Tax cap reform and four more stories: The Saturday Send - July 25, 2026

 

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The Saturday Send

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Welcome back to the Saturday Send, a weekly digest of stories from CommonWealth Beacon that you may have missed.

This week, Chris Lisinski reported on a late-term push led by Senator Jason Lewis to repeal a law that establishes a tax revenue cap. In 2022, the law known as Chapter 62F forced Beacon Hill to return nearly $3 billion to taxpayers. House Speaker Ron Mariano acknowledged the repeal’s controversial nature, and Sen. Lewis has since redrafted his amendment on Chapter 62F.

Plus, the City of Boston partnered with the US Army Corps of Engineers to draft a plan that would shore up the most flood-prone parts of Boston – some 20,000 buildings and 40 percent of the city; voters will see nine questions on their November ballots after a campaign to recriminalize recreational marijuana survived yet another challenge; seven health insurance plans in the “merged market” will face double-digit premium hikes for the second year in a row; and Gateway Cities are disproportionately impacted by air pollution and the health outcomes that come with it, but many lack the tools to track that information.

Check out those stories below, and, as always, thanks for reading.

— The CommonWealth Beacon team

 
Beacon Hill is weighing complicated energy affordability legislation.
Maria Pemberton/CommonWealth Beacon
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Democrats in the Senate appear to be coalescing around a late-term push to repeal the law known as Chapter 62F, in the process inviting incendiary anger from groups that want government to control its spending habits.

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The draft plan is set to act as a roadmap for how New England’s largest city can navigate the more than four feet of sea level rise the Army Corps projects will hit Boston by 2090.

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It’s official: voters will face nine statewide ballot questions, tying the record last reached in 1994, and the list will include whether to undo recreational cannabis legalization.

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Newly approved health insurance premium rates in the so-called merged market mean hundreds of thousands of Bay Staters will face average increases of more than 10 percent in 2027.

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Of these 26 former industrial cities, 17 do not have state-operated air quality monitors. At a time when environmental justice communities are even more at risk due to federal rollbacks to clean air protections, the lack of monitors has some advocates speaking out as climate change continues to lay the groundwork for the dangerously hot and dry conditions that fuel wildfires.

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While several hyperlocal newsrooms have launched in communities across the state, there is an information gap forming: Many Bay State residents live in news deserts.

 
 
 
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