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Democrats for Choice

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela Dawson

Choice. For most Democrats it rings as a clarion call… except when it comes to education. When school choice is mentioned, most D’s line up with the usual suspects, as was the case in Arizona this summer, when a Superior Court judge ruled in favor of Arizona’s voucher program for foster children and children with special needs. The usual suspects in this case were the Arizona Education Association, People for the American Way (ugh), and the ACLU Foundation of AZ. In AZ, children placed in foster care can receive a scholarship of $5,000 to cover tuition and fees for a school of their choice. Kids who have received an Individualized Education Program by the state can receive an amount equivalent […]

Shameless Gary Gnu reference

/0 Comments/in , , /by Liam Day

I’m a few days late, but I want to offer a quick rebuttal to JoAnn Fitzpatrick, whose op-ed, Sparse history’s made in a year with potential, appeared in Monday’s Boston Herald. I don’t disagree with Ms. Fitzpatrick’s argument. 2007 was not an extraordinarily productive year for the Legislature. What I disagree with is the premise upon which her argument is based. An unproductive legislature is not de facto a bad legislature. Our state representatives and senators – and, for that matter, our congressmen and women – should not be expected to create laws simply because they can. This mindset – that our state and federal legislatures must always be doing things – has contributed to a culture in which Massachusetts’ […]

Justice, Massachusetts-style

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Be careful what you do here in the Commonwealth, you might be forced to spend the weekend indoors with your kids!! A longshoreman from Boston plead (pled?, pleaded? pleadarum?) guilty to putting his 4 year old on the Massport payroll and was sentenced to probation, restitution, and….gasp….4 weeks of home confinement on the weekends. Given that he’s got five kids under 10 year of age, that might be a tougher sentence than you would expect.

Maxing out the State Credit Card

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As noted in yesterday’s post, the Commonwealth signaled its intention to utilize the full $1b in short-term borrowing capability in advance of April’s tax receipts. April is typical the toughest month as personal income tax receipts aren’t due until the 15th and over $1b in local aid has to go out at the beginning of the month. But the Treasurer just announced that the state will be maxing out its credit card in December, not April.

Interesting Reading

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The latest version of the Commonwealth’s Information Statement Supplement , the best source of concrete financial data on our state, is out. A few nuggets: The Surplus: pg. A-1 — The State ended up with a fiscal 2007 surplus of $190.9 million. Of course, there was a supplemental budget passed in October (for FY2007) that spent $212.1m and rolled over $60m in unexpended funds. Thus, without that supp, there would have been a surplus of $462m. Lottery Deficit: pg. A-2 — The lottery was short by $119m and will be short by $124m next year, unless sales pick up significantly.  That’s $243m that the state needs to make up somewhere. Taxes: pg. A-3 — FY2007 tax revenues exceeded projections by […]