THE PIONEER BLOG

Steve Poftak

Keeping MA Competitive

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Pioneer and our partners at the Mass High Tech Council are kicking off a project today that will examine the tax environment in Massachusetts, how job creation has behaved over the same period, and how we stack up against competitor states. The project begins with a policy brief that ‘sets the table‘, examining Massachusetts in context with other states. Over the next week, I’ll be presenting data from the report on the blog. Please take a look at the piece and stay tuned for more.

Steve Poftak

My AM 8 Thoughts on Yesterday's Election

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1) Suzanne Bump’s resounding victory over Guy Glodis and Mike Lake has to be the surprise of the night. She came within 3000 votes of winning an outright majority. 2) Glodis only won his stronghold of Worcester by 1,359 votes (with pretty light turnout). Almost makes one wonder if someone in the firmament of Worcester political stars did not really deliver for Glodis. 3) On the topic of not delivering the vote, Stephen Murphy only beat Grossman by ~4000 votes in Boston. So, Murphy can manage 50,000 votes in the city in an off-year council race (where voters get four choices to be fair), yet less than half that in the Treasurer’s race. 4) I’m guessing that Suzanne Bump was […]

Jim Stergios

A picture tells one story about the recession

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Certainly, the pictures that matter most in the current recession are those of individuals trying to make ends meet and trying to find a way to stay afloat. That said, an image from our upcoming paper on the state’s business climate — and specifically on our tax competitiveness relative to other states — struck me as important to share. Massachusetts’ economy has been mauled by the global recession, though several observers have noted that, during the recession, Massachusetts is faring better than many other states. The image below depicts the overall number of unemployed in the state from December 2007 to July 2009. (Source) If doubling the unemployed population is better, then we are really in deep trouble. The image […]

Steve Poftak

The Tom Menino Endorsement Continuum

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Governor Patrick is receiving Mayor Tom Menino’s endorsement this afternoon. It should not be surprising that a sitting Democratic governor would be endorsed by the sitting Democratic mayor of the state’s largest city and capital. But the relationship between Patrick and Menino has been frosty at times. As an example, recall the GOV’s effort to fire Dan Grabauskas, who got a full vote of confidence from Menino at the time. Again, take the names out and consider the roles — Democratic mayor extends himself on behalf of Republican bureaucrat in opposition to sitting Democratic governor. More recently, when asked to grade the GOV’s performance, Menino responded by giving him a ‘C’ for the first three years and a ‘B+’ more […]

Steve Poftak

Oddity in Latest GOV Poll

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State House News Service (despite its small size, per the Globe) has a new Governor’s poll out this AM. What I’m having trouble reconciling is Charlie Baker’s small name identification and his vote total. His favorable/unfavorable ratings break out to be 21% to 17%, with the remainder being “no opinion/never heard of”. Yet he grabs 28% of the vote. What does this mean? It has to mean with people who profess to have ‘no opinion’ or have never heard of Baker are picking him as their candidate. Or people who view unfavorably are voting for him. Either way, that’s strange.

Jim Stergios

Revenue sharing for cities is a non-starter

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In today’s Boston Herald Jay Fitzgerald penned a tough article on the remarks Eric Rosengren (President/CEO of the Boston Fed made at a meeting of the Fed’s Board of Governors in DC on REO and Vacant Property Strategies for Neighborhood Stabilization. (REOs are properties that a lender takes back because of a foreclosure, where no one bought the property at a foreclosure sale process.) Eric Rosengren’s presentation was framed around the slide deck linked here. There are many problems with the case Eric is making, not least of which is that it entirely ignores the generous state commitment to education which pores $4.5 billion into our cities and towns, with a disproportionate amount going to our cities. Some communities, like […]

Jim Stergios

Ed Reform going soft

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The MCAS is different from most other state tests. It is a high-stakes test for all students; its being a graduation requirement underscored the seriousness of purpose, and its being for all students meant that we would not allow a good system for some and a less good system for others. After all, that is what we had before 1993. Success on the MCAS test correlates very well with success on national and international assessments. The better you do on MCAS, the better you are likely to do in college and in your career. You can’t say that about most state tests, which are all over the place in terms of correlation. So the MCAS is a good test. (There […]

Steve Poftak

Let Me (Try to) Explain — Property Tax Increases

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(Blog series so named for William Bulger’s admonition about the three most deadly words a politician can say: Let me explain.) The gubernatorial candidates are sniping at each other over property tax issues. And Blue Mass Group poster “JohnK” has weighed in with a measured assessment of the claims and counterclaims, entitled “CHARLIEBAKERFAIL” or some such thing (they must be using a template at this point). The latest salvo comes from the Patrick Campaign, which is trying a very delicate semantic pivot — that property tax increases have decreased under the GOV. They put up this chart, which I can’t recreate. But from this DOR data, I get directionally the same results. (I’d note that I’m using “Total Tax Levy” […]

Steve Poftak

How did I make it without a black box theatre?

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(I guess this is my introduction to middle age — this is a ‘back in my day’ post) Now, I take a back seat to very few people in the privileged upbringing department — leafy green suburbs, high quality schools — but the new Newton North high school does give one pause. I respect the desire to have the best for your kids (although I’m not happy with the negative incentives that ‘free’ state money provided), but this school is a bit much. Look at all the stuff: A regular theatre and a ‘black-box theatre’ (whatever that might be)? The large flat screen TVs at various stations? Two gyms? Elliptical machines? and on and on. I hope the edifice complex […]

Jim Stergios

Ho-hum to the Guv on education

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This morning on the Todd and Tom show on WRKO, Joe Battenfield (who was sitting in for Todd Feinburg) noted that the Governor’s office is claiming that Pioneer’s view of the national standards issue is a result of politics. What they are suggesting is that because Charlie Baker was Pioneer’s first executive director 20+ years ago, we are running defense for him. You can listen to the whole interview here (it’s not too long, clocking in at 10 minutes). My response was Ho-Hum. What I noted was that it’s hard to say that when on the day of the Board of Education’s vote to scrap the state standards, we did a press release with Tim Cahill — not Charlie Baker. […]

Jim Stergios

Massachusetts gets Race to the Top grant

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The Race to the Top grants have been made and Massachusetts will receive a total of $250 million, to be distributed over a four-year period. That’s good for MA. Very good. Though we should remember at what cost the money came and also take the opportunity to ask a few meaty questions. Let’s start with the questions: Why the late August release? It’s not a great news cycle. And the decisions were supposed to be announced in mid-September — that would be perfect with the kids back at school and lots of parents thinking about education. How did Massachusetts get the highest score of all the states? After all, they had strong unions support (unlike Massachusetts, where the local chapter […]

Jim Stergios

Ed Commish "blatantly violated the law"

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Patrick Anderson at the Gloucester Times reports today that Superior Court Judge Richard Welch III found that the case presents “considerable evidence” that the state education commissioner and Board of Education “blatantly ignored and violated state law when granting the GCA charter for political reasons.” And more: While he dismissed the parents’ argument that the commissioner is legally bound to follow the recommendation of his Charter School Office, Welch — echoing state Sen. Bruce Tarr and state Inspector General Gregory Sullivan — said there is no evidence Chester made any attempt to independently judge the application against the established criteria. “… There is a strong factual showing that the Commissioner, despite his affidavit to the contrary, did not perform his […]

Steve Poftak

Gov's Council Race Goes Negative

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Quick, who is your Governor’s Councillor? Chances are that you have no idea. I’ve said in the past that its time for this vestige of our colonial past to go, but still it remains. In the 2nd race, the current councillor, Kelly Timilty, faced a challenge the last time around but prevailed 66% to 34% over Robert Jubinville. In that race, Timilty faked an endorsement from Governor Patrick and ended up paying a fine after the fact for her actions. Well, Jubinville is back and he’s not pleased. Check out the mailer I received over the weekend. Pretty rough stuff – cheating and stealing, etc. Curious where they got that shot of Timilty.

Jim Stergios

Curb your enthusiasm

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Jobs is a tough issue for the Governor these days, given the news of job losses coming out of Wonderland. But then there’s the announcement today, which Robert Gavin reports about in the Globe: The state gained more than 13,000 jobs in July, while data revisions showed that employment growth in June, nearly 3,000 jobs, was far stronger than initially estimated, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported today. The state unemployment rate held steady at 9 percent. David Guarino is tweeting about a pep rally the Governor is going to hold at 4:30 to celebrate the jobs numbers. And Doug Rubin is tweeting Globe: “MA added jobs for 6th consecutive month as MA economy continued a broad […]

Jim Stergios

No flies on them Freedom Fries

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Huh? You’d think that I have that backwards, with the freedom-loving, federalist heritage that Americans love so much. Try this chart published in the August 12th Economist showing central (for us federal) government spending as a percentage of overall public spending. Statists and dirigistes is what we are. Makes you want to head across the pond, raise a glass of champagne and celebrate France’s undying commitment to liberte’!