THE PIONEER BLOG

Jim Stergios

This is dumb smart growth

/1 Comment/in , , /by

While Pioneer has done quite a lot of work on water pricing and on wetlands regulatory reforms, given the fiscal crisis and President Obama’s call for school reform, we have set environmental issues a little to the side for the moment. Over the next few months, I’ll post a few questions on environmental issues, which any gubernatorial candidate will need to weigh. So, basic question on smart growth. I understand the politics of targeting $50 million a year for open space protection. I also understand the shortcomings, such as goal-setting based on dollars out rather than environmental significance (i.e. agricultural value, habitat protection, or drinking water source protection). But in the term “smart growth”, there is, well, growth. Land protection […]

Steve Poftak

Do I hear $1.9 Billion?

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Yep, you sure do. The total cost of the South Coast Rail Link gets pegged at that figure in today’s New Bedford Standard-Times. That’s up from $1.4 billion last year, and the 2003 estimate of $670 million. Guess we better build it fast at these rates of increase….

Liam Day

Where is Rahm Emanuel?

/0 Comments/in , , /by Liam Day

When he was selected last year by President Obama to be his chief of staff, it was assumed Rahm Emanuel was chosen so he could be the new President’s muscle. His public reputation, earned during his years in the Clinton administration and in Congress, where he also for a time headed the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and publicly feuded with Howard Dean over electoral strategy, was one for being something of a head cracker. He was, after all, the basis for the character of Josh Lyman on the West Wing. Nevertheless, as the national health care debate has unfolded, both in and outside the hallowed halls of Congress, the Democrats have too often allowed their opponents to hijack the agenda […]

Steve Poftak

Is it too much to ask…

/0 Comments/in , , /by

…to change the name of the line items at the Department of Developmental Services? DDS used to be the Department of Mental Retardation and a name change has been in the works since at least the early part of this year. Yet, the FY10 budget, passed in June, contain six separate line items using the term “mentally retarded”. Details, I realize, but easy ones to fix.

Steve Poftak

Scenes from the Parade

/0 Comments/in , , /by

The Roslindale parade was held yesterday. The Globe even covered it! My unorganized thoughts: – Sam Yoon is working very hard for Michael Flaherty. He (and his supporters) were out marching and he was hustling up and down the side of the route, shaking hands and working the crowd. (One wag lamented: “Too bad he wasn’t like this when he was running”) – The contrast between the Menino presence and the Flaherty-Yoon presence was palpable. Menino was the first marcher, with just two aides and his wife. It felt almost perfunctory. He didn’t come off the route, even during breaks, to shake hands. Flaherty-Yoon had a large contingnent of chanting, sign-waving supporters and both men aggressively worked the crowd. – […]

Steve Poftak

Enter the Job-Month

/0 Comments/in , , /by

During last year’s casino debate, there was an awkward period when huge job creation estimates were being thrown around — 30,000 new jobs was the high point. It turned out that the these estimates were derived by multiplying the number of jobs by their duration (e.g. 10,000 construction jobs for three years equals 30,000 “jobs”). I see the logic, but it overstates the number of actual jobs created. The Feds have no taken this analysis to the next level — coming out with an estimate of 122,000 new jobs from stimulus spending. Turns out that this figure is based on job-months (which would result in the above equation becoming 10,000 jobs for 36 months equals 360,000 jobs!).

Steve Poftak

What could honor Gandhi more than…

/0 Comments/in , , /by

…a $23,000 “limited-edition fountain pen in 18-carat solid gold… engraved with Gandhi’s image and tricked out with a saffron-colored mandarin garnet on the clip and a rhodium-plated nib” from Montblanc?

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

/0 Comments/in , , /by

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

/0 Comments/in , , /by

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

/0 Comments/in , , /by

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?

/0 Comments/in , /by

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

/0 Comments/in , , /by

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 […]