The Merit Rating Board’s recent adoption of a regular meeting schedule, and related resolutions, are important steps in light of that Board’s 1976 governing statute.
Transparency
According to MassOpenBooks, the average annual pay for UMass Medical School Employees is $57,746. But as highlighted in the chart below, Medical School Chancellor Michael Collins makes $1,069,752. According to USA Today, the income that qualifies a Massachusetts resident to be included in the top 1% is $582,774. When looking at MassOpenBooks 2018 Highest Paid...
According to MassOpenBooks 2018 statistics, the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department is the 18th highest department by average pay of all employees from 126 departments listed (excluding authorities) in the state. It has 1,135 employees who earn a total of $85,059,220. While the total number of employees decreased from 1,138 in 2012 to 1,135 in 2018,...
Although they must maintain balanced budgets, Massachusetts municipalities routinely go into debt to fund local projects. By borrowing and issuing bonds, they can opt to finance everything from new schools to the acquisition of conservation land. Using MassAnalysis, a powerful data tool created by the Pioneer Institute, let's explore some of these debt figures across...
Today, Pioneer Institute filed a Public Comment with the federal government urging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to launch a much-needed national effort to make healthcare price transparency consumer friendly and easily accessible to both insured and uninsured consumers around the country. The Pioneer Comment was filed in response to a proposed...
A recent study from economist Evgenia Gorina, published in the journal State and Local Government Review, found a positive relationship between a local government's reliance on property taxes as a revenue source and how well-funded their pensions are. In other words, local governments that rely heavily on property taxes as funding sources tend to have...
Online tools to understand your community's financial condition & so much more! Town budget season is upon us. Pioneer Institute's MassAnalysis makes it easy to be well-prepared with the right questions to ask! MassAnalysis is one of Pioneer's suite of online databases, known as MassWatch, that provide the tools you need to better understand your state...
Every day, thousands of passengers pass through Logan Airport, a facility run by the Massachusetts Port Authority, or MassPort. What many may not realize is that in addition to its state agencies, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts grants public-employee benefits and funding to several large "quasi-public" agencies. MassVentures and the Massachusetts Housing Partnership lead the pack...
The MBTA shuttles over a million passengers a day around Greater Boston on buses, trains, trolleys, subways and ferries. The system is essential for commuters within core metropolitan communities, outer suburbs and even many Gateway Cities. But the T has had a long history of troubling cost overruns, long delays, poor service, and at times...
Sunshine Week is dedicated to bringing greater awareness to the importance of government transparency and to highlighting areas where improvement is needed. After all, a healthy democracy is unsustainable unless people are fully informed and can meaningfully engage in the democratic process. To celebrate Sunshine Week, each year Pioneer reviews some of its recent work...