BOSTON – In the second part of Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey’s interview with WBZ-TV political analyst Jon Keller, she spelled out what her top priorities are for the state heading into the new year – housing and transportation.
“There are two things that are top priorities for me – building more housing in the state and improving our transportation infrastructure,” said Healey. “When I talk to CEOs and employers, those are their priorities as well.”
For Healey, addressing those two long-festering problems is key to sustaining the state’s economic outlook, facing stress from potential federal spending cuts, international events and who knows what else. And she was eager to take a victory lap of sorts on both fronts.
“A lot more work to do” on the T
“On transportation infrastructure, when I started it was kind of a disaster in terms of the state of play at the T, I’ll be honest with you. So I went out, and I recruited [MBTA General Manager] Phil Eng to come here,” Healey said. “And I said to him, ‘You hire who you need to hire,’ and that includes workers at the T – we were down 1,500 workers when I started – and also bringing in some new management. He’s done that, and I’ll tell you, in just under two years, he has eliminated slow zones. He’s given riders back two million minutes every weekday. Now people are riding the T and levels are above what they were pre-pandemic.”