The message behind the bipartisan deficit-reduction panel’s recent report was, “See, fiscal discipline isn’t all that tough!” But the back-and-forth that followed the report’s release last week has seriously called that assumption into question. The reasons why were on full display yesterday, when the Bay State’s most popular politician, Sen. Scott Brown, unloaded an anti-tax […]
State House News Service
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Uncategorized
The Download: Time to regionalize
In Massachusetts, 911 calls are handled by 262 different facilities, or one for every 24,000 residents. Maryland, a state comparable to Massachusetts in population and land size, uses just 24 public safety call centers, one for every 233,000 residents. It’s a striking comparison, one of several featured in a special regionalization issue of Municipal Advocate, […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Uncategorized
The Download: Green is good
The Christian Science Monitor’s print weekly takes an in-depth look at the ongoing green revolution in a “Future of Energy” special issue. Once again, Jimmy Carter comes off as a sage: Carter was the first president to install solar panels on the White House, only to have them torn off by a skeptical Ronald Reagan. […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
The Herald’s head man
A 27-year veteran of the Boston Herald, editor-in-chief Joe Sciacca has spent most of his career covering Massachusetts politics. So on election night when US Rep. Barney Frank complained about the “complete political irrelevance of the Boston Herald,” Sciacca took the comments in stride. “It’s not unusual for a politician who has been a subject […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics, State House News Service, The Download
Mayors want Beacon Hill to get tough on health care, unions
By Gabrielle Gurley Massachusetts does not have the financial wherewithal to fully address the looming fiscal problems facing cities and towns. But municipal officials’ pleas that state lawmakers look at cost-free fixes that would save communities millions or tolerable tax hikes have fallen on deaf ears on Beacon Hill. That was the takeaway from the […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Video: Brown refuses to answer on Question 3 vote
Video courtesy of the State House News Service.
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
Candidates mum on how to fund transit
On Tuesday, a Boston Globe editorial called transportation finance “one of the more complex and thankless areas of state policy.” Perhaps that’s why Gov. Deval Patrick, Charlie Baker, Tim Cahill, and Jill Stein have tussled during the gubernatorial campaign over the Big Dig and South Coast Rail, but have had next to nothing to say […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
Razor edge support for Question 3
Milford residents appear to narrowly support Question 3, according to CommonWealth magazine’s Bellwether project. The Bellwether project’s online town forum found that supporters of the ballot question, which would cut the state’s sales tax rate from 6.25 percent to 3 percent, edged out opponents by the narrow margin of 8 to 5. “It is time […]
Posted inHealth Care, State House News Service
Primary care docs in short supply
Primary care physicians continue to be short supply in the Bay State for the fifth year in a row, according to the 2010 workforce study released today by the Massachusetts Medical Society. Half of primary care practices are not accepting new patients. Those patients have nearly a month-long wait on average to see a family […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Economy, Politics, State House News Service
Police scramble on Quinn pay
Police unions and individual officers are trying hard to save what’s left of the 40-year-old Quinn Bill with mixed success. Budget woes forced lawmakers to cut what was once a $50 million state contribution to $10 million in fiscal 2010 and $5 million this year. The law, more formally called the Police Career Incentive Pay […]