Will Brownsberger — State Senator, Democrat, 2d Suffolk and Middlesex District

Key resources on this issues include: Mass Taxpayers Foundations report on municipal liabilities. Pioneer Institute White Paper: The Elephant in the Room:  Unfunded Public Employee Health Care Benefits and GASB 45.  Actuarial Valuation Reports for the Commonwealth.  Federal Reserve Bank overview brief..

The first substantive roll call of the new legislative session was to adopt a transparency amendment to the house rules. I had been working hard on the changes for over a year and I was grateful for the unanimous support of the leadership team and my colleagues on Thursday.

Illinois used be be known as the most corrupt state in the US(funny thats where Barack is from) I think this state is reaching for the stars…

Reformers should be seeking to clean up arrangements that make weak agencies directly beholden to the legislature. The Turnpike Authority was one example. We’ve abolished it, but there are others that come to mind.

it is interesting to read previous posts…. it does seem that MA state government has always had shameless patronage. When incompetent or even dangerous people are given jobs that endanger public safety a line has been crossed. Has that woman who provided information to criminal boyfriends been fired as yet?

Given the complexities of  job procurement and the fact that most legislators have little training in personnel, it would be be wise for legislators to be prohibited from participating in the  process for public employment. Certainly if a legislator knows of a position they can inform a potential applicant and that is where they should [...]

The question we will face over the next few months is: would the public be better served if legislators did not engage in job recommendations at all or did so only subject to limitations?

Speaker DeLeo has stepped forward with a strong commitment to respond to the problems in the probation department.

The report of the Supreme Judicial Court’s independent counsel, Paul Ware, on hiring in the probation department is a deeply disturbing read. How we handle the issues it raises will send an important signal about our true level of commitment to restoring confidence in government.

Will, It is time to clean house. The report on the Probation Department released this week by Independent Counsel Paul F.Ware, together with the Globe Spotlight Team’s report on Rep. Thomas Petrolati published in October and the Globe’s earlier report on Probation Department Commisioner John O’Brien paint a depressingly familiar picture of how business is [...]

The two year formal legislative session, now ended, has been a mixed bag. Perhaps the best news about the session is that we got through it.

In 2008, Massachusetts passed a law prohibiting gifts by drug and device companies to doctors. I voted for the ban then. After revisiting the issue, I continue to support the ban. I will listen carefully to the arguments on the floor, but I expect to vote against repeal.

I’ve always wondered – why do we need a Governor’s Council? What duties do they perform that could not be covered by other existing bodies?  As far as I can tell: approval of gubernatorial appointments (including judges), prison pardons, and something about payments from the treasury. How much does this cost, in terms of salary, [...]

Will, There was an article in Saturday’s NYT entitled “In Budget Crisis States Take Aim at Pension Costs“.  It quotes a pension expert who finds that states like Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana and New Jersey are less than 10 years from exhausting their pension funds. However, as the article says “…paying public pensions straight out of [...]

What is the status of the health insurance bill?  I remain very concerned that this will be done in a way that allows municipalities to make unilateral changes in negotiated labor agreements — I gather that such a power is in fact a provision of the Senate bill, but NOT of the House bill.

In April, the House, with leadership support, passed two big steps in the right direction on financial transparency. The Senate, during budget debate, approved roughly the same measures, making their final passage highly likely.

The disappointing news last week was the response of some leaders that political influence is OK in probation. Probationary supervision is an important strategy for cost-effectively controlling crime and it is centrally important that we do probation well.

I saw today (boston.com) that the Senate voted to eliminate Evacuation Day and Bunker Hill Day holidays. I’ve lived here for more than 20 years and have been stumped why they still exist. We all know one is just an excuse for St Patrick’s Day partying by Boston people.  If you chopped out Patriots Day [...]

I applaud your efforts toward transparency re: state contracting. I am a bit concerned, however, re: transparency as understood by the Pioneer Institute.

I remember how shocked I was when the cable broadcasts of the House and Senate sessions were dropped, and then I checked into it and found that long before I even moved to Massachusetts, which was in 1983, the legislature had voted to exempt itself from both Open Meetings laws and the Freedom of Information [...]