Rejoice, rejoice, the 2009 CAFR is out and with it, a consistent, 3rd party source of numbers on the state workforce. Here is the data itself. You may recall some back and forth between various parties — see here and here — about how many folks have been added to the rolls of state government during the Patrick Administration. Part of the problem has been semantics — the Administration insists on using the construction “positions eliminated”, which is really HR-speak for changes in an administrative database, but sounds good. What really matters is headcount. And the data shows that from June 30, 2007* to June 30, 2009, state government added 844 employees, net of layoffs, positions eliminated, etc. To be […]

The Governor has used his site visits to make a point in the past, most recently dropping in on the Excel Charter in East Boston during the ed reform debate, raising the ire of Speaker DeLeo whose district is very short distance away. So I read with interest today about his eating tour of Quincy — grabbing a slice at Napoli’s, eating some lunch at Nick’s. Maybe a message to gubernatorial candidate Tim Cahill, who hails from Quincy and has been holding a number of events there?

There’s a new app available for you IPhone users (who aren’t participating in Operation Chokehold in an hour) that lets you figure out when buses are arriving on certain MBTA routes. I’m not sure if its the first app out or not, but MassDOT has been doing some fascinating work reaching out to the developer community and providing them with data feeds. I was recently reading MassDOT’s 90-day implementation report (yep, I’m cool.) and was struck by a passage on data. As part of a discussion about outsourcing the 511 service, it notes their efforts to move “toward a vision of government as a wholesaler of information rather than a retailer.” That’s a mouthful coming from a public sector entity. […]

The Herald took a shot at the Patrick Administration yesterday, claiming they have added 1,300 people to the state payroll over the last year. We’ve written a bunch on this issue. In particular to question why the safety net agencies are taking such a dramatic hit relative to others.) Also, to note how difficult is has been to get this administration to play straight with disclosing the numbers. In response to the Herald piece, Secretary of A&F Jay Gonzalez shot back that the Governor has eliminated 1,930 positions. Semantics matter here. The state’s human resource system is littered with ‘open positions’ that may never be filled. Taking one of these positions off the rolls might possibly prevent spending in the […]