Office of the Governor of MassachusettsGovernment

The Office of the Governor of Massachusetts is the supreme executive authority of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, supporting the Governor as the head of state government and commander-in-chief of the state military forces. Operating out of the Massachusetts State House in Boston, its constitutional mandate is to faithfully execute state laws, submit annual operating budgets, sign or veto legislation enacted by the General Court, and appoint executive officials, judges, and board commissioners subject to the consent of the Governor's Council. Formally established in 1780 under the Massachusetts Constitution—drafted principally by John Adams and standing as the oldest continuously functioning written constitution in the world—John Hancock was elected as the inaugural constitutional governor of the Commonwealth.