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13 Questions for the Special Commission on Pension Reform

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1) How many members of the commission really think pensions and other employment benefits need to be reformed? 2) Does the Governor’s office have specific ideas as to what they would like to see in the commission report and a game plan for achieving it? 3) When PERAC presents information but states that the data is not really comparable, why doesn’t anyone ask them to come back with comparable data? 4) For that matter, for a liability as large as the state’s public employee pension system and other benefits, why don’t the Administration and legislative leaders insist on better data collection? 5) Did the Commission really have a discussion of disability without even touching on the “Heart Law”, section 94 […]

The Laws of Economics Still Apply

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Senator Bruce Tarr of Gloucester has filed an amendment to the budget that would allow the state to grant ‘racino licenses’ that would let racetracks operate slot parlors. We had this same discussion in 2006 and we’ll restate our position: giving licenses away to a fixed group of bidders at a fixed price is not the way to maximize the value to the state. It will result in a subsidy to racetrack owners (and perhaps their employees, perhaps). If we must allow gambling of this type, let’s maximize the value to the state by allowing an open auction of the licenses, not a fixed process. I’d note that the pending legislation practically concedes my point (see Section 7, subsection i, […]

NYPD not so blue

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Police Chief Ed Davis has calmed the spikes in crime seen before his arrival. It would be good to see some numbers on crime rates in the past few years in case anyone wants to pass those on. That said, New York’s police commissioner Raymond Kelly brings some good news in a recent New York Post short that he penned. Noting that NYC is still the number 1 target in the country for terrorists, he points to a slimmer police force (5,000 fewer officers) AND lower crime rates. Today, despite having 5,000 fewer officers, crime is down by nearly 40 percent from eight years ago. At the year’s start, many predicted that crime rates would spike as a result of […]

New York 20, Boston 0

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Tip of the cap to Whitney Tilson for directing me to this article by Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice, who calls on mayor Bloomberg to “roll the union.” My, how far attitudes toward charters have changed on Left. Everywhere, that is, except in Massachusetts. If Bloomberg wins this year, it will be the fifth consecutive time that a Republican candidate has carried a 5-1 Democratic city. This time, the mayor isn’t running as a registered Republican—as he did the first two times—and he wants us to believe that he is an Independent with a Democratic tilt. Democrats just can’t take back the big office in Gotham, and the Union of Federated Teachers has learned new tactics to gain the […]

The Buddy-Boy World of Massachusetts Public Pensions

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Remember Tim Bassett? He’s the guy who retired, took a pension, then got special legislation written just for him that allowed him to go back onto the public payroll while retaining his pension. (And who’s wife just had her pension reduced because she tried to count years as a library trustee, except she didn’t attend the meetings.) Read the details here. He’s currently the Executive Director of the Essex County Regional Retirement Board, where the Globe estimates he is paid $123,000 annually (and don’t forget the $41,000 pension too). But that’s not enough. In his spare time, he lobbies for a variety of clients, among them are other retirement boards. The Salem Times reports today that his firm was paid […]