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The City's Hotline Really Does Work
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byThe City of Boston has a 24 hour constituent service line — 617-635-4500 (which should be 311, but that’s another story). It works apparently. Particularly when the Mayor calls it: Page 8 of the first batch of Kineavy emails posted on the Globe website has a city employee checking in with Kineavy about a call to the service line from none other thanTom Menino inquiring about the permits for a dumpster in the North End.
Pension Reform Commission Kicks It to the LEG
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byJust got back from the last meeting of the Pension Reform Commission, where they declined to decide which of their proposals (now complete with cost estimates) to recommend to the Legislature. It’s a pretty unsatisfying outcome to a process that promised, at one point, to provide a cost-neutral set of recommendations to the Legislature. However, a close reading of their enabling statute shows that their were entitled to conduct a study and not make recommendations. An interesting subtext to this discussion is the primary public source of conflict on the commission — between PERAC and the Board chair (previously mentioned here). I encourage you to give PERAC’s costing analysis a close read. To paraphrase a colleague, there are plenty of […]
Read and Learn
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byKen Lewis of BofA to step down before the new year. Who called it many months ago?
Will the state keep passing the buck?
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byMatt Murphy of the Sun (and the associated Sentinel and Enterprise) reports that state revenues will come in $150 to $200 million below budget estimates for the month of September. On top of subpar revenues in July, we have to gird ourselves for some real tough actions — and fast. The State Treasurer and Lowell City Manager are both right to call for one quick, clean cut early in the fiscal year. Murphy paraphrases Lynch as suggesting “he’d rather have the Band-Aid ripped off quickly than endure a slow peel.” Lynch also notes “hopefully the governor will find other savings at the state level.” He’s right. Our view is that local cannot be the first option, to the point that […]
The State Pension System is not responsibly funded
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byOr so says the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission. I read with interest the most recent memo from PERAC’s Actuarial Advisory Committee which had the following citation: We believe that maintaining a funding target of 100% is the desired goal. If the plan sponsor sets a goal of 100% funded and attains a funded ratio of 80%, that is not a bad result. In fact, the 2009 State of the Pension System published by PERAC stated: “ . . . public sector experts, union officials, and advocates believe, according to the GAO, that 80% is a responsible funded ratio for public pension systems”. Working backwards, the 2009 State of the Pension System document states the following: In this context, perspective […]