MassGOP Calls On Bill Galvin To Release Records On State Migrant Shelters While Maura Healey Is Out of Town

By Matt McDonald | August 21, 2024, 14:34 EDT

Bill Galvin, Massachusetts Secretary of State. State House News Service Photo by Sam Doran.

The Massachusetts Republican Party is urging William Galvin to disclose how the state government has spent more than $1 billion on emergency shelters for migrants – during the brief time the Massachusetts Secretary of State serves as acting governor this week.

Galvin took over as acting governor of Massachusetts on the afternoon of Tuesday, August 20 while Governor Maura Healey and Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll are out of state.

Under the Massachusetts Constitution, an acting governor holds the same powers as an actual governor.

“As Acting Governor, Secretary Galvin holds a rare and critical opportunity to do something the Healey-Driscoll Administration has refused:  to inform the residents of the Commonwealth about the allocation of over $1 billion in taxpayer funds for the emergency shelter program,” said Amy Carnevale, who chairs the Massachusetts Republican Party, in a written statement Tuesday. “For nearly 30 years, Bill Galvin has served as Secretary of the Commonwealth in a bipartisan capacity. We now call upon him to exercise his authority as Acting Governor and disclose where these taxpayer dollars are being spent, identify the vendors receiving this funding, and provide transparency on the over 600 ‘serious incidents’ reported in taxpayer-funded shelters. It is his duty to ensure accountability and transparency in the use of public funds.”

State House News Service, a wire service that covers Massachusetts state government, reported Tuesday that though some information about state expenditures on the state’s Emergency Assistance shelters are available online, “Republicans have been unsuccessful at getting Gov. Maura Healey and her deputies to release some other information related to the alleged “serious incidents’ … ”

Healey is in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll left Massachusetts on Tuesday afternoon. Galvin, as Massachusetts Secretary of State, is the next one in the order of succession spelled out by the state constitution. (State Auditor Diana DiZoglio served as acting governor for a brief period earlier on Tuesday, August 20 while the five other state constitutional officers above her in the pecking order were out of the state.)

Galvin is expected to serve as acting governor from Tuesday afternoon, August 20 until early Friday afternoon, August 23, an aide to Galvin told State House News Service.

A spokesman for Galvin declined to comment on the Massachusetts Republican Party’s call for Galvin to release the information on migrant shelters, according to State House News Service.

The spokesman, Deb O’Malley, did say that Galvin’s Secretary of State office, which has some jurisdiction over requests for public records that state and local government officials don’t comply with, is considering appeals for public records pertaining to state-funded emergency shelters.

“At the moment, the Supervisor and the Public Records Division are actively working with the records custodians and requesters to facilitate access to records being sought, to the extent possible,” O”Malley said, according to State House News Service.

Massachusetts is the only state in the country that guarantees emergency shelters for families and pregnant women, regardless of how long they have been in the state. While the law has been in place since 1983, the state’s shelter system came to the forefront because of the surge in migrants into the United States during the past few years.

Governor Healey declared a state of emergency with respect to migrants and a lack of shelter for them on August 8, 2023, as New Boston Post has previously reported. Despite the state law’s guarantee of shelter, Healey capped the number of families at 7,500 in November 2023, declaring that the state’s shelter system had run out of space.

The Massachusetts Emergency Assistance Commission noted in materials posted online (in connection with a commission meeting Monday, August 19) that the Massachusetts Legislature has appropriated $1.4 billion for emergency shelters, and that the program is expected to cost more than $1 billion during fiscal year 2025, which began July 1, 2024.

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