WGBH article today says the Governor’s Municipal Empowerment bill that would have allowed towns to garner additional revenues has died in the legislature.

Healey’s bill to let cities, towns hike some taxes quietly dies on Beacon Hill

Katie Lannan

May 27, 2026

Gov. Maura Healey has tried twice to give cities and towns the ability to collect more revenue by raising some local taxes. State lawmakers have now rebuffed the idea for the second session in a row.

In January 2025, Healey filed legislation dubbed the Municipal Empowerment Act, intended to help local governments run more efficiently and tackle financial challenges. It was the second time she put forward a version of the bill, after the first version died the previous term without a vote in the Legislature.

The bill, among other measures, included sections that would let cities and towns adopt an extra surcharge on top of their existing motor vehicle excise taxes and increase local meals and lodging taxes in communities that have adopted those taxes. It wouldn’t require any municipality to raise taxes.

Complete article available here

DOR has circulated the Cherry Sheets with the newly released Senate UGGA figures, in which Medfield gets about $60K more than in Gov’s version and about $90K more than in the House version:

From the Statehouse News Service Weekly Roundup (that former Medfield resident John Nunnari faithfully continues to share with me weekly, despite being gone 5+ years) –

“State tax collections continue to cruise, putting the total haul with just one month left in the fiscal year more than $2.8 billion ahead of last year’s pace”

Yet the state is not sharing so much with Medfield this year. Current Cherry Sheet estimated increases for state revenue sharing with towns over last year are modest.