One of the longest-tenured members of the Berkshire legislative delegation says fellow Democrat Healey has been surprisingly tight-lipped in the lead-up to her first major policy address of 2026.
“Usually, you get kind of a preview in the couple of days before of what any governor – whether it was Governor Patrick, Governor Baker and now Governor Healey – is going to kind of discuss, and the only tidbit I've heard has been a teasing of somehow lowering electric and gas rates, which is clearly something that's important, clearly something I, as a concept, support," said State Senator Paul Mark, who represents the Berkshire, Hampshire, Franklin, and Hampden district on Beacon Hill.
He began his State House career as a member of the House in 2011 before moving the Senate in 2023.
“I imagine she's going to talk about the BRIGHT Act, which is the higher education bond bill," Mark continued. "It came through the bonding committee, which I'm chairing at the moment. The House already passed the version of it and the Senate's working on it right now, and I think that's something that's important to her. I know the environmental bond bill, again, the bonding committee we're working on that right now, we're probably going to pull it out later this week and send it over to the full Senate for consideration. And there's a lot of money in there for a lot of important environmental projects, including municipal vulnerability preparedness, a lot of good stuff that that is really important for Western Massachusetts.”
Mark also expects Healey to discuss her new economic development bill.
“I'm a member of Economic Development Committee, and we had a hearing about, I think she's calling it the DRIVE Act, which is kind of supporting the high tech and the high knowledge industry in Massachusetts," the state senator told WAMC. "My biggest concern when I met with a member of her administration was making sure that, yes, I believe in investing in our knowledge economy- I want to make sure a piece of that is coming to Western Massachusetts and the Berkshires specifically.”
Mark hopes the governor will talk about her forthcoming budget proposal.
“The budget’s coming out next Wednesday, so it'd be good to have some specifics on how she's going to keep us afloat with all the cuts we're facing, and also how we're going to stay in balance heading into fiscal [year] ‘27 with the threat of an income tax repeal on the ballot, as a ballot question next year, and how she's going to work to oppose that,” he said.
When it comes to the marquee issue for Massachusetts in 2026, Berkshire leaders share a consensus.
“I think the most important component of her speech should be around one single word, and that's affordability," said State Representative John Barrett of the 1st Berkshire District, who serves the county’s northern reaches. “I think she's going to address that issue in many different ways. She's certainly going to talk about healthcare, she's going to talk about the high cost of electricity and gas and heating and everything else associated with it. Those are concerns of the citizens of not only Massachusetts, but across this country and I would imagine she's going to be zeroing in on that more than anything else, and focusing on that, making sure that affordability is addressed so that people can afford to live in this state.”
Mark told WAMC that Healey could use the address to confront local fears about the aggressive Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown in Minnesota and other states. In New England, the Department of Homeland Security recently intensified efforts in Maine. Agents targeted individuals in Portland and Lewistown, municipalities home to large Somali-American communities.
“There's a lot of conversation with what's happening nationally about immigration enforcement and what's happening in Minnesota, and now I hear what's happening in Maine," said the state senator. "So, the governor might want to address people's fears about, what are we going to do if that kind of level of activity comes to Massachusetts.”
Mark cited Democratic Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger’s recent move to end her state’s cooperation with federal immigration officials shortly after taking office.
“I imagine that would be a good item for the governor to mention as our chief executive and as our former attorney general when she's considering what she's going to talk about,” he told WAMC.
