A MISTAKE made by Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration during the pandemic is now costing Massachusetts $2.1 billion, as his successor Maura Healey brokered a deal in the waning days of the Biden White House to pay the money back over a decade, without fees or interest.
The error came through the use of federal pandemic funds to cover state unemployment benefits. State officials plan to use money in the unemployment insurance trust fund – a “safety net for workers who become separated from employment due to no fault of their own,” according to the administration – to pay the federal government back.
But the fund is expected to bleed red ink in the coming years, prompting the Healey administration to agree to look at unemployment insurance reform and figure out next steps.
It’s a complicated mess, but 71 percent of Massachusetts voters believe businesses shouldn’t be on the hook for it, according to a new poll by the Massachusetts Opportunity Alliance, a relatively new business-backed nonprofit. The poll posed the question thusly, “Do you think it is fair for Massachusetts businesses, large and small, to bear the costs for financial mistakes that were made by the state?”
How a problem is explained in a poll can sometimes contribute to the result. For example, the question could have alternatively stated Massachusetts used pandemic funds improperly so that businesses did not have to pay more in unemployment insurance during COVID, and now they’re being asked to help.
The nonprofit behind the poll counts as its backers the Massachusetts High Technology Council, the Pioneer Institute and a group of CEOs known as the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership. According to the State House News Service, the business sector has been pushing for reforms that involve less generous benefits and lower rates for employers, while others, like the Mass. Budget and Policy Center, have said employers should do more to pay for the fund’s solvency.
Despite their influence on Beacon Hill, business groups had several tough election cycles at the ballot box, losing an initiative to increase the number of charter schools in 2016 and failing to convince voters to reject a surtax on incomes over $1 million in 2022. The nonprofit is a way to start a turnaround in public opinion.
The Massachusetts Opportunity Alliance poll also asked whether the state would benefit from its own version of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was originally billed as a way to cut bureaucratic waste and save costs. Fifty-seven percent said yes, while 22 percent said no, and the rest were unsure.
That question, which was partly based on a Wall Street Journal opinion piece co-written by Elon Musk, did not mention Musk and described the effort as an “advisory commission,” rather than what it initially appears to be – “something closer to an I.T. project than the sweeping operation to slash at least $2 trillion from the federal budget,” as the New York Times put it. The power to cut spending is still in the hands of Congress, the newspaper added.
The survey, which ran online between January 14 and January 19, polled 503 Massachusetts voters and was conducted by Big Village, a marketing research firm, which ranks at No. 232 on 538’s Pollster Ratings system.
The Massachusetts Opportunity Alliance is polling on issues every month, and releasing the results on a rolling basis, a spokesperson said. (Opinions on congestion pricing in Boston are coming next, according to an email from the spokesperson, who only identified herself as “Lisa.”)
The nonprofit has hired Berman and Company, a firm based in Virginia, to handle research and communications. The firm’s name was kept initially secret, as the Boston Globe noted when the nonprofit launched in September.
On LinkedIn, the company says they aren’t “your average PR firm,” adding that they seek to “‘change the debate,’ not simply contribute to it.” Polling, and blasting out press releases with the desired result, is one way to do just that.
In Boston mayor’s race, Josh Kraft eyes Marty Walsh campaign alums
Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft hired a consultant based in Rhode Island to serve as the campaign chair and treasurer, he revealed this week in a regulatory filing. But he’s looking closer to his new home in Boston for on-the-ground staff as he readies his effort to unseat Michelle Wu.
One alumnus of Marty Walsh’s mayoral campaigns confirmed this week they had conversations with the Kraft campaign and knows of other former colleagues who have also done so. Team Walsh won two mayoral campaigns, the first a 12-way race for an open seat and the second a reelection campaign against a district councilor.
Walsh, a longtime Patriots fan, is close with the Krafts: He and Josh’s father, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, spoke weekly when Walsh was inside City Hall. And in a social media post about a gala Josh Kraft co-chaired more than a year ago, Kraft said Walsh would “always be Boston’s Mayor for Life.”
Walsh may have stepped out of the public spotlight when he stepped down as President Biden’s labor secretary to helm the NHL players union, but he remains involved behind the scenes of the city’s politics. Political analyst Jon Keller reported in 2024 that Wu had asked Walsh for his endorsement and he did not provide it.
Wu, along with future attorney general Andrea Campbell, both launched mayoral runs before Walsh left the mayor’s office for Biden’s White House, which some Walsh hands did not appreciate. (Walsh was quietly supportive of Annissa Essaibi George, a fellow Dorchester resident, in the 2021 race that Wu won.)
Kraft plans a campaign launch in early February, Politico reported earlier this month. Kraft has been weighing a run since 2023, and moved to Boston, from Newton, around the end of that year.
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