I draw your attention to the streets of Paris, this from the lead paragraph in an article in the10/13 WSJ — ” PARIS—French unions brought more than a million people into the streets Tuesday and vowed to press on with more strikes to protest President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans to lift the retirement age, a measure …
Government Reform
children and families, election laws, ethics rules, insider jobs, pensions & benefits, structure and operations, transparency
Our long term financial problems
There is a growing belief among serious economists that we, as a country, face a large and unsustainable gap between our financial resources and our financial expectations. Current deficit spending by the national government and a failure to control long term debt, pension and health care costs at all levels of government will lead to …
Pensions – Public and Private
There’s a thoughtful discussion on On Point today about how to handle guaranteed pensions in the face of economic volatility: http://www.onpointradio.org/2010/07/pension-crisis They touch on pensions’ contributions towards budget deficits, how some public employees game their respective systems, and how public salaries differ from private salaries. It’s worth a listen if you’re interested in the issue.
Massachusetts Freedom to Vote Act
I realize there’s not much time left in the current legislative session and that there are probably more than a few good bills that won’t quite make it through the legislative process in time. I hope that the Massachusetts Freedom to Vote Act (H 651 and S. 348), can be one of those that do …
Municipal Relief Bill
The conference committee negotiating a municipal relief package reported a bill last night and the House accepted the report on what turned out to be straight party line vote.
Is the Governor’s Council Obsolete?
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, …