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Understanding Retirement Benefits
13 Questions for the Special Commission on Pension Reform
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /by1) How many members of the commission really think pensions and other employment benefits need to be reformed? 2) Does the Governor’s office have specific ideas as to what they would like to see in the commission report and a game plan for achieving it? 3) When PERAC presents information but states that the data is not really comparable, why doesn’t anyone ask them to come back with comparable data? 4) For that matter, for a liability as large as the state’s public employee pension system and other benefits, why don’t the Administration and legislative leaders insist on better data collection? 5) Did the Commission really have a discussion of disability without even touching on the “Heart Law”, section 94 […]
The Laws of Economics Still Apply
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /bySenator Bruce Tarr of Gloucester has filed an amendment to the budget that would allow the state to grant ‘racino licenses’ that would let racetracks operate slot parlors. We had this same discussion in 2006 and we’ll restate our position: giving licenses away to a fixed group of bidders at a fixed price is not the way to maximize the value to the state. It will result in a subsidy to racetrack owners (and perhaps their employees, perhaps). If we must allow gambling of this type, let’s maximize the value to the state by allowing an open auction of the licenses, not a fixed process. I’d note that the pending legislation practically concedes my point (see Section 7, subsection i, […]
NYPD not so blue
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byPolice Chief Ed Davis has calmed the spikes in crime seen before his arrival. It would be good to see some numbers on crime rates in the past few years in case anyone wants to pass those on. That said, New York’s police commissioner Raymond Kelly brings some good news in a recent New York Post short that he penned. Noting that NYC is still the number 1 target in the country for terrorists, he points to a slimmer police force (5,000 fewer officers) AND lower crime rates. Today, despite having 5,000 fewer officers, crime is down by nearly 40 percent from eight years ago. At the year’s start, many predicted that crime rates would spike as a result of […]
New York 20, Boston 0
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byTip of the cap to Whitney Tilson for directing me to this article by Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice, who calls on mayor Bloomberg to “roll the union.” My, how far attitudes toward charters have changed on Left. Everywhere, that is, except in Massachusetts. If Bloomberg wins this year, it will be the fifth consecutive time that a Republican candidate has carried a 5-1 Democratic city. This time, the mayor isn’t running as a registered Republican—as he did the first two times—and he wants us to believe that he is an Independent with a Democratic tilt. Democrats just can’t take back the big office in Gotham, and the Union of Federated Teachers has learned new tactics to gain the […]
The Buddy-Boy World of Massachusetts Public Pensions
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byRemember Tim Bassett? He’s the guy who retired, took a pension, then got special legislation written just for him that allowed him to go back onto the public payroll while retaining his pension. (And who’s wife just had her pension reduced because she tried to count years as a library trustee, except she didn’t attend the meetings.) Read the details here. He’s currently the Executive Director of the Essex County Regional Retirement Board, where the Globe estimates he is paid $123,000 annually (and don’t forget the $41,000 pension too). But that’s not enough. In his spare time, he lobbies for a variety of clients, among them are other retirement boards. The Salem Times reports today that his firm was paid […]
Haute Cuisine, anyone?
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /by Liam DayA little behind on this one, but I did want to direct people’s attention to a recent piece on the SAT in The Weekly Standard. Fascinating history and interesting little tidbits. (For example, did you know that the letters SAT no longer stand for anything?) It also raised in my mind a question. Objections to the SAT often center on alleged bias. One of the examples of bias most often cited (at least according to the article) is a question dating from the 60’s that asks students for an analogy to “runner is to marathon”. The correct answer is “oarsmen is to regatta”. In this narrow context, I would agree with the test’s opponents. A prep school student would clearly […]
Boston's proposed school assignment plan
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /by Liam DayToday’s Globe describes the coalition that is forming to fight back against Boston School Superintendent Carol Johnson’s plan to move from three to five school assignment zones to save roughly $10 million in transportation costs. My thoughts on the topic are, in no particular order of importance: 1) The opposing coalition is right. The city should not be reducing the number of schools from which students and their parents can choose, which is what would happen if the city moved from three to five assignment zones. I would argue the city should expand choice through charter schools and other mechanisms. 2) Which brings me to point #2: would this same coalition be willing to support charter schools as vocally as […]
Obama v. Patrick
/1 Comment/in Blog, News /byNo, silly. There is not going to be a lawsuit just because the President isn’t going to nominate His Excellency the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (HETG to the BlueMassGroupies, see line 3). It’s that HETG has not once, to my knowledge, ever recognized charter schools during National Charter School Week. And below follows the proclamation made by POTUS. Hmmm, perhaps HETG v. POTUS is a catchier title for a blog entry. While pondering such imponderables, let me cue the presidential proclamation: Improving our schools is the collective responsibility of all Americans—business owners and workers, educators and parents, students and their communities. We must ensure that all students receive a high-quality education that delivers the knowledge and skills needed […]
The Trust Deficit Grows
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /by Liam DayYesterday, I got up on my soapbox and railed about the trust deficit our state and local leaders need to close before they think about closing the fiscal deficit. Well, today, unfortunately, based on some anecdotal evidence, it appears the trust deficit may be opening, not closing. Jim Stergios has an interesting post just below mine about the fiscal shell games going on in Haverhill’s school system and – poor Wilfredo Laboy – the Lawrence Eagle Tribune reported yesterday that the embattled superintendent was made aware of the illegal background checks his assistant was conducting long before it came out in the press. To turn his ridiculous quote back on him, where is Wilfredo Laboy’s transgression in all of this? […]
Paper cuts in Haverhill
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byShawn Regan reports in the Eagle Tribune that “the greatest myth in the [Haverhill] school district” is “that city schools have been losing dozens of teachers every year due to budget cuts.” Not so. But in truth, the number of teachers in the district has grown by four in each of the previous three years, according to information provided by the Haverhill teachers union — figures school administrators don’t dispute. Several School Committee members who have voted to eliminate teachers for several years in a row said they were surprised by the revelation. “The community and certainly the School Committee has believed teachers are going down every year because we’ve been cutting them,” School Committee President Scott Wood said after […]
They are good at what they do
/1 Comment/in Blog, News /byThe National Education Association is, bar none, the most effective public employee union of the past 30 years. So it is good to understand what they do and how they do it. If you are interested in seeing their 2008 election debrief, then click right here — specially delivered to you by our education spymaster. Now, of course, noting that they are good at what they do does not mean what they do is good.
Taxation without trust?
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /by Liam DayI would like to follow up on my post last week regarding the shenanigans (and there really is no other way to describe it) going on in the Lawrence public schools. I heard from people and the recurring theme in their responses to me and in the comments they left on the blog is one of fundamental distrust. This doesn’t surprise me. Not only does the mismanagement of the Lawrence public schools at this point appear to be so broad it would be impossible for even the only moderately informed taxpayer not to notice it, but the same theme appears to be playing out at the state level as well. The state is facing a truly enormous budget gap, both […]
Harry Truman he ain't
/3 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /by Liam DayI know there are a lot of issues on the table right now, particularly the sales tax increase the House just passed, but, because it was buried at the bottom of a column deep in the Metro section of this morning’s Globe, I wanted, very briefly, to point to a comment from Lawrence school superintendent Wilfredo Laboy so absurd it defies satire. Yet another scandal appears to be roiling the Lawrence public schools. After recent revelations that assistants to the Superintendent conducted unwarranted background checks on more than 400 individuals and that, apparently, underage drinking at Lawrence High doesn’t require police notification, we learn today that a K-8 school principal in Lawrence has been hawking her, according to the Globe, […]
One Day
/3 Comments/in Blog, News /byThat’s all it took. We wait years for pension reform. Years for the state to reform the health care purchasing regime. Decades for them to loose the embrace of public employee unions. All that takes decades. And it isn’t done. But an increase in the sales tax? All it takes is a day. On this one the Governor is right. His letter yesterday certainly offended House members, in a way U.S. interference in a Central American election would offend that country’s population. The Governor’s letter was certainly an act of political gamesmanship, but what is wrong with that? Yes, he got the gospel late in the game, finally insisting on reform first. But the Senate only talked a great game. […]
The Return of Governor Deval Patrick
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byThe House of Representatives is, as we go to press, engaged in a political suicide mission — attempting to build a veto-proof majority to raise the sales tax by 25%. The Governor, smartly, has staked out a contrary position with some very specific insistence on reforms, backed by a threat to veto the sales tax increase: – On pensions, the Governor is insisting on reforms that apply to both new and current employees. This is a direct challenge to the House’s efforts thus far. – On transportation, “real reforms” and “true cost savings”, noting that based on the House and Senate efforts “[w]e are not there yet”. – On ethics, he notes the Senate’s inaction. This is smart politics and […]