02.24.2025

Another story you saw here first | A puzzling about-face on Ukraine | Linda Henry’s mysterious exit from investors group pushing controversial soccer stadium | State watchdog ruling could spell trouble for Healey housing campaign | No Herald, deporting criminals here illegally is not a new thing |

Major monkey wrench? Ruling by state government watchdog opens potential loophole for towns battling Healey’s housing push

Suburbs rebelling against a Healey administration campaign to spur the construction of new apartment buildings just got a boost from a state government watchdog.

State Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s office is making waves, informing local officials that the MBTA Communities Act, designed to address the state’s dire housing shortage, is an “unfunded mandate.”

The Division of Local Mandates contends the 2021 law does not directly provide money for planning and infrastructure work - even as it requires Boston area communities to open their doors to new apartment and condo projects near T stations.

State Auditor Diana DiZoglio

As a result, local officials can now petition in state court for an exemption from compliance with the MBTA Communities law until state funding is provided, notes the division, which is part of the state auditor’s office.

So can the suburbs and towns that have fought the new law take the ruling by DiZoglio’s office to the bank? Well, that is an entirely different question.

State Attorney General Andrea Campbell on Monday came out swinging against the ruling by the state auditor’s office.

State Attorney General Andrea Campbell

Campbell noted in a statement that “high housing costs burden our residents and stifle our economy.”

And the state’s top law enforcement official vowed to fight in court any communities that take the advice of DiZoglio’s office and seek an exemption from the MBTA Communities Act.

Last year, a state court rejected a lawsuit by Rockport residents claiming the law created an unfunded mandate for the town.

“The Auditor’s claim that the MBTA Communities Law is an unfunded mandate is wrong, and, more importantly, this letter has no effect whatsoever on implementation of the Law,” Campbell said in a statement in response to queries from Contrarian Boston.

Undaunted, staffers in DiZoglio’s Division of Local Mandates office are crunching the numbers to determine the size of what it contends are unfunded mandates from the MBTA Communities law for the towns of Wrentham and possibly Middleborough and Methuen as well.

Once those numbers are in, towns can use the data showing a “funding deficiency” to seek an exemption from the state housing law, according to a statement from the state auditor’s office.

DiZoglio and Campbell are rising stars of the state Democratic party.

Are they on a collision course? We’ll see.

She’s out: Globe CEO Linda Henry pulls out of hotly contested plan to bring a women’s pro soccer team - and stadium - to Boston

Linda Henry is bailing on a controversial joint venture between a local investors group and Boston City Hall to plunk a pro soccer stadium down in the middle of historic Franklin Park.

The wife of billionaire Globe and Red Sox owner John Henry made the announcement in an Instagram post on Friday.

But the Globe’s not even 400-word story might as well have been a press release written by a marketing minion for Henry.