The Governor’s proposal to fix structurally deficient bridges is an aggressive approach to addressing the massive backlog of deferred maintenance in the Commonwealth. To be sure, this approach does not create revenues, it only accelerates planned future spending. However, this acceleration will result in greater value by fixing hundreds of decaying bridges sooner rather than later; thereby avoiding the effect of construction inflation and higher future repair costs due to ongoing deterioration.
Download Report: Additional Reforms for the Governor’s Accelerated Bridge Repair Proposal
The Middle Cities Initiative seeks to help the Commonwealth’s older cities, which face economic, demographic, and political challenges. These challenges cover a wide range of issues—entrenched political cultures, significant infrastructure costs, underperforming schools, struggling retail and manufacturing sectors, crime, and poorly targeted state programs. The Initiative’s goal is to develop and disseminate concrete policies to help the Middle Cities grow.
Download Report: GIC Consolidation
Author(s): Steve Poftak — Publication date: 2008-06-01 Category: Economic Opportunity Abstract: The Governor’s proposal to fix structurally deficient bridges is an aggressive approach to addressing the massive backlog of deferred maintenance in the Commonwealth. To be sure, this approach does not create revenues, it only accelerates planned future spending. However, this acceleration will result in greater value by fixing hundreds of decaying bridges sooner rather than later; thereby avoiding the effect of construction inflation and higher future repair costs due to ongoing deterioration.
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“She’s a good girl. She helps me a lot. She has big, big dreams. I don’t have the money, but she has big dreams. I hope she’s going to get everything, but she works so hard. She works so hard in school.”
“Our family is needing to make some really big sacrifices because we believe this is important, and so, we’re basically going to do whatever it takes… Sometimes we look at each other and go ‘I don’t know if I can do it again another month…’”
“A lot of the families have to sacrifice and work multiple jobs… And just scraping together enough money to just make tuition, just the basics.”
“It is discriminatory, that parents who want to choose an alternative to public school for their children, would not in any way receive any compensation for that, whether it be tax credit, whether it be a voucher…”
In the 1840s, nativist movement leaders formed official political parties and local chapters of the national Native American Party (later the American Party), although they continued to be commonly known as the Know-Nothing Party. Politicians sought to insert provisions into state constitutions against Catholics who refused to renounce the pope. The Know-Nothing movement brought bigotry and hatred to a new level of violence and organization.
The party’s legacy endured in the post-Civil War era, with laws and constitutional amendments it supported, still today severely limiting parents’ educational choices. A federal constitutional amendment was proposed by Speaker of the House James Blaine prohibiting money raised by taxation in any State to be under the control of any religious sect; nor shall any money so raised or lands so devoted be divided between religious sects or denominations. These were then named the Blaine Amendments of 1875.
in recent decades, often in response to challenges to school choice programs, the U.S. Supreme Court has demonstrated great interest in examining the issues of educational alternatives and attempts limit parental options. Massachusetts plays a key role in this debate. The Bay State was a key center of the Know-Nothing movement and has the oldest version of Anti-Aid Amendments in the nation, as well as a second such amendment approved in 1917. Two-fifths of Massachusetts residents are Catholic, and its Catholic schools outperform the state’s public schools, which are the best in the nation.
The Governor’s proposal to fix structurally deficient bridges is an aggressive approach to addressing the massive backlog of deferred maintenance in the Commonwealth. To be sure, this approach does not create revenues, it only accelerates planned future spending. However, this acceleration will result in greater value by fixing hundreds of decaying bridges sooner rather than later; thereby avoiding the effect of construction inflation and higher future repair costs due to ongoing deterioration.
Download Report: Additional Reforms for the Governor’s Accelerated Bridge Repair Proposal
The Middle Cities Initiative seeks to help the Commonwealth’s older cities, which face economic, demographic, and political challenges. These challenges cover a wide range of issues—entrenched political cultures, significant infrastructure costs, underperforming schools, struggling retail and manufacturing sectors, crime, and poorly targeted state programs. The Initiative’s goal is to develop and disseminate concrete policies to help the Middle Cities grow.
Download Report: GIC Consolidation
Author(s): Steve Poftak — Publication date: 2008-06-01 Category: Economic Opportunity Abstract: The Governor’s proposal to fix structurally deficient bridges is an aggressive approach to addressing the massive backlog of deferred maintenance in the Commonwealth. To be sure, this approach does not create revenues, it only accelerates planned future spending. However, this acceleration will result in greater value by fixing hundreds of decaying bridges sooner rather than later; thereby avoiding the effect of construction inflation and higher future repair costs due to ongoing deterioration.
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Additional Reforms for the Governor’s Accelerated Bridge Repair Proposal
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Transportation /by Steve PoftakThe Governor’s proposal to fix structurally deficient bridges is an aggressive approach to addressing the massive backlog of deferred maintenance in the Commonwealth. To be sure, this approach does not create revenues, it only accelerates planned future spending. However, this acceleration will result in greater value by fixing hundreds of decaying bridges sooner rather than later; thereby avoiding the effect of construction inflation and higher future repair costs due to ongoing deterioration.
Download Report: Additional Reforms for the Governor’s Accelerated Bridge Repair Proposal
GIC Consolidation
/0 Comments/in Health Care, Municipal Management, Public Program Reform, Unfunded Liabilities /by Steve PoftakThe Middle Cities Initiative seeks to help the Commonwealth’s older cities, which face economic, demographic, and political challenges. These challenges cover a wide range of issues—entrenched political cultures, significant infrastructure costs, underperforming schools, struggling retail and manufacturing sectors, crime, and poorly targeted state programs. The Initiative’s goal is to develop and disseminate concrete policies to help the Middle Cities grow.
Download Report: GIC Consolidation
Additional Reforms for the Governor’s Accelerated Bridge Repair Proposal
/0 Comments/in Economic Opportunity /by Editorial StaffAuthor(s): Steve Poftak — Publication date: 2008-06-01 Category: Economic Opportunity Abstract: The Governor’s proposal to fix structurally deficient bridges is an aggressive approach to addressing the massive backlog of deferred maintenance in the Commonwealth. To be sure, this approach does not create revenues, it only accelerates planned future spending. However, this acceleration will result in greater value by fixing hundreds of decaying bridges sooner rather than later; thereby avoiding the effect of construction inflation and higher future repair costs due to ongoing deterioration.
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