Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey will give her latest State of the Commonwealth address tonight. The Democrat is likely to touch on last year’s accomplishments while previewing priorities for 2025. The ballooning costs of the state’s emergency shelter system, an $8 billion transportation spending plan and housing are expected to figure prominently. WAMC spoke with western Mass. lawmakers about what they’re hoping gets spotlighted.
For the past week, Governor Healey has made a series of announcements on either major spending proposals or potential revisits of state policy.
A day before the speech, the Democrat floated changes to the state’s Right to Shelter law, programming for which is expected to cost a billion dollars this fiscal year. A day before that, she was in Worcester, touting a multi-bill proposal to ultimately invest $8 billion in transportation infrastructure over a decade.
The pitches, as well as last year’s accomplishments like a $4 billion economic development bill and a $5 billion housing bond bill, are likely to take up real estate during her speech in the state capitol’s House chambers.
The speech also comes a week after Healey filed a supplemental spending bill, requesting $425 million for the state’s emergency assistance shelter program that would come from the state’s Transitional Escrow Fund.
Speaking with WAMC, Springfield State Representative Bud Williams says he hopes the governor details what is being done to rein in costs.
“One concern of mine is that money that's been involved in these shelters, where [families] go to hotels and private entities, the money involved with those resources are really, I think, off the chart,” the 11th Hampden Democrat said. “We have to either renegotiate with these hotels, motels and private centers, or … cut bait.”
Healey has said there’s a plan to phase out hotels and motels by the end of 2025. Of the 6,400 families currently in the program, 3,000 are using them.
Proposed policy changes from the governor include eliminating presumptive eligibility for those seeking shelter benefits and “requiring lawful status for all members of families with rare exceptions.”
4th Hampden Representative Kelly Pease says he hopes to hear more about the issue.
Along with his Republican colleagues, Pease has been calling for overhauls to the state’s right-to-shelter law amid an influx of migrant families seeking housing in the Commonwealth, pushing the program to capacity as costs only increase.
“I hope she's going to adjust how we go forward with the migrant issue. Obviously, the influx should slow down, but I mean, the biggest thing is, we got to stop hanging a big sign outside the Commonwealth saying … We're open to take in whoever,” Pease said. “We got to put up a sign that there's no vacancy here, and that we need to manage what we have.”
Another announcement pre-State of the Commonwealth: a proposal to eliminate renter-paid brokerage fees.
On Monday, the governor announced her FY26 budget proposal would look to eliminate having tenants pay a broker’s fee, a common, pricey practice that occurs even when it was the landlord who enlisted said broker.
1st Hampshire Representative Lindsay Sabadosa, who’s previously filed similar legislation, is onboard.
“Brokerage fees have been a huge impediment to people getting into housing - we see this particularly when people have vouchers: they find an apartment, but then they learn they have to pay a brokerage fee, and the voucher does not include that, and so it certainly makes some apartments and residential living options impossible,” the state representative told WAMC.
Fellow Democrat and Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester Senator Jo Comerford has also supported the legislation in the past.
As for this year’s address, she says among other topics, she hopes to hear about a long overdue revisit of the state’s Chapter 70 formulas – which determine how much state aid supports local schools.
As it stands, schools in rural districts like Comerford’s and others in western Mass. have ended up with the short-end of the stick, what with declining populations and other factors leading to fewer dollars and more cuts to school staff.
“My colleagues and I have made it really clear that the current funding formula does not work for the majority of districts we represent that are either rural or declining enrollment or both,” she said. “I believe, very much, that we have to crack open the Chapter 70 funding formula, also the municipal contribution - Chapter 70 hasn't been looked at for 10 years, as of 2025, and the municipal contribution, that's what communities contribute, hasn't been looked at for a whopping 18 years, and that's too long.”
And of course, there’s the matter of how to respond to the Trump administration.
Hampden Hampshire and Worcester Senator Jake Oliveira says he’s also interested in the broker fee proposal and seeing if Chapter 70 funding gets a revisit. But, he also tells WAMC he’ll be listening for how Healey might lead the state if the White House begins cutting federal dollars the Commonwealth relies on.
“Obviously, two major areas for of our economy in Massachusetts are our healthcare industry and education, and any cuts to Medicaid at the federal level or to education will have a direct impact on us here in Massachusetts,” the Ludlow Democrat said. “So, ways in which the governor plans to address some of those issues will be something that I'm going to listen in very closely to tonight.”
WAMC will broadcast Healey’s address tonight at 7 p.m.
