Despite qualms, many support sex offender registry – Patriot Ledger

A new report by Commonwealth Magazine exposed some problems with the current [sex offender] registry system, specifically in the number of sex offenders who claim they are homeless or living at homeless shelters. Homeless Level 3 offenders are required to re-register with their local police agency every 30 days.

John Yazwinski, president and chief executive officer of the Father Bill’s homeless shelter in Quincy, said Monday that six of the 38 Level 3 offenders currently listed as living in the city gave police the address of Father Bill’s on Broad Street as their primary residence. Typically, only half of the people who claim they reside at Father Bill’s Place actually live there, he said.

One-on-One with Charlie Baker – New England Cable News

[2010 Republican gubernatorial nominee Charlie] Baker has stayed out of the political spotlight, but did notice a recent MassINC report which shows the Bay State has lost 150,000 jobs between 2000 and 2010.

“We are no where as focused as we should be on doing the things we need to do to be competitive economically,” said Baker.

New tax credit program could spur new market-rate housing in mid-sized Massachusetts cities – Patriot Ledger

The state Department of Housing and Community Development is putting the finishing touches on a tax credit program for projects in these mid-sized cities that would bring new market-rate housing into the mix….

As one of his first actions as Gov. Deval Patrick’s new undersecretary of housing and community development, Aaron Gornstein is ensuring this program is ready for developers to apply by sometime in June.

The Legislature authorized the program in a broad economic development bill that passed in mid-2010. But it’s taken this long for the state’s housing agency to pull the details together. The program, at least for now, will be capped at $5 million for each fiscal year – a budget that likely could help finance five to 10 projects each year.

The program will give a developer a 10-percent tax credit on eligible rehab work. Arthur Jemison, a deputy undersecretary at DHCD, says the credits will be capped at 50 market-rate units and at $1 million per project. Because most of these tax credits are sold off at a slight discount, he says, a typical developer could reap up to roughly $900,000.

The credit would only be available for projects in one of 24 designated mid-sized cities. Some already have relatively healthy economies. But others are struggling. Most, if not all, fall under the “gateway cities” umbrella, a term promoted by local think tank MassINC and used frequently in recent years by state policymakers.

PVTA, PVPC push for dedicated regional tranportation funding source – The Republican

The Pioneer Valley has $85 million in needed and ready-to-be-built road, bridge and bicycle and recreational trail projects but only approximately $13.9 million in available funds.

Meanwhile, the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority is planning a fare hike to close a $1.8 million budget gap.

But what the region really needs is a dedicated transportation funding source, like a payroll or sales tax, with the money only going to local transportation projects and local mass-transit projects, according to transportation planners who pitched the idea at a meeting Friday hosted by the PVTA and the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission.

About 40 people, including local lawmakers or their staffs, attended the forum, which also featured Benjamin K. Forman, research director at MassInc, formally known as the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth.

MassInc is a Boston-based research and advocacy organization…

Forman said 17 states, including neighboring New York, have some form of dedicated regional transportation funding. He also predicted there would be the political will to get one established here. Nationally, 80 percent of all transportation-related ballot questions pass.

“When it comes down to it, the question is about jobs and economic development,” he said. “People will vote for it if they feel it is in their itself interest.”

Planners: Transportation funding in dire straits – Daily Hampshire Gazette

More than $1.3 billion is needed to invest in the Pioneer Valley’s transportation systems, and without new sources of revenue, vital infrastructure needs will go wanting.

This massive funding gap will only widen unless state lawmakers provide tools to invest in these projects at the regional level, area planning and transit leaders said Friday at a public forum at the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission…

Brennan was joined in a panel discussion by Benjamin Forman, research director for MassInc., a nonpartisan think tank that helps shape public policy, and Mary L. MacInnes, administrator of the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority. Several political leaders, including the mayors of Northampton and Easthampton, were among the 50 or so people at the forum…

Brennan, Forman and others on Friday floated a number of ideas to generate dedicated funding streams, from an increase in the state sales tax and new payroll tax to a tax drawn from the number of miles people travel in their vehicles annually. Several states around the country have successfully adopted such measures, Forman said.

The problem of diminished and inadequate funding is perhaps best highlighted by the way in which the state has funded the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and its 15 other regional transit authorities, of which PVTA is the largest.

In a transportation report last year, MassInc. focused on how a higher share of funding from statewide resources, including the sales tax, for the MBTA has eroded support for the state’s other regional transportation authorities.

State assistance for regional transit authorities like PVTA in Springfield amounts to 13 percent of the money these agencies send to the MBTA through the sales tax, yet they receive only a third of their budgets from state assistance compared to the MBTA, which receives 57 percent of its budget from state funds, the report found.

In addition, the MBTA has seen a 16 percent increase in state support during the past three years while the other regional transit authorities have faced a 5 percent decrease in state funds, according to MassInc.’s analysis.

“For all of our regional economies to grow, we need the kind of investment that Boston’s (public) transportation has enjoyed,” Forman said. “There really is a view that the MBTA comes first.”

PVTA Holds Forum to Discuss Ways to Plug Impending Deficit – WGGB Fox 6 News

A forum was held in Springfield to discuss [how to fund transit systems around the state]. The group called MassINC suggested regions of the state could impose a small payroll tax to pay for them along with the repair and maintenance of roads and bridges. Money raised in the region would stay in the region.

PVPC considers strategies for transit – WWLP 22 News

Western Massachusetts is in great need of transit improvements, and local leaders met in Springfield Friday morning to discuss ways to make getting around better…During the discussion, the nonpartisan think tank MassINC [shared] a report titled “Moving forward with funding: New strategies to support transportation and balanced regional economic growth.”

The event was sponsored by the PVPC, MassINC, and the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority .

New Strategies Suggested For Public Transit Funding – Northeast Public Radio

With the gap growing between transportation funding needs and available state and federal revenue, a Massachusetts think tank is advocating a regional approach. A report from MassINC argues that funding public transportation should follow a regional economic development strategy…

The report suggests a regional payroll tax or a vehicle miles traveled tax could be levied to pump hundreds of millions of dollars into cash starved regional transit authorities and help to pay for the multi-billion dollar backlog of road and bridge repairs.

The sales tax in Massachusetts is the prime source of money to subsidize public transportation, but the report says the revenue from it is distributed unevenly, with the lion’s share going to greater Boston’s transit system operated by the MBTA. Benjamin Forman, research director at MassINC says for every three dollars people in the Springfield area pay into the state’s transportation trust fund, the region gets only a dollar back.

The report from MassINC says a .16 percent payroll tax, which would work out to less than two dollars per week for the median wage earner would generate revenue equal to about one and half times the amount of money the average regional transit authority now gets from the state. The vehicle miles traveled tax could solve the problem of declining gas tax revenue as people switch to more fuel efficient vehicles.

Forman , in a presentation Friday in Springfield to an audience of elected officials, transportation specialists and regional planners, acknowledged that regional taxes is not something that’s been done traditionally in New England.

Mass underemployment: Data show commonwealth may lead nation in workers at jobs below their educational level – Boston Business Journal

Others have also looked at the issue, including Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. He agrees that underemployment — which he calls “malemployment” — is a big problem nationwide…

Sum wrote a study for public policy think tank MassINC titled “Recapturing the American Dream,” based on a sample of 40,000 Census surveys that compared the current job positions to the level of education of individual workers. It found that about 375,000 people, or 10.5 percent of the population, was working below their level in 2010.

That’s slightly better than 2009, when there were 450,000 in that situation, by his calculations.

His study…considered workers with associate degrees or lower, and found that people with less education were more likely to be malemployed.

“It’s pretty much a big problem everywhere,” said Sum, but added that, “Massachusetts is slightly better than the rest of the country.”

City should get more from Sox, watchdog says – Boston Globe

The City of Boston should demand significantly more money from the Red Sox on game days, when the team closes a public street, Yawkey Way, and turns it over to beer vendors and sausage sellers, according to a stern warning from the state inspector general.

In a letter sent last week, Inspector General Gregory W. Sullivan also said the city should seek a better deal with the ball club for the lucrative seats atop the Green Monster, the familiar left field wall. The city gave up air rights over Lansdowne Street to create those seats in the century-old ballpark and should claim more income when a new financial agreement is drawn up after the 2013 season, he said.

Sullivan urged city officials to determine how much money the Red Sox have made using public property since 2003, when the team signed a relatively low-cost lease for the streets. The city should negotiate a better deal, he wrote…

 In his letter to the city, Sullivan also pushed Boston officials to seek compensation from the ball club for the game-day takeover of Van Ness Street, used as private parking for players, team staff, and others connected to the team…

The letter sent last week by the inspector general’s office was first reported on the website of Commonwealth Magazine.

Why Michigan could be Mitt Romney’s make-or−break moment – The Christian Science Monitor

Romney’s the favorite to win the March 6 Massachusetts primary, too. Santorum’s emphasis on social issues isn’t a good fit for the Bay State.

But here’s the kicker: All major party candidates back to 1972 also won their home states in the general election, with two exceptions. Al Gore lost Tennessee to George W. Bush in 2000, and George McGovern lost South Dakota to Richard Nixon in 1972. Both Vice President Gore and Mr. McGovern lost their White House bids, of course. Neither is someone Romney would like to be linked with.

Yet Massachusetts leans blue, despite current GOP Senator Scott Brown, and right now Romney is far behind President Obama there. A recent WBUR/MassINC survey has Obama over Romney in Massachusetts by a whopping 21 percent.

Blunt words for Brown – Boston Globe

During his short career in the Senate, Brown has avoided going out on limbs, refusing to take a position at all on some issues and siding with Democrats on enough of the others to avoid alienating the state’s moderate electorate. That strategy has paid off: In a recent WBUR poll, 48 percent of respondents said Brown has compromised “about the right amount’’ in Washington. A September poll found that, while voters believed that the GOP as a whole was too conservative, they saw Brown as “about right.’’

But Brown is definitely on a high outer branch now. Adding to the peril: He really needs women voters to win this election. In 2010, he beat Martha Coakley by narrowing the gender gap to just three points. Right now, Democrat Elizabeth Warren outpolls him among women, 48 percent to 41 percent, according to the WBUR poll, conducted by the MassINC Polling Group.

WBUR Poll: Most Mass. Residents Support State Health Care Law – WBUR

Across the national airwaves and on the Republican campaign trail, the Massachusetts coverage law that many now call “Romneycare” is routinely trashed…So you might think this drubbing would rub off on Massachusetts residents, about two-thirds of whom have consistently endorsed the state’s coverage plan since it passed in 2006. Not so. In the latest WBUR poll, 62 percent support the law and 33 percent oppose it.

“Even with all the attention the Massachusetts law has gotten nationally, it really hasn’t driven down support among voters here in Massachusetts,” said Steve Koczela, president of the MassINC Polling Group, which conducted the poll.

WBUR Poll: Brown, Warren Running Neck And Neck In Senate Race – WBUR

A new WBUR poll shows U.S. Sen. Scott Brown and Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren running neck and neck. Forty-six percent of people polled said they would vote for Warren compared to 43 percent for Brown. The three-point lead is within the margin of error…Pollster Steve Koczela said of Warren, “She’s gotten her name out there. Now many more people have a view of her and she’s translated that into higher support than she had before.”

Koczela leads the polling group at the independent think-tank MassINC. He conducted the poll for WBUR.

“[Warren] really came out of the gate fast and there was some question as to whether or not she was going to be able to maintain the momentum that she started out with,” he said. “And what this poll has shown is that she has been able to maintain that momentum.”

However, about a third of voters polled don’t know who she is or don’t have an opinion of her. And Brown is popular. Fifty percent of the voters polled think favorably of him, compared to 39 percent* who say the same about Warren.

At a time when the middle class feels under siege, much of this Senate race has been about who is more “middle class.” And, according to Koczela, Brown is winning that competition.

“He has managed to put a little bit of daylight between himself and his opponent as far who is actually from the middle class,” Koczela said.

Short-term MBTA solution developing – WWLP News

Momentum appears to be building in House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s circle of deputies for a short-term solution to an MBTA budget bind that threatens to crush commuters with 40 percent fare hikes and crippling service cuts. On Tuesday afternoon, a newly promoted member of DeLeo’s leadership team, Rep. Byron Rushing (D-Boston), said the Legislature must act.

Rushing’s comments came immediately after an hour-long meeting between members of the Legislature’s MBTA caucus and RTA caucus, featuring remarks from three advocates for new revenue streams to support the state transportation system. At the meeting, officials from MassPIRG, MassINC, and A Better City pleaded with lawmakers to settle on a financing package that would help narrow a $1-billion-per-year gap between transportation system maintenance needs and actual spending. Reforms, they argued, had been exhausted and would only solve a sliver of state’s transportation funding problems.

The advocates laid out an array of options: a payroll tax dedicated to transportation that would be shouldered largely in the urban, employment centers that rely on transportation, an open-road tolling system to assess drivers based on the number of miles they travel, an increase in the state gas tax, rededicating funds for underground storage tanks, electronic fare collection on commuter rail trains and in MBTA parking lots, and a plan for incremental, regular fare increases for T riders.

By the numbers – New England Cable News
A new poll tells the story of a tight re-election fight for Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown.

Steve Koczela, president of the MassINC Polling Group. MassINC, in partnership with public radio station WBUR, just polled the Scott Brown-Elizabeth Warren contest.

Koczela also weighed in on national polls between GOP presidential hopefuls Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney, and talks about a poll comparing whether Massachusetts voters would cast their ballot in favor of either Romney or President Barack Obama.

Smaller Mass. cities seek non-profit to bolster schools – Boston Globe

Brockton’s predicament sheds light on the challenges small Massachusetts cities face in establishing partnerships with educational nonprofits or philanthropists. Such ties can play a critical role in overhauling ailing schools, providing for tutoring, teacher training, technology upgrades, afterschool activities, dental care services, and a host of other initiatives.

Many major nonprofits consider large cities as having the greatest need – and a big name that can impress donors. But increasingly in Massachusetts, it appears the cities outside Boston could benefit from additional help in overhauling their schools. Nearly three-quarters of the 40 schools the state has declared underperforming since 2010 are in the outlying cities.

In a historic move, the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education fully seized control of the long-troubled Lawrence school system in November, and state education leaders have expressed grave concerns about the quality of schools in at least three other cities, Fall River, Holyoke, and New Bedford.

Overwhelmingly, students who are struggling to overcome low achievement in Massachusetts are largely concentrated in 24 smaller cities, from Revere to Pittsfield. Collectively, these cities educate nearly 230,000 students – more than four times the number enrolled in Boston – and two-thirds of them live in low-income households.

The Advantage of the Unknown – Worcester Mag

Lt. Governor Tim Murray may have received the best news he’s heard since his November car accident that fed the rumor mill a feast: a MassINC poll commissioned by Commonwealth Magazine found that 52 percent of 500 people over the age of 18 surveyed knew little or nothing about the crash. Despite 57 percent of those polled believing the LG is hiding information, he still carries a 27 percent favorability rating – while 56 percent said they didn’t know if they saw him favorably or unfavorably. As the magazine put it “he remains largely a blank slate for many voters,” which, with the election for governor over two years away, sounds more like good news than bad.

MBTA faces highest deficit of any transit authority in the country – Fox 25 News

“It’s hard to wrap our heads around it,” stated Ben Forman, the research director at Mass Inc.- an independent think tank. He says the MBTA continues to borrow just to make ends meet. It’s like someone opening a new credit card, only to make the minimum payment on an existing one. “The T has two problems. One is that it can’t pay for it’s normal cost every year, and the other is that it hasn’t done the maintenance it needs,” Forman says.

Lawmakers seeking input from experts who’ve pushed trans revenues – Boston Herald

Lawmakers whose communities are served by the cash-strapped MBTA have scheduled a meeting this month with three advocates for new transportation revenue, a signal of deepening concern about the impact of proposed fare hikes and service cuts on Beacon Hill…

MassINC research director Ben Forman plans to present a report that recommends “regional financing” for transportation services, in part by assigning a portion of payroll taxes to transportation funding and by taxing motorists based on their miles traveled. Both taxes could be adjusted regionally, depending on local transportation needs.

Mass. Consumer Sentiment Soared In January – Worcester Business Journal

Consumer sentiment in Massachusetts soared more than 30 percent in January in a quarterly poll of economic conditions conducted by The MassINC Polling Group. The group’s Index of Consumer Sentiment rose from 59.6 in November to 78.4 on a 100-point scale. The index is a telephone-based survey that measures responses to five questions about current and future economic conditions in the Bay State. The survey, of 500 Massachusetts residents, was conducted from Jan. 25 through 29. “More residents are starting to see their economic future as something to look forward to, rather than something to dread,” said Steve Koczela, president of MassINC. “There is still a ways to go, but the numbers this quarter show a substantial improvement.” In the January poll, 40 percent said they expected good economic times for the country as a whole, compared to 45 percent who see bad times ahead, nearly identical to perceptions of near-term business conditions. While these ratios are still tilted slightly negative, they represent a major improvement from the 22 percent who anticipated good times when asked the same two questions in October, MassINC said.

Time to take gaming seriously – Cape Cod Times

With more than 75 video game developers in the state, employing about 1,300 workers, and with college rating services such as The Princeton Review listing schools such as Becker College and Worcester Polytechnic Institute as offering among the best video game design programs in the country…the commonwealth is poised to be a major player.

And we’re not talking about chump change either. As Commonwealth magazine reports, domestic video game sales totaled $15 billion in 2010 — $5 billion more than domestic box office revenue.

Massachusetts’ Consumer Confidence Shows Improvement – New England Public Radio

A Boston-based polling center says consumer confidence in Massachusetts is on the rise, a sign the economy may soon see more spending.

Public transit should be funded by regions that benefit – Patriot Ledger

In a recent report, the independent, nonpartisan think tank MassINC mapped out a strategy to support smart transportation spending based on what our economic competitors are doing successfully in other states – paying for transportation regionally with measures approved by voters at the ballot box.

 

Taxpayers living in the Berkshires, Springfield and the South Coast aren’t riding the T. They aren’t willing to pay for it, and they shouldn’t. Taking a regional approach to transportation could break the counterproductive East-West political impasse that leads to underinvestment both within Greater Boston and beyond Interstate 495.

Legal community looks to lend a hand to Gateway Cities – South Coast Today

The Massachusetts Bar Association held a forum at UMass School of Law to identify ways the legal community can help old industrial cities outside Boston that struggle with high rates of unemployment and other social problems.

Panelists described Gateway Cities’ predicament and existing revitalization efforts.

Benjamin Forman, researcher director at MassINC, a think tank that first identified the cities, gave a background presentation, noting the difficulties — a tendency to focus on Boston over other cities — and the opportunities in the smaller cities — existing infrastructure and under-utilized labor force.

Gov. Deval Patrick insists public will support tax on soda, candy – Boston Herald

Patrick said Bay State residents don’t mind paying more for chocolate bars and cola or shelling out deposits for bottles of water and Gatorade — just as they do for carbonated drinks…

Patrick…cited a MassINC poll claiming 77 percent of the public supports an expansion of the bottle bill.

OUR VIEW: Time to shed some light on Mass. Historical Commission – The Herald News

According to a just-released CommonWealth magazine article, excerpted in The Herald News, MHC has a history of blocking projects in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner.

The Boston Globe

“You’re talking about people in the same state, but it looks like different worlds to me,’’ said Andrew Sum, director of Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies and author of “Recapturing the American Dream,’’ an analysis of the Massachusetts economy over the past three decades. “This is not the way our state used to be – back in 1979, we were among the national leaders in income equality. Now, we’re a national leader in inequality.’’

The MetroWest Daily News

“Whoa. It’s you. What happened? A lot of people have been asking about you, you know.’’

“So I’ve heard,’’ said the American Dream.

“It’s been what, 10 years, give or take?’’

“That’s what the latest MassINC report says.’’

“They’re calling 2000-10 the Lost Decade. Lost jobs, lost income, lost hope of ever catching up with you again. But here you are.’’

Fall River Herald News

This week, MassINC released a status report on the state of the American Dream in Massachusetts. To no one’s surprise, the new data on where we stand after 10 years of no growth, income polarization and negative labor market shifts show the dream diminished for many of our residents; one in three, the report states, now fear they will fall out of the middle class.