Editorial Staff

Happy Thanksgiving from Pioneer Institute!

/in , /by Editorial Staff
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

As we welcome the holiday season, I would like to thank you for everything you do with and for Pioneer. We are grateful for your support today and everyday. We are grateful for a nation that has shown incredible resilience in recovering from a global pandemic. For innovation in the life sciences to develop and distribute vaccines. For learning pods, homeschooling, and private and parochial models that have kept our kids engaged, whether in-person or remote. For telehealth and regulatory changes to give patients greater access to medical care. For the MBTA’s commitment to infrastructure investments to improve service for the Bay State’s one million commuters. Lastly, for a business community that has overcome the challenge of extended closures, is now contending with unprecedented labor and supply shortages – and will soon face the threat of a ballot measure that could impose a major state tax increase. With your continued support, Pioneer will remain active on these issues and many more.

As we gather with family and friends this Thanksgiving, I want to encourage our community to be part of bringing our country back together, one dinner table at a time. Let’s remember that political conversations are not taboo, only those long on anger and short on policy substance. Let’s be grateful for the opportunity to be with loved ones, for all we have—and, most of all, for our freedoms.

Happy Thanksgiving,
Jim Stergios, Executive Director

PS – Giving Tuesday is around the corner. If you’d like to get a jump on making your end of year donation, you can do so here!

Recent Posts:

A wealth tax, a SCOTUS case, and a likely Mass. exodus

0 Comments
/
Op-ed in The Boston Globe: A case New Hampshire filed with the US Supreme Court last October against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts could have a huge impact on state finances nationwide. It also raises the stakes as the Massachusetts Legislature considers amending the state constitution to eliminate the state’s prohibition against a graduated income tax and to hike taxes on high earners.

Best-Selling, Netflix Author Loung Ung On Surviving Pol Pot’s Killing Fields

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve," Gerard and Cara talk with Loung Ung, a human-rights activist; the author of the bestselling books First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers, Lucky Child, and Lulu in the Sky; and a co-screenwriter of the 2017 Netflix Original Movie, First They Killed My Father. Ms. Ung shares her experiences living through genocide under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979, which resulted in the deaths of nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population. 

Study Finds Massachusetts Graduated Income Tax May Be a “Blank Check” and Not Increase Funding for Designated Priorities

Advocates claim a proposed 4 percent surtax on high earners will raise nearly $2 billion per year for education and transportation, but similar tax hikes in other states resulted in highly discretionary rather than targeted spending, according to a new policy brief published by Pioneer Institute. That same result or worse is possible in Massachusetts because during the 2019 constitutional convention state legislators rejected — not just one, but two — proposed amendments requiring that the new revenues be directed to these purposes.

Post-Pandemic Prospects: Tech Leaders’ Prescription for Preserving a Healthy Economy

0 Comments
/
Host Joe Selvaggi talks with Chris Anderson, President of the Massachusetts High Technology Council, about the reasons why Massachusetts has a thriving tech sector, what challenges his members have faced in the pandemic, and what he sees as the most prudent path toward future prosperity in the commonwealth.

American Federation for Children’s Tommy Schultz on School Choice & Edu Federalism

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve," Gerard and Cara talk with Tommy Schultz, CEO-elect of the American Federation for Children (AFC). They discuss how COVID-19 school closures have increased the interest in alternatives to public schools, and what AFC's polling shows on shifts in attitudes toward school choice options in both urban and rural communities.

Report: Proposed Graduated Income Tax Might Not Increase State Education and Transportation Spending

While supporters of a state constitutional amendment that would impose a 4 percent tax rate hike on annual income over $1 million claim additional revenue from the surtax will fund public education and transportation needs, the amendment in no way assures that there will be new spending on these priorities. In fact, without violating the amendment, total state education and transportation funding could stay the same or even fall, according to a new review published by Pioneer Institute.