Maura Healey’s Pledges as Mass. Governor

Maura Healey took the oath of office as the 73rd governor of Massachusetts at 12:32 p.m. Thursday, ascending to the state's top job after two terms as attorney general and pledging to tackle challenges like housing, cost of living, transportation and climate change.

After a campaign during which she was criticized for being light on details, Healey made a handful of firm commitments in her inaugural address to a joint session of the House and Senate, and to the people of Massachusetts.

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She pledged to:

Create a standalone secretary of housing to "work across government and support every city and town to make sure we meet our goals" within her first 100 days;
Have her administration and finance secretary "identify unused state-owned land and facilities that we can turn into rental housing or homes within one year";
Expand tax deductions for renters;
Include in her first budget proposal a "MassReconnect" program to make community college free for people 25 and older without a college degree;
Increase funding to the state university system;
Appoint a safety chief at the MBTA within 60 days;
Fund the hiring of 1,000 new workers to focus on the operation of the MBTA within her first year;
Form an interagency task force dedicated to competing for federal infrastructure money;
Direct each agency under her administration to conduct a full equity audit;
Double the state's offshore wind and solar power procurement targets, and quadruple energy storage deployment;
Electrify the state's public vehicle fleet and put a million electric vehicles on the road by 2030; and
Commit at least 1 percent of the state's budget to environmental and energy agencies, triple the budget of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, and create a "green bank" to invest in resilient infrastructure and to attract new businesses to Massachusetts.