MILTON VOTERS who in February rejected a rezoning plan developed to comply with the MBTA Communities Act returned to the polls on Tuesday and gained control of a key town board by ousting the chair and replacing him with one of their own. According to unofficial results, John Keohane defeated the incumbent Michael Zullas by 122 votes – 3,434 to 3,312. Zullas was the only member of the five-person Select Board up for reelection. Keohane’s election to the Select Board suggests opposition to the MBTA Communities Act is not dissipating in Milton, a community just south of Boston. The vote would a ..read more

THE MASSACHUSETTS GOP is looking for candidates to take on Cape Cod state Rep. Chris Flanagan after the Dennis Democrat was hit with fines for misleading state campaign finance regulators about the source of funds for a campaign mailing in 2022. Flanagan, who was elected in November 2022 after defeating a Republican and a third-party candidate, had to pay thousands of dollars for campaign finance violations. Regulators with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance said Flanagan “delayed and obstructed” their investigation into a mailer from that election, when they pressed him sever ..read more

CAMPAIGN FINANCE REGULATORS kept coming back with a question for Chris Flanagan, a freshman House lawmaker who represents part of the Cape: Who is Jeanne Louise? The Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) was trying to get to the bottom of a complaint they received about a mailer from the 2022 election, when Flanagan had flipped the seat into the Democratic column after facing Republican Tracy Post and a third party candidate. The mailer, purportedly from “Conservatives for Dennis” and sent out to the Barnstable County town, urged recipients to “vote the person, not the party,” and s ..read more

IN A HISTORIC breakthrough, workers at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee voted decisively on April 19 to be represented by the United Auto Workers. Following two previous failed efforts, the newly reinvigorated UAW leadership had committed $40 million to build off their successful 2023 strike by challenging labor’s long and durable inability to organize workers in the South.  The vote at the VW plant represents the first successful union drive at a foreign automaker plant in the US South. Next up: workers at a Mercedes plant in Alabama, who will be taking a union vote in May. The Tennessee ..read more

THERE WAS AN ominous juxtaposition at the MBTA board of directors meeting on Thursday. Michael Widmer, the former president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, gave a presentation to the board focused on why the T finds itself on the edge of a financial cliff and what it needs to do to survive. Over the course of his career, Widmer said there had been 35 to 40 reports on the MBTA’s precarious financial situation, all of which he characterized as a cry for more revenue. He said the problem at the T is well known, but the political will to tackle it has been missing. What’s needed, he sa ..read more

SUFFOLK COUNTY District Attorney Kevin Hayden admitted to violating state ethics law and paid a $5,000 civil penalty in connection with action his office took during the heated 2022 campaign for the DA’s seat.  The finding from the state Ethics Commission concluded that Hayden improperly used his office to discredit his political opponent – then-Boston city councilor Ricardo Arroyo – who was challenging him in the Democratic primary.  The case centers on a press release issued by the DA’s office in the closing days of a hard-fought Democratic primary.  In late August 2022, the ..read more

IAN CAIN, the Quincy city councilor running as a Republican challenger to US Sen. Elizabeth Warren, plans to formally launch his campaign Wednesday with some hometown help. Quincy Mayor Tom Koch is slated to host a kick-off event at Alba, an upscale steakhouse located in the Boston suburb’s downtown area. Koch left the Democratic Party in 2018, citing its pro-abortion stance. He remains unenrolled while supporting both Democrats and Republicans running for higher office. Cain also unenrolled as a Democrat several years ago, and stayed unenrolled until last February, when he registered as a Re ..read more

THE HEADLINES carried dire alarms about the post-pandemic rise of remote work and its effect on office towers. “Boston Faces $1 Billion Tax Deficit From Faltering Office Market,” Bloomberg blared. “As office real estate slumps, Boston budget could take a hit,” the Boston Globe warned. The jarring news, which has been met with strong pushback from Mayor Michelle Wu and city budget officials, was based on a report from a new public policy think tank that is suddenly driving the conversation about what could end up being the biggest budget predicament facing City Hall in years.  The Boston ..read more

THERE WAS A BIT of a push recently for Mass General Brigham to buy the partially rebuilt Norwood Hospital and get the project back on schedule.  What’s unclear is where the push came from since Mass General Brigham made very clear it has no interest in buying the facility. The hospital closed for good in June 2020 due to heavy rains that flooded much of the facility. Construction work on a new $375 million hospital began in 2021, but questions about the insurance coverage and ongoing financial problems at Steward Health Care, the operator of the hospital, and Medical Properties Trust, th ..read more

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO, Worcester looked at Boston with jealousy as cranes dotted the capital city’s skyline, adding new office towers. But now, with more and more people working from home post-pandemic, jealousy has given way to relief.  Boston, with an operating budget that is heavily reliant on property taxes, is facing drops in the value of commercial offices. Commercial and industrial properties make up 58 percent of the tax levy, while residential taxpayers make up 42 percent. Forty miles west, Worcester has a split that’s essentially the inverse, and as a result a commercial tax base ..read more