It took Gov. Maura Healey a little more than 14 minutes on Thursday night to declare to a joint session of the Legislature that the “state of the Commonwealth is strong.”
But facing reelection, economic headwinds and continued attacks from the Trump White House, the Arlington Democrat sketched out an agenda for 2026, tied to the state’s and the nation’s colonial past, that doubles down on defying President Donald Trump and making life more affordable for state residents.
“My focus is you and what matters in your life. It starts with lowering costs and making life more affordable. Making our schools even better for our kids,” Healey said. “Driving a strong economy that creates good jobs in every part of the state. Making sure you have safe neighborhoods, transportation you can count on, and health care you can afford.”
The nearly 52-minute address, at times, was a recapitulation of Healey’s achievements during her first three years in the Corner Office, with some new proposals thrown in for good measure.
The Democratic governor formally launched her 2026 reelection campaign on Tuesday with a 2-minute video that featured many of the same themes that she included in Thursday’s speech to a joint session of the Legislature.
As she addressed lawmakers, Healey tied her actions now to those of Massachusetts colonists some 250 years ago.
“This year, America celebrates a milestone: 250 years since our founding. Massachusetts, that story began here. That’s because people of Massachusetts put everything on the line to fight for what they believed in,” she said. “Farmers, carpenters, shopkeepers, tavern owners — they stood up with fear and uncertainty, but also with courage and resolve. They set in motion a Revolution that gave us our country and changed the world.”
Here are 5 big things to know about Healey’s speech and why it matters to you.
Affordability
Reflecting the national conversation, Healey leaned heavily into the affordability debate that her fellow Democrats leveraged during last year’s congressional and gubernatorial elections.
Healey, a New Hampshire native, also looked back to her own roots, saying she sympathized with state residents who are trying to make ends meet.
“Let me start with what’s happening. The reality is that these are tough times. People are feeling it. Everything is more expensive. Groceries, a cup of coffee, the new coat or boots you want, or the water heater you need,” she said, introducing what she dubbed her “Affordability Agenda.”
“Sports fees for your kids, dinner out once in a while. It’s all harder now. I get it. I watched my grandmother cutting coupons. I saw mom at the kitchen table, up late with a stack of bills, worried sick about how to pay them,” she continued. “But even then, we believed if you work hard, you’re going to be okay. Right now, it doesn’t feel that way.”
She slammed the White House for failing to address those key pocketbook issues.
“Washington is only making it worse. We have a president who throws tantrums like a 2-year-old. And no disrespect to the 2-year-olds out there,” she said. “He’s driving prices up with his tariffs. He’s cutting trillions of dollars out of health care. And Congress can’t seem to do anything. Meanwhile, seniors have to worry about food and heat getting cut off. Veterans have their services cut. LGBT families are worried about their kids being targeted or losing their rights.”
Healey rolled out some of that agenda earlier in the day on Thursday, announcing that she would immediately slash gas and electric bills for tens of thousands of residential customers.
That proposal came at a cost, however, since utilities will be able to recover the savings later — much to the frustration of legislative Republicans who were in the audience on Thursday night.
She also vowed to “oppose any big rate hike the utilities ask for,” and underlined her office’s “all of the above” strategy on energy supply.
“Wind, solar, hydro, gas, nuclear — whatever it takes to power our homes and businesses and cut your costs,” Healey said, as she touted her energy affordability bill that’s now before lawmakers.
Healey highlighted some of her past efforts to tackle the state’s housing crisis, including legislation that banned brokers’ fees for renters and a more than $5 billion housing bond bill.
Speaking to lawmakers on Thursday night, Healey said her office would expand an existing state program that provides families with $25,000 toward a down payment on a house, impacting 1,000 middle-income families, as well as another program that lowers interest rates on home loans.
“That’s real money that makes a real difference,” she said. “For the thousands of families out there right now looking to get into that first home — help is on the way.”
And to help state residents tackle skyrocketing medical costs, Healey said the state would ban medical debt from being reported to credit agencies.
That comes on top of previous efforts to reduce costs that include lifting prior authorization requirements to obtain care, she said.
The Democratic governor also said she’d directed health care leaders to gather in an affordability working group.
“Health care in America is broken, and we can’t wait for Washington to act,” she said. “We’re the state with the best health care, we’re going to be the state that fixes it.”
The Trump factor
As she has for most of the past year, Healey centered her efforts to defend the state against what she described as attacks by Republican President Donald Trump on the institutions, issues and causes that matter to the Bay State.
She decried the hardball tactics of federal immigration agents who she said detained innocent people and ripped parents from their children.
“Here in Massachusetts, we’ve seen a high school student arrested on his way to volleyball practice. A college student on the way home for Thanksgiving, deported to Honduras, where she hadn’t been since she was a child. Children being used as bait to lure their parents out of their homes,” she said.
“Now we have parents afraid to send their kids to school or to go to church or see their doctor. I was a prosecutor and attorney general, and I can tell you: none of this makes us safer,” she continued. “It shouldn’t be this way, and it needs to stop. Enough is enough.”
Healey also pointed to her office’s efforts to preserve access to vaccines, protect abortion care and food assistance to low-income state residents. She shouted out a Watertown couple, restaurant owners, who “opened their hearts and their kitchen, and provided free dinners.”
“That is what we did, because this is who we are. 250 years ago, we started a Revolution. Today, while some turn their backs on liberty, Massachusetts stays free,” she said. “In the face of efforts to divide us, Massachusetts stands united. And because we stay true to who we are, the state of our Commonwealth is strong.”
Jobs and education
Healey acknowledged the state’s economic challenges, which are making it harder for college graduates to remain in Massachusetts and prompting many to move elsewhere.
Departing from prepared remarks, Healey seemed to suggest that the road ahead could be a difficult one.
“The year ahead may get worse before it gets better she said. ”I’ll be honest with you … but it will get better.”
She was quick to point out that Massachusetts “(has) assets that any other state would trade for in a heartbeat. We lead in education, health care, innovation (and) science. Championship sports teams,” she said. “And arts and culture.”
Healey shouted out Ken Casey, the state’s Storyteller of the Year, and a member of Celtic punk stalwarts Dropkick Murphys, who was seated in the House’s gallery.
Healey pointed to efforts, spearheaded by organized labor, to expand apprenticeship programs, saying the state would have 100,000 apprentices over the next 10 years.
“They are in the building trades ― and also in nursing, early ed, technology ― wherever talent is needed. We’ll get more people into great careers — and a workforce that meets the needs of our businesses,” she said.
She touted her efforts to expand universal pre-K funding to the state’s Gateway Cities by year’s end, boasting that the effort would be completed ahead of schedule.
Healey vowed to expand the ranks of Bay State students enrolled in early college programs, which allow them to graduate with both a diploma and, in some cases, an associate’s degree.
“Tonight, I am setting another target. I want 100,000 students in Early College within 10 years,” she said. “We’re going to help our kids reach their goals and save them money.”
Healey also said she’d propose parental consent and age verification requirements for kids and teens who want to use social media.
“We’re going to prevent social media companies from targeting kids for profit,” she said. “Parents are trying to protect their kids, and we’re going to help them do it.”
The Republican reaction
Healey’s address was a mixed bag for legislative Republicans, who said they appreciated her focus on affordability issues, but wished she had taken them further.
“There’s no question that affordability is the right question to ask,” Senate Minority Leader Bruce E. Tarr, 1st Essex/Middlesex, said. “The real issue is what’s the right answer.”
The Gloucester lawmaker said he would have preferred Healey also offer fixes for rising local property taxes, spiraling special education costs, and stagnant state aid to the commonwealth’s 351 cities and towns.
“We need to have a 360-degree view of what affordability means,” Tarr said.
House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones Jr., R-20th Middlesex, called Healey’s speech “respectful,” but panned her utility cuts plan and pointed criticisms of Trump.
The North Reading lawmaker said he would have been ”much more accepting of her criticism if the same level of passion was displayed against the (Biden) administration when migrants were costing billions of dollars here in the commonwealth of Massachusetts.”
Republican gubernatorial hopeful Mike Kennealy, one of three GOP aspirants looking to challenge Healey in November, accused the Democrat of “(presenting) a version of Massachusetts distant from the reality families face every day.”
GOP hopeful Brian Shortsleeve, who, like Kennealy, is a former Baker administration official, dismissed Healey’s speech as “more of the same.”
“What I heard from Maura Healey is that she can’t control a lot of the most important problems facing the state,” Shortsleeve said. “We don’t have the highest electricity rates in the country because of Washington, D.C. That’s bad public policy here on Beacon Hill.”
What’s next
Healey’s office is set to release its 2026-27 budget proposal as soon as next week, according to State House News Service, touching off the annual debate over the state’s fiscal blueprint.
Speaking to reporters after Healey’s speech, Senate President Karen E. Spilka, D-Middlesex/Norfolk, said she welcomed Healey’s focus on “affordability and lowering costs for the residents of Massachusetts.”
Spilka disputed the suggestion that Healey’s speech was short on new proposals, pointing to the $180 million break on utility bills and a plan to increase funding for local food banks.
Still “clearly we are being watchful of our revenue and I think that is part of the times,” the Ashland lawmaker said.
Healey’s office moved to ease some of the state’s fiscal woes this week by shifting its contributions to the commonwealth’s pension system, freeing up $277 million, the wire service reported.
Last week, House and Senate budget-writers announced they expected the state to take in a total of $44.9 billion in tax revenue in the coming year.
It includes $2.7 billion from the state’s Millionaires’ Tax and $986 million from revenue sources other than the Millionaires’ Tax, the administration said.
All told, it’s a 2.9% increase over the current year (or 2.4%, if you count just non-Millionaires’ Tax revenues).
That’s barely an inflationary increase, officials said last week. For a bit of context, the inflation rate now hovers around 2.7%.
