Good morning,

The price of pretty much everything is going up.  Even the Tooth Fairy is brushing up against inflation.

Payouts for a lost tooth rose 17% nationally and a jaw-dropping 41% in the Northeast. This marks the first year-over-year increase in Tooth Fairy giving since 2023, ending a two-year decline.

Here’s one thing that hasn’t gone up

The only thing inflation seems to have missed is the state’s nickel bottle deposit.

In place since 1983, Massachusetts’ bottle bill was once “hailed as a game-changer in reducing litter,” reports Jordan Wolman at CommonWealth Beacon.

Three decades ago, 87 percent of eligible bottles were redeemed. Ten years later, the rate fell to two-thirds. But only one-third of bottles and cans sold in Massachusetts were redeemed last fiscal year.

That’s hardly surprising, given that most folks probably don’t find a nickel worth the hassle.

Lawmakers and environmentalists push annually to raise the deposit, but “opposition from business groups has made enacting the reforms… an uphill battle,” Wolman writes

Our chamber may be an outlier here.

We’ve testified on Beacon Hill in support of an expanded bottle bill, including adding water and non-carbonated beverage containers, because we believe it can help head off efforts by cities and towns to ban plastic water bottle sales, a key revenue source for many independent restaurants and other small businesses.

I’d be interested in your view.

And if you’re up for helping pick up disgusting empty beer, water and other beverage containers, join the chamber team in Watertown on April 24 at the annual Charles River Cleanup.

It's our biggest advantage. It's also at risk.

“I knew it would be big. But I didn’t appreciate how big.”

That’s how Dr. Mark Melnik, director of economic and public policy research at the

UMass Donahue Institute, described a just-released study to the Globe’s Larry Edelman.

Donahue set out to measure the size and economic impact of R&D in Massachusetts.

What he found was, well, eye-popping.

R&D is the “bulwark of much of the Massachusetts economy,” the report says. The 376,000 direct jobs in the state’s research and development ecosystem account for about 10 percent of Massachusetts employment, the highest per capita in the nation.

Beyond the world-class universities, research hospitals, businesses and nonprofits driving breakthroughs in life sciences, clean energy, advanced manufacturing, computing and defense, the report tracks an even larger multiplier effect from business-to-business and consumer spending, including:

Just over one million jobs (28 percent of 2024 employment)

$142 billion in labor income (40 percent of all wages in the state)

$218 billion in gross state product (28 percent of the state economy)

$347 billion in total economic activity

$8.7 billion in state taxes (equivalent to 15 percent of the FY2024 state budget) $4.6 billion in local taxes

Of course, the report notes that recent federal funding cuts, policy uncertainties, cost concerns, competition from other states and countries, our cost of living and local resistance to growth are all putting pressure on the entire ecosystem.

“Massachusetts has enjoyed a wonderful economic life for much of the past five decades, in large part thanks to our R&D prowess,” Edelman writes.

“But other states are catching up. If Massachusetts doesn’t find ways to lower the costs of living and doing business, more of our smartest people will be going elsewhere.”

Is there a high school senior in your orbit?

The deadline for our high school senior scholarship program is almost here: April 9 at 5 p.m.

Our committee looks beyond perfect transcripts. They value compelling stories, strong essays, evidence of effort and resilience and the financial impact the scholarship would have on a student’s ability to continue their education.

The program is open to seniors who live or attend school in Needham, Newton, Watertown or Wellesley and plan to enroll full-time in an accredited post-secondary program this fall, including trade schools, community colleges and four-year universities.

Friday grab bag

• Jonathan Davis is handing the reins of his development  firm, The Davis Companies, over to his son, Stephen Davis, who will take over  as CEO. (Boston  Globe)
•  Wellesley is poised to have its first housing project developed under its MBTA Communities zoning. The four-story, 28-unit condo project would replace a former multi-tenant office building (in photo) at 16 Laurel Ave. near the Wellesley Hills commuter rail station.  (Swellesley Report)
• Speaking of MBTA Communities, this week Newton For Everyone hosted a presentation from Boston Indicators’ Amy Dain, looking at what’s been built or is in the pipeline in Newton and other communities. (Video and  Newton Beacon report)
• Here’s what not being afraid to grow can mean to a municipality. Not only has Watertown rebuilt all of its elementary schools and high school without an override, but its elementary school projects have also been completed with a surplus exceeding $4 million.  (Watertown News)
•  Brookline voters will be asked to approve a $23.25 million property tax override
• – the largest in state history -- this spring. (Brookline.News)
•  R.J. Kelly, a Burlington-based developer, has acquired 105 Cabot Street in Needham from Digital Realty Trust for $6.4 million. They plan to convert the roughly 130,000-SF building into a self-storage facility.
• Congratulations to Jovanny Rosado at Denterlein and Matthew Starr at Boston Showcase Co. for making the BBJ’s 40 Under 40 list.
• It’s baseball season. So why is Newton’s winter parking ban still in effect?
• The League of Women Voters of Newton hosts its Champagne & Chocolate scholarship fundraiser on Sunday, 4 p.m., at the home of former Mayor
• Ruthanne Fuller, featuring Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll speaking on making Massachusetts more affordable.
• Two new businesses have opened in Wellesley. Code Ninjas Wellesley offers coding education for children. Taste Buds Kitchen provides hands-on cooking classes, camps and events. As part of our Ribbon Cutting Give Back Program, the businesses donated to the Wellesley Theatre Project and the Rotary Club of Wellesley, respectively.
• Oops.  In Tuesday’s newsletter, I listed the incorrect developer for the proposed Meridian Chestnut Hill. The three-building project, featuring 266 homes, a 200room hotel, medical and office space, restaurants and retail, would be developed by City Realty.

Watertown lands new planner amid regional vacancy gap

Newton, Wellesley and Watertown all began 2026 searching for new planning chiefs.

It’s now one down, two to go.

Watertown City Manager George Proakis has tapped  Kennan Rhyne, a one-time interim director of planning at the Boston Planning and Development Agency, to succeed longtime community development and planning director Steve Magoon.

Most recently, Rhyne ran her own firm advising communities on housing, zoning and urban design reports, reports Charlie Breitrose of Watertown News

"Her creativity and commitment to community engagement are going to be immensely important as we move forward with some of the large-scale planning initiatives," Proakis said.

That includes implementing the town’s Watertown Square Project. The next public update sis April 6, focusing on potential public-private partnerships.

Cooley made a difference close to home

Needham Observer photo

Finally, a who’s who of Needham leaders gathered at Town Hall this week to pay tribute to a remarkable public servant.

After 13 years on the Select Board and nine years on the School Committee, Marianne Cooley is not seeking re-election. Tuesday marked her final meeting. (She also recently retired from her day job at Wellesley College.) 

“The town of Needham has benefited tremendously from Marianne’s truly countless hours she has devoted to the community,” said former Town Manager Kate Fitzpatrick.

Former board colleague Matt Borrelli called Cooley the Goldilocks of the board, “grounded in what was best for the town and usually she was right. And by right, I mean correct.”

Cooley, who for years was the only woman on the board, also offered parting advice to her colleagues, which is worth watching here:

Richard Adduci, Cathy Dowd and Bill Dermody are competing for two open Select

Board seats in the April 14 town election. Watch our debate with all three candidates.

That’s what you need to know for today, unless you need to know which refrigerator you should avoid if you’re sick of pop-up ads.

Will I see you at No Kings Day tomorrow?

Greg Reibman (he, him)

President & CEO

Charles River Regional Chamber

617.244.1688

Max Woolf contributed to today’s newsletter.