Our thanks to the kind folks at the Texas Department of Transportation who featured an excerpt of our research paper, Our Legacy of Neglect: The Longfellow Bridge and the Cost of Deferred Maintenance in the Winter edition of Horizon Magazine.
It has been the conventional wisdom that small businesses are getting killed on healthcare costs and we’ve heard anecdotal evidence to support this when we’ve presented our research on the various costs associated with doing business in Massachusetts. But Charlie Baker at Harvard Pilgrim begs to differ, and he’s even got internal Harvard Pilgrim data to prove it. He notes: Small businesses, on average, had lower medical claims expenses per member than larger businesses, and lower health insurance premiums(!). In fact, much lower. On average, per member premiums for small businesses were 10 percent lower than the premiums paid by larger businesses, consistent with claims costs that were also about 10 percent lower. Why? Mr. Baker explains: I think it […]
Today’s Globe contains news of potential inquiries by Congressman Barney Frank’s Financial Services Committee looking at the ‘perverse incentives’ (love that term!!) in executive compensation and how that may have contributed to some of the inordinate risks afflicting many financial firms. At the end of the day, this space believes that the oversight of executive compensation lays with an engaged board of directors that properly aligns the interests of executives and shareholders. Warren Buffett has written early and often on this topic. This quote from a 1985 letter to shareholders (which should be required reading for everyone interested in the markets) brings up the key issues behind that misalignment: Ironically, the rhetoric about options frequently describes them as desirable because […]
The charming head of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO tells you exactly what he thinks about checks and balances on political power in today’s Globe: I’ll be profoundly disappointed if we win the debate [on casinos] on the merits, but still lose the point. I don’t want to see that happen in my State House, in my Democratically controlled State House no less. [Emphasis added] It is not the first time I’ve heard this sentiment from Mr. Haynes, but it is the first time I’ve seen it on the record.
“Testimony to the Joint Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures and State Assets” was provided in March 2008.
Turns out I was wrong about the overall indebtedness of the Commonwealth, including quasi-public authorities. I thought it was $36 billion. Its actually $50 billion, per ANF. Including contingent liabilities, that’s over $14,500 per person in the Commonwealth.
By Obama? No, Silly. The New England Patriots. The Boston Globe dedicates a full page of its sports section on Monday to a relentless unpacking of the short and undistinguished life of former Patriots videotape intern/employee Matt Walsh, who may shortly testify about the team’s videotaping activities. Former sportswriter and current enterprise reporter Bob Hohler discovers that Mr. Walsh frequently puffed up his various internships on his resume, was a real jerk in college, and has bounced around as an assistant golf pro (or is that assistant to the golf pro?) for the past few years. I love the Pats (even if Coach Belichick’s “it takes two to argue” defense of Spygate got to be a bit old). But I […]
On the heels of Tuesday’s results, Obama’s ability to take a punch and deliver an effective counterpunch is the key question going forward in this race. But I’m not sure that the Axelrod Formula, summarized by the NYTimes: Over the last year, though, Mr. Obama has struggled to deliver that examination [of Clinton’s record]. He picks up the cudgel, and then sets it down. The problem is that Mr. Obama has built a campaign persona as the man of hope, a young candidate with oratorical skills who promises to build bridges across the ideological divide. allows for this type of behavior. If you recall the experience of another Axelrod client – Deval Patrick – he was able to avoid most […]
But that’s about it. In the latest Governing Magazine assessment of state management, Massachusetts finished 48th out of 50. In particular, our performance on infrastructure was quite poor, meriting just a D+ grade, but you may have already heard about that. A tip of the pen to the redoubtable Robert David Sullivan of Beyond Red & Blue for the point about infrastructure. 031308-testimony-to-bonding-cmte.doc h4409-governors-transportation-bond-bill.pdf h4562-house-transportation-committee-transpo-bond-bill.pdf masstrans-framework.pdf driving-questions-powerpoint-edited.ppt 2008-02-19-ian-bowles-on-sect-13-parkways-letter.pdf Language for Proposed Transportation Reforms DeLeo Letter on Transportation Bond BillLanguage for Proposed Transportation ReformsLanguage for Proposed Transportation Reforms
This space takes a dim view of almost all farm subsidies as market-distorting and wasteful. And as part of the nascent Pioneer Staff Caucus for good food, I find the evidence that the incentives contained in the farm bill to produce a handful of commodity crops — in essence creating a market through government interference — is neither healthy nor good for farmers in the long run. Yesterday’s NYTimes ran an op-ed from a farmer in Minnesota who pointed out another wrinkle in the farm bill — if you try and plant fruits and vegetables on land that had commodity (corn, soybean, rice, wheat, cotton) crops, you lose your government subsidy and you are penalized the market value of that […]
It’s too early, I realize. But the state is $245 million ahead of where we projected we would be at this point in the fiscal year and $674 million ahead of the same point last fiscal year. Given all the chatter about a recession, its interesting that we aren’t (yet?) feeling the pinch tax-wise. If that $245 million holds, keep an eye on where it ends up — spent out in a ‘supp’, flushed into the Bay State Competitiveness Trust Fund, or put back into Stabilization. What, you thought it would fund an income tax rollback?
Senate President Murray presented her ideas about controlling medical costs today. I don’t agree (or fully understand all of them) but I give her credit for setting out a broad array of potential areas for reform. And count me in as a fan of Section 20, expanding the role of Nurse Practitioners.
Our friends at CURP and A Better City held an event on Oct. 31st to promote a new study that advocated for additional transit spending to aid the biotech industry in Boston and Cambridge. But this Sunday’s Globe reports that biotech firms are moving to the less costly suburbs. Which suggests that additional transit spending is not required to aid this industry.
The old grey lady warns today: New Jersey’s problems are magnified by a long history of irresponsible borrowing and spending. In a self-destructive gimmick, the state seriously underfunded its pension plan and used the money to pay for current spending programs. As a result, Mr. Corzine said, the state’s annual debt service now exceeds what it invests in higher education. Fiscal Year 2008 operating budget spending on these items for Massachusetts? $1.77 billion on debt service versus $950 million on the UMASS system and the state and community colleges. Update: The wiseguys over at Beyond Red & Blue laud my strong support for public higher education in the above post. I was hoping to focus more on our relative debt […]
Just a few months ago, a wise man said the proof of success in reforming the auto insurance market would be the entrance of major national firms like Geico and Allstate. Well, there’s at least one firm entering the market — Progressive announced yesterday that it will start selling policies on May 1. No doubt the entry is part of a right-wing free-market plot. To give credit where its due, the Patrick administration, through appointee DOI Commissioner Nonnie Burnes, have stood up to withering criticism on this issue to push for less regulation of auto insurance. Two interesting sidenotes – AG Martha Coakley has been an outspoken opponent of these reforms. And she’s also arguably the most popular politician in […]
A tip of the pen to the newly created Metrowest Regional Transportation Agency. Have you ever waited endlessly at a bus stop for a bus that never came? They’ve used their GPS capability to provide a real-time map of all their buses, which is viewable by rout. Would that larger transit system would utilize technology in the same way.
You may recall our recent report — Our Legacy of Neglect — that examined the condition of the Longfellow Bridge and the condition of our state’s assets. MSNBC has done an enterprising bit of reporting on national bridge inspection standards and come up with some shocking results — massive numbers of bridges go uninspected for more than two years at a time (the absolute maximum recommended time between inspections). The good news is that Massachusetts has none of these bridges, although some other states (Illinois, Arizona) look pretty shabby. Sadly, we are still in the top 3 for structurally deficient and functionally obsolete bridges (at more than 50%) but we have improved by .6% in a year! Finally, if you […]
“Testimony to the Joint Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures, and State Assets (1/31/08)” was provided in January 2008.
To make my bias plain, I’m a regular commuter rail user and a big fan. That said, Tuesday’s Globe had some dispiriting news about the newest commuter line — Greenbush. Its getting roughly 2700 riders per day (or around 1350 round-trip passengers) but a quarter of those are from another form of public transit — the commuter boat out of Hingham. So, we paid $500m+ to get about a thousand people a ride into the city (that’s a cool $500,000 per person). To be fair, the line may become more popular as time goes on, but this is not an encouraging sign. Looking back at the planning documents (see pg. 19 of this document), the seeds of this problem were […]
Ok, maybe I didn’t pay as much attention to the NH primary as I should have. But the Globe’s Derrick Jackson brings us another of his unique insights today. After a brief bit of throat-clearing about Obama ‘defending’ Hilary’s likability, he rips into the former First Lady : But this pales next to the steady drip, drip, drip of stereotyping from the Clinton camp of a lazy, drug-using, Muslim black man who believes in fairy tales. Mr. Jackson is the early leader in the Globe Op-Ed page’s yearly “Did-They-Really-Just-Say-That” competition. James Carroll is disqualified (see this week’s entry — Football reveals the rotting heart at the core of America).
This space has been a supporter of in-store limited service clinics in the past. And the state’s Public Health Council, despite some misgivings, just approved the regulations which will allow these clinics to begin opening. And good for them, they approved blanket regulations, not just case-by-case waivers, which would tied the process up in red tape. But then, Mayor Menino steps into the frame with a vociferous and very public condemnation of the clinics. Its not clear to this writer why he’s so focussed on the issue. Sure, these clinics bring up some clear issues about our healthcare delivery system — discontinuity of care, fragmented recordkeeping, etc. But, guess what, these problems exist today and will exist tomorrow, regardless of […]
that Federico Fellini directed a allegorical history of Yugoslavia incorporating the cast of Animal House? Sure you did. Time permitting, I urge you to view the best film you’ve never heard of — Underground, playing Thursday at the Brattle Theater.
High unemployment insurance taxes deter job creation and burden Massachusetts businesses. The current system also subsidizes certain workers and business sectors, at the expense of most Massachusetts workers and companies.
I attended the Finance Advisory Board meeting last week and one of the new appointees to the Board, Robert McConnaughey, (who replaced the previous incompetent), raised an interesting and insightful point — how will downgrades to bond insurers impact public sector debt? To unpack his question a bit — much public sector (i.e. municipalities, authorities, states, etc.) debt is enhanced with bond insurance, which provides a higher bond rating and reduces borrowing costs. If these bond insurers themselves get downgraded (largely as a result of exposure to bad subprime debt that they insured), it flows through the market and affects the bonds that they insured. Mr. McConnaughey’s question is already looking even more timely. S&P just downgraded a major bond […]
Could, for instance, more services be privatized? Could state and local workers’ benefits be more closely aligned with those in the private sector? Give up? The lead editorial in today’s Boston Globe!!! Be still my beatin’ heart.
…and he’s wondering why he loses the New Hampshire primary while it appears that Mitt Romney is trying to win Iowa and New Hampshire with the same tactic. A tip of the pen to Adam Reilly of the Phoenix for pointing this out, and recalling a previous teary moment from the candidate.
For the small (but highly vocal) group of readers of this blog interested in Ukrainian affairs, we salute Yulia Tymoshenko’s return to the premiership of the country. We look forward to a stable government free of corruption and backstabbing!! Did you not get the headline reference? The PM’s signature is her braided hair, first popularized by Carrie Fisher.
No, not the silly kerfluffle whipped up by Bill O’Reilly and Company. Its the slow decline of the incandescent Christmas light, gone from our State Capitol and the birthplace of the American Revolution. Congress has now gotten into the act. Its new energy bill will make incandescents “extinct by the middle of the next decade”, per the Boston Globe. I know, I know, LEDs and florescents are much more efficient, but c’mon, aren’t real incandescent Christmas lights nicer? 😉
Fiscal management can mean big front-page items — raising taxes, cutting costs, addressing deficits, etc. But fiscal discipline is all about the small things — cutting off mission creep and keeping a focus on core responsibilities. And so we come to the our state university system, which is universally acknowledged to have huge infrastructure issues, much of which is due to underfunding, but some of it is also due to deferred maintenance. Unfortunately, the mission creep, which was cut off several years ago (by some other administration, if memory serves correctly) , is back with a vengeance. This morning’s Globe brings news of another plan by UMASS-Boston to build dorms on its campus, fundamentally reorienting its mission and inevitably coming […]
I’m disappointed in Joe Kennedy (and very irritated with the Globe’s coverage) for accepting free oil from the Venezuelan oil company, and Hugo Chavez indirectly. The Globe softpedals Chavez’s terrible human rights record (see Human Rights Watch, US State Department, Amnesty International, and International Crisis Group), saying: Chávez has become infamous for frequent speeches denouncing the United States and President Bush. This description makes him sound like a wacky uncle, not the despot that he is.