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.
Government Reform
children and families, election laws, ethics rules, insider jobs, pensions & benefits, structure and operations, transparency
Politics in Probation
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.
Eliminate Suffolk-only holidays
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 …
Budget amendments on transparency issues
The House agreed last week to make important improvements in budget and tax credit transparency.
Update: Early Retirement Incentive For Teachers
In response to a proposal initially made by the Arlington teachers’ union, and after considerable consultation with many affected parties and experts, the members of the Arlington legislative delegation (Senator Donnelly, Reps. Garballey and Kauffman and myself) have developed and committed to support the amendment appearing below to the municipal relief bill. It will be …
Continue reading “Update: Early Retirement Incentive For Teachers”
re: National Popular Vote
Grant, I have argued with Will about NPV before, but I’ll add a few more thoughts. First, the bill did pass both houses of the Massachusetts legislature in the last session, but failed to reach the governor’s desk only because the session came to a close before a final procedural vote could be taken. I’m …