Maura has deep roots in Massachusetts. Her parents both grew up in Newburyport. Her maternal grandparents met in Gloucester, where her grandfather worked on the fishing docks and her grandmother, whose ancestors settled on the Parker River in Newbury in 1636, went to nursing school. Her paternal grandparents came from Ireland and worked as a domestic worker and a janitor.
Maura was born at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in 1971 while her father served as a captain in the U.S. Public Health Service, and later as a civil engineer in the Environmental Protection Agency. Her maternal grandmother was determined that her grandchild be born on Massachusetts soil. She traveled through a snowstorm down Route 1, flew to Maryland, snuck into the delivery room wearing her nursing outfit, and placed a bag of soil from a family woodlot in Byfield below the delivery bed so that Maura could be “born” over Massachusetts. What mothers and grandmothers will do!
Maura believes the best way to help families dealing with high costs right now is by making meaningful investments while also putting money back in people’s pockets.
Too many families are struggling to keep up with the cost of living. With housing, gas, and child care costs skyrocketing, we need to give families relief. Maura believes the best way to help families dealing with high costs right now is by making meaningful investments while also putting money back in people’s pockets.
That’s why Maura supports tax relief for families. Under Maura’s Child Tax Credit, more than 700,000 families would receive $600 per child.
Her Child Tax Credit would have numerous benefits. As inflation and the cost of living continues to burden Massachusetts residents, this proposal would put more money back in their pockets. Large families would no longer be excluded from additional assistance. Further, the fully-refundable tax credit would help address the economic crisis stemming from our under-invested child care system, and families who don’t use professional child care would also see an added impact. This will be especially impactful for Black and Latino families, which are more likely to rely on informal child care. Overall, this proposal also would streamline and simplify the tax filing process for Massachusetts families.
Here’s how it works.
Currently, the Household Dependent Tax Credit is for all families with dependents, but it is capped at two dependents with a $180 benefit per dependent, for a maximum benefit of $360. The Dependent Care Tax Credit is for child care-related expenses, but it is also capped at two dependents with a $240 benefit per dependent, with a maximum benefit of $480. Under current law, a tax filer may choose either tax credit but cannot choose both. A family with two dependents who previously received the Dependent Care Tax Credit would get a maximum of $480 – under Healey’s plan, that family would receive $1200 in tax relief.
Maura’s Child Tax Credit would combine these two credits. She would more than double the value of the existing tax credits being offered and remove the dependent cap currently set at two dependents. Her plan would also index the credit to inflation moving forward. This would allow tax filers to simply include the number of dependents (children under age 13, individuals age 65 and over, and persons with disabilities) on their returns in order to receive the credits. This tax credit would also be permanent, giving families stability for years to come.
Maura has the experience, vision, and know-how to lead Massachusetts through the clean energy transition and to deliver on the promise of the opportunities presented. This is our chance to create good-paying jobs, protect our communities, and address environmental injustices that have existed for far too long.
The climate crisis is our greatest risk and our greatest opportunity. Our choice is clear: to protect our families, communities, and the environment that sustains us, we must rapidly transition to clean energy. As Governor, Maura will make climate change a top priority. She understands the critical urgency of this issue and she knows what is at stake—especially for the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable communities. The actions we must take now to protect our families and communities from climate change also present a once in a lifetime opportunity to build a healthier, more equitable future and to position Massachusetts as a global leader in clean energy technology and innovation. She will make that vision a reality by innovating state government, working directly with communities, implementing science-based policy, partnering with clean technology businesses, and supporting clean energy research and development.
Maura is a nationally recognized leader on climate and has led successful efforts to boost clean energy, protect ratepayers from costly and unnecessary investments in fossil fuel infrastructure, fight for health protective federal action on climate and push for market reforms that level the playing field for clean energy. She has the experience, vision, and know-how to lead Massachusetts through the clean energy transition and to deliver on the promise of the opportunities presented. This is our chance to build a better future for all—let’s seize it!
MAURA’S RECORD
Maura knows how to get this done. As Attorney General, she led groundbreaking efforts to combat the climate crisis. In 2019, Maura sued ExxonMobil in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit that alleged the company lied to consumers and investors about the risks of climate change. Maura understands that climate change harms our most vulnerable communities first and worst—she was among the first leaders nationally to draw attention to the unequal effects of COVID-19 on low income communities and communities of color due to environmental factors. She launched several initiatives to support environmental justice communities, including taking on polluters across the state, instituting a program to combat idling vehicles, and installing air monitors in Springfield, which has one of the highest rates of asthma in the country. Maura secured nearly $100 million in mitigation funds from Volkswagen for clean transportation and electric vehicle infrastructure. Her team also led the multi-state effort to block the Trump environmental rollbacks in court and called on the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities to investigate the future of natural gas utilities. Her settlement with Columbia Gas is sending millions of dollars back to low-income communities for climate resiliency and utility relief. As the ratepayer advocate, she worked to keep utility bills low, saving consumers $4.5 billion. Maura will make sure that equity is at the core of all state actions to reduce the threat of climate change and make our communities more resilient.
Last year, Massachusetts enacted An Act Creating a Next-Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy (the 2021 Climate Act). The 2021 Climate Act requires that, over the next eight years, we reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent below 1990 levels. Massachusetts’ greenhouse gas emission reduction mandates are on track with the most recent recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The next Governor needs to be laser-focused on meeting this requirement, creating good-paying and sustainable jobs, and bringing direct economic benefits to the people most deeply impacted by the climate crisis. Maura has the strongest, proven record on climate change of any gubernatorial candidate in Massachusetts history. She is the right leader at the right time to guide Massachusetts to a clean energy future.
GOVERNMENT MUST ACT NOW ON CLIMATE
Climate change is not just an environmental issue—it is an issue of public health, economics, food security, national security, and housing. Our response to climate change must be as multifaceted as the problem itself. Now is the time to innovate in state government and work hand-in-hand with our local and regional partners.
The Healey Plan
Massachusetts must take swift, decisive, and comprehensive action to mitigate the risks posed by the climate crisis. In order to do this, government must be nimble and action must be coordinated across agencies. Maura will create a cabinet-level Climate Chief who will be responsible for driving climate policy across every Massachusetts agency and ensuring that climate change is considered in all relevant decision-making. The Climate Chief will report directly to the Governor, and coordinate efforts between the Executive Offices of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA), Labor and Workforce Development, Housing and Economic Development, the Department of Transportation, Health and Human Services, Public Safety and Security, MBTA, MassDevelopment, and more. Maura will also establish a network of state, regional, and local partnerships to ensure every community in all parts of the Commonwealth has a say in the energy decisions that affect them and receives necessary support to build climate resilience in ways that address community priorities.
The state will lead by example by achieving net-zero emissions by 2030 across state operations and rapidly transitioning the state fleet to electric vehicles. State agencies on the frontlines fighting climate change must have the funds to win the war. As Governor, Maura will commit at least 1 percent of the state budget to the states’ environmental and energy agencies and work with the Legislature to increase funding for the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) to support its growing mission and responsibilities.
Under Maura’s leadership, environmental and energy permitting agencies will build in equity from the ground up and ensure that new and upgraded infrastructure supports, rather than undermines, our climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience goals. All agencies and programs will use the best science and forward-looking climate data in their planning and decision-making.
INNOVATE & CREATE JOBS
Massachusetts knows how to solve problems and build new industries. Becoming the nation’s hub for clean energy innovation will bring industry to the state and create thousands of good-paying, sustainable jobs.
The Healey Plan
Maura will establish a Climate Action and Innovation Leadership Council charged with making Massachusetts the best place in the country to start, staff, and grow a firm that solves environmental and climate challenges. This council will bring together the private and public sectors, and our universities and non-profits to continue Massachusetts’ national leadership on incubating and scaling next-generation technology. This includes advanced storage, networked and deep geothermal, hydrogen, distributed energy, floating offshore wind, non-carbon industrial and building processes, smart modular reactors, and fusion.
As a part of their workforce development agenda, the Healey Administration will work to rapidly deploy workforce development funding to training programs. They will partner with community colleges, vocational schools, workforce investment boards, and labor in order to meet the worker demand of the clean energy economy and transition existing energy workers to high-quality clean energy jobs. They will build a skilled, trained, and large workforce to install electric heat pumps in millions of homes and buildings across the state. Workforce development programs will include wraparound services and stipends to incentivize more women, people of color, and people with low incomes to participate. Training and recruitment programs will be held within overburdened communities.
Maura will reinvigorate the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (CEC) to spur clean tech job growth. With its strong relationships in the private sector and with our world-class academic institutions, the CEC has helped boost the clean energy sector in Massachusetts, which has grown 68 percent since 2010, with over 100,000 people employed as of 2021. Under Maura’s leadership, the CEC will realize its full potential as the state’s clean tech accelerator, driving innovation in everything from high performance buildings to clean transportation to offshore wind, and creating the finance and business models we need to grow the clean energy economy right here in Massachusetts. The CEC will also nurture the skilled workforce needed to meet this growth, creating 40,000 jobs – double the number lost to the pandemic. Maura will work to triple the CEC’s budget and charge it with establishing a Massachusetts Green Bank to facilitate investment in low-carbon, climate-resilient infrastructure and empower it to utilize other economic tools to attract and retain companies that will create new clean energy jobs, particularly in low-income communities. Using the power of public funds to leverage private investment, the Massachusetts Green Bank will finance green projects where they are most needed to deliver community benefits, jobs, reduced emissions, and climate resilience. The Green Bank will also provide seed money to clean energy companies founded in overburdened communities and by people of color.
In a Healey Administration, communities will be empowered to innovate and lead on climate change. Our municipalities have the will to act, but current state law stymies these efforts. Maura will support legislation that provides communities with the legal authority to innovate and demonstrate successful clean energy initiatives. She also will strengthen and expand municipal aggregations and climate partnerships addressing community priorities that create climate co-benefits and the sharing of ideas between communities.
CENTER OVERBURDENED COMMUNITIES
Over the next two decades, we will be investing billions of dollars in clean energy, clean transportation, energy efficiency, and climate adaptation. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in our environmental justice communities, which bear the brunt of increasing temperatures, dangerous pollution, extreme weather, and rising sea levels, and ensure that all communities in Massachusetts are stronger, more resilient, and benefit from these clean energy investments. This is an opportunity for transformational change.
The Healey Plan
A Healey Administration will ensure that American Rescue Plan and Infrastructure Law climate spending directly benefits our overburdened communities and advances our climate goals. They will address and reverse historical disinvestment and disempowerment, and empower community members as decision makers. Communities will drive this effort from the ground up, so that the people most deeply impacted by the climate crisis are involved at every stage. The Healey Administration will support projects like clean energy improvements in public and subsidized housing, schools, or municipal buildings, converting fleets of dirty fuel vehicles to clean electric buses, and community solar. State, regional, and local agencies in urban, suburban, and rural communities alike will work together to apply for and receive every dollar available for Massachusetts and will do so with efficiency and inclusivity. Maura will work to get rid of the unnecessary fossil fuel infrastructure that plagues so many overburdened communities and will work with these communities to repurpose the land in a way that makes sense for them.
Maura also will ensure that overburdened communities have a seat at the table. Agencies like the DPU, the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office (MEPA), Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB), and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) are making decisions that directly affect the health and economic success of our overburdened communities. Agency decision-making must be equity-focused and responsive to community concerns. Maura will appoint representatives from environmental justice communities to the EFSB, create a new DPU Office of Public Participation, and establish intervenor funds to level the playing field and support all interested parties having a voice in agency proceedings. Maura will require that these agencies have diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Top-level officials will all be trained in environmental and energy justice decision-making. And Maura will finally convene the Environmental Justice Advisory Council, which will advise her and her team on the needs of overburdened communities and ensure that the process for distributing climate investments is inclusive of community voices.
Maura will dramatically expand community-based environmental monitoring in overburdened communities across the state, including air monitoring data, using new and transparent technology, and acting on the opportunities the data present to address local air and water pollution. In a Healey Administration, DEP will be empowered to aggressively implement the 2021 Climate Act’s directives and to address cumulative impacts of air pollution and other environmental degradation.
ELECTRIFY EVERYTHING
Today, fossil fuels used by our gas furnaces, oil-fired furnaces and boilers, water heaters, and gas stoves in residential and commercial buildings are responsible for 27 percent of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. Transportation is responsible for 42 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and industrial uses emit 5 percent. In the next two decades, we need to electrify everything—including our buildings and transportation system. We can do this. Our state is home to industrious and innovative workers who can lead this swift transition. Doing so will create jobs, improve public health, and strengthen our economy.
THE HEALEY PLAN
Clean Buildings
Electrifying buildings will be one of our biggest challenges– but also an opportunity for safer, healthier homes and buildings. We have the technology that we need, but we need a bold set of policies to obtain the level of greenhouse gas emissions reduction necessary and to do so equitably.
We also need to change the business model of our gas utilities, which are, after all, public utilities. The Healey Administration will require the gas utilities to adopt transition plans that are customer-focused, equitable, and consistent with the state’s emission reduction requirements. Maintaining the status quo by kicking the can down the road will not be acceptable. Maura will also work with the Legislature and stakeholders to ensure that the state’s law on gas pipe repair and replacement reduces leaks and is consistent with the state’s climate requirements.
Energy efficiency is the most cost-effective way to address emissions and lower customer costs. We must continue and expand our award-winning MassSave energy efficiency program. But we cannot get the job done by relying solely on the MassSave program or by continuing to build homes and buildings that rely on fossil fuels. That is why, in a Healey Administration, municipalities will have the option to adopt a specialized energy code that gives them the authority to ban gas use in new construction.
A Healey Administration will also install one million heat pumps by 2030 by focusing on market transformation: workforce training, customer and installer education, and lower installation costs. Maura will prioritize whole home retrofits for low-income households to help them weatherize, install heat pumps and other efficient electric appliances, and make other health and safety home improvements. And, she will work with the Legislature to establish building emission standards like the new ordinance in effect in Boston (BERDO) and establish a home energy rating system.
Clean Transportation
Affordable, reliable transportation is a crucial backbone of the economy. Massachusetts is among the lowest ranked states when it comes to commute times, and the Greater Boston area has some of the worst traffic congestion in the country. Impoverished riders all face longer commute times, often because their communities are poorly served by public transit, or the cost of housing near transit is prohibitive. Maura understands that access to transportation is access to opportunity. And she knows that transportation is also the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts, and a source of other dangerous air pollution. Fixing the state’s transportation system is a win-win-win for equity, the Commonwealth’s economy, and the environment.
We need to quickly electrify all modes of transportation. At the same time, we need to reduce car usage by improving the reliability and frequency of transit services, expanding transit to economically growing zones, and adjusting land use patterns so more homes and jobs are near transit. Maura’s vision for a clean transportation system will increase transportation choice, reduce emissions, and improve public health. As a part of her transportation agenda, a Healey Administration will electrify public transportation so that all modes operate on 100 percent clean power by 2040, starting with school and MBTA buses by 2030.
Maura will ensure that the nearly $3 billion in new federal transit funding for Massachusetts state and regional transit authorities will pay dividends in better, expanded, and affordable MBTA and RTA service and she will leverage state dollars to target additional federal funds. But she knows that these additional funds are not sufficient to maintain and expand the Commonwealth’s public transportation system to meet our goals. The Commonwealth needs long term, sustained state funding sources to support the RTAs and tackle the projected shortfalls in the MBTA capital and operating funds. Maura will evaluate options, including revenue-generating incentives to decarbonize transportation, as part of her commitment to solving this longstanding problem.
Maura will also put 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030 by providing larger rebates for used and low-cost electric vehicles, while making it easy for customers to access these rebates at the time they buy or lease their vehicle. She will prioritize public spending on electric vehicle charging infrastructure projects that benefit low- and moderate-income households and overburdened communities.
The Healey Administration will end the sale of new passenger cars and light duty trucks powered by gasoline or diesel by 2035. All public fleet purchases will be electric by 2028. They will require utilities to offer discounts for charging at night when electricity demand is low. The Healey transportation agenda will also include bold investment in electric vehicle infrastructure and strong incentives for their adoption, including for heavy duty vehicles, as well as pedestrian walkways, and safe, expanded bike lanes.
The last two years have demonstrated that telework is a viable alternative to the daily commute for many jobs and industries. The Healey Administration will work with employers to reduce car usage through smart telework policies and expand on measures to reduce single occupancy vehicles. These policies are not only good for the environment, but they also reduce commuting times.
Recognizing that different communities and regions have different clean transportation needs, Maura will put communities in the driver’s seat by establishing a community-based transportation equity program to support planning for projects that local communities most need.
BUILD A MODERN, CONSUMER-ORIENTED CLEAN ENERGY GRID
To meet the goal of electrifying everything, Massachusetts needs to exponentially expand clean energy to power all electricity. This means deploying wind, solar, hydro, storage, and other emerging clean technologies—and to do so faster than ever before. We need to expand our electric transmission system to move power to where people are, modernize our distribution grid, and invest in energy efficiency and long-duration energy storage. Accelerating the pace of renewable development will create jobs, strengthen our economy, and enhance reliability while addressing climate change and local air pollution.
The Healey Plan
Under a Healey Administration, Massachusetts will achieve 100 percent clean electricity supply by 2030.
Maura will position Massachusetts as the nation’s offshore wind capital by expeditiously permitting the 5,600 MW of offshore wind procurements currently authorized by law and more than doubling the Commonwealth’s target to 10,000 MW offshore wind by 2035. She will do that by increasing our offshore wind procurements and exploring market mechanisms to procure wind-powered energy at the lowest cost as well as facilitating corporate, municipal, and non-profit agreements to buy directly from the power producer. Through project labor agreements, she will ensure that union workers build this industry and do so with prevailing wages. Maura will also increase investments in port infrastructure to $200 million to ensure that Massachusetts retains its leadership role in offshore wind development.
The Healey Administration will capitalize on the strong existing Massachusetts solar industry with a total of 10 GW of deployed solar by 2030. They will deploy rooftop solar installations in the communities where widespread adoption is lacking and encourage smart siting of large solar facilities. Maura will also press utilities to plan for and upgrade the distribution system to integrate this new solar equitably, without the delays customers face today due to utility backlogs. Investing in a smarter grid will help ensure that it will continue to perform as we increase our dependence on electricity for heating and transportation.
Maura will quadruple energy storage deployment by 2030 and invest in research and development to make long-duration storage a reality. She also will build upon Massachusetts’ award-winning energy efficiency programs by ending fossil fuel incentives, encouraging fuel switching and beneficial electrification, and focusing on whole building electrification in low-income and overburdened communities. And a Healey Administration will give customers greater control over their energy use through home solar and storage systems, community energy systems, advanced meters, time varying rates, and smart appliances.
Regional transmission lines, both within New England and connecting with other regions, will allow Massachusetts to import and export power. These lines are crucial for a reliable and clean electric system. There are large reserves of reliable hydropower from existing dams in Canada which would complement solar and offshore wind energy, but thus far, Massachusetts has not succeeded in finding a way to bring these supplies to the Commonwealth. Maura will be a leader among our neighboring states that, like Massachusetts, are seeking to decarbonize their economies and leverage our region’s shared vision for our energy transition. Maura will work closely with regional partners to ensure that ISO-New England markets for buying and selling power do not discriminate against clean power. Federal markets, transmission planning, and siting all must align with our path to a modern, renewable energy grid focused on consumers. In the first six months of a Healey Administration, Maura will convene a regional energy summit to develop a strategy for addressing transmission, siting, market reform, and cost allocation issues. A Healey Administration will also reduce technical process delays that keep clean energy from connecting to the grid, increase the states’ roles in transmission planning, and ensure that our distribution and transmission systems are up to date and can work with each other.
Maura will establish a new DPU division on grid modernization to remove delays and barriers to renewable resources connecting to the distribution grid and ensure that utilities plan for and build a modern grid that will support distributed resources and building and heating electrification. She will support programs that decrease electricity use during times of high demand and incentivize electricity use when demand is low. Maura will direct the EFSB, together with an advisory group, to review and make recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature on how the Commonwealth can best facilitate the siting of clean energy in appropriate places. The recommendations will prioritize energy and environmental justice and develop options for more efficient and less costly permitting processes.
KEEP CARBON IN THE GROUND AND PROTECT OUR FARMS & FORESTS
To meet our climate goals, we have to both reduce emissions from all sectors and remove existing carbon dioxide pollution from our atmosphere. Protecting our forests, agricultural soils, and wetlands reduces emissions, and removes carbon pollution from our atmosphere. Massachusetts’ forests are of an age and condition to draw down significant quantities of carbon from the atmosphere in the next decade, by 2050 and by 2100. These natural climate solutions offer other benefits, including making our ecosystems more resilient, providing natural cooling and shade, flood control, protecting species, promoting biodiversity, recreation, and supporting local agriculture and access to healthy food. Establishing Strategic Forest Reserves to provide these services and preserve our matured forests to draw down carbon is essential to meeting our climate goals. Providing incentives for sustainable forest and farm management practices will allow us to preserve our agricultural heritage and continue to produce forest products over the long term.
The Healey Plan
There are currently about 3 million acres of forested lands in Massachusetts, and most are unprotected or lack sufficient protections. The Healey Administration will establish a Forest Protection Program that will provide enhanced incentives to willing private landowners to keep their trees growing rather than harvesting them. The program will reward private landowners who manage their forests for reducing emissions over each harvest cycle, including by increasing intervals between harvests, conserving the oldest mature trees, protecting soil carbon during harvest, and other improved harvesting and management practices.
Rapid growth in solar power is crucial to ensuring Massachusetts meets its emission reduction mandates, yet it must be sited appropriately. The Healey Administration will carefully tailor solar incentive programs to ensure a balanced approach that achieves our solar potential while protecting our mature forests. They will do this by prioritizing deployment of rooftop solar and solar installations in parking lot canopies, brownfields, landfills, unused industrial or commercial sites, powerline and other rights of way, and suitable agricultural and horticultural lands.
The Commonwealth’s wetlands also store large volumes of soil carbon. While we can be proud of our strong wetlands protections—among the most effective in the world—our wetlands are still being lost, in part because our no-net-loss policy permits wetlands to be replaced with man-made alternatives. Maura will strengthen wetlands protections to ensure they remain carbon sinks, not sources.
Burning wood for bioenergy depletes our forests, increases greenhouse gas emissions, and is a threat to human health. Maura will end subsidies for forest bioenergy for electricity and commercial-scale heat.
Maura will place a temporary moratorium on commercial harvesting on state-owned public forest land. Within her first year as Governor, she will develop and implement a science-based state forest management plan that accounts for the impacts of climate change on our forest resources and the role our forests can play in protecting the climate.
Massachusetts has a vibrant farming community, including young farmers, and farmers markets and Community Supported Agriculture opportunities are popular across the state. Through the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, Maura will establish a Climate-Friendly Farming program to provide technical assistance to farmers interested in farm management practices that can reduce emissions and help drawdown carbon. And, the Healey Administration will measure and track outcomes to verify reductions and gain more knowledge about the techniques that work best for our soil types and crops. Through this voluntary program, they will also provide information and assistance to farmers seeking to reduce costs and climate-warming nitrous oxide emissions through smarter use of fertilizers—a measure that also protects our streams, wetlands, and waterbodies from polluted runoff.
MASSACHUSETTS STRONG—BUILDING RESILIENCY
Climate change is already causing more extremes in temperature, precipitation, runoff and flooding, extended droughts, high winds, and storms. Faster-than-historical increases in temperature and sea-level rise cause disruptive and irreversible shifts in seasons and shorelines. The expected extremes and gradual changes will combine in unexpected ways to cause ecological, agricultural, infrastructure, human, and economic impacts sooner and larger than expected. Making the needed investments now will strengthen our communities and protect our vital resources, while addressing community priorities.
The Healey Plan
The urgent need for adaptation measures is one that spans our state, and adaptation needs vary from community to community. Rural Western Massachusetts has different needs from our coastal areas, which are in turn different from the needs in the urban centers of the Boston metro region, Worcester, and Springfield. 93 percent of Massachusetts cities and towns (328 municipalities) have enrolled in the Massachusetts Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) program. Maura will increase the budget for this successful program, allowing more communities to focus on implementation and action. She will also work to build capacity in and provide technical assistance to lower-capacity rural and urban communities so that they can take advantage of funding opportunities to improve planning for climate resilience.
Maura will prioritize efforts to ensure storm and flood preparedness (coastal and inland), with a focus on reviewing and improving existing flood protection and insurance, awareness campaigns, and training for emergency management personnel. She will establish a blue-ribbon commission charged with developing a statewide framework devoted to addressing the impacts of sea level rise, erosion, and extreme storms on our treasured and vulnerable coast. This commission will leverage our scientific community’s increasingly sophisticated data about the risks we presently face and consider best practices to encourage retreat in areas where sea level rise or riverine flooding is too extreme to be addressed by reasonable modifications.
One of the most immediate impacts of climate change in Massachusetts will be heat. Heat waves disproportionately impact people of color, the elderly, people with disabilities, and people living in public and subsidized housing. Maura will implement an Extreme Heat Action Plan to build community resilience. The plan will include large-scale tree planting, identifying heat islands, training for local health officials, cooling schools, and a public health monitoring system to identify heat illness events early, and monitor trends.
Climate resilience includes creating awareness of the potential health, including mental health, impacts of climate change. Maura will partner with Massachusetts’ leading health care providers to promote awareness of climate change related health issues.
We have a lot more work to do to address systemic racism in our criminal justice system – and across all realms of our society. Maura will continue to advocate for criminal justice reforms.
Maura’s background is as a civil rights lawyer, and her work has been and continues to be guided by a commitment to equity. It’s why she’s brought cases against predatory landlords and lenders. It’s why she’s worked to address the broken student loan system and reduce the debt burden on families of color and immigrants. It’s why her office has invested in recovery services in Black and Latino/Hispanic communities. It’s why she revealed civil rights violations in the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office, leading to the termination of its contract with the federal government. It’s why she’s taken on pollution and environmental injustices.
And it’s why she’s supported criminal justice reforms – the 2020 police reform bill in Massachusetts, repealing mandatory minimums, bail reform, adopting uniform policies on eyewitness identification, increasing the property crime thresholds amounts and thereby downgrading many of these offenses from felonies to misdemeanors, releasing terminally ill incarcerated individuals, ending mandatory drivers license revocations for non-driving offenses, creating and supporting Conviction Integrity Units in all her prosecutorial offices to address wrongful convictions, and more.
Voters can count on Maura to use this same equity lens as Governor. She knows that we have a lot more work to do to address systemic racism in our criminal justice system – and across all realms of our society. That includes:
Maura will promote economic development that creates opportunity, serving and balancing the needs of all stakeholders – our communities, workers, employers, and investors.
With a visionary public-private partnership, we are poised to create the next Massachusetts Miracle, expanding our place as a world leader, engaging our resources in investment and capital, high-tech innovation, and academic creativity to build a dynamic economy that embraces climate resiliency and sustainable growth. Maura will make certain that these partnerships, first and foremost, serve the current and future needs of our residents and our environment.
Maura knows that a healthy economy for all our citizens must be built from the bottom up, the middle out, and the top down. She will continue to lift up workers by advocating for universal child care, fair wages, and strong benefits. She will build out our middle class by investing in education, workforce training, housing affordability, and public transportation. Maura will also take a close look at our tax policy to make sure it addresses today’s extreme concentration of wealth and income such that our sources of revenue and our expenditures lead to a fairer and more balanced economy.
Maura’s economic development agenda will include the following:
Maura comes from a family of educators. Her mom, Tracy, is a middle school nurse and her stepdad, Edward, was Maura’s basketball coach and the president of their local teacher’s union. As a middle school basketball coach herself, Maura believes strongly in the importance of a well-rounded, quality education for every child in Massachusetts.
Massachusetts is home to globally-recognized public schools and educators. But this achievement masks the persistent reality that Massachusetts is also home to wide opportunity gaps that plague our students of color, English language learners, students with disabilities, and low-income students. The past two years have been especially hard on our students, educators, and parents. Our entire education system has been upended by COVID-19. Every child has had their education and development disrupted at some level and the disparities that existed before the pandemic have only widened. As we emerge from the pandemic, we need to rebuild our education system so it works better for everyone and to ensure that all children have equal access to a quality education.
As Governor, Maura would be laser-focused on closing these opportunity gaps, from early childhood, to K-12, to higher education.
Our early childhood education and care system – which is essential to the basic functioning of our economy – is in desperate need of investment. We saw what happened during this pandemic to our child care system – children suffered, parents couldn’t go to work, and businesses and the economy struggled. Now, two years later, we still have 10 percent fewer child care slots than we had before the pandemic and families are struggling to afford the cost. Massachusetts ranks second in the country for infant care costs, higher than what most would pay to attend a public university. It’s not surprising that the percentage of women in the workforce has dropped significantly. And our early education and care workforce – 40 percent of whom are women of color – is depleted by burnout and low wages.
Maura has been a strong advocate for greater investment in early education and care. She called on Congress to invest billions in the industry, pass federal child care legislation, and make the child tax credit permanent.
As Governor, she will continue to advocate for federal funding for early education and care, as well as explore state solutions to the child care crisis. Maura supports the Common Start proposal, which would make child care free for the lowest-income families, limit child care costs for most families to no more than 7 percent of their income, and significantly increase pay for early educators to address the workforce crisis in the early education field.
Maura will also support early education and care providers. As Governor, she will partner with educational institutions to create an early education and care workforce pipeline – including expanded access to career development opportunities – and implement strategies focused on workforce retention. Maura also supports efforts in the Legislature to increase salaries of early education providers and the effective implementation of the Early Education and Care Public Private Trust Fund.
Maura is a longtime advocate for equitable funding for our public schools and improved behavioral health services for our students. She supported the Student Opportunity Act, which provides more equitable funding for our school districts. She opposed the 2016 ballot measure that would have drained millions from our public schools by expanding the number of charter schools in the state. And she’s funded groundbreaking programming across the state to prevent substance use disorder, combat sexual assault, stop gun violence and bullying, and help young people build healthy relationships in school. Her partnership with Sandy Hook Promise has helped deploy their violence prevention program in 50 school districts throughout the state.
As Governor, Maura would continue her focus on closing achievement gaps and better supporting students and their families, including:
Massachusetts’ colleges and universities are some of our greatest resources. They drive economic growth and higher wages, and foster an environment of curiosity and innovation for which our state is renowned. But underneath these achievements are persistent disparities. In 2001, our public university graduates had one of the lowest student debt in the nation. By 2016, debt levels climbed to 10th. One important driver of this change is cuts to state spending on higher education – Massachusetts spends 31 percent less on higher education per student than it did 20 years ago, and instead places that burden on our students in the form of increased tuition and fees. Higher education can be an important pathway to economic mobility, and our public university graduates are much more likely to stay in Massachusetts after graduation, starting their families, contributing to our economy, and forming the fabric of our communities. The jobs are here – a 2016 report predicted that many good-paying jobs in our thriving tech and health care industries would go unfilled. Today, that’s truer than ever.
Maura knows all too well how student debt holds back our residents. She is the first and only Attorney General in the country to create a Student Loan Assistance Unit, and she’s helped thousands of borrowers navigate our broken student debt system. She sued the Department of Education and brokered huge settlements with Navient and FedLoan that will help borrowers pay down their debt and receive loan forgiveness. She led the call with Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley for President Bident to cancel up $50,000 in federal debt per borrower. For Maura, tackling our student debt crisis is a matter of basic economics and racial justice. Too many borrowers can’t buy a home, start a family, or get ahead because of their debt. And Black and brown borrowers bear a disproportionate debt burden. As Governor, Maura would continue her focus on improving access to affordable public higher education and reducing student debt, including:
Maura is focused on addressing the affordability crisis and promoting health equity, while maintaining the highest quality of care.
Massachusetts is lucky to have the best hospitals and health care institutions in the world. The strength of our health care system has never been more apparent than during the last two years of the pandemic. In particular, we have seen the best of our health care workforce, as they have gone above and beyond to serve our communities. But Maura knows that, despite the world class care here in Massachusetts, families are still struggling to afford it, as we have some of the highest costs in the country. Racial and ethnic disparities that have existed for generations continue to prevent equitable access to care and have been exacerbated by the pandemic.
Maura is focused on addressing the affordability crisis and promoting health equity, while maintaining the highest quality of care. Last year, her office released a robust report on racial inequity in health with recommendations in key areas to move toward racial justice in health care. As Governor, Maura will build on that vision to ensure we have a system that serves every community. This includes:
Maura’s background in housing has been focused on making it easier for people to afford to stay in their homes.
Maura’s background in housing has been focused on making it easier for people to afford to stay in their homes. When she was chief of the Attorney General’s Civil Rights Division, she led the office’s efforts to hold banks accountable after the mortgage crisis. She’s worked for years to stop illegal evictions, help tenants navigate the eviction process, and hold landlords accountable. She’s sued realtors for discrimination, and brokered a settlement with the Boston Housing Authority over health concerns in its facilities. In Lynn, she’s been working to help a family after their landlord forced them to live in filth, harassed them, and then called ICE on them. As Massachusetts approached an eviction crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Maura instructed her team to step up their efforts to help tenants navigate the state’s process to access rental assistance. The office purchased tables for community centers to provide people with a local place where they could fill out the application and launched an internal task force to handle evictions in multiple languages.
One of the top issues Maura hears from residents and business owners across the state is housing affordability as they struggle to keep up with rising rents and mortgages. As Governor, Maura proposes:
Additionally, Maura believes expanding rail service will help ease the housing crunch in Boston and bring economic development to other areas of the state. Maura also knows that climate plays a significant role in our housing crisis. We can’t let our communities become vulnerable to extreme weather, nor trapped in a situation where they can’t afford mounting utility bills, like what we’re seeing right now. State funds need to go toward weatherizing and preparing existing housing for solar, targeted at low-income communities.
Maura has been a leading advocate for immigrant rights. As Governor, she will ensure that all Massachusetts families can thrive.
One of the first steps Maura took as AG was to create an Advisory Council on New Americans to help address the needs of the state’s immigrant and refugee communities. She also instituted a language access plan and a first-of-its-kind Division of Community Engagement to lead trainings on immigrant rights, tenant rights, and more in different languages in communities across the state.
Her team has stood up for the rights of the DREAMers, temporary protected status holders, and asylum seekers, successfully challenged President Trump’s xenophobic policies that targeted immigrants and refugees, and advocated for a fair and accurate Census that counted every person, regardless of legal status. She also launched an investigation that found that the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office violated the civil rights of federal immigration detainees. After her office published a report about these violations, the Department of Homeland Security terminated its contracts with the Sheriff. Maura also put out multiple advisories on immigrant rights in the context of scams, higher education, COVID-19, and food pantries. Just recently, she secured a settlement with an immigration attorney running an asylum scam in the Brazilian community.
As Governor, Maura will continue to defend our immigrant communities and work to find meaningful ways to make sure everyone in our state feels safe, welcome and has the tools needed to thrive. That includes:
Maura is a longtime advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. She will be a Governor who stands up for LGBTQ+ youth.
Maura has proudly served as the first openly gay Attorney General in the country. She’s seen her role as a way to open doors for future LGBTQ+ leaders and show young people what’s possible for them. Now, she’s running to be the first lesbian Governor in the country at a time when politicians across the country are launching heartless attacks on LGBTQ+ youth.
Maura’s message to the LGBTQ+ community, particularly young people, is that they are loved and that she will fight for them. That’s what she has done throughout her career. She brought the first successful challenge to DOMA when she was Civil Rights Chief in the Attorney General’s Office, helping to lay the groundwork for marriage equality nationwide. As AG, she championed non-discrimination protections for trans people in Massachusetts, pushed for gender neutral markers on a state and federal level, and stood up to the Trump administration’s numerous attacks on the LGBTQ+ community – from undermining anti-discrimination protections in health care, to rolling back protections for transgender students in schools, to banning transgender individuals in the military, and much more.
As Governor, Maura will continue to stand up to efforts to infringe on LGBTQ+ rights and work to ensure that everyone in Massachusetts can live a happy, healthy, authentic life. That includes:
With our reproductive rights under attack like never before, Maura will ensure patients and providers are protected here in Massachusetts.
Maura knows that reproductive freedom is under threat like never before. It’s a direct attack on women, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community. With Roe v. Wade overturned, our next governor needs to continue to protect access to safe and legal abortion in Massachusetts, break down systemic barriers to these services, and expand access to comprehensive reproductive care for all. Maura will work closely with legislative leaders, public health experts, and advocates like the Beyond ROE Coalition to ensure Massachusetts remains a beacon of hope for all who are seeking care.
Maura has long been a strong advocate for access to reproductive care. Before she was AG, she defended Massachusetts’ Buffer Zone Law to protect patients from harassment at health centers, investigated crisis pregnancy centers for deceptive practices, led efforts to protect the public safety of abortion providers, and worked on litigations in various federal courts to defend access to abortion.
As AG, Maura has challenged unconstitutional abortion restrictions across the country and took on the Trump administration for its attacks on birth control access, Title X, and abortion via telehealth. She secured a settlement with an advertising company to stop them from targeting advertisements around health centers that provide abortion care. She was also an early and strong supporter of the ACCESS Law, which expanded access to contraception, and the ROE Act, which removed several anti-abortion restrictions from Massachusetts law in 2020. And while she was Co-Chair of the Democratic Attorneys General Association, it became the first and only Democratic campaign committee to require candidates to publicly state their support for abortion rights in order to receive endorsements.
While there is not currently a federal abortion ban and abortion remains legal in Massachusetts, in her role as Attorney General, Maura has pledged that she will never enforce such a ban.
As Governor, Maura will stand for reproductive freedom by:
Transportation is a key building block for economic mobility in Massachusetts. Maura will work to ensure our transportation system is safe, reliable, and accessible throughout the state.
Maura knows that if we are going to create jobs and support businesses in every region of our state, reduce costs that are crushing our families, do something about our climate crisis – then we have to fix our transportation system. That means investing in our public transportation – our subway, trains, ferries, and buses – and fixing our crumbling local roads, bridges, and tunnels. Massachusetts has received an influx of federal funding, and the next Governor will oversee how it is spent. Maura will make sure that no region, no community is ignored.
There is no functioning state economy without functioning public transportation. Transportation remains the second highest household expense. Our residents and businesses need a public transportation system they can rely on to get them home, school, work, and the doctor’s office safely and on time. For many in our underserved communities, public transit is not an alternative mode of transportation but the only mode of transportation. Drivers need roadways that are free from congestion so they can get to work, rather than sitting in economy-choking congestion. Done well, transportation infrastructure generates jobs, thriving neighborhoods, and environmental progress, supports a healthier community, and can turn more affordable housing regions into practical commuting options. Done wrong, transportation failures strangle economic growth, harm families, worsen inequity, and contribute to climate change. Maura is committed to working with elected officials, community leaders, and the business community to ensure that we do indeed get it right.
Massachusetts has seen both sides of this dichotomy. We had the first rapid transit system in the country – which now means we have the oldest system, most in need of the unglamorous demands of repair and maintenance. We also have, on the country’s oldest public transit line, new cars, extensions and stations, including in Somerville and soon in Medford. In Massachusetts, we have seen economic transformation from smart infrastructure investments: Route 128 and the tech revolution, Logan Airport in the 1950s, the Turnpike Extension and the revival of Boston, the reconfiguring of the Orange Line in lieu of the Southwest Expressway, the extensions of the Red Line south to Quincy and north to Somerville and Alewife, and the Big Dig’s impact on Boston and beyond. These projects taught us some valuable lessons for the future, and also showed us that the economy grows as a result of connectivity. Investments made in transportation have a huge return for the economy–for every dollar spent, the return on investment is four fold. Further, transportation allows us to connect with family, friends, and local businesses. Maura recognizes that now is the time to prioritize transportation to make Massachusetts a destination for those to live and work, where residents can efficiently get to where they want to go through a variety of safe and reliable transportation modes.
MAURA’S RECORD
Maura understands the important role that transportation plays in the economic mobility of Massachusetts families. The cost of maintaining a car, gas, or a monthly pass to ride public transportation eats away at our residents’ budgets, and prices are only going up. That’s why, as our Attorney General, Maura has been a staunch advocate for drivers and riders. Maura has also been aggressive in getting consumers refunds and compensation related to car issues – she’s returned $3.5 million back to our residents through these cases and filed legislation to strengthen protections for car buyers. Her groundbreaking settlement with Volkswagen ensured thousands of Massachusetts residents received up to $10,000, in addition to compensation for their faulty cars, and the state was able to use the settlement funds to invest in electric vehicle infrastructure. She’s not afraid of powerful interests – she’s stood up for Massachusetts’ clean car standards which save drivers hundreds of billions at the pump. During the pandemic, she called out car insurers for overcharging drivers hundreds of millions of dollars, and demanded a change in rates. Maura also believes that accessible and affordable public transportation is essential to our economy and public health. That’s why she defended the expansion of South Coast Rail from legal challenges, called attention to the devastating impacts of air pollution on environmental justice communities, and advocated for expanding rail and bus lines.
PRIORITIZE SAFETY & RELIABILITY ABOVE ALL ELSE
A transportation system that is safe and reliable is non-negotiable. Maura believes that the safety issues that have plagued our transportation system in recent years are unacceptable and will be the first challenge she will take on as Governor.
The Healey Plan
No transportation initiatives can be addressed without first addressing the safety and reliability of all modes of transportation. Upon taking office, Maura will immediately appoint a Transportation Safety Chief to work across the relevant transportation agencies to conduct a full safety review of our rail and bus operations, and roads and bridges, including for cyclists and pedestrians. This will include an analysis of the root causes of safety failures. Paired with the Federal Transit Administration’s report, the results of this audit will provide a framework and inform her transportation work. Maura will also task the Transportation Safety Chief with increasing accountability and strengthening the mandate of the safety departments in the relevant agencies, including the Department of Public Utilities. This will include establishing key safety standards across departments and corrective action plans should those standards not be met.
Following the safety audit, Maura will direct the MBTA to establish new clear, quantifiable performance metrics for each mode of transport and will commit to regular public reporting, so that the public has a clear understanding of where our transportation is excelling and where more work needs to be done. This will be especially important during these early months of getting the MBTA back on track following the recent Federal Transit Authority (FTA) report. Further, Maura will prioritize hiring and training safety and essential Operations Control Center personnel in her first six months in office, as well as pursuing steps outlined in the FTA Report to protect the safety of MBTA riders. Maura will also prioritize critical maintenance projects that have been unnecessarily delayed in order to ensure the safe operations of our transit system.
Many of the safety and reliability challenges the Commonwealth is experiencing are due to delayed project delivery, including many of the state’s most transformative projects, such as the Charlie Card system update and new Red and Orange Line cars. Maura will order a review of project delivery for all existing projects in the pipeline to spend state and federal dollars more wisely and to determine how the state can deliver projects faster, cheaper, and safer across the Commonwealth.
More broadly, Maura will direct her Secretary of Transportation to implement standard safety and communication procedures across all transportation departments and agencies so that in the event of a safety or reliability failure, the public is kept safe and informed.
INVEST IN INFRASTRUCTURE
Historical underinvestment in transportation has led to a system that is rife with challenges. It has yielded a system that requires a substantial infusion of dollars to bring existing operations to a stable place and to help propel new transportation projects forward that are sorely needed. We are at the precipice of a special opportunity with an influx of federal dollars, a state surplus, and the public will to give our transportation system the investments it requires and deserves.
The Healey Plan
The Biden Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides an unprecedented amount of new capital investment for transit, rail, and roadway infrastructure, and a significant impetus for producing electric automobiles to reduce transportation environmental impacts. However, there will be competition for these federal dollars and Massachusetts will need to be thoughtful and aggressive in how it pursues this opportunity.
In order to maximize the potential benefit from the Biden Administration’s law, Maura will create a multi-disciplinary task force whose sole focus will be to pursue the greatest amount of federal funding to help bridge Massachusetts’ current funding needs, as well as jumpstart new capital projects. The task force will include representation from several secretariats, including Administration and Finance, Energy and Environmental Affairs, and Public Safety and Security, as well as the MBTA, MassPort, local municipalities, and the business community, to better coordinate proposals and prioritize projects. The task force will focus on putting together a list of smaller, local projects that are ripe for federal assistance, as well as identifying the larger, transformative projects that require a major infusion of dollars.
Federal dollars, however, will not be enough to make long-term sustainable investments. Massachusetts’ current funding levels are insufficient and many new proposals, while perhaps part of the solution, are inadequate. The Fair Share Amendment will direct much needed dollars into our public transportation system. Chapter 90, which funds our local roads and bridges, also plays a critical role. The Commonwealth needs sufficient funds to maintain a state of good repair, that has long been absent, while also having the resources to launch new projects. Maura is committed to working with federal partners, legislative leadership, businesses, and local communities to think creatively on how we increase revenue, without relying on passenger fares. In particular, Maura will collaborate with the business community to explore the potential of creative public-private partnerships to improve our transportation system. Maura believes that there is not one specific funding source that will solve the long-term underinvestment in our transportation system.
Investing in infrastructure is not only about the dollars spent, but also about human capital. Dedicating resources, including time and energy, to the people that make our transportation system possible is absolutely critical. Maura recognizes that severe staffing shortages have contributed to the challenges in the transportation system and will prioritize hiring, training and retaining staff across all levels and disciplines to ensure that our transportation system is well supported. As part of this effort, Maura will make state transportation jobs across agencies more desirable and provide training and professional development opportunities. This is especially critical for allowing entry level workers to upskill for future promotion opportunities and to retain talent. Maura will ensure that there is a clear career pathway, from onboarding through promotion, beginning with a more streamlined hiring process. She will also ensure that state agencies are actively recruiting from across the Commonwealth and across sectors to hire the best and brightest professional transportation employees.
Addressing staffing does not just start with a job application, but much earlier. Maura will work with high schools, vocational technical schools, and community colleges to create a pipeline for the next generation of transportation workers. This includes building vital skillsets needed to serve as bus and train drivers, as well as engineers and planners.
TRANSFORM GOVERNANCE & CULTURE
Massachusetts’ transportation system is made up of a patchwork of different agencies with a perplexing organizational structure that has led to poor communication, ambiguous ownership of projects, and the absence of a clear and cohesive vision for transportation in the Commonwealth. This lack of clarity has also impacted the broader employee culture – insufficient staffing, long hours, thankless work, and public outrage over safety and service failures have created a demoralized employee base. A “righting of the ship” needs to include both a governance structure overhaul with inspired leadership and a concerted effort to make transportation workers feel valued again. Maura will bring into focus a clear and compelling vision for transportation in the Commonwealth, where there is a clear governance structure and, accordingly, clear ownership of projects and clear accountability for the success of every aspect of the program.
The Healey Plan
The relationship between the Department of Transportation (MassDOT) and the MBTA and the other regional transit authorities has been fluid over the years with varying degrees of success. Maura believes that previous efforts to consolidate transportation under one secretariat was a step in the right direction. There is value in having rail authorities function as quasi-independent agencies; however, that only works if the responsibilities and governance structure are clear. The recent slate of failures at the MBTA have shown that they are not. We can neither bring our transportation system into a state of good repair, nor can we envision a bolder future for our transportation system, if it is mired in confusion. We need clarity and accountability.
The MBTA’s General Manager (GM) must possess both inspirational leadership and the ability to manage a large, technical transit organization. Maura will appoint an experienced and respected leadership team and create a governance structure at the MBTA to meet the challenges of safety, reliability, accessibility, and affordability. Maura will appoint a GM who can deliver that, while supporting them with two Deputy GMs who can add technical expertise and execution skills, specifically the Deputy GM of Operations and an elevated Deputy GM of Capital Planning. These three leaders will work closely together and collaborate to ensure that the professional know-how is there and influences every decision, while also ensuring that the GM is actively involved and informed in key decision making. Maura will also ensure that there is a formal, clear organizational chart at the MBTA to facilitate better communication and clarify accountability across the agency.
Maura will also strengthen and clarify the oversight roles of both the MBTA Board and MassDOT to better support the MBTA leadership team. This includes giving the Board more active authority to oversee the GM, better coordinating capital planning between MassDOT and the MBTA, and ensuring that the division of responsibilities between the agencies is crystal clear. While the Fiscal Management and Control Board (FMCB) had an oversized presence in the day to day decision making of the T during a challenging time, the current iteration of the Board requires more authority to be able to intervene and make tough decisions, when necessary. As Governor, Maura has five appointees to the Board and she will prioritize appointing members who have demonstrated experience in transit, safety, organizational management, customer service, and crisis communication. She will empower the Board to partner and collaborate with the GM and the leadership team, and challenge, when appropriate, and intervene if necessary.
Creating a culture that encourages and celebrates communication, creativity, and diversity at all levels is paramount–from the top of the organization with the leadership team all the way down to the customer service employees, bus drivers, and maintenance workers. This applies to fostering communications regarding daily operations, building opportunities to suggest and implement new and creative ideas to make sure the agency and its systems are running efficiently and effectively, and addressing challenges within the work environment so that all employees feel safe and supported. As Governor, Maura will task the Secretary and GM to engage in an internal “listening tour” of the Commonwealth’s transportation workers to determine where there is opportunity to improve internal operations, agency morale, and employee quality of life. Following the listening tour, leadership will release a plan for how to address employee concerns, including quarterly employee engagement sessions, that allow for continued dialogue between leadership and employees on how to improve the culture within our transportation agencies.
CREATE ACCESS & EQUITY FOR ALL
The vision of our Commonwealth as a thriving ecosystem for all can only be realized by achieving equity in access to transit across the state. This includes an honest reflection on whether we are serving historically marginalized communities adequately and a fully expansive view that requires us to look well beyond the borders of Boston. A fully functioning, equitable, statewide transportation system that maximizes the use of all modes of transport is critical to being a first class destination to live and work.
The Healey Plan
In recognition of the historical injustices in our transportation system, as Governor, Maura will task the transportation agencies to review existing service to historically marginalized and underserved neighborhoods –both in Boston and beyond– and craft a plan to improve and expand service to those neighborhoods. These plans would have an eye to prioritizing future capital projects, including transition of the Fairmount line to a rapid transit system, which serves some of Boston’s densest neighborhoods. Further, Maura commits to implementing low-income fares and unlimited bus transfers, as well as outlining a pathway to fare free buses throughout the Commonwealth.
Roadways and highways throughout the Commonwealth serve all residents of the Commonwealth in some way. Responsibility for the maintenance of these roads is a patchwork, including MassDOT, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, and local municipalities. This has yielded varying levels of quality and inconsistent achievement of state of good repair. Maura will work with state agencies and local communities to set uniform standards across all roadways, including expectations regarding sidewalks, crosswalks, speed management, accessibility, and more.
The name “commuter rail” has hindered our ability to maximize the potential for a regional rail system in Massachusetts. By thinking so literally about what these rail lines are used for, presumably rush hour traffic to move people from home to 9-5 hour work and back again, we are squandering an opportunity to build a stronger and more inclusive state economy. Maura will transition the rail system to meet the needs of our workers and our modern economy. She will commit to a fully realized regional rail system by 2040. This will begin with expanding rail service patterns to serve throughout the day instead of just focusing on rush-hour. Technology and the pandemic have changed commuting patterns, and at a minimum we should adjust accordingly. Longterm, however, this also will include fully accessible platforms at all rail stations and high frequency every day, all day, in both directions. The current contract for the commuter rail expires in two years, which provides a new opportunity to think through how the procurement process and the next contract can move the Commonwealth forward on regional rail.
Regional transit, more broadly, also needs to be expanded to better reflect rider needs. The RTAs provide a major role in economic development across their respective regions by providing mobility across the state. Maura will work with the regional transit authorities (RTAs) to increase bus service frequency, including on weekends. She will also work to ensure that schedules are better coordinated between authorities and with rail, so that riders can have a seamless experience transitioning from one mode to another for first mile/last mile rides.
There are a number of major capital projects that are worthy of investment and are essential to building a transportation system for the future. Some of those projects are critical for safety, such as the rehabilitation of the Cape Cod bridges; others open new possibilities for growth, such as the Allston Multi-Modal project, the Red-Blue Connector, Northern Tier, Inland Route, the “Environmental Justice Corridor”; and some have the potential to truly transform, none more so that the West-East Rail, which Maura believes should be a priority. To that end, Maura will appoint a West-East Rail Director in MassDOT to be laser-focused on achieving this complex project. Maura is committed to taking the necessary steps to ensure these projects go from ideas to reality.
PUSH TOWARD A GREEN FUTURE
Transportation is responsible for 42 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts, concentrated largely in communities of color and low-income communities, contributing to respiratory illness and other harms. If we are going to meaningfully address the climate crisis and protect our communities from pollution and a rapidly changing climate, then we need to act swiftly to electrify all modes of transportation.
The Healey Plan
A Healey Administration will electrify public transportation so that all modes of transportation operate on 100 percent clean power by 2040, starting with school and MBTA buses by 2030.
Maura commits to 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030 by providing larger rebates for used and low-cost electric vehicles. While the Commonwealth is not currently on this trajectory, the Healey Administration will create a transparent program and tracking mechanisms to achieve this goal. She will end the sale of new passenger cars and light duty trucks powered by gasoline or diesel by 2035. All public fleet purchases will be electric by 2028. Her administration will prioritize building electric vehicle charging infrastructure projects to benefit low- and moderate-income households and overburdened communities. She will require utilities to offer discounts for charging at night when electricity demand is low. The Healey Administration will also include bold investment in electric vehicle infrastructure and strong incentives for their adoption, including for heavy duty vehicles. At the same time, Maura will increase pedestrian walkways, and safe, expanded bike lanes throughout our cities and towns.
The last two years have demonstrated that telework is a viable alternative to the daily commute for many jobs and industries. The Healey Administration will work with employers to reduce car usage through smart telework policies and expand on measures to reduce single occupancy vehicles. These policies are not only good for the environment, but they also reduce commuting times.
With sound policies, effective implementation and full transparency we can improve mobility and safety throughout the Commonwealth while mitigating against climate threats, improving affordable housing access and creating a stronger economy for all.
Read more about Maura’s clean transportation plan under her Climate Agenda.
Maura is committed to protecting and expanding access to the ballot in Massachusetts and across the country.
The 2020 presidential election made clear that there are two forces in our country: those fighting to protect our democracy and those trying to undermine it. Across the country, people of color are being disenfranchised, and disinformation and violent rhetoric continue to spread across digital spaces. Protecting the integrity of our democracy and expanding access to it have been top priorities for Maura. In 2020, she convened a task force to protect voters from intimidation, led a voter education campaign that included materials for people who are incarcerated, and took multistate legal action to assist officials in other states to make sure every vote counted.
But she knows we still have a lot of work left to do to make sure that everyone not only has the right to vote, but is able to use it. As Governor, she will focus on:
Combating the devastating opioid epidemic, investigating the national drug companies, going after traffickers, making life-saving Narcan available, expanding access to treatment. Stopping addiction before it starts by offering drug abuse prevention curriculum and toolkits to every middle school in the state.
Helping students struggling under crippling loan debt – creating a Student Loan Assistance Unit, taking predatory for-profit schools to court, and recovering millions of dollars for thousands of students.
Taking on the gun lobby – Enforcing the state’s 20-year-old, bipartisan assault weapons ban and stopping the sale of illegal and military-style weapons, like those used in mass shootings.
Fighting for families being crushed by rising health care costs, energy bills, sub-prime auto loans, and wage theft. Holding businesses that don’t play by the rules accountable.
Partnering with the New England Patriots to tackle teen dating violence with Game Change, a first-of-its-kind program that has trained more than 1,000 students, teachers, coaches and service providers around the state.
Protecting taxpayers and bringing money back to the state – last year alone, that meant more than $800 million for our state and our taxpayers.
Serving as a first line of defense for Massachusetts in the Trump era, suing the federal administration to protect the Constitution, civil rights and the rule of law.
Creating the first-ever Community Engagement Division, which brings the work of the Attorney General directly to the community through more than 220 events in 2017 alone.