MORE ARTICLES
NYT’s Anupreeta Das on Bill Gates, Microsoft, & Tech BillionairesAugust 28, 2024 - 12:03 pm
Harris’ Tax Vision: Policy & PoliticsAugust 27, 2024 - 3:23 pm
Poll: State Voters Overwhelmingly Support Ending Public Records Exemption, Auditing the LegislatureAugust 26, 2024 - 10:45 am
National Alliance’s Starlee Coleman on Public Charter SchoolsAugust 21, 2024 - 1:14 pm
How Has Employment Changed In Massachusetts?August 20, 2024 - 4:03 pm
How Has Transportation Been Changing In Massachusetts?August 20, 2024 - 2:31 pm
Digital Privacy Divide: Can Law Enforcement Google Where You’ve Been?August 20, 2024 - 11:40 am
American Bar Association Elects President of the Pioneer Law Center as Vice Chair of Judicial DivisionAugust 20, 2024 - 9:30 am
Pioneer Institute: 340B Hospitals Does Not Necessarily Translate to Charity CareAugust 19, 2024 - 12:49 pm
Wrap Up of the Massachusetts Legislative Session – Or Is It??August 14, 2024 - 1:53 pm
Wacky Pension Hijinks, Pt. 2?
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byThis morning’s Globe raises some interesting questions about the recent dismissal of a legislative aide. The individual in question was fired 11 days after she had reached her twentieth year of service. The key verb is ‘fired’ (as opposed to ‘quit’). By being fired after reaching the magic 20 years of service, Section 10 of Chapter 32 is triggered, allowing employees to begin collecting their full pension before the age of 55. And curiously enough, a large percentage of those unlucky enough to be fired in this manner get fired almost immediately after reaching the 20 year mark. According to Commonwealth Magazine, one-third of the 1,100 ‘Section 10’ pensions granted since 1990 were to employees who had passed the 20 […]
Wacky Pension-Related Hijinks
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byOr maybe not so wacky. The estimable adamg over at Universal Hub points out this interesting nugget in today’s Herald: A veteran Boston police officer is expected to resign from the force after pleading guilty yesterday to charges he shot a fellow cop during an off-duty argument about whether he was too drunk to drive…he also indicated in court that he would turn in his badge after 27 years of service…entitling him to a city pension. [emphasis added] Pensions have been on our mind for the past year. We’ve taken a long hard look at the cost of various loopholes and the expense of underperformance at many local pension funds. We have not, however, done anything to close the loophole […]
Psst… the Speaker may be trying to tell you something.
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byFirst, Speaker DiMasi went to a Greater Boston Chamber breakfast and poured cold water on Governor Patrick’s ‘loophole closure/business tax hike‘, choosing the very venue where Patrick made one of the initial announcements about the plan. Next, the House budget amendments came out. Legislators found time to suggest the frivolous (like the much beloved Winter Moth study amendment) and the serious (eliminating the EQA by reinserting similar language from the Governor’s budget). However, precisely none of the Representatives attempted to reinsert the ‘loophole closure/business tax hikes’. A commission is being appointed to review the tax code (with an eye on business taxation), consisting of appointees of the Governor, Senate President, and House Speaker? Speaker DiMasi’s apppointees? Associated Industries of Massachusetts […]
Build it and they will come?
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, Economic Opportunity, Housing /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela DawsonI think we have heard that one before. So now we are going to build a $1.4 billion commuter line to New Bedford, even though the T can’t afford it, even though that will add to the ongoing costs of the T to maintain the line, and even though expected ridership is dismally low so it won’t even pay for a tiny fraction of the ongoing costs. Okay, what else is new? Perhaps we can build a convention center at the end of the line to soak up all the excess demand for conventions in Massachusetts. Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District (SRPEDD) and I did an op-ed on this months ago for […]
A Plea For Slightly Less Integrated Transportation Planning
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, Blog: Better Government /byThe Herald’s has done a fine job pointing out one of the dumb things we do as a state — provide massive subsidies for little-used local airports that have no relevance to the transportation needs of the state. Check out pg. 17 of this chart just to see how little usage many of these airports get. Many of these airports are home to a handful of privately-owned planes and certainly provide a service for those people, but the Herald correctly asks why the vast majority of commercial air travelers should be taxed to pay for it. The Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission is the state agency charged with the task of maintaining these smaller airports. And they have no compunction about these […]