The Democrat’s address comes one year into her first term, in the midst of a surprise billion-dollar revenue shortfall and an emergency shelter system taxed to the brink by an influx of migrants.
Berkshire legislative delegation dean Smitty Pignatelli – the Democratic State Representative for the Southern Berkshires – says Healey must address housing, one of the most pressing concerns not just in Berkshire County but across Massachusetts.
“I hope that she talks about housing, but she doesn't just talk about housing in the Gateway Cities," Pignatelli told WAMC. "I want her to be talking about housing in the rural areas. We're not in position where we're 400, 500, 600 people short for housing. We're going to have it be pocketed- 20 here, 15 over there. I want her to see some rural equity when it comes to this housing initiative in the rural areas versus the urban areas. I think it’s going to be paramount to revitalization.”
Democratic State Representative Tricia Farley-Bouvier, who represents Pittsfield on Beacon Hill, says she hopes to hear Healey dive into the barriers that are preventing the development of new housing.
“There's one issue in particular that I have on the brain – and that is this issue particularly facing Gateway Cities – and we refer to it as a 30% rule," she told WAMC. "And that is, if a building, the renovations on a building exceeds 30% of the property value, then it triggers that everything in the building has to come into full building code, full ADA code. It's a policy that isn't sustainable. A building in the North End of Boston can have the same renovations at the same cost, but because the building property itself is so much higher, it doesn't trigger this 30% rule, which means it just costs more to renovate a building in Pittsfield than it does in Boston.”
Max Page is President of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the union that represents over 115,000 educators across the commonwealth. He’ll be at Healey’s address and hopes the governor will continue to prioritize investments in public education.
“That means continuing to fulfill the Student Opportunity Act, which she did in our first budget, which is great," Page told WAMC. "But we have called for greater investments to make sure that our students have the support they need, especially given the growing mental health crisis. So, we've called for more money for school librarians, social workers, and other mental health professionals that could come from the Fair Share Amendment monies we helped win in November of 2022.”
The MTA was among the groups that advocated passage of the Fair Share Amendment, which added a new tax on the commonwealth’s wealthiest residents specifically for investments in public transit, infrastructure, and education. Page applauded Healey’s efforts to make public higher ed more affordable during her first year, but says there’s more work to be done.
“We really need to double down and be able to guarantee to working class people in Massachusetts that they can go to public college, university and graduate debt free," said Page. "And we hope she will make sure we keep making investment in the staff and the faculty and the students supports so that we have the world class public higher education system everyone deserves in Massachusetts.”
Dennis Powell is the president of the Berkshire Chapter of the NAACP. Alongside the urgent need for housing, he says Healey should address racial disparities in Pittsfield public schools — namely, the decrepit condition of those in the heart of the city’s Black community.
“I'm really concerned because when we talk about our youth and education, we want to start providing the best education for our youth that are just starting school," Powell told WAMC. "And some of these schools are in such poor condition, Conte, Crosby and Morningside, that you don't even want kids to sit in them. And plus, they still have that open classroom, which was deemed a poor way to educate kids right from the time that they first rolled it out. But we still have that here in Berkshire County. And unfortunately, it's on the Westside Community, kids who really need to be given an opportunity to really concentrate. But these schools are falling apart, and we really need to the state to provide money so that we can build new schools for these communities.”
Powell says that while Pittsfield opening a new Taconic High School in 2018 was a worthy investment, it means little if elementary and middle schools educating Black students are crumbling.
“This is one of the ways that we really can start to do better with," he told WAMC. "It's about our youth and it's at the beginning. And I always am reminded of what my grandmother used to teach us. You deal with your youth in the highchair that keeps them out of the electric chair.”
WAMC will air Governor Healey’s state of the commonwealth address live.
