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Heres Comes the House Ways & Means Budget

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The Legislature gets its first cut at a response to the Governor’s budget tomorrow, when the House Ways & Means Committee releases its budget. We’ll be carefully watching how they address two of the major ‘plugs’ in the Governor’s budget. First, with a few paragraphs on procurement reform and other cost-sharing, the Governor’s budget sidesteps the potential for a huge increase in Medicaid spending. All well and good, except the budget depends on a dramatic reversal in Medicaid per enrollee costs — from an average rate of 5% growth over the past five years to a reduction of 3.5%. Anyone who can turn around the rate of healthcare cost growth has accomplished a great deal. I’m skeptical it can be […]

A Defense of the Evergreen Solar Deal?

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Our friends at Commonwealth Magazine have put out an intriguing ‘Back Story’ regarding Evergreen Solar. But their article rests on a few shaky assumptions. First, they try to frame the discussion as a ‘Romney invested’ versus ‘Patrick invested’ story. To be sure, both were Governor when investments were made in Evergreen Solar and both bear some responsibility as leaders. But there’s a material difference between a $2.5m commitment by a single quasi-public entity controlled by a board (with a majority appointed by the Governor, although its not clear if Romney controlled those appointments when the investment was made) and a $50m+ series of commitments across six state agencies and quasi-publics that was quarterbacked by the Secretary of Economic Development. I’m […]

Vocational-technical schools that work

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A week ago, parents in Boston got their school assignments according to the Boston Public Schools’ constrained choice process. Stephanie Ebbert’s article captured the key moment this way: In a downtown office cubicle, next to a file cabinet topped with a philodendron in a wine carafe, a Boston public schools computer specialist dispassionately clicked a mouse. It was 10:11 on a Friday morning. By 10:18, the computer program had silently assigned nearly 12,000 students to 134 city schools… The following afternoon, that clean, algorithmic efficiency sent waves of emotion rippling through neighborhoods all across the city. Chrissanta Rudder jumped up and down in the hallway of the Old Colony public housing development in South Boston. Kimesha Janey-Rogers of Roxbury sighed […]

Labor leader in a glass house

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Talk about throwing stones from a glass house. Robert Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO played the predictable, tired class envy card in response to the recent report by the Boston Foundation and Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation on the “gilded” health plans enjoyed by municipal workers. Haynes didn’t dispute or even address any of the statistics in the report, which showed municipal workers receive health coverage averaging 37 percent sweeter than those in the private sector. He couldn’t challenge the report on the merits. So instead he went on about how much money the heads of the report’s two sponsoring groups, Paul Grogan at the Boston Foundation and Michael Widmer at MTF, were making. This would be the same Robert Haynes, […]

We’re #43!

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Those with long memories will recall the days of the campaign when CNBC’s ranking of Massachusetts as the 5th best state to do business in was widely touted. To be sure, all these rankings are highly dependent on the underlying methodology — CNBC emphasized education and quality of life strongly, so Massachusetts did well. Well, another ranking has come down the pike, from the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council. They emphasize tax policy and regulation heavily. And Massachusetts does not do so well — ranking 43rd out of 51 states (and DC). Roll that in with the CEO magazine ranking (47th!) and the Tax Foundation ranking (32nd), and there may be a message there.