MORE ARTICLES
Outmigration and the Labor ForceApril 25, 2024 - 11:44 am
Study Finds Obstacles to Search for Opioid SubstituteApril 25, 2024 - 9:11 am
Annual Massachusetts Outmigration Hits 39,000, Up 1,100% Over The Last Decade: BU StudyApril 24, 2024 - 1:00 pm
Hoover at Stanford’s Stephen Kotkin on Stalin’s Tyranny, WWII, & the Cold WarApril 24, 2024 - 12:33 pm
Superior Court Judge Invalidates “Equity Theft” Law as UnconstitutionalApril 23, 2024 - 1:04 pm
Tax Man Confounded: Why High Rates Haven’t Yielded Higher RevenueApril 23, 2024 - 12:58 pm
Massachusetts’ Workforce Growing Older and More Diverse, Remains Highly EducatedApril 18, 2024 - 9:26 am
Johns Hopkins’ Ashley Berner on Educational Pluralism & DemocracyApril 17, 2024 - 2:53 pm
Why the secrecy? Pioneer Calls for Open Meetings Dealing with Steward’s Impact on Patient Care.April 16, 2024 - 1:59 pm
Industrial Policy Reimaged: Can Government Improve Free MarketsApril 16, 2024 - 12:34 pm
We beat Rhode Island and New Hampshire
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byBut that’s about it. In the latest Governing Magazine assessment of state management, Massachusetts finished 48th out of 50. In particular, our performance on infrastructure was quite poor, meriting just a D+ grade, but you may have already heard about that. A tip of the pen to the redoubtable Robert David Sullivan of Beyond Red & Blue for the point about infrastructure. 031308-testimony-to-bonding-cmte.doc h4409-governors-transportation-bond-bill.pdf h4562-house-transportation-committee-transpo-bond-bill.pdf masstrans-framework.pdf driving-questions-powerpoint-edited.ppt 2008-02-19-ian-bowles-on-sect-13-parkways-letter.pdf Language for Proposed Transportation Reforms DeLeo Letter on Transportation Bond BillLanguage for Proposed Transportation ReformsLanguage for Proposed Transportation Reforms
Farm Subsidies, Part XXXVI
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, Blog: Better Government /byThis space takes a dim view of almost all farm subsidies as market-distorting and wasteful. And as part of the nascent Pioneer Staff Caucus for good food, I find the evidence that the incentives contained in the farm bill to produce a handful of commodity crops — in essence creating a market through government interference — is neither healthy nor good for farmers in the long run. Yesterday’s NYTimes ran an op-ed from a farmer in Minnesota who pointed out another wrinkle in the farm bill — if you try and plant fruits and vegetables on land that had commodity (corn, soybean, rice, wheat, cotton) crops, you lose your government subsidy and you are penalized the market value of that […]
Counterintuitive News
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, Blog: Better Government /byIt’s too early, I realize. But the state is $245 million ahead of where we projected we would be at this point in the fiscal year and $674 million ahead of the same point last fiscal year. Given all the chatter about a recession, its interesting that we aren’t (yet?) feeling the pinch tax-wise. If that $245 million holds, keep an eye on where it ends up — spent out in a ‘supp’, flushed into the Bay State Competitiveness Trust Fund, or put back into Stabilization. What, you thought it would fund an income tax rollback?
Healthcare Cost Control
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, Blog: Better Government, Healthcare /bySenate President Murray presented her ideas about controlling medical costs today. I don’t agree (or fully understand all of them) but I give her credit for setting out a broad array of potential areas for reform. And count me in as a fan of Section 20, expanding the role of Nurse Practitioners.
So, which is it?
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, Blog: Better Government, Economic Opportunity /byOur friends at CURP and A Better City held an event on Oct. 31st to promote a new study that advocated for additional transit spending to aid the biotech industry in Boston and Cambridge. But this Sunday’s Globe reports that biotech firms are moving to the less costly suburbs. Which suggests that additional transit spending is not required to aid this industry.