🤑 New year, new tax cuts

It’s Wednesday, Boston.

🚃 ATTENTION GREEN LINERS: This is your final reminder that the 23 day-long Green Line shutdown we told you about yesterday begins today. So if you’re a Green Line rider: Review the details, figure out your shuttle bus situation, and take a deep breath.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Harvard’s prez is OUT

• First snow check

• Polar plunge pics

Up first…

BEACON HILL

New year, new laws

With the New Year comes a fresh start, new goals, a shift in perspective, and … a set of new state laws here in Mass. So we’ve rounded up all the need-to-know info about the ones that will most impact you and, in many cases, your wallet.

Here’s the quick and dirty:

💰 Tax relief is (finally!) on the way. Remember Gov. Maura Healey’s $1 billion tax package that lawmakers finally passed last year? Well, come this tax season, residents can start taking advantage of the new cuts and credits, including the first incremental credit increase for parents and caretakers ($310 per dependent, up from $180), a bigger deduction for renters (which should amount to modest savings), and a credit boost for low income earners. You can read about all the benefits here.

😷 Some COVID-era restaurant laws could expire. Several policies that were put in place to help restaurants during COVID are set to expire this April, including some that allow restaurants to sell cocktails to-go with takeout meals and expanded outdoor dining. That said, lawmakers could vote to extend them (again), which is a definite possibility, despite the fact that, in the to-go cocktail case, they can be a little controversial.

🦷 The least sexy ballot Q is going into effect. If you remember our coverage of 2022’s dental insurance ballot question, you’re a real one. And if not, we still love you. Under the new law, dental insurance companies will be required to spend 83 cents to the dollar we pay in premiums on actual dental care rather than administrative costs or profits. It also means the state will have more oversight over dental insurance providers. And although this means your dental costs might go up a smidge, it’s likely nothing to worry about.

💸 Minimum wage has reached its maximum. One law that will notably not be in effect this year is the one that’s been incrementally raising the state minimum wage since 2019. Why not? The original law was set to gradually increase the minimum wage from $11 to $15, a ceiling we hit last year. However, later this year, Mass. residents may have the chance to vote on raising the tipped minimum wage and some lawmakers have filed legislation to continue gradually raising the minimum wage to $20. Rep. Tram Nguyen, the bill’s sponsor, told us she and other lawmakers are “excited to fight for a fair wage that keeps up with consumer costs in Massachusetts."

QUICK QUESTION

🤑 Pop quiz! What was the minimum wage in Mass. before it started incrementally rising in 2019?

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🎓 Harvard’s president is O-U-T. Claudine Gay, Harvard’s president of six months, and the university’s first Black woman president, is officially resigning despite receiving a unanimous vote of support from Harvard’s oversight board after months of controversy concerning her initial response to the Israel-Hamas war, her recent congressional testimony, and accusations of plagiarism in her academic work. In a letter, she explains that she hopes her resignation will allow the university to navigate its challenges with a focus “on the institution rather than any individual.”

☃️ This is not a drill: Boston’s first snow may be on the way. It’s really too soon to know for sure, but there are meteorological rumblings that this Saturday night could see a winter storm that has the potential to bring us an actual, plowable snowfall here in Boston. The consensus seems to be that while snow is likely, the amount is very much still up in the air. And we don’t know about you, but considering how little snow we got last year (about a foot in total), we’re stoked.

🚇 MBTA slow zones are dropping like flies. We don’t want to jinx it, but it’s possible that the MBTA is actually … on the right track (literally) in terms of fulfilling its goal to eliminate all slow zones by the end of 2024. For the first time since the initial onslaught of speed restrictions last March, restrictions cover less than 20% of the T’s tracks. Of course, this progress didn’t come without painful shutdowns (Green Liners, we see you), of which this is just the beginning, but hey, progress is progress.

🥐 And speaking of “new” ... What better time to find your new favorite local restaurant than the new year? Butternut Bakehouse (which was named the best bakery in Greater Boston by Boston.com readers) has opened a new location in Belmont, and swanky steakhouse chain STK is open in the Back Bay (its happy hour menu is much more reasonably priced than its regular one, BTW). Plus: “Elevated Thai dive bar” Merai is set to open in Brookline Village in February, from the same minds that brought us Mahaniyom.

ONE LAST THING

Polar plunge pics

Out for 2024: Buying a cold plunge pool. In for 2024: Jumping into the Boston Harbor in 30°F weather. 

In a decades-long tradition, an estimated 2,000+ daredevils, thrill-seekers, aspiring wellness gurus, and average Joes took an icy dip into the Boston Harbor to kick off 2024 as a part of the annual L Street Brownies Polar Plunge. And the photos of the event are both hilarious and (ironically) heartwarming.

Folks showed up for many reasons: To start the new year by challenging themselves, honor loved ones, and get a little wild. Some were in large groups and others decked out in costume, ranging from the semi-practical (Bruins jerseys) to the totally ridiculous (bumblebee outfits).

You can check out the pictures and read more about it here.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🧊 Thanks for reading! I literally can't even take a cold shower. 

🎄 The results are in: 60% of readers said that it’s socially acceptable to leave your Christmas tree up until New Year’s day. One reader said: “Taylor Swift said we could keep the Christmas lights up til January!”

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