THE PIONEER BLOG

Steve Poftak

Municipal Healthcare Endgame?

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I would never underestimate the negotiating guile of the major labor unions, but it does appear we are reaching the endgame stage of the municipal healthcare debate. After a negotiated consensus reform several years ago to put municipal workers into the GIC failed to get a strong level of acceptance, it was clear that something more had to be done. A number of Mayors (including Menino) advocated for control over plan design, even threatening a ballot referendum (hope Denise Provost can stop them!) The Governor’s budget (see Section 6, here) put in place a somewhat vague process to (eventually) force workers into the GIC. The House Ways and Means Budget was much more explicit (see section 46, here), providing clear […]

Taylor Armerding

It’s not what you say, it’s how you cloak it

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It has been said before, but it bears repeating: Control the language of the debate and you control the debate. Witness President Obama’s studious effort to take control of the debate Wednesday in his speech on how he would slow the runaway federal budget deficit. Like most politicians who want to raise taxes, the president will do almost any rhetorical tap dance to avoid saying the word unless it takes the general form of, “tax breaks for the wealthy” or “unaffordable tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.” We have as many euphemisms for raising taxes as Eskimos have for snow. Unions insist that “revenues” must be on the table in any debate on deficits. Gov. Deval Patrick talks about preserving […]

Michael Morisy

Governor Deval Patrick’s Missing Chapter on Transparency

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Governor Deval Patrick’s new autobiography, “A Reason to Believe: Lessons from an Improbable Life”, is an inspiring story, detailing his rise from Chicago impoverishment to his current job as governor of the Commonwealth. While frank about his personal heroes and inspirations, the book skims over his political battles and the decisions he faced in his first term. Even health care reform, of which Massachusetts has in many ways been an early adopter and champion, received negligible mention. Unfortunately, while his personal story is remarkable, his policies haven’t been a very open book. On vital issues of both local and national importance, I’ve seen pushback, opacity and silence. Starting in January of this year, working with the Pioneer Institute, I’ve filed […]

Joshua Archambault

Gov Patrick Confused on Economics on “Daily Show”

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Governor Patrick was on Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” Tuesday night to promote his new memoir.  But the joke may be on us, if his flawed understanding of healthcare economics on the show translate into policy. The Daily Show – Deval Patrick Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook Stewart began an exchange on the Massachusetts reform by pushing back on the notion that markets can work in health insurance (with the clear implication that health insurers are currently operating in a free market system). Governor Patrick responded that double digit [health insurance] premium increases are the result of markets “without parameters.” Hmmm.  Would benefit mandates, guarantee issue policies, thousands of pages of state regulation […]

Steve Poftak

Siblings and the Boston School Lottery

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If you’ve got young kids in the city, the Boston Public Schools lottery is on your mind.  Boston Magazine’s Amy Traverso detailed multiple strategies for dealing with it in last month’s issue.  And the Boston Globe has given the process the full ‘package’ treatment in print and on the web. This year’s first round of assignments went out two weeks ago and participants have been mulling their options ever since. It’s a damnably complex process (how many other lotteries have extensive econometric literature on them?) as is the range of outcomes – a dizzying mix of  acceptance at desired schools, acceptance at marginally acceptable schools, outright rejection, and varying levels of waitlist purgatory. For some, it’s the final straw before […]

Taylor Armerding

Fix Social Security? Just do what FDR did

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It is time for baby boomers (like me) to stop whining about reform of Social Security. If FDR was still around, they might be facing a bigger whack than what is being proposed. And it is good that there is at least a discussion going on about it in Congress. According to the Boston Globe, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, chairman of the House Budget Committee and author of a plan to cut trillions in future federal spending, is optimistic about entitlement cuts beyond Medicare and Medicaid. “Social Security reform, hopefully, is an area where we might have a shot at a bipartisan agreement this summer,” he said. We should all hope so. Getting the grandfather of entitlement programs […]

Joshua Archambault

Romney Gets ALL the Credit for RomneyCare?

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Today is the 5th anniversary of the signing of Chapter 58 (health care reform) here in Massachusetts. The anniversary has sparked a round of opportunistic political posturing from Democrats (and friends) thanking Mitt Romney profusely for his contribution. In return, Romney announced he is thinking about running for President. The one question I have is—Where is the love for former speaker Sal DiMasi? According to Governing magazine, he was the real power broker of the deal. I guess federal indictments hurt the number of times you are publically given credit. On a slightly more serious note, I will have an op-ed in the Boston Herald tomorrow describing the failure of the Connector to attract small company business.  Also see Pioneer’s […]

Steve Poftak

Heres Comes the House Ways & Means Budget

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The Legislature gets its first cut at a response to the Governor’s budget tomorrow, when the House Ways & Means Committee releases its budget. We’ll be carefully watching how they address two of the major ‘plugs’ in the Governor’s budget. First, with a few paragraphs on procurement reform and other cost-sharing, the Governor’s budget sidesteps the potential for a huge increase in Medicaid spending. All well and good, except the budget depends on a dramatic reversal in Medicaid per enrollee costs — from an average rate of 5% growth over the past five years to a reduction of 3.5%. Anyone who can turn around the rate of healthcare cost growth has accomplished a great deal. I’m skeptical it can be […]

Steve Poftak

A Defense of the Evergreen Solar Deal?

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Our friends at Commonwealth Magazine have put out an intriguing ‘Back Story’ regarding Evergreen Solar. But their article rests on a few shaky assumptions. First, they try to frame the discussion as a ‘Romney invested’ versus ‘Patrick invested’ story. To be sure, both were Governor when investments were made in Evergreen Solar and both bear some responsibility as leaders. But there’s a material difference between a $2.5m commitment by a single quasi-public entity controlled by a board (with a majority appointed by the Governor, although its not clear if Romney controlled those appointments when the investment was made) and a $50m+ series of commitments across six state agencies and quasi-publics that was quarterbacked by the Secretary of Economic Development. I’m […]

Jim Stergios

Vocational-technical schools that work

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A week ago, parents in Boston got their school assignments according to the Boston Public Schools’ constrained choice process. Stephanie Ebbert’s article captured the key moment this way: In a downtown office cubicle, next to a file cabinet topped with a philodendron in a wine carafe, a Boston public schools computer specialist dispassionately clicked a mouse. It was 10:11 on a Friday morning. By 10:18, the computer program had silently assigned nearly 12,000 students to 134 city schools… The following afternoon, that clean, algorithmic efficiency sent waves of emotion rippling through neighborhoods all across the city. Chrissanta Rudder jumped up and down in the hallway of the Old Colony public housing development in South Boston. Kimesha Janey-Rogers of Roxbury sighed […]

Taylor Armerding

Labor leader in a glass house

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Talk about throwing stones from a glass house. Robert Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO played the predictable, tired class envy card in response to the recent report by the Boston Foundation and Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation on the “gilded” health plans enjoyed by municipal workers. Haynes didn’t dispute or even address any of the statistics in the report, which showed municipal workers receive health coverage averaging 37 percent sweeter than those in the private sector. He couldn’t challenge the report on the merits. So instead he went on about how much money the heads of the report’s two sponsoring groups, Paul Grogan at the Boston Foundation and Michael Widmer at MTF, were making. This would be the same Robert Haynes, […]

Steve Poftak

We’re #43!

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Those with long memories will recall the days of the campaign when CNBC’s ranking of Massachusetts as the 5th best state to do business in was widely touted. To be sure, all these rankings are highly dependent on the underlying methodology — CNBC emphasized education and quality of life strongly, so Massachusetts did well. Well, another ranking has come down the pike, from the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council. They emphasize tax policy and regulation heavily. And Massachusetts does not do so well — ranking 43rd out of 51 states (and DC). Roll that in with the CEO magazine ranking (47th!) and the Tax Foundation ranking (32nd), and there may be a message there.

Joshua Archambault

Governor’s Pep Rally on Health Care Cost Containment

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Governor Patrick held an informational briefing on cost containment. The problem is that all things are not equal — insurance premiums are rising at an unsustainable rate…I am a private marketeer, not a market fundamentalist. I don’t think the market always gets it right and I don’t think the market has gotten it right in this case. I heard nothing new from the Administration, only the same unwavering faith in their ability to manage and regulate the marketplace.  I am not sure what the next step is, as the Governor’s bill calls for the details for payment reform and cost containment to form in the regulatory arena, and I don’t believe the Legislature will give that sort of power to […]

Jim Stergios

Proven reforms for urban students

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There are no silver bullets. In education, our landmark 1993 education reform act was testimony to that dictum, laying out a blueprint based on high academic standards, accountability for teachers and districts, testing for students, and innovation through charter schools. That said, there are those who believe in complicated processes and those who are more decentralizing in how they think about reform. Count me among the latter–and that’s why I have always found parental choice, tying money to the child not the system, and clear rules about school flexibility and accountability interesting. Each of these principles helps create the conditions and incentives for engaging parents, which I think is a crucial pressure point (and frankly the more they are engaged, […]

Taylor Armerding

Gilded benefits clash with ‘fair share’

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Public employee unions leaders love to talk about “fair share” when they are trying to score even sweeter contracts than the ones they enjoy now. It is the classic class envy diversion – it can’t be fair if anybody out there is making more than they are. If the idle rich just paid their fair share in taxes, then there would be plenty of money for government to pay their hard-working members bigger raises and provide even better benefits. It doesn’t seem to occur to them that most rich people got that way by working hard. But that is a topic for another post. What is interesting here is that in the long-overdue focus on public employee health benefits, you […]