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Interesting Choices
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byI opened up my Globe this AM to be greeted by this Metro section headline: “Political Momentum Builds for a Sales Tax Increase” plus a picture of a rally and an article on the topic. Interesting choices, given that the rally only attracted 40 or so people and the content of the article was much more noncommital. Contrast that with the studied inattention to the larger “Tea Party” rallies of the week before — wire story on a rally elsewhere deep in the first section.
Treasurer Cahill's Spring Cleaning
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byAllegations were made regarding the connections between the Treasurer and some lobbyists at the end of last summer. The State Ethics Commission recently started investigating the allegations and certain folks on the left started jumping for joy (see here and here). They assumed this was the end of a potential challenge to their Governor. But Cahill was ‘cleared’ yesterday by the Ethics Commission (that’s the Herald headline, the actual wording was “this matter does not warrant further action at this time”). Regardless, Cahill has a clean bill of health on the matter should it come up later and he did it before the vast majority of voters are paying much attention. My guess is that this was his intent all […]
Almost a million dollars an hour
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byOne of my pet issues has been moving payroll and other short-lived items off of the capital budget. It’s the state budgeting equivalent of taking out a mortgage to buy groceries — using 20 – 30 year bonds to pay for salaries, computers, cars, etc. It would require roughly $200 million in operating funds to do that completely. I’ve been told many times (before the current crisis) that this would be impossible. Governor Patrick, to his credit, proposed moving a mere $10 million of payroll off the capital budget in his first budget. Again, deemed impossible and ignored by the Legislature. Now, in the midst of our great fiscal crisis, the $52 million line item for the Quinn Bill got […]
Pick Your Favorite Earmark
/1 Comment/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byThe amendments to the House Ways & Means Budget are in!! Take a spin through and find your favorites. First, two requests in the name of transparency — give them names that are comprehensible (FY 2010 Amendment (TAP-LIFT).doc, anyone?) and don’t use the .docx format. I encourage loyal readers to add their favorites in the comments. I’ll start the bidding with $217,000 for new tennis courts at Wakefield High. Maybe it really is for the children…. More generally, I may be naive, but I’m always puzzled by the legality of naming specific, non-public providers for specific state services and the dollar amount they should receive. Look, I think Junior Achievement is probably doing a great job, but does putting a […]
National health plans competing with the private sector
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byJohn Graham of the Pacific Research Institute makes a great point in an email today: One key item on President Obama’s health care agenda is to “establish a National Health Insurance Exchange with a range of private insurance options as well as a new public plan based on benefits available to members of Congress that will allow individuals and small businesses to buy affordable health coverage.” The chairmen of five congressional committees have all agreed that there should be a government-run plan that competes against private health insurers and is available to all Americans. Senators Kennedy and Baucus; and Representatives George Miller, Henry Waxman, and Charles Rangel, have been engaged in secret negotiations to hammer out a deal. They are […]
Reform for Thee, Not for Me
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byThe House passed a limited version (more to come, they promise) of pension reform last night. I note one particular amendment that got added on the floor: FAGAN AMENDMENT – EFFECTIVE DATE: Rep. Fagan offered amendment # 48 providing that only employees hired after July 1, 2010 will be affected by provisions of the bill prohibiting public officials earning less than $5,000 from crediting that time toward their pensions. The amendment was adopted. [Provided by State House News, sub. req.] As our 2006 paper noted: According to the legislators’ biographies on the General Court website, at least 62 out of 200 representatives and senators served in one or more of these local positions [i.e. local positions at no or low […]
Potemkin Reform
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byIt is becoming increasingly difficult to buy into the notion that reform is really happening up on Beacon Hill. Transportation reform, which got off to an auspicious start with the original proposal from the Senate, has gotten quite watered down as it has progressed through that body and to the House. In this case, Governor Patrick is right. Yep, let me write that again: Governor Patrick is right. The House and Senate transportation bills do not go far enough. And on pension reform, I’m doubtful that we will get anything more than a tactical closing of the obvious loopholes without any real strategic thinking about the pension system’s flaws. There is a Special Commission on Pension Reform meeting regularly. But […]
How Not to Advocate for Transit
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byYesterday’s Globe covered the expansion of the Green Line into Somerville and Medford. The article talked to newcomers to that community (who generally wanted the subway) and ‘old-timers’ (who generally opposed it). One quote stood out: “It will be that much more connected to civilization,” said Elizabeth Bolton, a real estate agent who moved here in 2005. Eh, I don’t think the negative space around that comment are great for building coalitions. The notion that Medford is somehow disconnected from ‘civilization’ will not endear you to the ‘old-timers’.
Hmmm, Astrid Glynn returns
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byNew York State Transportation Commissioner Astrid Glynn is resigning to return to the Boston area. I wonder if there is a soft landing awaiting her here in a transportation-related position?
Try to make your point more skillfully. . . err, I mean more subtly
/1 Comment/in Blog, News /by Liam DayAs I have been in the past critical of Michael Graham’s column, I thought I would (as I have also done in the past) give him props when he deserves it. His column on Harvard’s exclusion of the ROTC from its campus appears in the Herald today opposite a similarly themed op-ed in the Globe. Both authors argue (correctly, I believe) it is time to bring ROTC back to Harvard after a 40-year absence. In contrast to the Globe piece, however, Graham’s column is a monument to nuance and careful argumentation. Frank Schaeffer paints Harvard (actually, the entire Ivy League) and its students with the broadest possible brush (a polite way of saying he stereotypes). Here is what he believes […]
The Revolving Door Also Swings Close to Home
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, News /by Liam DayThere’s been some hand-wringing recently over the increasingly oligarchical nature of our federal government. The revolving door between D.C. and Wall Street is and should be of concern. (See Blue Mass Group, Salon.com and The Atlantic.) In all of this, however, it should not be missed that the same door is held open between Beacon Hill and the corporate sector here in Massachusetts. The Governor’s new Transportation Secretary (about which enough has probably already been written) and his Stimulus Czar both came back to state government after very lucrative stints in the private sector, which were set up by previous stints in state government, from which they both cashed out, the former by remaining a legal consultant to the Pike […]
Truth Telling
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byAn eye-opening quote from the CBO’s analysis of the proposed Truth in Writing act (my emphasis added): S. 574 would amend federal law to require all federal agencies within one year to use plain writing (clear, concise, well-organized, and readily identifiable to the intended reader) in all documents except for regulations. Thus, we are lead to believe that regulations will continue to be written in opaque, lengthy, disjointed, and obscure bureaucratese.
Is quasi-governmental power a 21st century skill
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byRobert Pondiscio of Core Knowledge passed on this nugget: Common Core’s Lynne Munson has an eyebrow-raising post today on a piece of federal legislation that would give extraordinary quasi-governmental power to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Munson reports that Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) will put forth a “21st Century Skills Incentive Fund Act.” The bill would create “an incentive fund for states to sign on to P21 and give tax breaks to corporations who support P21 at the state level.” As Munson notes the bill would make P21 the gatekeeper of hundreds of millions in federal taxdollars. That’s because the legislation would require any state that applies for these incentive funds first to be ‘approved as a 21st Century […]
Metrics Matter
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byNoah Bierman of the Globe had an interesting piece in Sunday’s Globe on commuter rail’s on-time performance. He found that peak service trains fared significantly worse than non-peak service trains for on-time service. The interesting part is that that the commuter rail operator, MBCR, is evaluated and reports on the basis of trains delayed, not passengers. What this means is that the bulk of commuter rail riders (i.e. rush hour passengers) experience a far higher level of late trains than the publicly reported data would suggest. I would suggest that a more customer-oriented metric would be based on the total delay per passenger but that would take a level of detail and information the MBTA cannot currently collect.
Going After the Cabbies
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byCity Councillor John Tobin has proposed a sliding taxi fare scale tied to gas prices. Given that fares were just increased (in response to $4/gallon gas prices), this seems logical but hard to implement. Careful readers of this space will recall that we pointed out this issue in January — that taxi fares were raised in response to high gas prices but no cuts were implemented after gas prices moderated. Very careful readers will note that Councillor Tobin has a (laudable) history when it comes to vehicular issues. He led the effort to put GPS monitors on all Boston Public School buses as well.