Blue Mass Group

Well, it would seem that the Massachusetts House’s vote to move municipal workers into the Group Insurance Commission has captured the attention of some national commentators. OK, so let’s have a primer for our out-of-state friends (or in-staters not used to following local things). The problem: Massachusetts has the highest health care costs in the country. Like everywhere else, health care inflation is eating into local budgets, forcing layoffs, service cuts and/or tax increases. Many Massachusetts towns’ workers have unions that bargain for their health care benefits, and they are expensive. State workers in Massachusetts are in something called the Group Insurance Commission. Led by the irrepressible Dolores Mitchell, the GIC has good benefits by most standards, and has generally had much lower cost increases than the muni plans. And they do it by encouraging quality rather than quantity of care, as well as by tougher methods such as more restricted provider networks. Now, this idea is absolutely nothing new. It is not a blindside attack. Moving muni unions in the GIC has been discussed for years. Former Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi — the (now allegedly-disgraced) progressive hero of our health care law — suggested that muni unions [...]

Governor Rick Snyder’s new corporate martial law is in effect and it didn’t take long to see the effect of it’s implementation. In a report issued today by Reuters, The emergency manager appointed to put Detroit’s troubled public school system on a firmer financial footing said on Thursday he was sending layoff notices to all of the district’s 5,466 unionized employees. The district is unlikely to eliminate all the teachers. Last year, it sent out 2,000 notices and only a fraction of employees were actually laid off. But the notices are required by the union’s current contract with the district. Any layoffs under this latest action won’t take effect until late July. In the meantime, Robert Bobb, the district’s emergency manager, said that he planned to exercise his power as emergency manager to unilaterally modify the district’s collective bargaining agreement with the Federation of Teachers starting May 17, 2011. The real interesting issue is the background of Mr. Robert Bobb, himself. According to Forbes, Bobb is a graduate of the, Broad Foundation’s Superintendent Academy. The Broad foundation is extremely involved in privatization and “school choice”. So Broad has an inside man in Michigan’s government to push their flagrant, regressive agenda. [...]

In the last three months, ONE Massachusetts and other organizations across the state organized meetings with legislators urging them to support an An Act to Invest in Our Communities, a revenue reform bill that would raise $1.3 billion and help stop the deep cuts outline in the FY ’12 budget. From what we’re hearing, these meetings — along with visits to legislators, phone calls and letters – have sent a strong message to the Legislature that there are individuals and organized constituencies throughout Massachusetts who understand the need for comprehensive revenue reform. Don’t take my word for it – here’s what Rep. Steven Kulik said Monday in response to a GOP proposal to cut the state’s income tax: “I think it’s a little unusual that in the two weeks since the House Ways and Means Committee released the budget, the taxpayers I’ve been hearing from have not been calling or emailing me to say lower our income tax rate. They haven’t been calling to say cut revenue. They’ve been calling to say please increase spending on services that matter to me. Whether that’ son clothing allowance to poor children, local aid.” Among those Kulik heard from were members of YES [...]

Kyle de Beausset (@kyledeb) is a pro-migrant blogger at Citizen Orange. This post was originally written for Crooks and Liars.

If Obama wants any chance of a pro-migrant voter advantage going into 2012, he better start taking lessons from folks like Mass. State Rep. Michael Moran (D-Brighton).

Great news! People in Tennessee are getting a new community health center! People in underserved communities will get to see doctors! Isn’t it great? County receives $4.5 million grant for new health department » Area News » Crossville Chronicle, Crossville, TN. CROSSVILLE — Last Thursday was a bright sunny day, but the weather wasn’t the only reason for the sunshine, smiles and happiness. Tennessee Health Commissioner Susan R. Cooper, MSN, RN came to Crossville Thursday to visit the Cumberland County Health Department and to present Cumberland County with a check for $4.5 million in funding from the United States Health Resources and Services Administration for construction of a new health department and clinic. The funds were made available to the county through The Affordable Care Act Capital Development Grant which the county applied for last year. … Joining Cooper were several Cumberland County commissioners and staff members of the health department as well as Gregg Ridley, field representative for 4th District Congressman Scott DeJarlais. Ahem. As ThinkProgress points out … Rep. DeJarlais voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act this year. His statement: “As a practicing physician for nearly two decades in Tennessee, I stand before you as an expert [...]

Good Morning! In MassterList, headlines from across the Commonwealth… The House passed a $30.5 billion budget (MassLive) yesterday, including funding for immigrant care (AP). (MORE: WBUR, T&G, Sun, Herald, Globe) Yes, there are people in this state that have never heard the name ‘Sal DiMasi’. (Globe) Illinois-born Gov. Deval Patrick pipes up on birther debate (AP). Love it or hate, the Commonwealth made some money off of Royal Wedding mania. (WBUR)

A couple of weeks ago, MerrimackMan (MM) over at RMG posted some ideas for the redistricting committee to consider when redrawing the State Senate lines this year.   I had already been hard at work on drawing my own maps, and since they vary a bit from what MM did, I figured there was no better place to post them than the brand new BMG 3.0. Much like MM, I used the following guidelines when drawing my maps: I tried to keep as many incumbents in their districts as possible. I tried to avoid splitting municipalities when possible. I kept all districts within 5% of their optimal population (163,691 is the target population I worked with) However, I added a criteria that MM did not use, in that I set out to create as many majority-minority districts as I possible could.  Here’s the broad new map: I have pasted new maps for all 40 Senate districts below, but here are the major changes that will probably earn me the most angry calls, comments, and emails: I tried to make districts more compact whenever possible, and avoid long narrow districts if I could help it.  This resulted in major changes to [...]

Hey, did anyone notice how easily and completely our House of Representatives bent over for the pharmaceutical industry? The House voted 128-22 to repeal the gift ban, which banned pharma companies giving gifts to doctors — which predictably, leads to more prescriptions and higher costs. The measure was sneakily, sleazily stolen into the House budget; doubtless many reps who voted for the budget as a whole would oppose that individual measure. Well, the AARP has named names on those who said they would vote against repeal, and then didn’t: AARP Outs Lawmakers Who Broke Pledge On Gift Ban | CommonHealth. They are: Paul Adams (R-Andover, 17th Essex District) Richard Bastien (R-Gardner, 2nd Worcester) Paul Brodeur (D-Melrose, 32nd Middlesex) Edward Coppinger (D-Boston, 10th Suffolk) Gloria Fox (D-Roxbury, 7th Suffolk) Anne Gobi (D-Spencer, 5th Worcester) Steven Levy (R-Marlborough, 4th Middlesex) John Mahoney (D-Worcester, 13th Worcester) Paul Mark (D-Hancock, 2nd Berkshire) Tom Sannicandro (D-Ashland, 7th Middlesex District) Paul Schmid (D-Westport, 8th Bristol District) Ellen Story (D-Amherst, 3rd Hampshire District) Benjamin Swan (D-Springfield, 11th Hampden District) Cleon Turner (D-Dennis, 1st Barnstable District) I’m sure that many of them will say, “oh gosh, well, we’ll just get another bite at that apple”. Yeah right. Thanks [...]

Nobel-Prize winning economist Paul Krugman has hit the nail on the head again and taken the wind out of the sails of regressives. Hopefully people are listening. Krugman points out that while our deficit has increased dramatically in percentage of GDP, the problem really lies with the GDP itself and not federal spending.I have written about this at length in prior columns on PoliticusUSA.com, that the best way to reduce our deficit is to increase employment.  According to OMB (Office of Management and Budget) and Paul Krugman, GDP rose at a rate of 5.1% from 2000-2007 and from 2007-2010 GDP grew at a rate of 1.7%. If GDP grew at the 2000-2007 rate of 5.1% during the years 2007-2010 federal spending would have only increased by 1.75% of GDP, rather than the current 4% of GDP.  So essentially, when the GDP fell during the recession, it met with Federal spending. Federal spending didn’t meet with a growing GDP. Most of our current spending has been on  income security, programs like extended unemployment, SSI, food stamps, and tax credits.  This is obviously needed in order to support those who are on hard times due to this Great Republican Recession. The numbers [...]

The League of Women Voters is launching ads on TV today and a website called peoplenotpolluters.org which highlights votes by Scott Brown amongst others to block air pollution standards.  Brown voted to block the EPA’s ability to set standards for clean air and water. Television ad aimed at Scott Brown: Votes have consequences Scott. While Scott Brown enjoyed a large female voting block in the special election, I wonder how he will fare when there is a review of his voting record.