Better Government

Life-cycle delivery of infrastructure projects demands our attention. As the Commonwealth faces the interlocking threats of massive finding deficits, creeping levels of deferred maintenance, and unabated demands for expansion, public-private partnerships (PPPs) offer some potential relief.

This report seeks to identify savings to help close a looming $1 billion to $1.5 billion gap in the Commonwealth's FY09 budget. As a follow-up to a Pioneer press release outlining $600 million in immediate cuts, dated October 8, 2008, we have scoured the budget for savings and reforms, with an eye toward actions that can be undertaken immediately. This report identifies $700 million in budget savings.

The Governor's proposal to fix structurally deficient bridges is an aggressive approach to addressing the massive backlog of deferred maintenance in the Commonwealth. To be sure, this approach does not create revenues, it only accelerates planned future spending. However, this acceleration will result in greater value by fixing hundreds of decaying bridges sooner rather than later; thereby avoiding the effect of construction inflation and higher future repair costs due to ongoing deterioration.

This question is listed on the website for Gloucester’s Conservation Commission under “Frequently Asked Questions.” The Commission’s response is that all wetlands, including small seasonal wetlands, help clean stormwater, serve as drainage areas and provide habitat for many species.

High unemployment insurance taxes deter job creation and burden Massachusetts businesses. The current system also subsidizes certain workers and business sectors, at the expense of most Massachusetts workers and companies.

The horrifying spectacle of the Minnesota bridge collapse has prompted a national reevaluation of the condition of our public infrastructure. In Massachusetts, two recent reports have found a multi-billion dollar backlog of deferred maintenance.

The City of Gallup, NM, like many governmental bodies that employ field crews, suffered from an ever-increasing number of worker's compensation claims and associated annual increases in worker's compensation insurance premiums. The implementation of the Cash Incentive Safety Initiative has both improved the health of employees and reduced costs associated with absent and injured workers. As explained below, there is real potential for similar programs to benefit municipal and state governments nationwide.

In 2000, the Florida state legislature approved funding for an online e-procurement portal called MyFloridaMarketPlace. The project was overseen by Florida's Division of Management Services (DMS), which contracted with Accenture in the fall of 2002 to create and manage the portal.

This proposal involves collecting and integrating existing data on the health of elderly patients. This information would be used to construct patient profiles to help predict and prevent unexpected incidents. A data-driven coordination of programs and services would aid in early interventions, and also help evaluate how different strategies, programs, and agencies could reduce unnecessary nursing home institutionalization.

After nearly a decade of evolution, municipal Stat programs, such as NYPD'sCompStat and Baltimore's CitiStat, have proved very successful in improving city service delivery and cutting unnecessary spending. Though slightly different in each implementation, all Stat programs involve frequent meetings at which key decision-makers and department heads review data on operational performance, identify problems and solutions, and track follow-up. The City of Baltimore reported $70 million in savings attributable to CitiStat in its first three years of operations. In Massachusetts, Somerville has run its successful SomerStat initiative for close to three years, and reports $10 million in realized or anticipated savings. Expansion of the Stat program holds tremendous potential for the Commonwealth's cities and towns, as well as state government.