The MetroWest Daily News
MassINC, the nonpartisan think tank based in Boston, has taken a shot at the last challenge, creating an index to track the vitality of the middle class.

The Middle Class Index includes 26 separate indicators, including household income, homeownership, health coverage, student debt, length of commute, personal bankruptcies, college completion rate and number of jobs per household. It breaks the indicators into four subindexes: financial security, working conditions, “achieving the dream,” and equal opportunity. The study’s authors then established 2000 as a baseline year, giving its indicators a benchmark 100 points, then measured 2010 against it in Massachusetts and other states.

Worcester Telegram & Gazette

MassINC, a nonprofit think tank, this week released its first-ever barometer of the middle class. According to the report, which is based on polls and government data, many people have achieved a version of the American Dream, but they sacrificed a lot to get there.

“They’re holding on to that American Dream by a thread,” said Ben Forman, research director for Boston-based MassINC. 

Fall River Herald News

The study by the Boston-based think tank MassINC found that one in three adults in Massachusetts worry that they may be in danger of falling out of the middle class. And it found that most have little optimism for the future, with fewer than one five in believing that the next generation will be better off financially than their own.

“They’re pretty stark; they show a loss of confidence in the American dream,” said Benjamin Forman, research director for MassINC. “And confidence is critical in growing our way out of this slow economy.”

The report, called the “Middle Class Index,” looked at a slew of economic indicators to see how the last decade has shaped the middle class in Massachusetts and the rest of the country. It found, unsurprisingly, that the broadest segment of the population has been hammered over the last 10 years by rising student debt and health care costs, volatility in family income and a growing wealth gap between the rich and poor.

Plymouth Old Colony Memorial
Negotiations over his next book advance nearly forced Patrick to miss the 15th birthday celebration for MassINC, a politically star-studded gala at the JFK Presidential Library that drew big laughs from the assembled media-political types with a mix of pre-recorded and live skits.

Even Mayor Thomas Menino, doing his best godfather impersonation as he stroked a stuffed cat, could not stop people from talking after the show about Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray’s bit.

The Boston Globe

The background: MassINC and CommonWealth, a respected think tank and its civic-minded magazine, held a fund-raiser Thursday night at the John F. Kennedy Library. A few important people mixed with many more self-important people, all of them giving one another the kind of two-armed handshakes that make the recipients think, “Wow, this person should run for lieutenant governor.’’ Menino normally avoids these events like the plague.

But not that night. No, the room went dark, haunting music from The Godfather filled the air, and a video began playing on stage. There was an actor on the screen looking an awful lot like Don Chiofaro. Chiofaro, you may or may not remember, is a developer trying to build a project on the Greenway next to the ugliest complex in the city, Harbor Towers. You might not remember that Menino has basically told Chiofaro to stick his proposal where the sun doesn’t shine, which is on the other side of the Greenway.

Patriot Ledger
Except for a passing mention of former Speaker Sal DiMasi’s absence – “he had a scheduling conflict,” quipped comedian Steve Sweeney – that low hanging fruit was avoided at “Serious Fun,” a celebration of the 15th anniversary of public policy think tank MassINC, publisher of Commonwealth magazine, and a send-up of the state’s most powerful.

The Nov. 10 event was everything the Saint Patrick’s Day breakfast once was – with politicians and pundits taking potshots at each other, and catching belly laughs from the $500-a-plate crowd at the John F. Kennedy Library.

The Boston Globe

Anyone who thinks Mayor Tom Menino takes himself too seriously wasn’t at the JFK Library Thursday, where MassINC celebrated its 15th anniversary with a who’s who of Massachusetts politics and the media. One of the highlights was a three-minute video parody of “The Godfather’’ with Menino, doing his best Vito Corleone, meeting with an actor playing Don Chiofaro, the developer whose attempts to build a 780-foot tower on the Rose KennedyGreenway faced opposition at City Hall.

The Boston Globe

Except for a passing mention of former Speaker Sal DiMasi’s absence – “he had a scheduling conflict,’’ quipped comedian Steve Sweeney – that low-hanging fruit was avoided at “Serious Fun,’’ a Thursday night celebration of the 15th anniversary of public policy think tank MassINC and a sendup of the state’s most powerful.

The event was everything the Saint Patrick’s Day breakfast once was, with politicians and pundits taking potshots at one another and catching belly laughs from the big-ticket crowd at the John F. Kennedy Library.

Boston Herald

In a very public display of both his power and his sense of humor, Mayor Thomas M. Menino has created a video mocking one of downtown Boston’s biggest real estate disputes.

The tongue-in-cheek, three-minute video — made for MassInc.’s 15th anniversary celebration Thursday night — shows an actor portraying International Place developer Don Chiofaro, who has battled the city over his plan to replace the Harbor Garage with a skyscraper, seeking the favor of Menino.

Boston Herald

Except for a passing mention of former Speaker Sal DiMasi’s absence – “he had a scheduling conflict,” quipped comedian Steve Sweeney – that low hanging fruit was avoided at “Serious Fun,” a celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of public policy think tank MassINC and a send-up of the state’s most powerful on Thursday night.

The event was everything the Saint Patrick’s Day breakfast once was – with politicians and pundits taking potshots at each other, and catching belly laughs from the big-ticket crowd at the John F. Kennedy Library.

The Patriot Ledger
It’ll take a strong-willed, fast-on-his-feet comic to keep things in order at next Thursday’s Serious Fun, a match-up of local politicians and local members of the media. The folks at CommonWealth magazine, sponsor of the fundraiser event at the JFK Library, are bringing in longtime standup comedian, actor, and Quincy resident Steve Sweeney to do the job.

The Boston Globe

The report from MassINC proposes a regional payroll tax and a tax on miles driven to supplement or replace the T’s current reliance on a portion of the statewide sales tax, and to better support the regional transit in cities such as Springfield, Worcester, and Brockton that are even more threadbare than the MBTA.

“The chorus is increasingly calling louder that we’re approaching the threshold after which it’s really too late,’’ said Benjamin Forman, MassINC’s research director and lead author of the “Moving Forward with Funding’’ report. “If the MBTA doesn’t get the cars it needs, if it doesn’t make the signal replacements – all those things take time. In the meantime it gets worse and worse.’’

WBUR

But DiMasi’s case cast a much larger shadow on the institution, whether Democrats wanted to admit it or not. A poll conducted by MassINC in August found that 39 percent of voters believe corruption is widespread in state government, and 40 percent said the cause is the system and culture on Beacon Hill, not just a few bad seeds.

In the wake of Salvatore DiMasi’s conviction, many lawmakers were eager to lump the former speaker in with other notable black marks on the body. With the exception of maybe Dianne Wilkerson, it was easy to brush off the transgressions of Anthony Galluccio or James Marzilli as isolated cases of a senator’s personal life gone awry.

The Boston Globe

“Schools can’t fix these problems on their own,’’ said Benjamin Forman, research director for MassINC, a Boston think tank.

In some city schools, Forman said, one-third of students will arrive or leave during the school year as their parents look for a new job or place to live. That causes immense instability in classrooms that makes it harder for all students to learn, he said.

Forman said families with school-age children need stable housing, a problem the schools cannot solve on their own.

“It’s foolhardy to think that school-centric reform can close the achievement gap,’’ he said.

South Coast Today

But student mobility shouldn’t become an excuse for lackluster results in the lowest performing districts where it is most common. With attention to the challenge, the state can reduce turnover to more moderate levels and provide better support to students who must make midyear moves.

Recent reports from both the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy and MassINC highlight a range of strategies. High mobility districts can do more to engage new students and their families. Special tutoring programs can help bring them up to speed. Teachers can benefit from training to help them assess and meet the needs of mobile students. And the state can adjust funding formulas to give schools with high mobility rates resources to offer these services, particularly schools receiving an influx of students midway through the year.

WGBH
Boston-based public policy institute MassInc has received a $125,000 grant to explore arts-based growth strategies for Massachusetts’ so-called “gateway cities,” like Lawrence, Fall River and Springfield.

Patriot Ledger

A telephone survey conducted last week of 500 Massachusetts residents who described themselves as likely to vote in the next election said improving the economy and creating jobs should be the top priorities of the U.S. Congress.

The WBUR/MassINC poll, which sampled 500 likely voters from Aug. 31 to Sept. 1, found that 93 percent ranked improving the economy and 91 percent ranked creating jobs as a “high priority.”

National Journal
Massachusetts Democrats say they believe Brown is vulnerable. Walsh pointed to a poll conducted by the nonpartisan MassINC think tank that showed the junior senator’s favorable/unfavorable split has slid from 57/24 last September to 48/30 in July. The poll of 500 Massachusetts adults was conducted July 27-30, and has a 4.4 percent margin of error.

Lowell Sun

Greg Torres, president of the nonpartisan think tank Mass Inc., said the economy will not gain its footing again until Democrats and Republicans put politics aside.

“It’s not an economic issue, it’s a political issue,” Torres said. “We got to this place from a failure of leadership. Both parties are having a hard time standing up to internal factions, and until they figure out how to do that, we’re going to remain stuck.”

Wareham Courier

Patriot Ledger

The Springfield Republican

Despite high unemployment rates and a sluggish economy, Massachusetts residents 18 to 29 years old are optimistic about their economic situation, according to a poll by the MassINC Polling Group released on Wednesday.

Patriot Ledger

Complaining about the backroom trading of publicly owned moorings has long been viewed as being about as productive as spitting in the wind. But a recent account of just how unfair the system has become should prompt state officials to step in and enforce a uniform policy.

The Ledger on Friday published an abridged version of a report by CommonWealth magazine that sheds light on a government-sanctioned gray market in which yacht club owners, marinas and individual boat owners can lease publicly owned moorings for a pittance and collect a handsome profit by selling access to them to someone else.

Cambridge Chronicle

Worcester Telegram and Gazette

Last month marked the third anniversary of a compact signed by leaders of the commonwealth’s Gateway Cities.

“Built on a commonality of interests,” this historic agreement united Worcester with 10 sister Massachusetts mill cities working to reposition their economies to compete in a new era. 

New Bedford Standard Times

Last month marked the third anniversary of a compact signed by leaders of the Commonwealth’s Gateway Cities.

“Built on a commonality of interests,” this historic agreement united New Bedford with 10 sister Massachusetts mill cities working to reposition their economies to compete in a new era.

Boston Globe

Enough already.

When last we left Hyde Square in Jamaica Plain, it seemed like the battle over the incoming Whole Foods could only get less ugly.

Boston Globe

Beacon Hill leaders patted themselves on the back two years ago when they completed a much-needed overhaul of the state’s ethics laws. But they left an important part of the job undone: Updating the financial-disclosure requirements for public officials.

Boston Globe

Just for chuckles, I went back and looked at the financial disclosure forms that Sal DiMasi filed during one of his last years as speaker of the Massachusetts House. It was a good laugh, too, until it suddenly hit me that the joke is actually on us.

Boston Globe