THE PIONEER BLOG

Liam Day

Whassup, kid?

/1 Comment/in , /by Liam Day

When I was a ridiculously skinny, cocksure undergrad, that was how I addressed everyone. “Hey, whassup, kid?” It didn’t matter if the person I was addressing was a fellow student, dorm tutor, or professor. I bring this up in light of Scot Lehigh’s column this morning commenting on both Mayor Menino’s and Mike Flaherty’s reference to Sam Yoon as kid in last night’s mayoral debate on WCVB. Like tonic or bubbler, “kid” is a Bostonism, particularly “good kid” or “great kid”. I have kids I grew up with, who are now, like me, unfortunately approaching 40, with kids of their own, and if you were to ask me what they were like, I’d still respond with something like, “Macca? Macca’s […]

Steve Poftak

The City's Hotline Really Does Work

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The City of Boston has a 24 hour constituent service line — 617-635-4500 (which should be 311, but that’s another story). It works apparently. Particularly when the Mayor calls it: Page 8 of the first batch of Kineavy emails posted on the Globe website has a city employee checking in with Kineavy about a call to the service line from none other thanTom Menino inquiring about the permits for a dumpster in the North End.

Steve Poftak

Pension Reform Commission Kicks It to the LEG

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Just got back from the last meeting of the Pension Reform Commission, where they declined to decide which of their proposals (now complete with cost estimates) to recommend to the Legislature. It’s a pretty unsatisfying outcome to a process that promised, at one point, to provide a cost-neutral set of recommendations to the Legislature. However, a close reading of their enabling statute shows that their were entitled to conduct a study and not make recommendations. An interesting subtext to this discussion is the primary public source of conflict on the commission — between PERAC and the Board chair (previously mentioned here). I encourage you to give PERAC’s costing analysis a close read. To paraphrase a colleague, there are plenty of […]

Steve Poftak

Read and Learn

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Ken Lewis of BofA to step down before the new year. Who called it many months ago?

Jim Stergios

Will the state keep passing the buck?

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Matt Murphy of the Sun (and the associated Sentinel and Enterprise) reports that state revenues will come in $150 to $200 million below budget estimates for the month of September. On top of subpar revenues in July, we have to gird ourselves for some real tough actions — and fast. The State Treasurer and Lowell City Manager are both right to call for one quick, clean cut early in the fiscal year. Murphy paraphrases Lynch as suggesting “he’d rather have the Band-Aid ripped off quickly than endure a slow peel.” Lynch also notes “hopefully the governor will find other savings at the state level.” He’s right. Our view is that local cannot be the first option, to the point that […]

Steve Poftak

The State Pension System is not responsibly funded

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Or so says the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission. I read with interest the most recent memo from PERAC’s Actuarial Advisory Committee which had the following citation: We believe that maintaining a funding target of 100% is the desired goal. If the plan sponsor sets a goal of 100% funded and attains a funded ratio of 80%, that is not a bad result. In fact, the 2009 State of the Pension System published by PERAC stated: “ . . . public sector experts, union officials, and advocates believe, according to the GAO, that 80% is a responsible funded ratio for public pension systems”. Working backwards, the 2009 State of the Pension System document states the following: In this context, perspective […]

Liam Day

An Ali-like return to the Pioneer blog

/1 Comment/in , /by Liam Day

He may be gone, but he is most certainly not forgotten. Alan Petrillo, our one-time editor extraordinaire, who now plies his trade for KLD Research and Analytics, recently had an interesting blogpost on the need to find a language of politics that avoids stereotypical labels. He asked me to share. Enjoy.

Liam Day

Campaign Messaging 101 – Vote and Pay Your Taxes

/0 Comments/in , /by Liam Day

A mentor for whom I had the highest respect once told me the baseline for running for elected office is pretty low. There are really only two disqualifiers – not voting and not paying taxes. Everything else, he believed, can be overcome. (And if the rumors that Eliot Spitzer is contemplating a run for New York State Comptroller are true, we will get the chance to test that hypothesis.) Why do I mention this? It turns out Steve Pagliuca, who is running a consultant-laden campaign for Senate, pretty much forgot to vote for the decade of the go-go 90s and Christy Mihos has now committed the other disqualifying gaffe not once, but twice. Yes, I believe voters are pretty angry […]

Jim Stergios

What's non-negotiable and what's at risk

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Under the cover of the appointment of Paul Kirk as the US Senator from Massachusetts and the mess created by an email from the Commonwealth’s Secretary of Education regarding a charter school approval came a huge story. The state, after years and years of talk, will take over CSX rail lines between Framingham and Worcester, and between Taunton and Fall River/New Bedford. First, this is overall a very good thing. Murray’s announcement at a Greater Boston Chamber breakfast helps move the state’s transportation infrastructure ahead in some very positive ways. More frequent commuter rail service between Boston and Worcester is a no-brainer that previous administrations did not get done. Also, the state’s takeover of Worcester line will allow for changes […]

Steve Poftak

Tough Time for Incumbent Mayors

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(Disclosure: I know several of these folks professionally.) Boston Mayor Menino looks like the outlier among his peers after his strong showing in the preliminary election. In Fall River, incumbent Robert Correia finished third and won’t make it to the general election. Several other mayors fared a bit better — finishing second but making it into the general election. Brockton’s Mayor Harrington, Lynn’s Mayor Clancy, Pittsfield’s Mayor Ruberto, and Westfield’s Mayor Boulanger all survived second place finishes. But I can’t recall a period when more incumbents faced such stiff challenges.

Steve Poftak

Helpful Governing Tips

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Re: Use of Email Tip #1: Don’t use it to try and engineer the installation of a lightly-qualified supporter into a plum job. Tip #2: Don’t repeat #1 a few months later with an even higher press profile. Tip #3: Don’t dispose of an authority head and blame them for something that your and their emails clearly contradict. Bonus Sub-Tip: Go easy on the WWII references. Tip #4: Don’t use email to lay out the political calculus for highly controversial decisions that are supposed to be made based on objective criteria. Thus ends today’s session at the Lomasney Center for Political Communications at Pioneer Institute.

Jim Stergios

The Perfect Storm in Gloucester

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We have long lamented the politicization of education policy broadly, but especially on charter schools, since the creation of the position of the Education Secretary and the packing of the board of education. Think back to the decision to kill off a great charter application in the Brockton area for purely political reasons. Or consider how the 21st-century skills agenda moved forward in the MCAS contract without any board approval. Looking for reminders? Okay, try here, here, here, and here, as well as a number of reports, op-eds, etc., which I will not list out. All of this is the lead-up to the perfect storm in Gloucester, where the Gloucester Times notes, with charity, Ed chief’s e-mail kills his, secretary’s […]

Steve Poftak

Ouch

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The print version of the Globe (corrected here online) quoted MassTrans Executive Director-designee Jeff Mullan as commenting on the recent rash of fires at MBTA stations. Turns out they actually were quoting the current Sec’y of Transportation Jim Aloisi (who resigned but is still in office until the end of October). PS- You’ll note another oddity in the same corrections column. They run a movie review-related correction for an error in the same day’s paper. Turns out that, as a cost-savings measure, the “G” section is printed several days in advance.

Steve Poftak

Thoughts on Tuesday's Election in Boston

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– Boston should take a lot of pride in the quality, depth, and diversity of its at-large city council candidates. Top-to-bottom, this is a serious group, all worthy of consideration, and all seem to have run hard — marching in parades, doorknocking, leafleting. – Had the pleasure of walking down Centre Street in high-voting Ward 20 this morning at rush hour. There was a literal swarm of city employees — a BTD command center, DPW workers painting lampposts and powerwashing (!?) the sidewalks, street sweepers, construction workers rebuilding the library, and, of course, supervisors for everyone. Must be election season in Boston. – The Herald threw a curveball into the at-large race. First, they endorsed five candidates (and you can […]

Jim Stergios

Small suggestion

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The Globe editorial page has settled into a very even-keel point of view on school reform, embracing accountability, testing, funding, high academic standards, as well as charters and newly proposed readiness schools. They’ve been advocates of positive change. Editorial pages and news pages are different. Opinions belong on the opinion pages and we could use a little less tilt in the Globe’s day-to-day education reporting. This space has noted the tilt several times in the past (here, here, and here). A little more knowledge of the history of how Massachusetts went from, on average, having pretty good schools to having the best schools in the country would help improve that reporting. And (small suggestion) on a day when Jamie Vaznis […]