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The Tom Menino Endorsement Continuum

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Governor Patrick is receiving Mayor Tom Menino’s endorsement this afternoon. It should not be surprising that a sitting Democratic governor would be endorsed by the sitting Democratic mayor of the state’s largest city and capital. But the relationship between Patrick and Menino has been frosty at times. As an example, recall the GOV’s effort to fire Dan Grabauskas, who got a full vote of confidence from Menino at the time. Again, take the names out and consider the roles — Democratic mayor extends himself on behalf of Republican bureaucrat in opposition to sitting Democratic governor. More recently, when asked to grade the GOV’s performance, Menino responded by giving him a ‘C’ for the first three years and a ‘B+’ more […]

Oddity in Latest GOV Poll

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State House News Service (despite its small size, per the Globe) has a new Governor’s poll out this AM. What I’m having trouble reconciling is Charlie Baker’s small name identification and his vote total. His favorable/unfavorable ratings break out to be 21% to 17%, with the remainder being “no opinion/never heard of”. Yet he grabs 28% of the vote. What does this mean? It has to mean with people who profess to have ‘no opinion’ or have never heard of Baker are picking him as their candidate. Or people who view unfavorably are voting for him. Either way, that’s strange.

Revenue sharing for cities is a non-starter

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In today’s Boston Herald Jay Fitzgerald penned a tough article on the remarks Eric Rosengren (President/CEO of the Boston Fed made at a meeting of the Fed’s Board of Governors in DC on REO and Vacant Property Strategies for Neighborhood Stabilization. (REOs are properties that a lender takes back because of a foreclosure, where no one bought the property at a foreclosure sale process.) Eric Rosengren’s presentation was framed around the slide deck linked here. There are many problems with the case Eric is making, not least of which is that it entirely ignores the generous state commitment to education which pores $4.5 billion into our cities and towns, with a disproportionate amount going to our cities. Some communities, like […]

Ed Reform going soft

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The MCAS is different from most other state tests. It is a high-stakes test for all students; its being a graduation requirement underscored the seriousness of purpose, and its being for all students meant that we would not allow a good system for some and a less good system for others. After all, that is what we had before 1993. Success on the MCAS test correlates very well with success on national and international assessments. The better you do on MCAS, the better you are likely to do in college and in your career. You can’t say that about most state tests, which are all over the place in terms of correlation. So the MCAS is a good test. (There […]

Press Release: Municipal Benchmarks for MA’s Middle Cities

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Press Release on Pioneer’s new paper which takes a look at economic growth in Massachusetts’ Middle Cities.