Healey makes campaign stop in Chicopee to announce future plans

Gov. Maura Healey talks to the local officials and residents gathered at Goodworks Coffee House in Chicopee about her accomplishments and goals for her reelection.
Reminder Publishing photo by Tyler Garnet

CHICOPEE — Gov. Maura Healey made a stop in Chicopee on March 7 to meet with local leaders and residents as part of her campaign stops in Western Massachusetts and across the state.

The Chicopee visit came after attending the Democratic caucus in Springfield that morning to meet with Springfield residents and Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno.

The visits are the latest campaign stops in Healey-Driscoll’s weeks-long blitz across the state.

Chicopee Mayor John Vieau and state Rep. Michael Finn were both at the event and endorsed Healey and Driscoll. The Chicopee St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee also expressed its support by providing Healey with the city’s newly designed tartan, among other gifts.

While at Goodworks Coffee House in Chicopee, Healey discussed some accomplishments from her first term as well as issues she will continue to work on, including housing, health care, the cost of energy and utility bills and education funding.

Healey emphasized her team’s success in cutting taxes “out of the gate.” She also highlighted the buildout of 100,000 housing units starts in the last three years, or new housing units either built, permitted or constructed around the state.

The buildout of these housing starts comes after experts said Massachusetts needs about 220,000 units around the state by 2035 to adequately address the housing shortage.

“I’m proud of what we’ve been able to do the last three years,” Healey stated. “We did not come in at an easy time all … [COVID-19] money went away. We had inflation and we still do. A year ago, things really started to change because we’ve not really had a federal government that’s been a partner.”

She continued, “We’re just going to keep pedal to the metal on all of that because we got to bring housing costs down, rents down. We want people to afford to live here,” Healey said. “We want employers to be able to grow here.”

In the health care realm, Healey called the health care system in America “broken” and stated that she will do what she can to patch it. She highlighted her efforts to get rid of people’s copays, deductibles and prior authorizations on their health care.

Speaking on other efforts, Healey said her administration funded the Singing Bridge Residences in Chicopee, a project that features 100 new, all-electric, mixed-income apartments with high-efficiency Passive House standards. The administration is also aiming to make health care more accessible and affordable by announcing new partnerships to improve maternal health and cardiometabolic health, and by providing $100,000 to enhance school-based behavioral and mental health services for students.

Healey has also put together a working group to tackle the health care and insurance issue with employers, insurers and providers. “We can’t wait for [Washington] D.C. We got to figure out a different way,” she said.

The governor also discussed another issue that has plagued many residents across the state, increased energy bill costs.

“It’s the single greatest problem right now,” Healey stated. “Your gas bills, your electric bills are too high. I know that. I am trying every day to deal with that. I found some money to give rebates in February and March to people, 25% off, 10% off, but that’s just a band-aid, I know that, but I wanted to try in some way to give some relief.”

Healey has also filed legislation that, if passed, will take extra or unnecessary charges off people’s bills and force utility companies to buy energy at the cheapest price.

In education, Healey said the current funding formula “doesn’t work” and needs to be looked at because it hasn’t been changed since 1993. She also said that her administration has fully funded the Student Opportunity Act and her administration is the first to “really bring forward rural aid in education for rural communities.”

Healey also said that she and her team will continue to improve transit and increase the investments in the accelerated bridge program.
“I’m going to continue to stand up for this state,” Healey stated.

She also acknowledged the recent news surrounding immigrant communities. “It’s really heartbreaking to see what’s happened to our immigrant communities. I don’t think even people who voted for Donald Trump signed up for that level of cruelty when it comes to [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and what’s happened.”

Healey signed an executive order to ban ICE from schools, daycares, hospitals, churches and courthouses.

“This is really a rogue agency,” Healey said, referring to ICE. “I say that as someone who was in law enforcement. I used to work with federal agencies [attorney general], prosecuting the worst of the worst. That’s not what this has been about.”

Healey ended by saying how happy she was to be in Chicopee and looks forward to helping the residents in the city.

“This election matters in November. It matters to the state, it matters to what’s going to happen to our kids and our families,” Healey concluded.