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“Isn’t Everything Online and Free?” The Exclusivity of MA Law Libraries
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, Blog: Transparency /by Kaila WebbThere are 15 Trial Court Law Libraries in Massachusetts to service the Commonwealth’s 6.8 million residents. Publicly funded, they are a resource on Massachusetts laws for attorneys, judges, and the public. On the libraries’ website under the “What You Need to Know” section, they ask the question: “Isn’t everything online and free?” Their response: no. Regarding the “online” portion of that statement, resources the law library makes digitally available are locked behind a library portal. Unfortunately, a public library card won’t give you access; you need to follow seven steps in person for a card specific to these libraries. They’ll give you a photocopy of your new card so you have your barcode number, and then send the card through […]
The Reality of Cape Cod’s Population Trend
/0 Comments/in Blog /by Harris FoulkesCape Cod, Massachusetts is known as a bustling tourist location that overflows with visitors eager to get close to the ocean during the stifling summer months. In fact, Cape Cod experiences a 50 percent increase in occupancy level between January and August. While the Cape continues to experience economic growth due to its booming tourism industry, the population trend of its all-season residents is cause for concern. Cape Cod’s Population: Summer vs. Winter When the summer tourists depart, they increasingly leave behind a dwindling and aging population, which could hamper economic development. Between 2000 and 2016 Cape Cod’s year-round population decreased by 3 percent, though it has stabilized in recent years. The trend is remarkable considering the Cape experienced a […]
Boston is a global city. Here’s why that status is threatened
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Economy, Economic Opportunity, Housing /by Andrew MikulaBoston is often touted as a “global city.” A quick Google search will tell you that Boston is one of the best cities in the world for everything from quality of life to tech startups to commercial real estate investment. While traditionally an economic indicator, there’s now a general understanding that global cities have certain social and cultural institutions by definition. A smattering of global city rankings place Boston at 15th, 24th, 25th, and 46th. Others define a global city as having at least a million residents, under which parameter Boston doesn’t even qualify. Any index that tries to encapsulate dozens of indicators will miss some important nuances. Even if everyone suddenly agreed on the definition of a global city, […]
After the toll booths, where did the toll collectors go?
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Transportation /by Amy TournasIt has been almost two years since Massachusetts implemented fully cashless toll collection. The hope was to improve traffic flow, decrease harmful environmental emissions, increase safety and save money on personnel costs that could be redirected to maintenance or other capital projects. In 2016, 446 employees operated toll booths on the Mass Pike and Tobin Bridge. The average annual pay during 2015 for Toll Collector I and Toll Collector II was approximately $63,000 and $73,834, respectively. Factoring overtime pay, many employees were making over $100,000 . In this post-manual toll collection era, many have asked: Where did the toll collectors go? The Commonwealth gave the toll collectors a few options. Eligible toll collectors were allowed to retire under the Early […]
Newburyport, Abington and Beyond: How Should Massachusetts Towns Prepare for Legalized Recreational Marijuana?
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Economy /by Jay AndersonRecreational marijuana businesses are legal in Massachusetts as of July 1, but many of the Commonwealth’s towns are still unsure about how to proceed. Even though voters enthusiastically approved Question 4 in 2016, the enthusiasm has not carried over to town governments. For example, in Milford, 52 percent of voters supported the statewide legalization initiative. Yet less than a year later, 56 percent of Milford voters supported a referendum banning all recreational marijuana sales in the town. Despite this referendum, the first-ever recreational marijuana license in Massachusetts was recently granted to a Milford cultivation facility. While several similar towns have opted for an indefinite ban on recreational marijuana sales, over one third of Massachusetts towns have imposed moratoriums, temporarily banning […]
Income and education gaps, and the lack of mobility in Worcester County
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Education /by Amy TournasMassachusetts is known to have some of the top public schools in the country. Its traditional, vocational, and charter schools are ranked best in the nation across a variety of disciplines. Gaining access to these schools, however, comes at a steep price. For example, Worcester County communities spend much of their overall budgets on education. According to MassAnalysis, the 10 towns in the county with the highest per capita education expenditures spend an average of 56.8 percent of their total budgets on schools. But does all this spending yield results? While there are many additional factors to consider, there is a correlation to spending and results. Six out of the ten towns with the highest education spending are also in […]
Has UMass used financial aid packages to favor out-of-state students?
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Education, Blog: Higher Education, Higher Education /by Andrew MikulaA recent Pioneer Institute report concluded that the University of Massachusetts at Amherst has more stringent admissions standards for Bay State students than it does for out-of-state students. Given that UMass is heavily funded by state residents’ tax dollars, some experts have questioned whether UMass is favoring out-of-state students and their tuition revenue rather than serving the broader interests of the Commonwealth. Despite the scrutiny over admissions, UMass has the ability to tip the scales towards out-of-state students in another way: merit-based financial aid. UMass students have access to both state and UMass institutional programs for financial aid, both of which ultimately are funded partly by taxpayers. UMass may claim that state funding doesn’t directly contribute to financial aid […]
Which State Employees Make More than the Boss?
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, Blog: Economy, Blog: Transparency, News /by Kaila WebbIn 2017, the Massachusetts Department of Corrections had 20 employees who were paid more than the commissioner’s salary of $159,645. Among these 20, the median income was $172,491. This highly-paid group accounted for $1.2 million in overtime spending — enough to hire seven more employees at that six-figure median salary. Pioneer Institute wanted to find out how many Commonwealth departments had employees who earned more than their department head, so we used Pioneer’s transparency platform, MassOpenBooks. In 28 state departments, ranging from the Department of Public Safety to the Appeals Court, we found a clear pattern of employees earning more than the person managing the agency: Apparently, many agency heads opted to pay vast sums of overtime rather than […]
Massachusetts needs the 2020 Census to be accurate and adequately funded
/0 Comments/in Blog /by Andrew MikulaAccording to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Massachusetts’ population grew at an almost unprecedented rate in the late 1990s, gaining nearly 200,000 residents between 1999 and 2000 alone. If Massachusetts had kept up this pace of growth, it would have over 10.8 million residents in 2018, as opposed to the more modest 6.8 million we actually see today. Where did this astounding rate of population growth come from? An economic boom? An aggressive housing creation initiative? An influx of immigrants or refugees? None of the above. To put it bluntly, the St. Louis Fed’s data is misleading at best. The problem is that their intercensal population figures for the 1990s come from an initial Census […]
Why Did the Department of Corrections Pay a Chef $166,762 last year?
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Economy, Blog: Transparency /by Kaila WebbPioneer Institute’s MassOpenBooks transparency tool shows an employee listed in the Department of Corrections payroll as a “corrections officer/chef” with an income of $166,762 in 2017. His regular pay was $95,051, with $66,991 in overtime and $4,719 paid as “other”. His regular pay seems to have only been increased to adjust for inflation. His overtime, however, has been increasing exponentially and shifted from 4 percent of his pay in 2004 to 40 percent in 2017. Whether he’s a chef or a corrections officer, being paid this much in overtime is remarkable. Citizens need to demand more transparency in the disbursement of state funds so we have more than just numbers anytime sums run this high. For example: how well […]
Can State Pensioners Pay for Future Medically Necessary Long-term Care?
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Healthcare, Blog: Healthcare Transparency, Blog: Medicaid /by Kaila WebbAt some point many people find themselves needing help to care for themselves. For the elderly, nursing homes provide that help, either temporarily or on a long-term basis. In 2014, there were 1.4 million individuals in nursing homes nation-wide, with 41,255 of them in Massachusetts. Nursing home residents accounted for 3.7 percent of citizens older than 64, and 13.3 percent of citizens older than 84 years of age. Those numbers will only increase given the Commonwealth’s aging population. While not every retiree will require long-term care, the many who do will likely find the cost to be financially out of reach. For retired public employees, will their monthly pension checks cover the cost of a nursing home? Pioneer […]
True Transparency Needed for SFI’s
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, Blog: Transparency /by Mary ConnaughtonPioneer has long called for the Statements of Financial Interests (SFIs) that elected officials and political candidates are required to file to be available online. The State Ethics Commission must have been listening to us and other transparency enthusiasts that called on the Commonwealth to catch up to the times. While the forms can now be accessed online, there is still much to do to improve public access to these most important documents. Transparency is the most fundamental tool a democracy has to ensure that its stewards have the public interest at heart, rather than their own self-interest. We have seen far too many breaches of ethics in recent years on Beacon Hill and one way to prevent them is […]
New taxable land parcels are getting very scarce in urban Massachusetts
/0 Comments/in Blog /by Andrew MikulaPlymouth – the oldest town in Massachusetts – has an incredible 2,685 unoccupied plots of taxable land. Meanwhile, Cambridge – a city nearly twice as populous as Plymouth – has just 150. If you know anything about Cambridge and Plymouth, this shouldn’t be surprising. Plymouth is a sprawling coastal suburb with a small, historic downtown. Cambridge is a densely populated urban hub of innovative start-ups, world-class universities, and young professionals with close proximity to Boston. In creating new development, knocking down trees is a lot easier than knocking down old buildings, and redeveloping old buildings to fit modern uses is especially difficult when there are many other occupied buildings nearby. These realities are clearly reflected in a nationwide pattern […]
Bill H.2890: Funding More Problems than Solutions
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Healthcare, Blog: Medicaid /by Kaila WebbStudies show that 90 percent of the elderly want to live out their days at home. With familiarity sewn into every corner, home feels warm and secure. Moving to a nursing home can be terrifying, replacing the familiar with the unfamiliar and often separating couples because of different needs for care. Many adult children lament moving their parents into a long-term care facility, but all too often in-home care becomes unattainable due to perceived cost, logistics and the amount of care required to keep their parents safe. Which is where House Bill H.2890 comes into play. The proposed legislation aims to increase funding available to licensed nursing homes in a $90 million rate add-on dedicated to MassHealth nursing homes’ employee […]
Long-term decline in area Catholic high school enrollment is likely to continue
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Education /by Andrew MikulaOver a dozen Catholic schools affiliated with the Archdiocese of Boston are governed by independent boards of trustees. Most of these schools offer programs to students in grades 9-12 (Figure 1). However, as private schools compete to attract talented students and, increasingly, traditional and charter public schools do the same, many Catholic schools are struggling to boost enrollment. Catholic school closings in Massachusetts have received significant media attention, but even those that have stayed open are challenged to generate sufficient tuition revenue and donations. With financial pressure to pay teachers, improve the infrastructure of aging buildings, and update technology and lab equipment, many parochial schools face major long-term obstacles. Figure 1: Boston Archdiocese-affiliated co-ed high schools and the grade […]