Archive for June, 2007
From a website (DownWithAbsolutes) that is so cool it starts with a quote from Tom Waits (”I offer champagne to real friends, but real pain to sham friends.”), we get the news that Jack Markell (D), three-time State Treasurer (click here for his website), has thrown his hat in the ring in the race to become governor.
Jack would be dumb not to run. I mean this guy won the 2002 Treasurer’s race with more than 66% of the vote. In the most recent race (2006) he received 70.5% of the vote.
So why bring all this up? Ha-ha, you have a mind like a trap! Well, near the top of his list of accomplishments on the www.markell.org site is–you got it!–that Pioneer Institute’s Better Government Competition recognized his effort to institute state-of-the-art bulk purchasing policies for Delaware’s state government, saving taxpayers more than $25 million.
No doubt that is the reason for his going from 66% to 70.5% of the vote.
Anyways, I have decided, after seeing the DownWithAbsolutes site that I want my own quote from Tom Waits on our home page. Remember Tom from days back (mid-1970s, Fernwood2Nite with Martin Mull and Fred Willard) when he quipped, “I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy”? That’s the right quote, and you can see it, along with his performance of “The Piano Has Been Drinking” right here. And if you get an appetite for more Tom W quotes, click here.
Showing, though I am sure not acting, my age. But, look, there is real joy in the song…
June 12th, 2007
Who is? We are! Two op-eds in two days.
Ahem, you might want to dig Jamie Gass’ piece in the Metro West Daily News entitled “Teacher licensing rules just got more complex“.
How about Alice White’s “City officials silent on looming health care liability” in the New Bedford Standard-Times?
Then there is a wonderful piece by Howard Greis entitled “Lawmakers should reject Patrick proposal to drop EQA” in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
June 11th, 2007
Caught the annual parade in Charlestown on Sunday. This parade usually gets a good turnout of political types and the crowd’s reaction (or lack thereof) can be a telling sign.
My award for the parade are:
Biggest Reaction – Michael Flaherty, hands-down, got the biggest reaction from the crowd. And he gets extra credit for the retro-cool innovation of handing out emery boards with his name on them (Editor’s Note: This is not a retro-cool innovation, he’s serious.)
Who The Heck Is That – City Council-At-Large Candidate Marty Hogan apparently marched in the parade. No one had any idea who the poor fellow was. It’s still not clear which of the roughly 3 – 5 people marching behind his banner was actually him.
Again? – Maura Hennigan is running, again, for something.
Biggest Non-Reaction – Sal Lamattina, District 1 city councilor, marched to a very tepid response, particular noteworthy given that its his own district. Charlestown remains Dan Ryan country.
Don’t Strain Yourself – Felix Arroyo was a no show for the parade. This diligence and attention to detail might explain why he’s only got $3,000 in his campaign account. (Michael Flaherty and John Connolly each have over $50,000.)
Team Unity Outreach – Sam Yoon marched in the parade with a large crowd of revelers and, to his credit, appeared to be headed back into Charlestown after the parade with his family.
June 11th, 2007
Outside of Boston the Governor’s plans are not playing well. The Lawrence Eagle-Tribune opined yesterday that Governor Patrick’s promises run afoul of fiscal reality. The following are the money quotes (unconnected excerpts):
Gov. Deval Patrick has Republicans and members of his own party scratching their heads over his grand plans for spending money the state and its taxpayers simply don’t have.
The rhetoric is soaring… But the reality is neither the state, nor the cities and towns on which the burden of paying for many of these mandates will inevitably fall, are in a position to afford such grand schemes.
Such talk is certainly not appropriate at a time the Massachusetts Transportation Finance Commission says it will cost between $15 billion and $19 billion simply to keep bridges from falling down and the MBTA from stopping the trains.
Nor is it the right time when the commonwealth faces the uncertain costs of an ambitious health reform program.
The governor should fix what’s wrong with the commonwealth first before inviting us to join him on his high-minded flights of spending fancy.
I really do think that, after the $1.4B for the South Coast rail link, $1B for biotech, who knows how many $B’s for education, and millions more for additional police, people are starting to get more than a little unsettled. Backtracking on MCAS and the outsized desire in the education plan may be the straws that break the back of the business community and the legislature.
June 11th, 2007
A change of the guard seems underway for the “Readiness Project,” as the Governor calls his recently announced education plan. Rumor has it that Dana Mohler-Faria is on his way back to Bridgewater State College at the start of July. Also, there is the Governor’s announcement of the core leaders of the new new Task Force he is calling on to deliver a fleshed out plan, a budget, and an implementation plan. Up to the front come Tom Payzant, EMC Chairman/President/CEO Joe Tucci, and Wheelock’s Jackie Jenkins-Scott. Congratulations to the Governor for three solid picks, listed below with the strength they will bring to the TF.
- Strong on urban education reform: Payzant has the know-how and a strong record of achievement in Boston, though he may need a little push to come up with a plan that seeks in a comparatively brief time to show progress.
- Strong on math and science: Tucci is going to be someone to watch, given his achievements and leadership at EMC, and before that at Wang, but also because he knows this subject well and is passionate about it. Note that he did serve as the Chairman of the Business Roundtable’s Task Force on Education and Workforce Development.
- Strong on early education: Jackie Jenkins-Scott is president of Wheelock College and previously had served as president and CEO of Roxbury’s Dimock Community Health Center from the 1980s, when the Dimock Center was on the verge of bankruptcy. She did a great turnaround of Dimock, increasing employment ten-fold and revenue two-fold. She is on a number of boards and has served on numerous city and statewide commissions and task forces.
See the Springfield Republican / AP report on the announcement of the three chairs.
June 11th, 2007
In a previous posting on the appointment of Ruth Kaplan to the Board of Education, I noted a significant problem with promoting the view that there is a connection between MCAS and increasing dropout rates: More than half of all dropouts have already passed the MCAS.
Then, passed on from one of our wonderful Center for School Reform Advisors, is the editor’s commentary from last summer’s American Educator, a publication of the American Federation of Teachers (an affiliated international union of the AFL-CIO). Using two very different studies, the commentary, entitled “Conventional Wisdom on Dropout Rate is Questioned–Impact of Higher Standards is Not,” points out that high standards and exit exams have NOT driven up drop-out rates.
So let’s set the record straight regarding assumptions about exit (here in Massachusetts, opponents love to call them high-stakes) exams and drop-out rates.
The editor sums up two studies–from two very different institutes:
After noting the difficulty of ascertaining exact dropout rates because of different methodologies and datasets available, the editor notes that
There is one point on which the two estimates agree: Neither methodology has produced any evidence that tougher standards and exit exams have driven up the dropout rate.
June 11th, 2007
Great column by Taylor Armerding in the Eagle Tribune today (We ‘interfere with natural processes’ in everything we do) on the attitude many within DCR have toward human management of the environment. The hands-off, let it lie naturally philosophy is, as Armerding underscores, a moral position–and one that makes it hard for the Department to do its job. Even when they make the right choices, they can run up against the local talent (ConComs). Armerding:
I am living in fear that somebody from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, or perhaps from the Rockport Conservation Commission, will visit me and declare my very existence to be interfering with a natural process.
And these people are pretty authoritative on the topic. Those at the state DCR, following the big April nor’easter, refused to allow any of the dunes at Salisbury Beach that the storm ate away to be replenished with sand, until state Sen. Steve Baddour started threatening legislation to take away some of their authority. Now, the DCR, since there is some federal disaster money on the table, is allowing a portion of those dunes to be “nourished,” but still contends it is bad to interfere with a natural process.
Over in Rockport, people who would like to go to Long Beach now that summer weather is here are having trouble because the tides from that same storm washed a bunch of big rocks over Seaview Street, the access road to the beach. The Department of Public Works, after exhaustive research, concluded that the way to solve the problem is - surprise - to remove the rocks.
But, not so fast, says the local ConsCom, which apparently believes that the ocean put those rocks there, and it is up to the ocean to take them away. Chairman Alan MacMillan says even the existence of the road on the beach means, “we are interfering with a natural process.”
The current mission of DCR is “To protect, promote and enhance our common wealth of natural, cultural and recreational resources,” all of which is great. But it needs either to understand that 90% of “enhancing” the resources is managing them well. Perhaps a change to that mission statement would help — but such things set off firestorms among the various trees in the agencies, all of whom stand tall for their beliefs (which is great), but some, maybe even many, of whom lose the forest for the trees.
Good luck to the former Mayor of Westfield Rick Sullivan, the newly minted Commissioner of DCR. We wish you focus and a lot of stamina. That’s one tough assignment.
June 10th, 2007
Sunday Globe’s real estate section didn’t get it right about age-restricted housing:
“Right now, there’s no question 55-plus housing is driven by demographics.”
No question — baby-boomers are driving demand for modest housing in traditionally scaled neighborhoods. The question is — Are baby-boomers really demanding houses that they can only re-sell to people 55 years and older, or is something else driving the market for such deed-restricted houses?
According to Pioneer’s survey of local zoning regulations, just over half of the communities in eastern MA have zoning for age-restricted housing (96 of 187 municipalities). Often, the only way to build neighborhoods of traditional density is through the 55+ zoning.
While some seniors are looking for neighborhoods where there are no children, it seems that the real driver of 55+ residential projects is restrictive zoning.
Lynnfield’s Master Plan states: “Another means of increasing the tax base in Lynnfield is development of age-restricted housing. These developments have a positive fiscal impact because they do not produce any school-age children.” It is perhaps this assumption that is driving 55+ building, not demographics.
The region could use more traditional neighborhoods - for seniors and families alike.
June 10th, 2007
As a kid, I lived on the border of Massachusetts and used to jump over the border regularly. Fun for us was rock fights, with one side being Rhode Island and the other the Bay Staters. What a difference a few feet made back then, and still do now.
Massachusetts may be growing accustomed to Governor Patrick’s biweekly billion dollar proposals, but Rhode Island seems headed in a different direction. Governor Carcieri, facing a deficit quite a bit smaller than our $1.1 billion shortfall, is moving to
- Cut what probably approaches 10 percent of RI’s state employees, and
- Bid out as much work as possible to minimize ballooning public salaries, pension and health care liabilities.
The Providence Journal article quotes Carcieri as saying:
“I am fully aware that I am placing the burden of resolving our state’s financial future on the shoulders of our employees[.] But my responsibility is to the average Rhode Island taxpaying families who put me here. I must act on behalf of all our citizens, and must fix this now for the sake of our children and grandchildren’s future.”
Savings are to amount to $26 million in FY08 and $40 million in FY09, according to the Journal, and occur almost immediately. Privatizations would save $15 million. Notwithstanding the threat of lawsuits, the Governor assured everyone at his press conference that he will assert his authority to lay off state workers without legislative approval. Couple of Carcieri quotes from the Journal article:
“This is not something we do willy-nilly[.] We’re going to have to look at discrete functions that make sense to privatize and outsource.”
“I’m going to march ahead because we have to do this. If we don’t do this, I’m going to be standing here next year same time same place telling you we have a much worse problem.”
A line in the woods is what separated us as kids. Now it seems like a world away.
Even if Governor Carcieri isn’t your cup of tea, you have to admit that Rhode Island has some very nice beaches, Saugy hot dogs, coffee syrup and, yes, better restaurants. At what point will it have a comparable business climate?
Ask Fidelity.
June 10th, 2007
During the campaign, we heard that good ideas were what mattered — what didn’t was whether it was a Democrat or Republican idea.
We did a check-in at around the 100-day mark, when the Harshbarger & Co. Cleaning Crew came up with the brilliant idea of cleaning out all the Republican appointees. As Frank Phillips put it, the first priority for the shadow advisory group (Ron Homer, Scott Harshbarger, pollster Tom Kiley, state Dem Party chair John Walsh, and political consultants/advisers John Marttila, Dennis Kanin, and Michael Goldman) was
to crack the whip on the administration’s lagging efforts to replace Republican-appointed government managers with a team loyal to Patrick.
Now the work’s been done — out Harry Spence (Social Services), Alan LeBovidge (Revenue) and others, even some embarrassing announcements that got fixed, such as Luisa Paiewonsky (Highway Commish). (BTW, Guv, Luisa’s not a Republican though she was hired by the Mittster.) Is it possible that the Governor is starting to make the Mittster look bipartisan? Where is Governor Patrick’s Doug Foy?
June 9th, 2007
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