More than 1,100 amendments, many COVID-related, filed in Massachusetts House’s fiscal 2022 budget proposal
Updated 6:43 AM;
Massachusetts lawmakers filed more than 1,100 amendments ahead of next week’s debate over the House’s fiscal 2022 budget proposal, many of them in efforts to lessen the blow COVID-19 dealt to public education, social services and the economy.
House lawmakers proposed funding increases for community centers, hospitals, volunteers and nonprofits who have helped Western Massachusetts residents navigate the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Other proposals suggest relief to farmers and other businesses hit hard by the economic downturn.
“That’s where our focus is going to be, getting people back to work, making sure they’re safe, making sure they’re protected,” said Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli, a Lenox Democrat.
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These businesses violated Massachusetts COVID-19 rules. Then the state gave them $1.4 million
By Matt Stout Globe Staff,Updated March 11, 2021, 8:51 a.m.
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Inside a Springfield strip club
raided a year earlier by the FBI, state inspectors found maskless strippers giving lap dances. Over in Gardner, a hotel was slapped with
an estimated 420 people for a pair of August weddings. A Weymouth bar owner, confronted by licensing officials about various COVID-19 violations, retorted that âno government is going to tell me how to run my business.â
Since the summer, these and other businessesâ violations of Governor Charlie Bakerâs coronavirus orders were so egregious, regulators said, they temporarily lost their liquor licenses. But the Baker administration also determined they deserved something else: coveted COVID relief grants, even as thousands of other businesses have yet to see their applications fulfilled.
Mass. Businesses That Broke COVID-19 Rules Also Got Grants: Report They included a Springfield strip club where state inspectors found maskless strippers giving lap dances, a Gardner hotel that hosted more than 400 guests for a pair of weddings, and a Weymouth bar where the owner when confronted by licensing officials responded “no government is going to tell me how to run my business
Published March 11, 2021 •
Updated on March 11, 2021 at 4:17 pm
Boston Business Journal
Nearly two dozen Massachusetts businesses that temporarily lost their liquor licenses for violating state rules meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus also received a total of almost $1.4 million in state COVID-19 relief grants.
Of the 57 restaurants, bars, and other businesses whose liquor licenses the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission suspended over COVID-19 breaches, 23 received.