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Convention Center Chronicles
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byThe Boston Convention Center has long been a topic of interest for this space, dating back to its original construction. To be fair, its done ok, although far less successful than its original projections. Now, the Convention Center Authority has presented the citizens of Massachusetts with an intriguing chicken-and-egg proposition. It needs to expand its size and build a large hotel, as it can’t attract larger conventions without a ‘headquarters’ hotel but it also needs to be larger to attract the largest conventions (which it can’t do without a bigger hotel, got it?). So, what’s the public interest here? A public subsidy (taxes, fees and/or bond funding) will be needed to support the two projects, whose combined price tag may […]
Did the 2009 stimulus work?
/0 Comments/in Blog, Economic Opportunity, News /byEconomics21.org provides a graphical representation of the stimulus and reality. Certainly, this figure shows that the stimulus was not even close to successful according to the benchmarks set by the Administration. Back in January 2009, Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein produced a report estimating future unemployment rates with and without a stimulus plan. Their estimates, which were widely circulated, projected that unemployment would approach 9% without a stimulus, but would never exceed 8% with the plan. The estimates, along with real unemployment rates, are posted below: In May 2011, using the latest figures available from the BLS, the unemployment rate reached 9.1%. In contrast, the Romer and Bernstein projections estimated that the unemployment rate would be around 8.1% for this […]
Beacon Hill’s Magical Mystery Medicaid Savings
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Healthcare, Healthcare /byAs the Senate and House work to reconcile their respective versions of the 2012 budget, I wanted to take one last opportunity to highlight the unrealistic assumptions that are being used for the MassHealth (Medicaid) program. If the state is unable to achieve these “savings” and instead follows historic spending trends, it could be looking at a $900 million gap. See graph here. A recently released report from The National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers “The Fiscal Survey of States” contrasts Massachusetts’s projections to the 49 other states and Puerto Rico. Annual Percentage Medicaid Growth Rate (p52) The average percentage Medicaid growth rate is 18.6 across the nation, Massachusetts will be 0.5%? First introduced in […]
MA Public Opinion of RomneyCare
/1 Comment/in Blog, Blog: Healthcare, Healthcare /byKay Lazar had an interesting piece in The Boston Globe on a joint survey with Professor Bob Blendon of the Harvard School of Public Health on Massachusetts health care reform. I am sure it will be part of the narrative of the presidential race. Some general trends that they noted: Increasing support for repealing the mandate. Forty-four percent said they oppose the mandate in the Massachusetts law, compared with 35 percent who opposed it in a 2008 poll. Residents don’t see a connection between the law and increasing health care costs. Yet when asked about the law’s role in boosting health costs in Massachusetts, 72 percent said rising costs were mainly because of factors other than the law. Perhaps this […]
Passion and Fellowship
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Education, Blog: School Choice, Jim Stergios, News, Related Education Blogs /byMassachusetts charter schools have a strong record in serving urban and suburban minorities. What about children who are clearly at-risk or have special needs? Chelsea-based Phoenix Charter Academy (PCA) serves at-risk students from Chelsea, Everett, Lynn, Revere, Winthrop, and Boston. The school’s mission is to give a caring but firm hand up with an eye toward not just keeping kids in school but also preparing them for rigorous academic work at college. PCA’s hybrid mission is the product of its founder, Beth Anderson, who comes to the school with long experience working with teen girls and at Boston’s standout MATCH School.