Boston, MA – In response to today’s announcement from Governor Baker about the allocation of $2.8 billion in federal funds, Carlene Pavlos, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Public Health Association released the following statement:

“Governor Baker’s proposal today to allocate $2.8 billion in federal resources would provide support to many worthwhile public investments with public health benefit. However, the fact that the Governor has failed to make a single dime of investment in our state’s local public health system is both shortsighted and dangerous.

During the pandemic, we have seen just how inadequate, inefficient, and fundamentally inequitable our local public health system is. Despite the dedication of our state’s local health staff and volunteers, the Commonwealth’s decentralized approach to delivering public health services leads to extreme variability across municipalities and thereby puts every resident at risk.  After witnessing so much needless suffering and death over the last months, the availability of billions of dollars in federal funding provides us with an unprecedented opportunity and the responsibility to transform this system once and for all.  

As detailed last week by the Coalition for Local Public Health, by investing a modest portion of American Rescue Plan Act fund, Massachusetts can seize this once-in-a-generation opportunity to finally ensure that all residents benefit from an effective and equitable local public health system.

The Governor has ignored this opportunity, to the detriment of the residents of Massachusetts. Now, it is incumbent on the legislature to act and ensure that no resident lacks public health protections because of their race, income, or zip code. “