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Massachusetts Financial Disclosures – Weak and Out of Reach
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Transparency, News, Transparency /by Kevin LawsonIn the last five years, 250 public servants in Massachusetts faced charges for crimes or ethics violations, according to the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), which rated Massachusetts a D+ on legislative accountability. In an interview with the CPI, George Brown, former chairman of the State Ethics Commission, attributed this dismal grade to a political culture that puts itself above the law. The state’s high rate of ethical lapses and low legislative accountability grade are by-products of our inadequate government transparency laws and policies. A key ingredient of government transparency is the Statement of Financial Interests (SFIs) elected officials and other policy-making appointees are required to file annually. When the thoroughness of or public access to SFIs is wanting, a […]
What Court Documents Show About Compensation at the MBTA vs. Peer Communities
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, Blog: Better Government, Blog: MBTA, Blog: Transparency, Blog: Transportation, News /by Matt Blackbourn and John SivolellaIntroduction As the Baker Administration works with the state legislature to determine the future course of the MBTA, a critical component of this deliberative process should be revisiting and interpreting the long-standing, often contentious history of interest arbitration between the MBTA and its public employee unions. The Boston Carmen’s Union, ATU Local 589, is the largest of the MBTA’s 28 bargaining units, representing roughly 3,500 employees over a range of 45 distinct job classifications—or approximately 55 percent of the MBTA labor force. The outcome of the MBTA’s negotiations with Local 589 typically sets a ‘pattern’ that the other MBTA unions follow. This method is not based on statute or in collective bargaining agreements, but is a practice that has emerged […]
Why Massachusetts Should Abandon the PARCC Tests & Common Core
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Common Core, Blog: Education, Common Core, Related Education Blogs, Sandra Stotsky /by Sandra StotskyIt is difficult to find any public analysis and comments by teachers, parents, researchers, or literary scholars on PARCC’s “practice” and “sample” test items for English language arts for grades 3-11. Taking the bull by the horns, that is what I decided to do in my invited testimony before the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education at the public hearing at Bridgewater State University on June 10, 2015, on whether the Board should abandon the MCAS tests and adopt the PARCC tests. In my written testimony, I first describe my qualifications, as well as the lack of relevant qualifications in Common Core’s standards writers and in most of the members of Common Core’s Validation Committee, on which I […]
MassDOT Relocation Proposal Gives Way to More Pressing Issues
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Transparency, Transparency /by Kevin LawsonThe Baker administration has recently abandoned a proposal to move the headquarters of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation from its current location at 10 Park Plaza to a vacant seven-acre parcel in Roxbury known as Tremont Crossing. Fundamental to the project’s demise was its exorbitant price tag, which early estimates placed at $350 million, far more than the $121 million valuation of the MassDOT’s current home, as cited by a BostInno reporter. Governor Baker’s spokesman, Tim Buckley, noted recently that “given the $1.8 billion deficit the administration inherited, there are currently no plans to relocate the state transportation building”. This is another welcome display of sound financial management from the governor’s office. Still, members of the Roxbury community, who had […]
A Tale of Two Transparencies
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Transparency, Blogroll /by MuckRock and Sabrina ChishtiRecently, we wrote about the redemption of Secretary of State William Galvin after a records request for communications between his office and the Office of the Attorney General revealed the frustrating brush-offs he had received from the previous two AGs. Shortly thereafter, we received a response to an identical request we had made to the AG’s office. Since both requests were asking for the same documents, the correspondence should have been identical; what was received sheds light on how each office handled the request. The AG’s office provided mostly their own letters to Secretary Galvin’s office and neglected to provide the responses or original referral letters from Secretary Galvin’s office. In comparison, Secretary Galvin’s office provided almost all correspondence between […]
The Convention Center Authority’s Inflated Claims
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, Blog: Transparency, Transparency /by Editorial StaffIn the wake of our recent brief, Analyzing the Convention Center Authority’s Inflated Claims, comes word that the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority (MCCA) contributed $23.5 million to a trust fund created by the Patrick administration to fund trade missions before then-Gov. Patrick approved the proposed $1 billion expansion of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center (BCEC) last year. The brief, authored by Charles Chieppo, exposes some of the MCCA’s misrepresentations about the economic impact of the proposed expansion. Our report reveals that: Only eight events booked at the BCEC over the next 13 years – not 18 as the MCCA has claimed – have escape clauses that allow them to go elsewhere if expansion doesn’t go forward. Despite claims that […]
Post-Olympic Real Estate Implications of the Boston 2024 Proposal
/0 Comments/in Blog: Better Government /by Greg Sullivan and Matt BlackbournTwo weeks ago, a series of documents published by a number of sources, including the Boston Business Journal, Boston Magazine and the New York Times, revealed development plans for the Boston Olympics that give the public greater information and raise new questions about the effort to bring Boston the 2024 Olympics. Of great interest to Pioneer, the “bid book” disclosed some of the post-Olympic real estate implications of bringing the games to Boston. What it made clear to us is that there is much more to the proposal than the Olympics—it’s also about post-Olympics real estate development rights. The Boston 2024 Olympics plan includes an expansive post-Olympics private real estate development proposal for the Olympics site, facilitated by a combination […]
MBTA Experiencing Severe Delays in Transparency
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, Blog: MBTA, Blog: Transparency, Blog: Transportation /by Scott HallerThis winter the MBTA proved that it is capable of publishing complete and exhaustive performance and operation data, so why has it stopped? We still don’t know much about the extent of this winter’s detrimental effects to our bus and subway systems. In January, the MBTA dropped its monthly performance ScoreCards which covered all modes of transportation, and included data on ridership levels, on-time performance, maintenance needs, equipment failure rates, schedule performance, and even the severity of commuter rail delays. (Currently the ScoreCard archive can only be reached through an internet search. The MBTA’s website links to MassDOT’s Performance Management Division, which links back to the MBTA’s webpage in a loop.) The only performance report consistently published by the MBTA […]
Way off track
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog: MBTA, Blog: Transportation /by Jim StergiosA couple of weeks ago, Ari Ofsevit wrote a pretty scathing blog claiming that Pioneer is really, really bad at math. We take math and transparency seriously here at Pioneer, so after sharing my reply with Ari last week, I wanted to post it publicly. Ofsevit’s piece is remarkable, not for the quality and length of his ranting, but rather for the fact that he complains about math errors without ever identifying a single math error. Along the way, he misrepresents lots of stuff. Here is the hit parade: Ofsevit is wrong in attributing the absenteeism numbers in the governor’s special panel to Pioneer. The Institute had nothing to do with the absenteeism numbers they cite (which in part, I would guess, […]
The Single Biggest Obstacle to Reform at the MBTA
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog: Better Government, Blog: MBTA, Blog: Transportation /by Jim Stergiospost by Gregory W. Sullivan & Matthew Blackbourn In an article published in the Globe last week, the MBTA Carmen’s union threatened to block MBTA federal transit funding if the legislature enacts the governor’s proposal to give the proposed fiscal and management control board final say on collective bargaining agreements. We hope that the legislature sees this threat for what it is: bully tactics by MBTA unions against the house and senate. This isn’t the first time MBTA unions have used the nuclear option of attempting to shut off federal funding to block a legislative reform that endeavored to do nothing more than treat MBTA employees exactly the same way other public employees in the state are treated. In 2009, Local […]
Welfare Reform Momentum Must Not Be Stopped
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Economy /by Scott HallerThe MBTA’s continuing struggles have dominated local news since February, preventing Governor Baker from pursuing issues of his choice, and those he campaigned on. With last summer’s welfare reform bill awaiting full implementation, Baker should consider shifting focus back onto reforming the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA). Temporary Assistance to Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC) is the state’s welfare program, and it is currently in a period of transition with new statutes, a new commissioner, and a falling caseload. Since its inception in 1996, TAFDC has significantly reduced Massachusetts’ welfare population, but not without some ups and downs. The most recent population peak was in October, 2012 when 50,421 assistance units were reported to the US Office of Family Assistance […]
6 Ways to Improve Government Transparency
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, Blog: Transparency, Featured /by Mary ConnaughtonMary Connaughton, Pioneer Institute’s Director of Government Transparency, submitted testimony on May 26, 2015, before the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight, regarding government transparency on Bills H2755, H2804, S1700, H2732, H2758, H2772, H2822, H2717, S1633, S1641, S1676, S1638, H2802 (all of which advance government transparency). Download her testimony below:
A Step Closer to the First-Class Transit System Massachusetts Deserves
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, Blog: MBTA, Blog: Transportation, Featured /by Editorial StaffThis week, a Finance Control Board for the MBTA won the support of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, the Mayor of Boston, and finally, yesterday, the Massachusetts State Senate. Make no mistake about it: There is more work to do to ensure that the control board will have the powers it needs to improve the MBTA. This winter, as thousands of riders were stranded on MBTA platforms, Pioneer Institute was the first organization to articulate a reform plan for the state’s major public transit system, the centerpiece of which was a finance control board. Our team continues to do the most substantive probing into the T’s management issues, plumbing the murky depths of its union contract and binding arbitration, and […]
There Is Little Appeal to the Current Use of Binding Arbitration at the T
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, Blog: MBTA, Blog: Transportation, Featured /by Mary Connaughton and Greg SullivanEliminating final and binding arbitration at the MBTA is key part of Governor Baker’s reform proposal. His bill does not call for ending collective bargaining and arbitration at the T, but instead for applying the same collective bargaining/arbitration law that applies to other public employee unions at state agencies and municipalities, including at police and fire departments. The Governor’s task force explained it this way: The MBTA has the only public union in the Commonwealth with binding arbitration settlements which are not subject to approval (i.e. by legislative, board, or municipality). The current collective bargaining process creates inefficiencies and has delayed recent legislative reforms. Many existing labor contracts are automatically extended until a new agreement is reached (‘evergreen provisions’), exposing […]
The High Cost of Records Requests at the MBTA Hits a New Low
/1 Comment/in Blog, Blog: MBTA, Blog: Transparency, Blog: Transportation, Blogroll /byAs we’ve written about before, in Massachusetts your legal right to transparency at times comes with a fairly hefty premium. Agencies routinely use exorbitant fee estimates as a way to get out of having to fulfill “burdensome” (read: embarrassing) requests, and no agency has been more consistently blatant about the practice than the MBTA. Whether it’s tracking down their policies for firing an employee, rounding up emails of their departing GM, or even simply finding complaints about the infamous “strollercat,” the MBTA has successfully fought each request on the grounds that the process would be difficult, and therefore prohibitively expensive. For the requester, that is. The MBTA has hit a new high (and low) with their response for a request […]