Heavy-handed Healey rules
Milton and media feel the pain
Heavy-handed Maura Healey is cracking down on Massachusetts communities she once promised to advocate for, arrogantly punishing voters who don’t toe the line, and shutting down questions about her Supreme Judicial Court nominee and ex-romantic partner.
In Healey’s second year in the governor’s office, the pattern is emerging of an autocratic chief executive who imposes her will like she’s a monarch dealing with colonies and uses her power to crush dissent rather than listen to local communities’ concerns.
It may be working now, but her style and decisions could prove costly when the next state election rolls around.
Healey put her political capital behind the yes vote to back the new multifamily zoning rules in communities that host the MBTA, and she lost badly.
Here is Healey eight years ago when, as attorney general, she spoke to the Massachusetts Municipal Association:
“I am somebody who fundamentally believes that all politics is local,” Healey said. “And the engagement that we have with one another at that level is so fundamentally critical to the health and well-being of families and communities in our state and in fact across the country. I really respect and have the highest regard for the work that you do, the time you put in. It is not easy.”
But Healey showed no such regard for the town officials and voters in Milton who are now being punished because they don’t follow the state’s line.
Milton Select Board Chairman Michael Zullas told the Herald he believes the town “should fight” back against Gov. Maura Healey’s administration to retrieve current funding reductions and prevent future withholdings.
“I find this action by the Healey-Driscoll Administration to be precipitous, punitive, wholly unnecessary, and contrary to their stated goal of working constructively with municipalities,” Zullas said in a text message. “It is unconscionable to me that the state would harm our town by withholding funding.”
Here is the litany of undemocratic actions Healey has taken just in the past few months:
*Withholding needed state grants for things like seawalls because voters exercised their democratic rights in turning down the state’s affordable housing zoning plan, sending a stern message to other communities that they better obey the law. By strong-arming Milton, Healey is now jeopardizing public safety by withholding money for climate change improvements near the coast.
*Secretly placing migrants in cities without any notification to citizens or local officials who are forced to shoulder the burden of public safety and schools.
*Forcing Roxbury to accept the takeover of a popular recreation center used by neighborhood kids and seniors to instead house migrants, essentially ignoring complaints and protests.
*Failing to act on the danger in Brockton schools, instead giving lip service to local officials desperately calling on her to deploy the National Guard.
“Our administration is committed to ensuring that schools are safe and supportive environments,” she said in a statement. “We are aware of concerns raised about Brockton High School and are in touch with local officials.”
Well, what’s the plan then? Continue the status quo that has turned Brockton High School into a mini-war zone?
In the hearing for her SJC nominee and former romantic partner, Appeals Court Judge Gabrielle Wolohojian, Healey shut down questions, instead walking away after Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said she would not answer them. Council members are usually given a chance to ask questions of witnesses during hearings.
“Not of the governor, no,” Driscoll interjected.