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Convention Center Chronicles — Marginal Impact and Demand
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byWhat do we get? And who will come? Those are the questions that have not been properly answered despite reams of powerpoints and consultants reports. In its presentation “Case for Expansion“, The Convention Center Authority makes the case that we “lost” out on a number of conventions because of our small size, availability or cost. (Note that expansion only addresses the first cause.) It is not clearly stated anywhere whether we ‘lost’ these shows (as in the contract would absolutely, positively been signed) or whether we were unable to compete for these shows against other cities. The Authority then extrapolates from these losses a large amount of forgone economic impact, making the case for expanding the BCEC. The problem with […]
Tide turning on municipal health savings
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /byThe Globe‘s editorial page came out with a very clear view on the House and Senate proposals on the issue of how to contain municipal health care costs. LAST-MINUTE provisions inserted in the Senate budget undermine much of the effort on Beacon Hill to give cities and towns the tools they need to control the rising health care costs of municipal workers. It’s a setback to the stellar work of the House, which earlier passed a plan to save an estimated $100 million annually by allowing municipalities to place their workers in the state’s less-costly Group Insurance Commission or a similar plan… Unions and special interests battered the House, seeking to weaken the municipal health reform effort. The House stood […]
Mass Takes a Pass on HSAs
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Healthcare, Healthcare /byAmerica’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) released a report on the utilization of health savings accounts (HSAs) around the country. Massachusetts has lagged behind for years in the adoption of HSAs. One reason may be that only 43.1 percent of Massachusetts private-sector employers were enrolled in a plan with a deductible compared to 73.8 percent of employers nationally. Massachusetts residents enrolled in high deductible plans (often coupled with an HSA) account for only 2 percent of those with health insurance, placing the Commonwealth with one of the lowest percentages of residents enrolled in these plans in the nation. The trade-off is two fold. One, these employees are receiving a pay cut as more money is spent on health insurance. Second, the […]
Uncommon and common goals
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Education, Blog: School Choice, Jim Stergios, News, Related Education Blogs /byThe dual mission of Phoenix Charter Academy—giving second chances to troubled youth and a relentless focus on academics—may seem a mission impossible. It isn’t, but the work to address systemic truancy and high dropout rates in our urban school districts presents numerous individual challenges—as many challenges as there are students. In fact, you can summarize the challenge of reclaiming opportunity for at-risk students as exactly that: It can only be done for a single student, and yet the only way to have real impact is to create some sort of scale. So, you have to engage each student toward individual goals, but you also have to manage the unique needs of very different students in a way that they are […]
Convention Center Chronicles – Chasing Room Nights
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byRoom nights (nights spent at area hotels by convention attendees) are the key gauge of success for a convention center. How do I know this? The Convention Center Authority says so: Hotel room nights are the key gauge for convention business in Massachusetts So a discussion of room nights should be central to a discussion of any convention center expansion. Except when it’s inconvenient. Here’s Convention Center Authority head James Rooney earlier this year: We’ve gotten sucked in…. to measuring the success of this industry strictly on the notion of how many hotel-room nights are generated. That is narrow-minded thinking. The Authority’s on-again, off-again relationship with room nights is evident from their disclosure. One must work hard to figure out […]