Welcome to your Six-State Roundup. Every week, we’ll be gathering the most interesting happenings from across Yankeedom and bringing it right to your inbox — including politics, the arts, culture, and other ephemera worth noticing. The first few weeks will be free, after which our roundups will be available to our paid subscribers.
April showers… — Expect thunderstorms this week, with temperatures cooling inland around Thursday. Possible wintry mix in northern New England, but it’ll likely stay rainy on the coast.
Connecticut:
Tax time — State house Republicans have moderated their tax proposals, bringing them closer to an agreement with the Democratic majority and Governor Ned Lamont (D). However, the Republican plan comes with a catch — it would require taking on New York in federal court.
Both parties are pitching tax cuts, but disagree about the size of these rebates.
Governor Lamont’s proposal would give every Nutmegger a $200 rebate in October.
Meanwhile, house Republicans are instead advocating for a $350 rebate for middle-class filers, half of the $700 they originally proposed.
The Republican proposal would reduce the budget impact through forcing a federal court battle with New York.
Currently, New York law requires employees working remotely for New York-based companies to pay taxes in the Empire State, meaning that Nutmeggers working remotely for these companies are required to pay taxes in both states.
Connecticut pays for New York taxes for these taxpayers, preventing double taxation, but the Republican plan would eliminate the subsidy, forcing taxpayers and the state to sue New York to force a legal change.
Governor Lamont, whose proposal would have less of a budgetary impact, is urging caution given the chaotic state of the national and global economy.
Police violence — Hartford residents are demanding change from the city after a man was shot and killed by Hartford police.
Everard Walker, 53, was killed by police after he ran out of his medication and experienced a mental health crisis, causing his family to call 211 to ask for mental health support services.
Community members have called for the police officer involved to be fired.
They have also demanded the creation of mental health teams to be deployed in crises like these.
So far, Mayor Arunan Arulampalam has not fired the cop, although he did let go of another officer involved in a similar shooting that occurred in the same month.
Sundown — Connecticut has lost its last major league sports team.
The Connecticut Sun, a WNBA team owned by the Mohegan Tribe, will be sold to Tilman Fertitta, owner of the Houston Rockets and current U.S. Ambassador to Italy.
The team will be moved to Houston and will be known as the Houston Comets.
Maine:
Childcare — Maine lawmakers passed a bill intended to help ease the chronic childcare shortage in the state.
The legislation would create a new subsidy for childcare providers and a grant program for childcare during off-hours.
Another bill would increase funding for a program that makes childcare more accessible for Mainers earning up to 125% of the state’s median income.
Food without borders — The state legislature has advanced a bill ensuring that lawfully present immigrants can receive state food aid.
Immigrants have generally not needed specific food subsidies since they were previously eligible for federal SNAP benefits, which a recent Republican-backed bill in Congress changed.
Platner gathers steam — Graham Platner, a candidate in Maine’s heated U.S. Senate election, received a major endorsement: that of U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
Platner, a progressive, has electrified Maine politics and sparked comparisons to Zohran Mamdani, but has also faced persistent criticism over controversial comments about women he made before his political career.
Platner’s opposition, Governor Janet Mills, held a meeting with female elected officials who had endorsed Platner, demanding a retraction of their endorsements.
Two recent polls have Platner up over Mills by 27% and 38%, respectively.
Massachusetts:
Courthouse Rock — The state house passed the PROTECT Act, a bill that would prevent ICE from detaining people at courthouses without criminal warrants.
Democratic lawmakers fear ICE detentions in judicial settings could prevent undocumented people from seeking redress for crimes done to them or from serving as witnesses in cases.
Some Democrats, like Governor Maura Healey (D), would like the bill to go further, expanding protections to other community spaces, but others worry that a bill that is too expansive could be ruled unconstitutional.
Stalled buses — The MBTA’s bus fleet will likely miss its mandate to switch to electric buses.
The MBTA’s plans to retrofit its more than one thousand-bus fleet have run into issues surrounding costs, garage capacity, and infrastructure.
The mandate is the latest in a series of ambitious state climate promises that have run into setbacks.
Think about it, guys — A scammer has been posing as former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to defraud people in Bridgewater, according to police.
Authorities are urging the public not to send money or gift cards to people that they do not personally know.
The identity of the scammer has not yet been revealed, but the chances that it is actually Tom Brady are slim.
New Hampshire:
Power up — Legislators in both state chambers are pushing forward bills that would allow public utilities to own power generation sites.
Lawmakers are framing this as an attempt to reduce energy costs, but opponents are claiming that this would restore utility monopolies.
Give it a go — State Republicans want to expand New Hampshire’s right-to-try laws that greenlight experimental medical treatments for terminally ill patients.
The bill would expand the use of these treatments to patients with chronic or otherwise debilitating conditions.
Some Republicans have been in discussions with Boston-based biomedical companies who are seeking to open new research centers in the state.
Livestream — A political consultant has started streaming meetings of the legislature’s executive council online.
Chris Maidment, a Republican-aligned political consultant, has begun streaming the meetings with camera equipment from Americans for Prosperity, the Koch Brothers-backed conservative network.
Maidment has framed this as part of a broader vision of open and accessible government.
Rhode Island:
Vision Zero — Rhode Island was the only state to have no police killings in 2024 and 2025.
More than one thousand Americans are killed by police officers each year.
Job filled — Interim Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor has now been confirmed to his post permanently, ending a long-running legal debate between the governor’s office and the legislature.
Some legislators argued Governor Dan McKee (D) didn’t have the power to appoint an interim commerce secretary based on a statute laying out the governor’s powers.
This one too — Rhode Island’s open Superior Court Presiding Justice seat is on its way to being filled.
Associate Justice and former Senate President Joseph Montalbano is expected to weigh in on ICE activities in Rhode Island once he is confirmed by the senate.
Vermont:
Go home — The Vermont Labor Relations Board has slapped down Governor Phil Scott’s (R) return-to-office mandates for state employees.
The decision was hailed by the state employees’ union, but decried by the Scott administration, which called the board “broken” in a statement.
Milton’s manager — Representative Chris Taylor (R) has resigned from his seat in the state house.
He’s returning home, he says, to better be able to focus on his role of Milton’s city manager.
Taylor was the Republican ranking member of the education committee.
Western civ — Raj Peter Bhakta is trying to donate a college campus to “revive Western civilization.”
The founder of Whistlepig, a Vermont whiskey brand, bought the former campus of Green Mountain College in Poultney after the school closed down.
Despite high hopes from the town’s population, it appears that Bhakta did not bring the community the renewed prosperity he promised.
He’s now attempting to find an organization to donate the campus to that is dedicated to the “revival of the United States, Western civilization, and Christianity.”
What, precisely, that means, remains unclear.
The New England Beacon is an online, nonprofit, and independent publication founded in 2025 to cover politics in New England. To learn more, visit nebeacon.org. To support our mission, please click here.
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