Archive for April, 2007
As winter turns to spring, or the day of it, anyway, we can expect before summer arrives, I would like to turn my attention to nature. The winter moth was introduced to North America from Europe and has now spread over much of the northeastern United States and Canada. Like the gypsy moth, the winter moth loves to eat trees, but not just shade trees. No, the winter moth likes fruit too, particularly, I understand, apples and crabapples. Now this may not seem like all that big a deal. Unless, of course, you own or work in an orchard and depend on apples for your living. I suppose then it would be a very big deal.
The reason I bring it up is that one of the innumerable earmarks recently attached in committee to the House budget was $150,000 for an ongoing winter moth research project at UMass. When I first reviewed the list of earmarks, I was ready to jump on this and others as frivolous wastes of taxpayer money. But, granting the benefit of the doubt, I did a little research and discovered the winter moth is not native to this area and thus has few predators to check its spread. From a different perspective, the $150,000 allocation no longer seemed quite so frivolous.
The point I am trying to make is this: not all earmarks are ham-handed attempts by politicians to bring the bacon home to their districts. Some earmarks are legitimate attempts on the part of legislators to circumvent what can be an inert bureacracy. Though I reserve the right to criticize the legislature for excessive earmarks, as I did in my most recent post, the Commonwealth’s administrative departments and how and where they spend their budgets needs to be part of any debate on earmarks. If for no other reason than that most of the people who work in the bureaucracy probably live somewhere inside 495 and couldn’t pick a winter moth out of a police lineup.
April 19th, 2007
A brilliant author has crafted a masterwork on school choice, entitled School Choice That Works For Boston in this week’s Dorchester Reporter.
Oh, that was me, wasn’t it?
I’ve been interested in this issue from a policy and a personal perspective for awhile.
The lottery system for Boston’s district public schools has long been a source of controversy. It was so complex (and flawed) that it spawned a series of analyses by economists from Harvard, MIT, BC, and Columbia. They are not for the faint of heart but you can find them here, here, here, here, and here.
A blue ribbon panel came in and made some fixes, as well as generating a lot of feedback and data.
But the process is still damnably complex, and fraught with peril, as your chances of getting your first choice at certain schools is slight. Check out the Boston Public School Choice Data.
What this shows you is the number of open slots in 5 year old kindergarten and the number of children selecting those schools. For some schools there is a oversupply, but for many (look at the Lyndon or the Kilmer) there are far more applicants than slots.
What this form doesn’t show is how many of those slots are already allocated for sibling or walk preference. And for the last year that we had data (see fall-2005-assignments-with-sibling-data.xls) - 2005 - you can see that certain popular schools, like the Lyndon, had 37 of their 45 slots allocated for sibling preference. In other words, unless you have a kid in that school, forget it……
Boston has a number of schools that parents want to send their kids to, and a number of schools they don’t want to send their kids to. Are we doing enough to expand the former and contract the latter?
April 19th, 2007
As a young man I always marvelled that the day for filing my taxes was as far as can be on a calendar from election day. Whatever politician dreamt that up is a genius. But taxes aren’t the only things located around the other side of the electoral mountain.
Earmarks are a way our representatives acquire state aid for their districts. Some of this aid is needed; some of it - well, not so much. And none of it is handed to localities as a block grant, which would give cities and towns the flexibility to spend it on what they think they need. No, that money must be spent on what it has been written into law that it be spent on - glass museums and lights for junior high stadiums. Things like that.
Now, these earmarks might indeed be the will of the people and I realize that budget earmarks are rolled out during budget season, which necessarily resides at the opposite end of the calendar from elections. Nevertheless, elected officials should be required to defend their earmarks at election time and this is much more likely to happen if they were revealed the last week of October, instead of the middle of April. At the very least, our elected officials should be required to explain to the voters that maybe, just maybe, among the reasons there’s a yawning budget deficit or there isn’t enough state aid available to offer property tax relief is that $500 million were earmarked for desperately needed projects, such as a refurbished clubhouse and locker room at Ponkapoag.
April 18th, 2007
The relaunch of devalpatrick.com was accompanied by great fanfare, with high hopes for energizing the netroots and building coalitions on-line.
But as of today, the top issue on the site is a ‘fathers’ rights’ proposal. And among the top 15 issues on the site are 3 anti-gay marriage entries, an income tax rollback proposal, a contract proposal for corrections officers, a call for eliminating gun control, a request to expand use of off-road vehicles in state parks, and a ‘9-11 was a hoax perpetrated by conservatives’ entry.
I’m guessing this is not what they had in mind.
April 18th, 2007
Ok, maybe that’s a bit dramatic. Or a lot dramatic, but interesting nevertheless.
Paul Levy and Charlie Baker Jr. are two of the state’s healthcare leaders. And each is blogging. Charlie just started his, and Paul has been going for awhile (and writing very interesting stuff).
They have a back and forth on healthcare cost drivers on Charlie’s blog that is fascinating. I won’t summarize it here, but they get into the issue of cost transparency and how Massachusetts’ current healthcare reform may play a role in cost control.
April 18th, 2007
More interesting fun with amendments and earmarks –
What if your favorite non-profit isn’t getting the state funding it so richly deserves?
Hire a lobbyist (type “International Institute” into here).
Get three amendments to the House budget for $150,000, $100,000, and $163,642 .
Not a bad days work, eh?
No judgment from this corner on the merits of the particular non-profit.
But who is better placed to determine the level of need and the most effective means of meeting that need — the staff at Mental Health, Social Services, and Workforce Development or these legislators?
And a question — if you codify a transaction between a private provider and a state agency into law — What leverage does the state agency have to insure proper delivery of services? I don’t know the answer, but I’d love to hear from someone who does.
UPDATE — The Boston Globe and some of the larger local blogs (here and here) join in the fun.
April 17th, 2007
At Pioneer’s February conference on Revitalizing Middle Cities (where we released this paper), we had the opportunity to hear from the Police Commissioner and Economic Development Director for Springfield.
Dave Panagore, Springfield’s Economic Development Director, noted that the police force (and public safety) were the most important components of economic development.
Ed Flynn, the Police Commissioner, explained his approach to policing that goes beyond just reviewing crime data and seeks to find out how citizens perceive the level of crime in their neighborhoods.
The importance of this issue is highlighted in the crime statistics for the city of Boston. This data compares the crime rate over the first few months of this year, against the same period last year. With the notable, and tragic, exception of homicides, crime is down in Boston, across the board for all types of criminal activity.
But what is the perception of crime in Boston? Based on the news coverage in recent weeks, I suggest that the perception is the inverse of the reality.
April 17th, 2007
Spring in Massachusetts! Ahh, the joys… Opening Day, bulbs blooming, and, of course, budget season.
House Ways and Means filed last week and amendments are due to be debated next week. The power and specificity of these amendments are little noticed and that’s unfortunate.
Governor Patrick ran on a platform of minimizing earmarks to save money ($100 million in first year savings, if his now-very-hard-to-find press release is to be believed.).
And to his credit, his budget did cut back on earmarks and rolled up a number of line items.
However, the amendment season is now upon us and we’ll see how many earmarks make it back into the budget. A few of my favorites:
Your town needs a new dumptruck? Receive $95,000 and pass go.
Or maybe your local carnival is short of funds? Here’s $15,000.
Don’t let me have all the fun, take a look at the entire list for yourself. And feel free to add your favorites…
April 16th, 2007
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