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Governor Patrick is a Capitalist after all

/0 Comments/in , /by Liam Day

We were worried. During his first 6 months in office the Governor had unveiled a number of new initiatives that appear on the shelf, anyway, as if they will have expensive price tags: $1 billion in BioTech funding, the $1.4 billion rail line to New Bedford, and K through post-12 education reforms which some critics claim will cost as much as $2 billion annually. These on top of outstanding liabilities that add up to almost double the Commonwealth’s annual budget: $14.488 billion for public employee pensions, $13 billion for public employee healthcare obligations, and roughly $17 billion for maintaining public assets that have too long been ignored. Of course, the question is: how do we pay for all of this? […]

Gratuitous Yankee Bashing

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Not our traditional topic, but who can resist kicking the Yankees when they are down. This post is dedicated to Pioneer’s own embedded Yankee fan, Mr. Chieppo. If you’ve followed Roger Clemens’ return, you’ve undoubted heard the live call of his reintroduction to Yankee Stadium, where WCBS Broadcaster Suzyn Waldman makes a home town call that would have made Johnny Most blush. He’s now 1-3 with an ERA of over 5. A less charitable colleague might be tempted to echo Edward G. Murrow in The Ten Commandments and ask “where’s your messiah, now?”. But not this correspondent, no sirree.

Movement on Pension Fund Consolidation

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Pioneer brought up the idea of consolidation underperforming local pension funds in our May 2006 paper, Leaving Money on the Table. We noted that underperformance (relative to the major state fund, PRIM) had left $1.6 billion on the table in the ten year period ending in 2004. We recommended folding all the underperforming funds into PRIT. The Governor recommended folding all the funds that underperformed by 2.25% over 5 years and were below 80% funded into PRIT. Now, the Joint Committee on Public Service has recommended folding all funds that underperformed by 2% over 10 years and were below 65% funded into PRIT. The bill would have an immediate effect on 25 public pension funds that have left an estimated […]

Sure, fight the housing shortage, just not here.

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Is what’s good for Springfield also good for Amherst? Friend of Pioneer Peter A. Gagliardi, leader of nonprofit housing developer HAP, Inc., has found that where one stands on affordable housing depends on where one’s property sits. Qualified families in both towns languish on waiting lists for decent homes, yet Springfield welcomes new construction, while Amherst fought a HAP project in court for five years. Gagliardi is the author of both a Pioneer housing paper and one of the best “Dear Deval” pre-inauguration Globe op-eds. He’s also a veteran, having slogged for decades through the mud hidden behind good intentions and pretty speeches about affordable housing. As proven by Gagliardi’s experience, as well as his research, those who would increase […]

Jim Stergios on MCAS

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Pioneer Executive Director Jim Stergios appeared on NECN’s Newsnight last evening. He spoke in favor of the MCAS on a panel with the decidedly anti-MCAS Lisa Guisbond of FairTest. Check it out here.  (Bear with it, you have to sit through an ad first.)