't think that we'll be seeing that audit anytime soon unless, you know, the courts intervene. So we'll see what that looks like in 2026.
And briefly, a ton of time, when I was looking back at reporting from 2025, a ton of time was spent crafting the annual state budget, and deadlines were talked about, and missed. Are lawmakers likely to hit the mark with crafting a budget on time this coming year, Sam?
I'm skeptical of whether they will. They have missed that deadline for, I believe it is, eight consecutive years in a row. And they honestly, they don't really seem that concerned about making the deadline. Every July when they miss the deadline, and we approach lawmakers and we say 'You've missed the deadline. What are you going to do to do your work on time?' They're always pretty unconcerned.
They feel as long as they get the work done and they're deliberative about doing it, that it doesn't really matter when it gets done. I think they're happy working at the pace that they work at.
