A search of the apartment belonging to the Russian spies turned up, among other things, a variety of pills and capsules. Their lawyer responded: “The pills and vitamins indicate to me that they were well integrated into the Cambridge social scene,” said Boston attorney Robert Sheketoff, who represented Foley, adding that the unidentified pills were probably vitamins and anti-oxidants. Not really sure where he’s headed with that one….
Sigh. This space takes enough potshots at the Globe, so they deserve credit when its due. Their editorial this AM pretty articulately states my reasons for opposing this bill. Its a cynical hodge-podge of small bore initiatives that ignores the big issue — health insurance for municipalities. In particular, one of the bill’s worst features is its extension of the pension funding schedule by 10 years: Most public-employee pension systems don’t have enough money stashed away for the benefits that they’ve promised, and under current law they have until 2030 to catch up. The municipal relief bill would extend the deadline for a full 10 years. There’s a superficial logic to this change; pension funds have suffered deep losses, and […]
Substitute “Pioneer Institute” for “Health Care For All” in the following State House News report (subscription required) and ask yourself if there would be radio silence in the press and blogosphere (BlueMassGroup, call your office!!) on this: The documents also reveal a cozy relationship between the Patrick administration and Health Care For All, a consumer advocacy organization that often support the administration’s health care policies. In an email exchange on March 24, Health Care for All official Georgia Maheras repeatedly asked Insurance Commissioner Murphy how the group can be “helpful” in responding to his pending decisions on health insurance rates for small businesses. “If you expect to do anything ‘newsworthy’, can we be helpful with our blog or media at […]
…on racino licensing. Both are pushing back on racino proposals that would not apply market pricing to these particular gaming licenses. As I wrote in 2006 for the Boston Globe: Massachusetts’ great gambling giveaway IF THE MASSACHUSETTS Legislature wrote a billion-dollar check to the casino industry, people would be outraged. But the [2006] gambling bill, awaiting action in the House after receiving Senate approval, threatens to give away more than $1 billion in value by charging an inordinately low fee for the four proposed licenses…. …The point is not that the state should fix the exact license price. Rather, there is credible evidence that the proposed license price is too low and difficult to ascertain…. …the state should not provide […]
A new piece of social networking hachi-machi to organize field workers? A rapid response e-blast system? No, the GOV and LG have added a bus to their arsenal. To date, only Guy Glodis has brought the bus to the 2010 statewide contests. Behold the campaign’s latest purchase:
10 – don’t actually live in district 9 – weekend attire of Celtics/Red Sox gear, mesh shorts and flip-flops considered unstatesmanlike 8 – equally unpopular with public safety employees and progressives 7 – not prepared to explain “It’s Polish, but my mom’s Irish” a million times 6 – far right-wing rants in college op-eds might come back to haunt me (actually, never mind…..) 5 – most district residents know me from screaming at (my own) unruly children at Roche Brothers 4 – have never sponsored little league or soccer team 3 – absolutely no relation whatsoever to anyone named Coppinger 2 – still not on Menino Machine’s Christmas Card list 1 – little-known rule reserves post for a graduate of […]
This morning’s newspaper reports that the LG was hospitalized yesterday after marching in an incredible (insane?) 5 parades over the sweltering weekend. Get well soon, Tim Murray. So, is Tim Cahill’s tweet this AM a bit of one upsmanship? [emphasis added]: 7 parades in 3 days! Great parade coverage by @fox25news & @joebattenfeld http://ow.ly/27vaK #mapoli #magov #timin10 44 minutes ago via HootSuite
Because he just got an awesome deal on the Worcester Airport, that’s why. The city just got paid $17 million by Massport (and here’s the build-up behind the number). Now, don’t get me wrong, I love the Worcester Airport and I hope it one day becomes a thriving hub. There’s a lot of potential there but the reality is that it loses money, so getting $17 million in value is a great one for Worcester (and an…ahem…challenging one for Massport, no?).
MassDoT Secretary Jeff Mullan used this term yesterday in reference to a move to have more snow plowing done in-house, rather than by private contractors. I’m skeptical to say the least — the Turnpike to MassHighway analogy used in the article (where the Turnpike uses in-house staff while MHD uses a lot of contractors) is a false one — Turnpike is a discrete asset, MHD has lot more miles spread out over the state. And I hope any analysis done is all-in — you’ve got to count the capital cost of any new equipment plus factor in the maintenance of that equipment (or the reduced lifecycle if you don’t do it). Plus the overtime and/or lost productivity (for other tasks) […]
We picked on Curt Schilling a few months back for considering a move to Rhode Island. And we maintain our position that firm relocation, in the aggregate, is not an important creator of jobs across the entire MA economy. That said, Schilling’s firm has been offered a $75 million loan guarantee (note the difference — a guarantee on a private loan, not a direct loan) by Rhode Island, according to the Providence Business News.
The Globe’s James Carroll regularly writes op-ed columns* that utilize available newspegs to hammer home one of his key themes: the utter rottenness at the core of “America” and its rapidly approaching collapse. A tour through his back catalog yields lots of examples — disparate items like Christmas, soccer, and the Somali pirates all provide important insight into this theme. So, to save the reader of today’s Globe the trouble of plowing through his whole column, just take your newspegs as the oil spill in the Gulf and General Petreus’ collapse during his testimony last week, then add the usual theme: …..The two Washington hearings captured the widespread American mood of exhaustion and dread. The nation has been drastically confronted […]
To: Mitchell Weiss CC: Lisa Signori, Chris Osgood Boston About Results should be the centerpiece of the Mayor’s plan for “making over basic city services”. Here’s some key steps to fixing it: 1) Bring the data to life: Don’t break the data up into scores of static PDFs. Provide the data in multiple, user-friendly formats, like Excel, so it can be easily analyzed. 2) Make data comparable: Right now, it shows year-to-date data for this year and full year data for previous years. Provide apples-to-apples data so users can see how this year’s performance stacks up against previous years. 3) Open up the process: Other cities have formal ‘citistat’ meetings and some release the detailed analyses used in these meetings. […]
Hot off the presses, the Needham Times brings us this vital piece of gubernatorial race insight: “If these two gentlemen were running a summer camp for girls I would want send my daughter to go to the one being run by Deval Patrick,” Khoury said.
Do you remember what the Patrick Administration spent last July doing? Carefully explaining that they would not kill cute, furry, beloved-by-children animals. Yep, it seems like a distant memory but the Administration was pinned down for a healthy chunk of July 2009 by the Franklin Park Zookeeper’s threats to shut down the zoo and let the state decide what animals would…ahem…be victims of cost-cutting.. Now, I’m a big fan of the zookeeper in question, but as a zookeeper not a political mastermind, so it was a curious sight to behold. The contrast with the present day is pretty clear. The GOV has found his political footing and is doing a creditable job of throwing political punches. Time flies in Massachusetts […]
Sometimes you wonder what is going on up on Beacon Hill. In the midst of the Senate budget debate, there was a proposal to put certain state assets like golf courses and swimming pools out for operation to private managers. As we’ve noted before, the results of doing this for skating rinks has been an across the board win — continued affordability, greater access, more capital investment, and less burden on the state budget. But Senator Timility has other ideas: I rise in opposition to this amendment…. I’ve played Ponkapoag for years. It’s on the farmland of Henry Pearson. When they donated the land in 1894, they said it would be open and free to the commonwealth forever. Ponkapoag pond, […]
(An irregular series on public space. Downtown Crossing covered here.) I’ve heard several of Boston’s ‘great and good’ refer to the Seaport District as a success. I beg to differ. Press the arrow on the slide show below and take a look at the slide show of the district that we took in mid-December 2009 between 12:30 and 1 PM. What’s your reaction? My first one was to ask the photographer (Pioneer’s own, redoubtable Peter Begley) if he deliberately left people out of the shots. He said he only delayed a single shot to let one person clear the frame, everything else is candid. My second reaction was: where is everybody? I know its December, but its lunchtime on a […]
How many pages does it take the federal government to address the pivotal issue of brownie ingredients, baking, and storage? 26.
From Today’s Globe: “Massachusetts education officials are quietly putting together a proposal to scrap the controversial MCAS exams in English and math and replace them with new tests they are developing with about two dozen other states.” From 2006 Globe and State House News accounts (sorry, MA library card req. for access): …Thomas F. Birmingham, a former Senate president and a candidate for governor in 2002, said at a Pioneer Institute breakfast forum Thursday. “In this regard, I’m a bit discomfited that one of the leading candidates for governor is, in my opinion, ambiguous on the issue of even retaining MCAS as a graduation requirement.”… …In an e-mailed statement… Patrick spokeswoman Libby DeVecchi said the campaign has reached out to […]
Here at the posh Pioneer HQ, we are well-aware of the vagaries of our elevators — outages, structural issues, and expired certificates of inspection. The State Auditor took a look at the state agency responsible for inspecting elevators, the Department of Public Safety, and found that 30% of the elevators in the state have expired inspections. The Auditor’s report notes that this represents a large amount of foregone revenue — $2.2 million for the current year’s overdue inspections and over $6 million for the elevators that have gone uninspected for multiple years. The Auditor’s report suggests that hiring 13 more inspectors would cure the backlog. Using the back of the envelope, the average inspector gets $62k in salary (thanks, www.massopenbooks.org), […]
Or maybe its no sign-maker left behind. The latest ‘nanny-state’ move by state government comes in the form of new, graphic public service advertisements that stores selling cigarettes will apparently be forced to display. State government can apparently enact this purely through administrative means, all that is needed is a DPH proposal plus approval by the “Public Health Council”. Look, I get that smoking is a bad thing and I think we tax it, label it, and counterpromote about it a great deal. This is a good thing, but some people can’t stop themselves. To get real personal about this, some of us live in places where the convenience stores sell cigarettes (and even lottery tickets, gasp) as a matter […]
UPDATE: Eagle-eyed reader notes that the amendment was filed by Representative (and State Senate candidate) Mike Rush. This morning’s Globe reports on an effort by Speaker DeLeo to move the Chief Justice for Administration and Management from their rented office space to free space in the City Square Courthouse. DeLeo spokesman Seth Gitell cites multi-million dollar cost savings for the move. But the more cynical among us note the LEG’s seemingly eternal desire to micromanage the courts and trample the notion of separation of powers. So, if you aren’t just picking on the CJAM, you’ve got another potential $185 million in savings to work on. This spreadsheet has all the 2009 disbursements for rent payments by state agencies, captured from […]
So, in order to make the convention center (which taxpayers subsidized to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars) a real success, we need to subsidize a massive expansion of the facility plus some portion of an estimated $700m hotel? Then we’ll be done? Promise?
This morning’s Globe has a story on the Attorney General’s office handing out a grant to provide summer jobs in Boston. Now, that’s a fine thing to support in principle but why is the AG’s office in the business of grant-making to worthy causes? My read of the office’s enabling act — Chap. 12 of the MGLs — provides little insight. It turns out that the AG has been giving out grants to a variety of groups under the rubric of “Project Yes” which is spending out funds from a settlement with pharmaceutical companies on projects that “promote health”. Again, each of these group appears worthy of support. But why is the AG’s office making grants in the name of […]
Brian Mooney penned a piece for the Globe last week discussing how state workforce numbers has declined. Its a topic we raised 17 months ago, so its great to see Mr. Mooney’s interest. ANF Sec’y Gonzalez provides data to Mooney that demonstrates that the executive branch has reduced its budget funded workforce by roughly 1,600 jobs since Governor Patrick took office. They’ve also explained it in the Governor’s budget as well. For my own analysis, I rely on the CAFR put out by the Comptrollers’ office, given ANF’s notoriously tight-fisted hold on giving information about headcount to the public. Unfortunately, that data only goes up to FY09 and its shows an overall increase in state workforce and (as near as […]
From today’s Jack Spillane piece on SouthCoastToday.com (and the New Bedford Standard-Times): Tim Sullivan, the legislative director for the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, pointed to the problem: Private sector workers — even unionized ones — resent having to pay for public-sector union benefits that are increasingly superior to those available in the private sector A surprising claim from a surprising source. Bobby Haynes, call your office!
I’m fascinated by the thinking behind the Caritas-Cerberus tie-up and today’s Globe speculates that the plan is to create a low cost provider of health care. I suspect that the Globe is right and I’d throw a few more ingredients into the pot: First, if Cerberus wants to play nationally in this market, they need to establish a reputation as an operator and not just short-term financial engineers. Building out the Caritas group gives them a chance to do this and get some rub from Caritas’ brand equity. Having Ralph de la Torre on your team doesn’t hurt either. Second, Caritas has tried to extend their value chain into insurance once before and almost succeeded. Depending on the structure of […]
Manufacturing in Massachusetts is dead, right? Rusted out and superseded by other, sexier industries. Wrong, its still the fourth largest employer in the state (behind healthcare, retail and education). And its disproportionately important in places like the South Coast and the Merrimack Valley. Plus manufacturing wages are above the state median wage. Check out this 2008 manufacturing chartbook put out by the state. What’s one of the key challenges facing the manufacturing industry? Its heavily reliant on energy as one of its major inputs (as opposed to other industries like financial services) and Massachusetts has one of the highest energy cost rates in the country. So, a new solar power mandate that may add up to $250m per year to […]
Thanks to all those who participated in last night’s Hewitt Healthcare Lecture by Dr. Jeffrey Flier, Dean of the Harvard Medical School. As promised, here’s a link to The Atlantic article by David Goldhill that Dr. Flier referenced in his lecture. We encourage you to give it a read and then share your thoughts with us in the comments.
The Cerberus-Caritas tie-up is a mystery to me. You’ve got a deep pocketed investor with no discernible links to this industry, and a reputation for being tough-minded financial engineers, not operators. And the deal announcement suggests a interest in follow-on investments nationally in the sector. Meanwhile, you’ve got this weekend’s reforms on the federal level, a state government that seems to want to play an even larger role in this market, and Caritas’ portfolio of hospitals, most of whom play vital roles in their communities (that won’t react well to much cost-cutting). Cerberus must have something in mind. What is it? PS — Nice work by whomever is doing Caritas’ PR — the banner ads on the Globe article about […]
Curt Schilling (formerly of the Red Sox, ahem) is now seeking a deal for his video game company, reportedly talking with Rhode Island to see what tax incentives might be provided. His inspiration? The film tax credits which he saw in action in his home town. Now, Curt’s got every right to get the best deal for his company but he might want to consider a few facts: 1) RI’s corporate tax rate is 9% while Massachusetts was 9.5% and is supposed to drop to 8.75% this year, then to 8% over the next few years, 2) RI’s personal income tax rate is progressive and rises pretty fast — it gets to 7% quickly and tops out at 9.9%. Not […]