THE PIONEER BLOG

Scott Haller

Welfare Reform Momentum Must Not Be Stopped

/0 Comments/in , /by Scott Haller

The 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 […]

Mary Connaughton

6 Ways to Improve Government Transparency

/0 Comments/in , , , /by Mary Connaughton

Mary 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:

Editorial Staff

A Step Closer to the First-Class Transit System Massachusetts Deserves

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This 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 […]

Mary Connaughton

There Is Little Appeal to the Current Use of Binding Arbitration at the T

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by Mary Connaughton and Greg Sullivan

Eliminating 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 […]

MuckRock

The High Cost of Records Requests at the MBTA Hits a New Low

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As 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 […]

Scott Haller

Paid Sick Leave is No Remedy for Small Businesses

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A recent Bank of America survey of Boston’s small business owners reflects growing confidence, even as 65 percent of respondents believe they are still recovering from the Great Recession. However, a ballot initiative passed last November threatens years of hard fought progress in Massachusetts’ small business economy. Small businesses are the bedrock of any thriving local economy, and despite recent increased obstacles from chains, 64 percent of Boston entrepreneurs plan to grow their businesses in the next few years (10 percent higher than last year), while 49 percent plan to hire more employees this year (an 8 percent increase). The natural growth of this integral economic sector should be supported, not hindered. The fourth ballot initiative last November, Earned Sick […]

Editorial Staff

Testimony: Why Pioneer Supports MBTA Reform

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Pioneer Research Director Greg Sullivan and Senior Fellow Charles Chieppo will present testimony before the Massachusetts state legislature this afternoon in support of House Bill 3347 to bring MBTA costs under control, increase efficiency, and improve performance. Read excerpts from their testimony below, or download them here and here. Greg Sullivan’s Testimony: I want to focus on three specific components of the Governor’s proposal that I believe are necessary to solve the MBTA’s chronic fiscal and management problems: 1) putting an end to final and binding arbitration at the MBTA, the only public entity in Massachusetts whose collective bargaining agreements are not subject to approval by a governmental entity, by substituting in its place a collective bargaining system used elsewhere […]

MuckRock

When Transparency Redeems: The Unexpected Case of Bill Galvin

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Dear Secretary of State William F. Galvin: On several occasions Pioneer Institute has criticized your perceived inaction in responding to complaints about various agencies’ non-compliance with public records law. On those occasions we opined that inaction by your office had the effect of promoting a culture that did not take the state’s duty to provide transparent information seriously enough. More recently, we wrote about emails between you and the Attorney General‘s office — emails which you claimed would validate your long-held position that you were a dedicated public servant stymied by outside forces. Having now read those emails, we agree with you and stand corrected. The records your office provided to us clearly show that previous attorneys general, the final […]

Jim Stergios

The Convention Center Expansion was a House of Cards

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In a piece by Jack Encarnacao in the Boston Herald, Richard Rogers, executive secretary-treasurer of the Greater Boston Labor Council claimed that opponents of the South Boston Convention Center expansion were “ideological.”  He called out Pioneer for putting ideology “ahead of the best interests of our regional and state economy.” As I noted in the piece, Mr. Rogers is doing his job, seeking to advance the interests of his members.  But his are partial interests–and advancing the interests of the GBLC in this case harms the interest of hundreds of thousands of fellow Massachusetts residents. The fact is that the South Boston Convention Center expansion has always been a vanity project with no economic and financial data to back it up.  In the […]

Greg Sullivan

Status Report on the Job Creation Impact of the Life Sciences Act of 2008

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This is the second in a continuing series of status reports published by Pioneer Institute on the Massachusetts Life Sciences Act of 2008 (LSA). This report presents an analysis of job growth in the life sciences industry in Massachusetts and other states utilizing data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The data presented in this report are for the 69-month period (23 quarters) beginning with the first quarter of fiscal 2009, the effective date of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Act of 2008 (LSA), through the third quarter of fiscal 2014, the most recent quarter for which BLS data are available. The LSA (Chapter 130 of the Acts of […]

Scott Haller

Is Keolis Up to the Task?

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The snow has melted from our streets, our fields are filled with oblivious geese, and the lights at Fenway shine on the Sox once again; all signs that Spring has finally arrived. But there is one thing that hasn’t changed, and another that we must not allow to fade. The MBTA is still struggling to snap out of a snow-induced coma, and our wait for a meaningful solution must hold firm as the failings of February retreat into the past. New on-time performance figures released yesterday show that last week’s return to normality may have been the peak of a dangerously sinusoidal pattern, hinting at continuing management problems at Keolis. The average on-time performance during the morning commute two weeks […]

MuckRock

Galvin Wants $70 to Show He Fought For Transparency

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On several occasions, both MuckRock and the Pioneer Institute have made their dissatisfaction with Secretary of State William Galvin’s role as Supervisor of Public Records perfectly clear. Few officials have worked harder to protect the government from the public’s right to transparency, ruling time and time against disclosure. Spurred by his abysmal handling of a request for officers’ drunken driving records – ruling that police are entitled to withhold whatever criminal records they choose to withhold without oversight, on the eve of Sunshine Week, no less – dissatisfaction with Galvin appears to be catching, with media outlets all over Massachusetts crying foul. In response to this increased scrutiny, Galvin’s gone on the defensive, arguing that, whatever appearances, his actions were […]

Greg Sullivan

What if “The Ride” operated like the best big paratransit systems in the US?

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OK, let’s cut straight to the answer.  If The Ride had operated as cost-efficiently as the ten most cost-efficient large-scale paratransit systems in FY2013, it would have saved between $48.2 million and $60.3 million in FY2013. If the MBTA can bring its costs per passenger trip going forward to the level of the average of the ten most cost efficient large scale paratransit systems in other U.S. cities, it will generate savings of $373 million between FY2016 and FY2021, the end of its current paratransit provider contract. Here’s the analysis to back up those claims. Pioneer Institute published a report yesterday concerning The Ride, the MBTA’s demand response paratransit service, comparing its cost per trip to that of other Massachusetts […]

Greg Sullivan

Guess Who Runs the Best Paratransit System in the MBTA’s District? Hint: It’s Not the T

/1 Comment/in , , , , /by Greg Sullivan

Pioneer Institute’s ongoing analysis of the MBTA’s operations, finances, and performance aims to inform the public debate about the true problems plaguing the T and the most effective ways to improve the commuter experience for Massachusetts’ 1.2 million public transit system riders. In recent weeks and months, Pioneer has published reports using Federal Transit Data to compare the MBTA to other, similar systems across the US. Recent reports found that: Contrary to accepted wisdom, the MBTA has not been cash starved relative to its national peers, whether in terms of its capital or operating budget. The MBTA has added more commuter rail miles than any other commuter rail system operating in the nation since 1991 The often-cited notions that the MBTA commuter […]

Mary Connaughton

Public Left in Dark on Carmen’s Union Contract

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Background Over the past two months, Pioneer Institute has focused substantial resources on analyzing the MBTA’s operations, finances, pension system and governance (leadership and accountability).  A key piece of our work has included comparisons of the Authority to other American transit systems.  We have provided comparisons to all systems, but have focused on like or peer systems.  We have also progressed from system-wide (all-mode) analyses to in-depth, mode-specific research. Prior Findings Using transit agency peers as defined by Integrated National Transit Database Analysis System (INTDAS), Pioneer debunked the myth that the MBTA is underfunded.  We’ve shown that the T expanded faster than any other system since 1991, the earliest year for which information is available in the National Transit Database, […]