Around New England

Maura Healey Says She Won’t Fire Transportation Secretary For Comments On Tolls, Excise Taxes, and ‘Basically Going After Everyone Who Has Money’

April 25, 2024

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey said she won’t implement new tolls at the state’s New Hampshire border, but she also said she won’t fire her transportation secretary who called for it.

During a radio interview on WBUR on Tuesday, April 23, Healey didn’t address other proposals state transportation Monica Tibbits-Nutt made during a talk on April 10, including increasing excise taxes on large pickup trucks, pressuring police to issue more citations and fewer warnings to drivers, revoking more driver’s licenses, and “basically going after everyone who has money … who should be giving us money.”

Healey distanced herself from the way Tibbits-Nutt expressed her views, but not from any of her views, except for rejecting tolls at the New Hampshire border.

“That was a very poor choice of words. That’s not how we do things. That’s not how we operate,” Healey said during the WBUR interview.

Also on Tuesday, Healey told The Boston Herald that she doesn’t plan to fire Tibbits-Nutt.

Amy Carnevale, the chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party, said the transportation secretary’s comments provide a troubling window into the Healey administration.

“Governance should aim to alleviate financial pressures on citizens, not treat them as enemies in a zero-sum game,” Carnevale wrote in a column published Thursday, April 25 in The Boston Herald. “Proposing increased taxes on ride share companies, package deliveries, payrolls, and additional excise taxes on vehicles will only make Massachusetts residents’ lives more difficult.”

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