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Opportunity
May 22, 2007

Go Newton Go

A year ago, Pioneer released a report that put the cost of local pension fund underperformance at $1.6 billion over the past 10 years. We recommended folding all underperforming funds into the state pension fund. Some people appeared to notice, the Governor...
Healthcare, Opportunity
May 18, 2007

More budget minutiae

A close reading of the Outside Sections in the Senate Ways and Means budget provides a few more nuggets: Possible Pension Shenanigans: Pioneer is well-versed on the gaming of the state pension system, so our finely tuned antennae go up whenever suspicious...
Opportunity
May 18, 2007

A non-conventional pain in the butt, but. . .

Jeff Jacoby was right on in his Globe op-ed of May 6th on the rush to get even more subsidies for the Hynes Convention Center. In the piece, Jeff compares Patrick Lyons’ private investment proposal on Lansdowne Street to the Massachusetts Convention...
Education
May 17, 2007

Congrats to 3 Mass charters and a Big, Open Question

At a ceremony held at the Capitol Building in DC yesterday, the Center for Education Reform named three of Massachusetts charter schools among the 53 National Charter Schools of the Year. The day’s events included a press conference, a National Press Club...
Opportunity
May 17, 2007

And then there were two

The Senate Ways and Means Budget contains a provision (scroll down to section 48) allowing two of the twelve public skating rinks in Greater Boston to be put out for long-term leases. That’s down from the twelve that the Governor’s budget (to...
Opportunity
May 15, 2007

If you think education is expensive, try foreclosure.

This year’s collapse of mortgage lending—also rendered as a crisis, a bubble bursting, the inevitable result of misguided policy x, and so on—has gotten a lot of press recently. In response, some have called for more regulation, tighter credit, or another solution...
Opportunity
May 15, 2007

Only big businesses move, right? Wrong!

Even if we lose all our headquarters, even if big business expansions go elsewhere, we can always count on small businesses to stay here and grow, right? Wrong. We’ve all heard the constant drumbeat about Fidelity’s moves and expansions elsewhere—they’re going to...
Education
May 14, 2007

Holy Reconstitutions, Batman!

All right, so the Governor has made a $1 billion bet on the biotech industry. And he is also betting that there will be 15,000 jobs at the end of the $1.4 billion New Bedford-Fall River rainbow—I mean, rail line. All this...
Opportunity
May 13, 2007

A Troubling Pattern Emerging?

Friday’s Globe has two articles on recent actions by the Governor — a view on his $1B biotech initiative and news of a $3.6 million bailout for the dairy industry. The biotech story discusses how this funding will help start-up companies through...
Education
May 12, 2007

Please, sir, I want some more.

In case you no longer listen to the radio, the Massachusetts Teachers Association last month launched a new ad campaign in which the voices of six students are heard asking for support for public education – from their parents, their communities and...