Since becoming lieutenant governor eight years ago, Karyn Polito has visited all 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts, and her office is decked in the memorabilia to prove it.
On one wall is a framed photo of the state’s highest waterfall, Bash Bish Falls, gifted to her on a visit to Mount Washington, a tiny town in the southwest corner of Massachusetts. Tucked into a fireplace across the room is a thank-you sign from the Gloucester Biotechnology Academy on the tip of the North Shore.
Criss-crossing the state, Polito has heard perspectives from all types of communities about how to address the most pressing issues, including the housing crisis driven by high prices and limited supply.
“There’s no question that for decades we didn’t produce enough housing, but now we’re changing the mindset and the culture around what housing should mean to a municipality and their future,” Polito said during an interview with GBH News in her State House office. “And the next administration has some real opportunities — and yes, challenges — but has some real opportunities to continue policies and strategies we put in motion.”
Polito, a Shrewsbury Republican, says the community development strategy she and Gov. Charlie Baker have tried to pursue is rooted in the idea that there is no one-size-fits-all approach that will work for all the state’s cities, suburbs, small towns, rural areas and coastal communities.
As she and Baker prepare to leave office next week, Polito said she hopes their successors — Gov.-elect Maura Healey and Lt. Gov.-elect Kim Driscoll — keep helping municipalities strategize on housing and how to meet residents’ needs.
“Embracing housing as a policy lever at the municipal level has been a key part of our strategy, and it needs to be going forward,” Polito said.
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Polito helped reorganize 12 economic development grant programs into a single application portal, a step she said has allowed the state to serve as an "unpaid consultant" to communities as they plan and seek funding for housing and development initiatives.
One of the Baker administration's key moves on housing was a reform making it easier for cities and towns to adopt zoning changes aimed at producing more homes. A law Baker signed in 2021 lowered the approval threshold for certain zoning changes to a simple majority vote of the local governing body, from the two-thirds vote that was previously required.
Driscoll, the lieutenant governor-elect, is the mayor of Salem. In that job, she joined Baker to advocate for the new zoning policy, warning that unaffordable housing was threatening the character of her city.
“She’s experienced this in real time and will now have the opportunity to bring her experiences as mayor into this office and work with communities of all sizes and abilities across our state,” Polito said of Driscoll. “And I feel like we’ve given her a platform on which to build the housing production up across our state.”
After leaving the State House, Polito said she plans to return to her family’s real estate and construction business in Shrewsbury and will be involved in “mix of things." She's interested in mentoring students pursuing government work.
A former state representative who ran unsuccessfully for treasurer in 2010, Polito didn’t slam the door shut on a future bid for elected office — but also didn’t indicate she’s clamoring for one.
“I really see myself as someone who has had an extraordinary career in public service,” she said. “Being a local elected official, serving my hometown, serving in the Legislature for 10 years, and being able to serve in the executive branch with the governor for eight years, I’ve had a full amount of elected public service, and I've reached a point where I want to turn these experiences into helping other organizations and businesses solve problems, advance their agenda and create the culture that I believe in and one that the governor and I were able to cultivate here in state government these past eight years.’
