Tuesday, November 3, 2015
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By George Donnelly (@geodonnelly) with Keith Regan
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Today: The Senate special -- uphill for Diehl?
Voters head to polls today for elections in 53 cities and towns. The race for the open Senate seat in the Brockton area will be watched closely, as two state reps, Republican Geoff Diehl and Democrat Mike Brady, are carrying some of the aspirations of their respective parties on their shoulders. The defeat of a solid, pro-union Democrat like Brady would send shock waves throughout the state.
It's an uphill battle for Diehl, as 39 percent of the district is registered Democratic, 11 percent Republican. Moreover, 44 percent of the district is in Brockton, which Brady has represented, as a rep and previously as a city councilor, for many years. If Diehl is to channel a Charlie Baker-esque victory, it will be critical not to get crushed by the city vote. Baker is in office in part because he didn't forfeit the urban centers to the Democrats.
The Airbnb ballot -- a preview of things to come in Boston
Uber and DraftKings are clearly on the radar of politicians and regulators. For the next big regulatory showdown with an upstart tech firm, look no further than San Francisco, where the housing costs make Boston look cheap and where activists are trying to rein in Airbnb. A city ballot question would restrict the number of days per year people could rent out units on a short-term basis. That would quash a new, and some think, pernicious, business model in which investors buy condos and turn them into de-facto hotels where the per day or per week rates easily outstrip the already usurious rents many San Franciscans pay. Some 10,000 units are listed as short-term rentals in San Francisco, and some $8 million has been raised to try to defeat the measure. Here's a good overview of the controversy in Wired:http://bit.ly/1P6YW8W
Airbnb has hardly escaped the attention of Boston officials. State Rep. Aaron Michlewitz of the North End, fearing more units would be taken off the market, has filed a bill to regulate short-term rentals. In August, the city cracked down on a South Boston man who was renting his affordable housing unit on Airbnb for $490 per night. Residents often complained about strangers in their building (clients of an enterprising neighbor, of course!). Sooner or later, statewide regulations will be unavoidable.
Pre-holiday legislative action on public records? Net metering?
Legislative leaders say they are hopeful they can get a public records reform law and a lifting of the net metering cap on Gov. Baker's desk before the holidays arrive. "Despite DeLeo's confidence that a public records bill could reach the governor's desk by Nov. 18 -- when the joint rules dictate the end of formal sessions for the year -- (Senate President Stanley) Rosenberg was not as certain the bill could be ready for the governor's pen before the recess," the State House News Service's Colin Young reports. More here (paywall):http://bit.ly/1Na5YDR
Koh reveals struggle with ADHD
Dan Koh, who became Mayor Marty Walsh's chief of staff before he was 30, talks about his early challenges with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, a condition that had him struggling to succeed in school, in today's Globe. Of course, one doesn't think of Koh as not succeeding in anything. With medication, the support of his parents, and determination, he found his way. He told his story recently to a corps of City Year workers. "I wanted the people at City Year to know that when they go into schools and see those kids in the back row who are struggling to pay attention, it doesn't mean they don't want to learn." http://bit.ly/1WtjKfd
State's longest serving state worker retires
Here's a wonderful story about Ruth Ford, who went to work for the state in 1945 and retired 70 years later, packing up her belongs Friday at the Department of Public Health and retiring as the state's longest serving worker. In telling Ford's story, the Globe's Eric Moskowitz captures a slice of Boston history. http://bit.ly/1k7kzcx
T bus repair is double of other agencies
Among the MBTA's seemingly intractable financial issues is the news that its bus maintenance costs are nearly double the average of the state's other regional transit authorities. The State House News Service's Andy Metzger has more here (paywall): http://bit.ly/1Pj8kol
And in other financially distressing T news, a federal mandate to have "positive train control" on the commuter rail spells a $451 million commitment. The Globe's Nicole Dungca has more:http://bit.ly/1MuJqgk
Advocates: Cap T fare hikes
Financial pressures, including an ever-growing operating deficit, leads to the issues of fare increases. Transportation advocates called on the MBTA's Fiscal Control Board to limit fare hikes, even though a cap that kept increases to 5 percent every two years could be interpreted differently, Boston.com's Adam Vaccaro reports. Transportation for Massachusetts says a 10 percent fare hike could lead to rider revolt and deter new passengers from coming aboard. http://bit.ly/1Mej1rF
Lottery looks for piece of fantasy pie
The state's lottery commission is embarking on a process that it hopes will result it in being able to offer tap into the white-hot market for fantasy sports, Curt Nickisch of WBUR reports. The lottery will seek proposals to design a fantasy-sports game, one that Treasurer Deb Goldberg said ideally would not be purely electronic but still involve the lottery's network of retail outlets. "I believe there are ways to tie in the retailers and give them more traffic flow, which will impact their bottom lines," Goldberg said. http://bit.ly/1k7vh2H
Unions: Let voters decide on Charters
The state's largest teachers union is among those calling on lawmakers to hold off on deciding whether to lift the cap on the number of charter schools and instead let voters decide next Election Day, the Globe reports. A coalition that includes the Mass. Teachers Association told all 200 lawmakers in a letter that they are prepared to settle the issue in a statewide referendum, even though a ballot question poses the risk that more charter schools will be authorized. http://bit.ly/1l5Rqyy
Report calls for changes to education funding system
The way Massachusetts funds education is out of date, according to a report from the Foundation Budget Review Commission, but the state's political leadership says getting all parties to agree on a fix is a daunting task, MassLive reports. The commission's report says another half-billion dollar should be spent this year statewide to reflect the true costs of special education and other budget busters. But House Speaker Bob DeLeo called repairing the education funding formula "one of the most difficult things to try to get done in the Statehouse." http://bit.ly/1P7sJhF
Lessig drops out
Harvard professor and publicly funded election advocate Larry Lessig dropped out of the race for President Monday, citing his inability to get on stage at the Democratic debates, Boston Magazine's Garrett Quinn reports. Lessig had said that if elected he would only serve long enough to see a single piece of legislation pass that would change how elections are funded. "I may be known in tiny corners of the tubes of the internets, but I am not well known to the American public generally," Lessig said in a YouTube video announcing his decision. http://bit.ly/1k7psCx
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