Editorial Staff

Struggling For Sunshine: Transparency’s Power To Keep Leaders Accountable

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by Editorial Staff
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

Host Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Institute’s Mary Z. Connaughton about the value of transparency and Pioneer’s extensive work to provide greater access to legislative and policy information to hold elected officials accountable and build trust in our state government. Read Pioneer Institute’s Sunshine Week Transparency Resolutions.

Guest:

Mary Z. Connaughton, CPA, is Pioneer’s Director of Government Transparency and Director of Finance and Administration. Prior to joining Pioneer, she was a partner in the business development firm of Ascentage Group.  Her professional experience also includes being an accounting instructor at Framingham State University and senior manager on the audit staff at Ernst and Young in Boston. Mary served on the former Massachusetts Turnpike Authority board of directors.  She was a member of the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct and was on the board of directors of Commonwealth Corporation. She was Chief Financial Officer of the Massachusetts State Lottery and served in the State Treasurer’s Office.  Mary was formerly vice chair of the Framingham Finance Committee. Mary earned an M.B.A. from Assumption College in 2009, as well as a B.B.A. in Accounting and a B.A. in English from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Get new episodes of Hubwonk in your inbox!

Unlocking Affordable Housing: Sources and Solutions for Cost Crisis

Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Institute Housing Fellow Andrew Mikula about his research on the causes and cures for our region's highest-in-the-nation housing costs. 

Jawboning Free Speech: State Coercion Finds Limits at Supreme Court

Joe Selvaggi talks with Cato Institute legal scholar Thomas Berry about the effects of the 9-0 Supreme Court decision in NRA v. Vullo on states' ability to use regulation to target disfavored free speech.

Protectionism’s Bipartisan Embrace: Who Pays When Imports Cost More

Joe Selvaggi talks with international tax and trade expert Clark Packard about the tension between the economic and political calculus behind the Biden administration's recently announced tariffs on Chinese products, including EVs, batteries, and steel.

Universal Savings Accounts: Designing Tax Incentives that Pay to Save

Joe Selvaggi talks with CATO Institute’s Dr. Adam Michel about the opportunity for tax reforms that promote individual savings, an important foundation for economic growth, personal well-being, and intergenerational support.

Precision Law Enforcement: Can Gunfire Detection Technology Serve and Protect Everyone?

Joe Selvaggi talks with SoundThinking's Senior Vice President Tom Chittum about gunfire location technology promises and pitfalls when deployed by law enforcement in high-crime communities.

Examining Diversity’s Dividends: Can Studies Survive Contact with Peer Review

Joe Selvaggi talks with business data scientist Dr. Jeremiah Green about his peer review work examining consulting firm McKinsey’s studies on the measurable financial benefits of diversity in corporate executive leadership.

Promoting Policy Probity: Confessions of Hubwonk’s Humble Host at 200

Hubwonk's Joe Selvaggi marks episode 200 with a solo podcast that offers some backstory of his journey to becoming a host and offers some insights learned from more than 4 years of interviews.

Losing Local Labor: Retaining Workers Remains a Massachusetts Challenge

Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Institute's Research Associate Aidan Enright about Pioneer's annual report on the Massachusetts labor force and discuss which trends could portend trouble for the state’s future.

Tax Man Confounded: Why High Rates Haven’t Yielded Higher Revenue

Joe Selvaggi talks with economic scholar Dr. Brian Domitrovic about the history of federal tax policy and the reasons for why varied marginal rates fail to correlate with either tax revenue or GDP growth.

Industrial Policy Reimaged: Can Government Improve Free Markets

Joe Selvaggi discusses industrial policy, its aspirations and limitations, with CATO Institute Associate Director Colin Grabow, in response to Senator Rubio's thought piece advocating for a more active role for government in the economy.

Posting Patient Prices: Transparency Cure for Hospital Blank Checks

Joe Selvaggi interviews entrepreneur, philanthropist, and founder of PatientRightsAdvocate.org, Cynthia Fisher, discussing her research and advocacy for enhanced healthcare price transparency. This initiative has the potential to improve life expectancy and save Americans over a trillion dollars annually.

Constitutional Property Taking: Exclusionary Zoning’s Costs to Owners and Society

Joe Selvaggi talks with George Mason Law Professor Ilya Somin about the the costs, benefits, and legal foundations of exclusionary zoning argued in his recent paper: The Constitutional Case Against Exclusionary Zoning.