President Barack Obama and Gov. Deval Patrick see eye-to-eye on most energy issues—except nuclear power. Obama is on board, but Patrick isn’t in any hurry to catch up. Nuclear power received the White House seal of approval earlier this year when Obama backed federal loan guarantees to the tune of more than $8 billion for […]
State House News Service
Posted inEconomy, Environment, State House News Service
Who’s the real environmentalist?
The elegant, lazy motion of wind turbines once appealed to Eleanor Tillinghast. Generating energy takes a heavy toll on the natural world, so it stood to reason that Tillinghast, a committed environmentalist, once thought wind farms were a good thing, even though she knew little about them. The Hoosac Wind project, the 20-turbine wind farm […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, State House News Service
41 munis, but no new ones since the 1920s
There are 41 municipal electric companies scattered across Massachusetts that charge, on average, 21 percent less for their power than the four investor-owned utilities that serve the rest of the state. But no munis have been established since the 1920s. The reason utilities like National Grid and NStar have a lock on the business is […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Uncategorized
The unpredictable Scott Brown
By Gabrielle Gurley US Sen. Scott Brown continues to gain national prominence as Washington’s new go-to guy. All it takes these days is a letter from Brown to signal the way the legislative winds are blowing on Capitol Hill. So says Washington Post reporter Perry Bacon Jr in a Friday profile of the freshman senator’s […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service, The Download
Still Taxachusetts after all these years?
By Gabrielle Gurley Not exactly. Anti-tax activists won’t get any ammunition from the US Census Bureau for their tax rollback efforts. The bureau’s annual study of State and Local Government Finances for fiscal year 2008 found that the amount of state and local taxes turned over to Massachusetts as a share of total personal income […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Travaglini’s new firm works for state pension fund
By Michael NortonSTATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE The Chicago-based hedge fund hiring Michael Travaglini away from the state pension management team survived the pension fund’s downsizing of its hedge fund portfolio last fall and landed a major asset management contract under his watch, the News Service has learned. The Pension Reserves Investment Trust Board, chaired by […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Red ink not unique to MBTA
The budget woes of the MBTA seem relatively minor compared to the fiscal problems currently facing many of the country’s largest transit systems. At a forum on the future of public transportation at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the current or former heads of four of the country’s larger transit systems said they are […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics, State House News Service, The Download
Salem mayor says health care impasse may require ballot solution
By Gabrielle Gurley Unless more immediate steps are taken to rein in accelerating health care and pension costs, municipal officials will continue to triage community services to pay for employee benefits, local municipal leaders and policymakers warned a Boston Foundation forum audience Wednesday. Mayor Kimberley Driscoll of Salem said cities and towns might resort to […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Uncategorized
Missing the Scott Brown juggernaut
By Gabrielle Gurley This week, Boston University and The Pew Research’s Center Project for Excellence in Journalism published Hidden In Plain Sight, From Kennedy to Brown. The report dissects national and local newspaper coverage of US Sen. Scott Brown’s path to victory over Attorney General Martha Coakley. The takeaway is not surprising. “The press never […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
One sad Story
To understand the withered state of democracy in the Massachusetts House of Representatives look no further than the eye-popping comments this week of state Rep. Ellen Story. In years past, the liberal Amherst lawmaker was part of the small band of Democratic reformers willing to stand up to House leaders and battle efforts that further […]