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By George Donnelly (@geodonnelly) with Sara Brown
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Today and the week ahead:
Beacon Hill's Big Three gather this afternoon and it's safe to guess the agenda will include a few things standing in the way of completing the budget and MBTA reform, including the income tax rate freeze and the suspension of the Pacheco law... Meanwhile House and Senate budget masters Rep. Brian Dempsey and Sen. Karen Spilka are expected to release the eagerly awaited budget committee report early this week. Speaker DeLeo has notified members that the soonest they will be called to vote on the budget will be Wednesday... The long weekend wasn't a complete break from all things Olympics, but it felt like a mini-vacation. Look for the coverage holiday to be over, as the fixation on finding insurance for what some believe is uninsurable grows.
MASSterList Op-ed:
Boston deserves a world-class transportation system
MASSterList has been soliciting op-eds from across the political spectrum, and today we feature one by NAIOP's David Begelfer, a top public policy thinker and a leader in a the Coalition for a World-Class Transportation System. Begelfer writes: "We believe a world-class mass transit system should be customer-focused, safe and reliable -- providing real accountability and transparency backed by strong procurement and maintenance practices." What's the impact of not having a world-class system and how to get there? Read on.http://bit.ly/1H1EDRV
"Critical" employee controversy goes to court
MASSterList has covered the pushback from employees about the state's early retirement incentive program, sensing there was something oddly Orwellian about the Baker administration's definition of a "critical" employee. "Critical" under the Baker definition essentially meant "not cost-effective to allow to take advantage of the incentive." And not, "if this person leaves we're in big trouble." Certain departments were ruled off limits only because their salaries are paid by industry chargebacks. About 2,700 employees filed to take the incentives and retired as of July 1. But is it over? We learned this weekend that the National Association of Government Employees has filed a legal action against the state Retirement Board on the matter, apparently challenging the limitations of the retirement incentive. We're told a hearing is scheduled today in Suffolk Superior Court, 11 a.m.
Herald: Gaming Commission meets behind close doors regularly
The Boston Herald reports the Massachusetts Gaming Commission has spent more than 100 hours in meetings thatwere kept from the public. "A Herald review of more than 1,000 pages of the commissioners' individual public calendars dating back to 2012 uncovered questionable ways the commission has been able to meet in full, despite the strict requirements of the state's Open Meeting Law preventing 'deliberation' in private," writes Chris Cassidy of the Boston Herald. Some of that time is spent at weekly "commissioners' lunches" where no records are kept on the topics.http://bit.ly/1RfHS2g
UMass Club's red ink
Massachusetts has almost 280,000 UMass alums living in the state, yet fewer than 900 are members of the UMass Club, currently perched atop 225 Franklin St. The Globe's Sacha Pfeiffer explores the club's lack of traction, which forces the university to subsidize its operations. One news nugget here is the club is planning to move to 1 Beacon later this year.http://bit.ly/1S2jE6D
Donations pouring in for new program to help drug addicts
Gloucester's new program to help aid addicts has raised $50,000 in donations. The program that was launched by Police Chief Leonard Campanello helps any "addict who comes to the Gloucester police station seeking help and willing to hand over any remaining drugs or paraphernalia is not arrested for possession, but rather paired with a volunteer who steers the addict into a treatment program. The health care side of the program is headed by Addison Gilbert Hospital and its parent corporation, Lahey Health, and now includes a network of 19 treatment facilities in 12 states," according to the Gloucester Daily Times. http://bit.ly/1HGZbor Boston charter schools gain more seats The state Education Department is set to add hundreds of seats for charter schools in Boston. According to the state's commissioner for elementary and secondary education, Mitchell D. Chester, about 668 seats would be available. "The new seats 'will go to the highest quality applicants,' whether existing schools seeking expansion or groups wanting to create new schools, according to Jeff Wulfson, deputy commissioner of elementary and secondary education," the Boston Globe reports. Wulfson said schools are not required to fill seats if they find no student that meets their qualifications. http://bit.ly/1M6PGN8
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