Maura Healey

Speaking to a climate summit at the Vatican on Wednesday morning, Gov. Maura Healey announced that Massachusetts is partnering with a social impact investing firm to launch a climate technology workforce training fund.

As part of the Healey Administration’s efforts to bolster programs within Massachusetts working to support human trafficking survivors and those most at risk of exploitation, RIA, a Framingham-based public charity, has been selected as one of five organizations within the state splitting $1 million in funding. 

A pair of lawmakers launched a Life Sciences Caucus Wednesday, adding another layer of Beacon Hill lobbying for the biopharma industry that appears likely to receive a third round of major financial support and tax incentives from the state under a proposal offered by Gov. Maura Healey.

Dubbed the Mass Leads Act, Healey's roughly $3.5 billion proposal invests heavily in workforce development, including a $10 million-per-year pilot program to launch a statewide internship tax credit that would benefit companies recruiting from Massachusetts-based colleges.

Four Central Massachusetts organizations working to afford individuals with disabilities job training, workforce placement, and post-placement support are amongst nine awardees statewide receiving $900,000 in grants.

Asked after her speech what timeline she had in mind for her tax pledge, Healey said, "That's how I see it now and for the foreseeable future."

House Democrats on Friday defeated a Republican bid to restrict migrants' access to the state's overflowing emergency family shelter system, a day after the Legislature shipped a supplemental budget to Gov. Maura Healey that would impose a new nine-month limit on shelter stays.

The grant is part of a federal effort to support technologies with the potential to reduce the country’s emissions by 1% annually.

"I am focused on affordability, I am focused on competitiveness. I'm not putting tolls at the border," Healey said. "I am focused on working with the T and the secretary on ensuring what we are doing so that we improve our transit system."

For the burgeoning life sciences hub that is Central Massachusetts, Governor Maura Healey’s $3.5-billion Mass Leads Act economic development proposal looks to add fuel to fires.