Monday, November 9, 2015
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By George Donnelly (@geodonnelly) with Sara Brown
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Today: T Fiscal Control board meets; Meehan goes on statewide tour
* As winter nears, the MBTA's Fiscal and Management Control Board holds a meeting that is scheduled to include discussion of the RIDE and a winter resilience update. 12:30 p.m., MassDOT Board Room, 10 Park Plaza, Room 3830, Boston.
* UMass President Marty Meehan will visit all five UMass campuses in one day today. He is schedule to start at Dartmouth at 7:30, go to Amherst, then the UMass Medical School in Worcester at 1:30 p.m., on to Lowell and conclude in Boston at 6 p.m. The event has a "Five Campuses, One Mission" theme and kicks off the inauguration week for Meehan, who took office as president July 1. He will be inaugurated Thursday at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate.
* A total of 56 bills will be heard by the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight, including a Sen. Jamie Eldridge bill (S 1634) to establish a legislative fiscal office that would provide analysis and non-binding recommendations to the Legislature on bills pertaining to fiscal policy and the state budget. The committee will also accept testimony on a bill (H 2753) filed by Rep. Bradford Hill that would make the Legislature a public body subject to the state's open meeting law, an idea that has not been viewed favorably by lawmakers over the years. 10 a.m., Hearing Room A-2.
Best of the weekend: Here's a trio of weekend stories by Globe columnists and reporters on abuses of power in state government.
Government abuses power: The DOR
A simple tax mix-up leads to years of bureaucratic headaches for a father and his son, who share the same name and couldn't get the Department of Revenue to understand that the father's income had mistakenly been applied to the son. The DOR took away the son's driver's license (that's a brilliant maneuver - try making a living to be able to pay back taxes without a license) and insists on getting paid money it isn't owed. Globe columnist Thomas Farragher tells this tale that provides serious proof the DOR desperately needs customer service help. http://bit.ly/1iLmjXl
Government abuses power: The Middlesex DA's office
Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham explores more irregularities in the case of Aisling Brady McCarthy, the Irish nanny accused of murdering an infant, who was deported as soon as the charges that were dropped in August. The Middlesex DA's office repeatedly told the presiding judge that McCarthy had to stay in jail, rather than be released under electronic monitoring, because were she let out, US Immigration and Customs would send her back to Ireland, and she might not face the charges. Judge Maureen Hogan eventually checked out the prosecution's claim and found it to be completely untrue. The judge also found the Middlesex DA's office failed to hand over exculpatory evidence to the defense, as Abrahamreported last month. Here's her Sunday column:http://bit.ly/1SBseeo
Government abuses power: The State Police
The State Police are among a few interested parties looking to neuter the reform of Massachusetts public records law, the Globe's Todd Wallack reported on Sunday. These are the same State Police that asked an attorney for $2.7 million in fees to access data on police-administered breath tests (the attorney received it free in other states). The State Police later reduced the estimate to $1.2 million. The State Police "are the worst agency I know of in Massachusetts, and one of the worst in the country," in terms of providing public records, Common Cause's Pam Wilmot is quoted in Wallack's story. "For them to try to lobby against reform is disappointing." http://bit.ly/20EMQb5
The common theme is there are no apparently consequences for the liberties these agencies take. Will anyone in the DOR be held accountable for allowing a blatantly unfair tax claim to linger for years? Will anyone investigate the Middlesex DA's office for its tactics in the McCarthy case? And when will the law be passed to allow citizens access to records produced by the agencies they pay for with their taxes?
Public records in perspective
Driving home the point about the state's flaccid public records law, the Globe reports that the Center for Public Integrity's new rankings puts Massachusetts 40th nationwide, with a grade of "F." In a report released Monday, the nonprofit cites the fact that the legislature, governor's office and judiciary are largely exempt from the state's 1973 records access law and that even routine records can take "weeks or months to attain ... at costs running from a few hundred dollars" to more than $1 million. http://bit.ly/1HpKRRp
Tribe closes on casino land
The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe officially took ownership of some 115 acres of land in Taunton where it plans to start construction on a casino as soon as next spring barring any legal challenges, the Cape Cod Times reports. Sellers include the Woburn-based The Maggiore Cos., which sold the tribe 50 acres for $192. million, and the nonprofit Taunton Development Corp., which sold 53 acres of undeveloped industrial-park land for $5.64 million.http://bit.ly/1XZewoH
Amid T reform, what about The Ride?
When the MBTA"s Fiscal Control Board meets today to hear T officials discuss The Ride-the T's van service for the disabled-it will hear that complaints about the service have more than doubled over the last four years, even as the number of trips it provides has decreased, the Globe reports. Complaints filed about The Ride-which costs the T $97 million annually to operate- grew from just over 2,000 in 2010 to more than 4,300 last year. http://bit.ly/1MRMhq9
Commuter rail changes pushed back
In other T news, new commuter rail schedules expected to be in place by late November will be delayed, in some cases until Spring, the Globe reports. New times for trains from North Station are now expected to take effect in mid-December, while a South Station schedule overhaul won't roll out until 2016. http://bit.ly/1lbLAvv
Obama signs Lynch's Wounded Warrior bill
President Barack Obama has signed a new law that would allow federal workers who are veterans more leave time to seek medical treatment, WCVB reports. Originally sponsored by U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, the new law provides the employees with 104 hours of leave during their first year of work with the government to seek medical treatment for service-connected disabilities without being forced to take unpaid leave or forego their appointments.
http://bit.ly/1SD6Wgq
Baker vetoes art program
Gov. Charlie Baker has vetoed a bill that would have set aside funds from state-funded construction projects to fund public art programs, MassLive reports. Baker voted the bill Friday that would have funneled one-half of one percent of construction costs into the arts program, saying the legislation "retains an unduly complex and unwieldy administrative structure" that could slow down key infrastructure projects. http://bit.ly/1XWejTo
Lowell debates civil forfeiture law
The city of Lowell's police department is among the most active in the state in using civil forfeiture laws to confiscate property, the Lowell Sun reports. Some civil rights groups say the practice is an end-around to avoid due process, while law enforcement officials say the move is a valuable tool against drug dealing and other economic crimes.
http://bit.ly/1MGISnT
Grand Prix: Your mileage may vary
What can Boston expect from the Grand Prix race planned to launch in South Boston in 2016? The Globe's Mark Arsenault finds that the experiences of other cities offer a mix of successes and failures, from Long Beach California, where the races have been staged for 40 years to Baltimore, where the races fizzled out amid complaints and legal challenges. http://bit.ly/1WIf19t
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