This is a call out for some help: for months and months, I (in addition to quite a few others) have spent much time working on the Wikipedia article on the Massachusetts gubernatorial election, 2006 keeping it up-to-date and creatinga worthy historical document. Much of my work on this was done during the summer while at work (my research is primarily computational so a lot of time is spent waiting for programs to run), but my schedule is far busier now, so I’d like to find volunteers to update the Wiki on general election information: there is a section on the primaries that could use some filling out but covers much of the debates and major events and controversies, while the general election so far only has a few unsourced descriptions of the first debates and no mention of any significant events like the unwilling Dems endorsing Healey in her ad, or the utter mess Patrick’s campaign has made of responding to his LaGuer involvement (that said, no information on LaGuer on wikipedia either, someone who knows about that, like Speaking Out or Charley, should create an article) or anything else. So anyone who can help out in this, I want to invite you in, and ask for your assistance.
Alex, I’d love to help, but I’m up to my eyeballs in the blog right now.
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Anyone else?
I am digging through the Commonwealth’s website and have not been able to find the number that I am looking for.
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I would like to see what the Budget for the State was when Michael Dukakis handed over reins to William Weld in 1992. I believe our state budget was approximately 13 to 14 billion dollars.
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The State budget (per the State Senate page in the commonwealth’s web site) is 23.4 billion.
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The Budget for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has increased by approximately 10 Billion dollars since Republicans who tout fiscal conservatism took over the governorship.
When comparing budget numbers over a span of years, make sure to factor inflation into it. Standardize either on 2006 dollars, or some base point in the past like 1990 dollars, and adjust. Otherwise the comparison is misleading, and could be entirely wrong (that is, it’s possible for a decrease to look like an increase when you don’t adjust for inflation).
Good point on the inflation.
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Massachusetts’ growth rate has outpaced inflation, so it might be statistically appropriate to use an inflator like Gross Disposal Income, or something like it.
I think, as long as the total numbers are accurate, that commenting on the 1992 budget vs the 2006 under the administration of ostensibly fiscally conservative governors is legitimate. Inflation certainly is a factor — but nowhere near enough to account the 10 billion dollar difference. There are other factors such as how much state money has left Massachusetts to out of state companies and to what degree state aid to towns and cities for schools has (or hasn’t) been shifted back to property taxes. That could even mean that difference in 1992 and 2006 budgets is underestimated.
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The difference between 13.5 billion and 23.5 billion over 13 years is wide enough to contrast to self-described claims of fiscal prudence.
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BTW: I dont think the publically unpopular Jane Swift and Tom Finneran get enough credit for putting the breaks to the explosive growth of the state budget 4 years ago.