Boston, MA – January 22: Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announces her annual budget plan during a State House press conference. (Photo by Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Gov. Maura Healey said Thursday her administration will continue to withhold state funding from cities and towns that fail to comply with a controversial — but constitutional — zoning reform law, describing the latest challenges to the measure as "without legal merit."
During a legislative hearing about her fiscal 2026 budget proposal, Healey faced a question from Democrat Rep. Patrick Kearney of Scituate about a $261,000 river-dredging grant withheld from the town of Marshfield.
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Marshfield, which is partly in Kearney's district, last week sued the state over the MBTA Communities Act, arguing that it can seek an exemption from the law requiring multifamily zoning in at least one district after Auditor Diana DiZoglio's office said the measure is an "unfunded mandate."
Officials in Middleborough have filed a similar lawsuit, and Wrentham's select board and town manager announced similar legal action Thursday.
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"Pending the resolution on whether or not this issue constitutes an unfunded mandate, can you commit that the administration will refrain from withholding funding from communities like mine in Marshfield until the issue is resolved?" Kearney asked Healey during the budget hearing.
"No, I cannot commit that," Healey replied. "I think the lawsuit that was filed last Friday is without legal merit. I respect the opinion of the attorney general. But that will be left for the courts."
Healey added that she does not "want to see cities and town penalized," and pointed out the Legislature approved the law before it was signed by former Gov. Charlie Baker.
"We've provided technical assistance to communities to help them work through some of this," she said. "We've said it's not one size fits all. Recently, there were communities that weren't in compliance that now have made steps toward compliance and we've said, 'Let the funds go, because you're on track.'"
"The Wrentham Select Board determined that the most practical and fiscally responsible way to compel the Commonwealth to provide the necessary financial information on impacts to education, public safety, and public works was to file suit in Superior Court," town leaders said in a statement Thursday. "The legal action also seeks to relieve the Town from the duty of complying with the statute until the Commonwealth provides funding to cover the increased budgetary costs of compliance."
The Supreme Judicial Court in January ruled that the law is constitutional and can be enforced by the attorney general with legal action, though judges ordered the Healey administration to take another pass at crafting related regulations.
