Rausch Talks Pollard, Rising Costs, Federal Woes
September 21, 2026
• While the state legislature is out of formal session, the state senator shared her perspective on local and state initiatives and eyed the November election.
The halls of the Massachusetts State House aren’t exactly bustling since the state legislature ended its formal sessions July 31. As summer winds down and the 2026 elections approach, state Sen. Becca Rausch, D-Needham, is looking ahead to the coming calendar year.
Before wrapping up, the state Senate unanimously passed a press shield law, an effort spearheaded by Rausch. The law will prevent the government from pressuring journalists to reveal confidential sources. Rausch also worked on legislation to strengthen abortion care access and protect the state from book bans, both of which have been signed into law.
Needham Local spoke with the four-term legislator in her office on Beacon Hill about this upcoming election cycle — her first without a challenger — as well as asked her opinion on the Pollard Middle School rebuild, ballot questions and the cost of living.
‘Yes on Pollard’
Rausch’s eldest child started seventh grade at Pollard this September, with her youngest to follow in a couple years. While her family won’t benefit from a potential new facility, she said she remains a strong advocate for the rebuild.
The Pollard project is a design for a new middle school that would reunite sixth through eighth graders in a larger, more modern building. The project — set to be completed in two phases at the current Pollard site — is part of a wider School Master Plan to address infrastructure concerns in Needham’s schools.
It’s projected to cost $325.4 million, with an anticipated state grant of about $79.7 million. The town already approved $2.75 million for the project, leaving about $322.65 million to be voted on next month at Special Town Meeting.
The need is there, Rausch said: she described the building as “beyond capacity, super duper old, wildly energy inefficient, literally leaks,” all while acknowledging the high price tag.
“It’s also true that the longer we wait, the more expensive it’s gonna get,” she said. “The need is not going to go away, but the cost is only going to go up.”
Taxes for the project, based on the average single-family home, will peak in FY2034, at an increase of $2,065. Those numbers are also based on a maximum state reimbursement of $80.6 million. The town’s digital tax calculator allows residents to find out how much they would owe.
Looking at the figures for her own household, Rausch and her husband saw the personal weight of the project’s cost.
“We know that that’s going to be difficult for people to absorb,” she said. “And the value of our property is inherently tied up with the success of our schools, with the extreme high quality of our schools.”
As a legislator, Rausch secured $100,000 in state funding toward the project’s auditorium through an appropriations bill passed earlier this term. Needham, she said, “desperately needs a modern theater.”
Pollard will also appear as a ballot question this November. The question will ask voters whether they support a debt override exclusion that would enable the project.
Rausch, who previously served on Town Meeting, encouraged residents to vote yes.
“If you think our kids deserve a great place to learn, then you gotta vote yes,” she said, “and that’s where I am.”
Ballot questions
Of the nine remaining ballot questions on the state’s Nov. 3 ballot, Rausch made her positions clear on several.
She plans to vote yes on Question 9, pertaining to gun violence prevention legislation the State House passed in 2024. Rausch opposes Question 3, an effort to eliminate party primaries for state elections, and Question 5, which seeks to alter how much revenue the state collects.
She also shared that she supports Question 7, related to specific zoning for single-family homes in an attempt to bolster housing production. U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Newton, endorsed the effort last month.
Rausch — who chairs the Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government, which handles zoning legislation — said she also awaits for the outcome of the housing legislation included in the economic development package, currently in conference committee before it can get to the governor’s desk.
A revised “YIGBY” bill, which stands for Yes In God’s Back Yard, reported out of the Senate side of that committee favorably. The legislation seeks to permit zoning for multi-family housing on property owned by religious institutions, under specific conditions.
“I think everybody’s trying to work creatively to figure out how to just enhance our housing stock,” Rausch said. “We need more housing.”
She has taken no public position on Question 1, which would enable the state auditor to place the legislature and governor’s office under the state’s public records law.
‘Feeling the pinch’
The economy and cost of living are at the top of voters’ minds going into the midterms. As nationwide gas prices have risen due to the Iran war, Rausch said her family is “feeling the pinch” too.
“I was late getting to the office today because I realized as I was on my way in that I needed to get gas for the car,” Rausch said. “I literally did not fill my tank this morning because the gas price was so high.”
In Massachusetts, the current average price for a regular gallon of gas is $4.36, up from $4.02 a month ago, according to AAA. Rausch said “we have President [Donald] Trump to thank for those absurd cost increases,” and that she viewed it as her duty as a state senator to push back on Trump’s policies.
Above all, Rausch said her constituents were communicating worry and fear over issues like cost of living, safety, the environment and democracy. People sometimes stopped her when shopping at Trader Joe’s, she said, to bring up “kitchen table issues” — practical concerns like making ends meet.
“They feel politics through the filter of whatever’s going on in their lives,” Rausch said. “‘Can we all go to the doctor when we need to and get medical care? Can we fulfill our basic needs?’”
On the campaign trail
In this upcoming election cycle, Rausch will run unopposed for the first time in her career in the state legislature. At under seven weeks out from election day — Tuesday, Nov. 3 — she said she is focusing on helping her Democratic colleagues with their campaigns.
She pointed to the gubernatorial race between the incumbent Democratic Governor Maura Healey and the Republican nominee Michael Minogue, whose campaign filed paperwork showing it plans to spend up to $2 billion on the election.
Rausch said she would do “everything I can to make sure Governor Healey stays in that office” and prevent Minogue from “trying to buy an elected seat.”
She also said she planned to help the incumbent Democratic candidate Tamisha Civil maintain her seat in the election for the Governor’s Council District 2, which includes Needham. Civil will face off against the Republican nominee, Francis T. Crimmins Jr., who lost to her in 2024.
“Campaigns are won and lost on doors,” Rausch said.
Cameron Morsberger contributed to this story.
Benjamin Fogler is a rising sophomore at Northwestern University, where he is studying journalism. Fogler, who graduated from Needham High School, also writes for The Daily Northwestern.
