“我们不会改变自己。”希利在联邦状况演讲中誓言降低生活成本、改善医疗保健

【中美创新时报2025 年 1 月 16 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）周四，州长 Maura Healey 在联邦状况演讲中表示，现在是“建设我们的未来”的时候了，她提出了广泛的议程，誓言重建道路和桥梁，让医生预约变得更加容易，并在今年年底前让无家可归的家庭搬出酒店和汽车旅馆。《波士顿环球报》记者Matt Stout对此作了下述报道。

这位第一任期的民主党人向立法者、民选官员和黄金时段的观众发表了近一小时的演讲，并提出了一系列新计划，并呼吁民主党领导的立法机构与她一起实现她的倡议。

她说，她希望为高中毕业设定一个永久的“高标准”，因为去年选民废除了一项已有数十年历史的规定，即公立学校学生必须通过 MCAS 考试才能获得毕业证书。她还承诺，她的政府将在未来三个月内审查该州的所有商业和许可法规，以减少繁文缛节，使在该州做生意“更便宜、更快捷”。

“我们将继续专注于对您重要的事情，”希利说，并承诺采取措施“解决交通问题，让住房更实惠，投资教育，发展我们的经济。”

希利尚未公开表示她是否会在 2026 年寻求连任。但她应对该州最大问题的能力，包括主要的交通资金、兑现让该州更实惠的承诺以及管理不堪重负的紧急避难所系统，可以为连任竞选纲领提供关键支柱。

长期以来，由于大量移民和无家可归家庭的涌入，该州的紧急系统一直处于压力之下，今年的支出预计将达到 10 亿美元，严重事件甚至暴力事件的报道也给该州带来了沉重打击，希利也面临着政府处理申请人背景调查的新问题。

作为回应，希利寻求进行一系列重大变革。上周，她下令对系统中的数千名居民进行全面的犯罪背景调查，并表示她去年春天就要求采取这样的措施，但调查并未进行。然后在周三，她要求立法者修改该州的庇护权法，使新移民不再有资格获得床位，这引发了一些已经在系统中的人的恐惧。

这是她已经为庇护系统提出的 4.25 亿美元新资金和其他变革的补充。

周四，希利再次呼吁国会通过一项边境安全法案，以“从源头上解决这个问题”。但她也承诺重塑庇护系统，包括将无家可归者和移民家庭从他们越来越多地被安置的酒店中转移出去。根据州数据，截至周四，近 2,600 个家庭住在酒店或汽车旅馆。

“我要绝对明确：我们正在大幅削减成本，我们已经并将优先考虑马萨诸塞州的家庭，”她说。“到 2025 年，我们将让家庭永远离开酒店。”

值得注意的是，希利在周四的演讲中没有提到当选总统唐纳德·特朗普的名字，一度表示“新政府”必须迅速推进移民改革。

希利曾是特朗普在马萨诸塞州的主要对手之一，随着特朗普接近第二任期，她基本上选择了不同的语气，表示她将尽可能与他的政府合作，同时反对他预期议程的其他部分，无论是大规模驱逐出境还是关税。

周四，她只是含蓄地提到了周一特朗普的就职典礼，称这是“华盛顿的权力交接”。

“我向你们保证，我们将抓住一切机会与联邦政府合作，以任何有利于马萨诸塞州的方式，我也向你们保证，我们不会改变自己的身份，”她说，赢得了人群长时间的起立鼓掌。

周四，希利反复吹捧该州为降低成本所做的努力和她自己的计划。她和其他人都认为，日益增长的经济挫败感——以及民主党未能充分阐明解决这一问题的计划——是 11 月更多选民转向特朗普的主要原因。这包括波士顿和马萨诸塞州其他地区更多选民转向支持特朗普，尽管特朗普在整个州都失利。

她指出，她推动取消租户支付的经纪人费用，她和其他人称这对潜在租户来说是不公平的经济负担。她还发誓要提供一个负担得起的、更及时的交通系统。

她推出的立法提案中最重要的是交通融资计划，旨在未来十年内在该州的道路、桥梁、MBTA 和区域交通系统上投入 80 亿美元。

Healey 将使用该州所谓的百万富翁税的收入，包括使用过去两个财年附加税产生的 13 亿美元盈余资金中的很大一部分。她呼吁向 T 注入 7.8 亿美元，这笔现金将填补官员们估计的下一个预算中 7 亿美元的缺口，而此时该机构在消除整个系统的慢速区方面取得了重大进展。

州长的计划还呼吁通过借用百万富翁税的收入来发行新债券，并表示将在未来 10 年筹集 50 亿美元以支持资本投资。

“当我们这样做时，我们将看到结果，”Healey 周四表示。“你会看到桥梁再次完全开放，比如奇科皮的 I-391 高架桥…… 。你会看到你所在城镇的预算中有更多的资金用于修缮道路和人行道。最后，我们将弥补 T 的预算缺口，以便 [总经理] Phil [Eng] 和他的团队可以继续努力。”

“最重要的是，”她后来补充道，“你将等待的时间更少，行动速度更快。”

Healey 还提到了回应 MCAS 投票问题废除毕业标准的计划。因此，许多学区现在对学生的要求大不相同，但州或地方学区对此的反应究竟如何仍有待观察。

Healey 周四表示，她将尊重选民的决定，但补充说马萨诸塞州仍然需要“一个高标准的全州标准”。她说她将成立一个委员会，称为全州毕业要求委员会，以制定“永久的高标准”的建议。

“没有这个基准，我们知道会发生什么：总是最脆弱的学生得不到他们需要的东西，”Healey 说。

州长还表示将努力加强马萨诸塞州的初级卫生保健。周四早些时候，该州卫生政策委员会在一份新报告中警告称，马萨诸塞州的初级保健医生数量正在减少，医生办公室承担着处理患者电子邮件、账单文件和其他要求的“沉重行政负担”。

这意味着患者经常转向其他地方寻求治疗。根据 2023 年的一项调查，三分之二因“非紧急情况”去医院急诊室的人这样做是因为他们无法足够快地在医生办公室或诊所预约。

希利周四表示，她的政府将“将医疗资源转移到前线”，包括培训渠道以增加初级保健队伍。

“预约很难。这真的很令人沮丧，不是吗？这也是不可接受的，”她说。“我想在那里建立一支由初级保健提供者组成的大军，所以当你打电话预约时，你实际上会得到一个。”

题图：马萨诸塞州州长 Maura Healey 在众议院发表了联邦状况演讲。Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff

附原英文报道：

‘We will not change who we are.’ Healey vows to lower cost of living, improve health care, in State of Commonwealth speech

By Matt Stout Globe Staff,Updated January 16, 2025

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey delivered her State of the Commonwealth speech in the House Chambers.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff

Saying it is time to “build our future,” Governor Maura Healey on Thursday laid out a wide-ranging agenda in her State of the Commonwealth address, vowing to rebuild roads and bridges, make it easier to get a doctor’s appointment, and transition homeless families out of hotels and motels by the end of the year.

Addressing lawmakers, elected officials, and a primetime audience, the first-term Democrat laced her near hour-long speech with a series of new plans and calls for the Democratic-led Legislature to join her in realizing her initiatives.

She said she wants to set what she called a permanent “high standard” for high school graduation after voters last year scrapped a decades-old requirement that public school students pass the MCAS exam to get their diploma. She also pledged her administration would review all the state’s business and licensing regulations over the next three months in a bid to cut red tape and make it “cheaper and faster” to do business in the state.

“We’re going stay focused on the things that matter to you,” Healey said, promising to take steps to “to fix transportation, make homes more affordable, invest in education, and grow our economy.”

Healey has yet to say publicly whether she’ll seek a second term in 2026. But her ability to confront the biggest issues in the state, including major transportation funding, making good on promises to make the state more affordable, and managing the overwhelmed emergency shelter system, could provide key pillars of a reelection campaign platform.

Long stressed under an influx of migrant and homeless families and on pace to cost $1 billion this year, the state’s emergency system has been battered by reports of serious, and sometimes violent, incidents, and Healey has faced fresh questions of her administration’s handling of background checks for applicants.

Healey, in response, has sought a series of dramatic changes. Last week she ordered full criminal background checks be conducted on every one of the thousands of people staying in the system, saying she asked for such a step last spring but the checks were not conducted. Then Wednesday, she asked lawmakers to rewrite the state’s right-to-shelter law in ways that could make newly arrived migrants no longer eligible for beds, sparking fear among some who are already in the system.

That’s in addition to $425 million in fresh funding and other changes she already proposed for the shelter system.

Healey on Thursday again called on Congress to pass a border security bill in order to “fix this at the source.” But she also pledged to reshape the shelter system, including moving homeless and migrant families out of the hotels where they have increasingly been housed. As of Thursday, nearly 2,600 families were in hotels or motels, according to state data.

“I want to be absolutely clear: We are dramatically reducing costs, and we have, and we will, prioritize Massachusetts families,” she said. “In 2025, we’ll get families out of hotels for good.”

Notably, Healey did not mention President-elect Donald Trump by name in Thursday’s speech, saying at one point that the “new administration” must move quickly on immigration reform.

Once one of Trump’s primary Massachusetts antagonists, Healey has largely opted for a different tone as he nears his second term, saying she would work with his administration where possible, while pushing back on other parts of his expected agenda, be it mass deportations or tariffs.

On Thursday, she offered only a thinly veiled reference to Trump’s inauguration on Monday, referring it to a “transition of power in Washington.”

“I assure you we will take every opportunity to work with the federal government in any way that benefits Massachusetts, and I also promise you we will not change who we are,” she said, drawing a long standing ovation from the crowd.

Healey on Thursday repeatedly touted the state’s efforts, and her own plans, to help bring down costs. She and others have cited growing economic frustration — and the perception that Democrats failed to adequately articulate plans to address it — as a primary driver behind more voters turning to Trump in November. That included more voters in Boston and elsewhere in reliably blue Massachusetts shifting toward Trump even as he lost the state as a whole.

She pointed to her push to eliminate renter-paid broker fees, which she and others have called an unfair financial burden on would-be tenants. She also vowed to deliver an affordable, and more timely, transportation system.

Chief among the legislative proposals she is rolling out is a transportation financing plan designed to spend $8 billion over the next decade on the state’s roads, bridges, MBTA, and regional transit systems.

Healey would use revenue from the state’s so-called millionaires tax, including using a large chunk of $1.3 billion of surplus funds the surtax generated the last two fiscal years. She is calling to inject the T with $780 million, cash that would, among other things, plug what officials have estimated will be a $700 million shortfall in its next budget at a time when the agency has made major headway in eliminating slow zones across the system.

The governor’s plan also calls for floating new bonds by borrowing against revenue from the millionaires tax, saying it would raise $5 billion over the next 10 years to support capital investments.

“When we do this, we’re going to see the results,” Healey said Thursday. “You’ll see bridges fully open again, like the I-391 viaduct in Chicopee. . . . You’ll see more funding in your town’s budget to fix roads and sidewalks. Finally, we’re going to close the T’s budget gap so [general manager] Phil [Eng] and his team can keep cookin’.”

“The bottom line is,” she later added, “you’re going to wait less, and you’re going to move faster.”

Healey also referenced plans to respond to the MCAS ballot question repealing the graduation standard. As a result, many districts now have widely different requirements for their students, though exactly how the state or local school districts could react in its wake remains to be seen.

Healey said Thursday that she will respect voters’ decision, but added Massachusetts still needs “a high, statewide standard.” She said she would create a committee, known as the Statewide Graduation Requirement Council to develop recommendations “for a permanent, high standard.”

“Without that baseline, we know what happens: it’s always the most vulnerable students who don’t get what they need,” Healey said.

The governor also signaled efforts to bolster primary health care in Massachusetts. Earlier Thursday, the state’s Health Policy Commission warned in a new report that the number of primary care physicians in Massachusetts is shrinking and doctor’s offices are shouldering a “high administrative burden” dealing with patient emails, billing documentation, and other requirements.

That means patients often are turning elsewhere for care. According to one 2023 survey, two-thirds of those who went to a hospital emergency room for a “nonemergency condition” did so because they couldn’t get an appointment at a doctor’s office or clinic fast enough.

Healey on Thursday said her administration would “shift health care resources to the front lines,” including on training pipelines to grow the primary care workforce.

“It’s hard just to get an appointment. It’s really frustrating, isn’t it? It’s also unacceptable,” she said. “I want to build a whole army of primary care providers out there, so when you call for an appointment, you’re actually going to get one.”