Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt just wants to “move forward” after remarks she made last month at an advocacy event generated bipartisan backlash and even a rare rebuke from her boss, Gov. Maura Healey.
Tibbits-Nutt held onto her job after the speech, though she largely operated under the radar in the days after the comments became public. She fully reemerged into public view at an event in Melrose Friday with Healey, where the pair touted the annual roads and bridges funding bill.
Tibbits-Nutt said the controversy surrounding her comments, which included floating tolls at the border to pay for transportation projects, “just shows how passionate people are about the topic.”
“That event also showed how passionate I am as well. I think we’re just very excited to move forward with this,” Tibbits-Nutt said of a task force she leads that is developing recommendations for a long-term transportation finance plan.
At the WalkMassachusetts event, Tibbits-Nutt pitched a range of initiatives that she argued could generate dollars for cash-strapped transportation efforts in Massachusetts. That included charging companies like Uber and Lyft more, upping the cost of package deliveries, and even taking New York’s “entire playbook” on bulking up coffers for projects.
The former executive director of the 128 Business Council also said she was “100% passing judgment” on drivers of pickup trucks, telling a crowd that “we can’t price them high enough or put enough fees on them that’s going to stop” people from buying them.
But it was tolling at the border that really sent people into a tizzy.
“When I’m talking tolling, I’m talking at the borders. I’m not talking like within Massachusetts,” she said last month. “But we’re going after all the people who should be giving us money to make our transportation better and our communities better.”
That idea earned Tibbits-Nutt a slap on the wrist from Healey, who said the comments did “not represent the view of this administration.” Healey did express confidence in the secretary and later told the Herald there were “no” plans to fire her.
Tibbits-Nutt said Friday that the pushback from the governor will not change what the transportation funding task force plans to focus on.
“No, the task force is going to continue their work over the next several months. We have 31 members, they all have different perspectives, and we’re looking forward to the dialogue,” she said.
Many, however, are still reluctant to sweep the whole episode away and are wondering what strategy the secretary will ultimately advocate for when the group completes its work.
MassGOP spokesperson Logan Trupiano said Tibbits-Nutt “cannot put this controversy behind her” until she clarifies her policy initiatives.
“Does the secretary truly believe she can forge ahead with these widely unpopular policies, making the commonwealth less affordable for everyone?” Trupiano said. “Does she uphold her assertion of targeting everyone with money? Imposing fees on residents for package deliveries, rideshares, and raising payroll taxes?”
Tibbits-Nutt did not directly say if she regretted anything she said during the WalkMassachusetts event.
“Like I said, I just really want to move forward from here,” Tibbits-Nutt said.
Shelter time limit rules come into focus…
Top Democrats in the Legislature are not taking issue with the Healey administration’s decision to retroactively apply a recently approved nine-month time limit on families’ time in the state-run shelter system.
Some in and around the State House felt caught off guard when Massachusetts’ housing department made clear that families who have been in shelters for longer than nine months will start receiving notices starting June 1 that their benefits could end on Sept. 1.
House Speaker Ron Mariano and his budget chief, Aaron Michlewitz, said the supplemental spending bill that included the time limit provision was written to give Healey the “flexibility” to address the crisis.
“The intention behind the legislation was to provide the administration with the flexibility necessary to manage the crisis appropriately, while also ensuring that folks in the shelter system have access to the resources that they need in order to eventually exit the system, and to successfully enter the workforce,” the pair said in a statement to the Herald.
A spokesperson for Senate President Karen Spilka said it was the branch’s “understanding that the administration is implementing the provisions of the supplemental budget as they were intended when they were approved by the Legislature.”
“As we have said from the beginning, this is a federal problem that demands comprehensive federal immigration legislation. We need to help the families who are here, but we need help so that we can continue to respond in a way that is both humane and fiscally responsible,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Both branches agreed to hand Healey broad authority to craft the regulations or guidance that will determine how families are eventually booted from state-funded facilities. The measure Healey signed off on earlier this month does grant families a chance at two 90-day extensions.
But where people go after their time in shelter comes to an end is still an unanswered question on Beacon Hill that has had many scratching their heads, though some have pointed to the ability for families to reapply for services.
Kelly Turley, associate director of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, said thousands of families in the shelter system could find themselves scrambling to figure out housing plans just as the school year starts.
“That’s right as school is beginning. It will be a very disruptive time for families with children,” Turley told the Herald. “We want to make sure that all the resources and supports are in place so that families can successfully exit shelter into housing and not simply be terminated from shelter prematurely without having another option lined up.”
