The Bay State’s public colleges and universities attract a sizeable number of students from Boston, but they seem to be more valued as a higher-ed option in other parts of the state — Worcester County, the Springfield area, the Merrimack Valley, and the South Coast. The map below shows how likely students in each school […]
Robert David Sullivan
Posted inEconomy, Education
Fewer high school grads in jobs pipeline
INTRO TEXT Massachusetts is facing a serious brain drain. Over the next 15 years, forecasters expect the state’s school-age population to shrink and the number of high school graduates to plunge by as much as 15 percent. The demographic data represents sobering news for a high-cost state with few natural resources aside from the brain […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Uncategorized
Easy street
zero tolerance is always a favorite concept in American politics, and publicity-hungry politicians are still finding plenty of things they want to ban: transfats, people without health insurance, violent video games, using cell phones while driving, crowding more than four people into Boston apartments, et cetera et cetera. This approach is not pleasing to economist […]
Posted inTransportation
Statistically Significant
BUSES TAKE A HEAVY TOLL ON THE T Passenger fares accounted for only 29 percent of operating expenses on the MBTA during 2006, according to new data from the Federal Transit Administration, or well below the national average of 34 percent. The biggest drain was the bus fleet, which brought in enough revenue to cover […]
Posted inPolitics
Needs improvement
Here’s one report card that Massachusetts might want to hide: Governing magazine and the Pew Center on the States gave the state a “C” in their Grading the States report, released in early March. As the map below indicates, only New Hampshire and Rhode Island got lower grades for how well their state governments are […]
Posted inEconomy
Job seekers
UPDATE: The Bay State’s unemployment rate over the 2009 calendar year was 8.4 percent, far above the 4.5 percent that we found worrying in 2007. See the map below for 2009 town-by-town figures, or get the 2007 and 2009 data as an Excel spreadsheet or PDF. The highest unemployment rates in 2009 were in Provincetown […]
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
Statistically Significant
Illustrations by Travis Foster VOTING AS IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT According to a recent article in Scientific American, whether or not you vote may be “hardwired” in your genetic makeup. A study by political scientist James Fowler, of the University of California at San Diego, found that identical twins are more alike in their […]
Posted inEconomy
Mass. in the middle
at the end of 2007, “free-market economists” Stephen Moore and Arthur Laffer—most famous for the “Laffer Curve” illustrating the idea that higher tax rates can actually bring in less revenue—touted yet another ranking of the states based on economic strength. “States with a high propensity to tax and spend are finding their most wealthy and […]
Posted inEconomy
House hikes
UPDATE: Get town-level data on average property-tax bills for single-family households in 2000 and 2009 as an Excel spreadsheet or PDF. Note that the state’s Division of Local services does not calculate property-tax averages for communities granting residential exemptions, including Boston. property tax relief may be the Holy Grail of Massachusetts politics (it’s even touted as […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Politics
Generation slap
mushy-middle political columnists often despair over the “blame game” that has supposedly poisoned American politics. And when a questionable use of taxpayer money appears on the front page of the Boston Herald, the parties caught red-handed often complain about nickel-and-dime stories getting so much attention when there are so many larger political issues to worry […]