BOSTON — Gov. Charlie Baker signed into law the first major overhaul of state public records statutes in more than 4o years, predicting that it will motivate public officials to "up" their performance.
Along with requiring state agencies, cities and towns designate records officers to field requests, the new law requires public agencies to provide requested public records within 10 business days, while allowing for extensions beyond that deadline capped at five business days from the original request for a state agency and 15 for a municipality.
BOSTON — After another lackluster month of collections, tax receipts are now running $311 million behind budget benchmarks with just one month left in the fiscal year, leaving Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker with an immediate budget problem.
May tax collections were up just 1.8 percent over May 2015 and fell $50 million below the budget forecast for the month, according to a statement issued Friday by the state Department of Revenue.
