Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Comments

  1. it’s in “influencing” the procurement process.

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    p>While a  bidding process is supposed to insulate public purchasers  from political pressure, it’s not easy to tell the good guy contractor making and clarifying an honest fairly priced bid from some “influential friend of the contractor” who is promoting and clarifying another honest and fairly priced bid. Nobody told us it was going to be easy however.  

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    p>Making the whole process open to public scrutiny would help a lot we think. Couldn’t be a better time to get it done.

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    p>Props to Mass PIRG, Senator Creem and the entire Senate for this amendment.  

    • This was supposed to be a commonwealth and a country of laws.  Not of men.  In both the commonwealth and country we became ruled more by men than law.  Representatives at every level have no fear of the voters as the same people get re-elected after even the most grievous activities.  Open the business of the people to the people, then follow up on watching the representatives of the people do the people’s business.  Remove them when they fail.

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      p>“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.”
      -William Arthur Ward

  2. Most of the shady stuff is filtered through a few big downtown political law firms. Eliminate the protection for these consiglieri and you will have a much better shot at punishing these creeps.

    • let’s get rid of due process for ’em, and totally ignore the Fourth Amendment too when we’re looking for something that might be in their possession.

      • Why did the most connected former city councilors become attorneys for development and collect millions of dollars in fees from the developers doing business with the city? Believe me, it’s not because they’re good lawyers… go see them in a courtroom. There are other reasons.

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        p>On a general level, severe restrictions in campaign contributions, high taxes, a high percentage of the state’s economy running through the government, and loopholes for favored industries will lead to exactly the situation you have now. Corruption is in the government because that’s where the money is, and the crucial disconnect is between the payer (the taxpayer) and the service provider. Quality suffers from corruption and waste, but the government offers a way to force people to buy something while diminishing their ability to use the market to control quality.  

  3. I agree reading it could cause one to sleep for days.  Thank goodness we are blessed with the Ctrl[F] shortcut.

  4. Wow, imagine if you could read the details of the budget…..

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    p>OH WAIT, you can, since it is online through http://www.mass.gov/budget or through the General Court website

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    p>You want a searchable website?   Is this a joke?  

    • http://www.mass.gov/budget

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      p>Tell me how much, just for example, HHS spends on salaries, travel.  Again, just as an example.

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      p>Tell me how much the Commonwealth spends on current pension expense, or how much it allocates to the hundreds of 501(c)(3) organizations for various programs.  

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      p>Is it too much to know salary expense, or average pay of the Governor’s staff. Not only are these details unknowable from your link, but they are also out of reach of a document request (i.e. a “freedom of info” request.)

      • Salaries were FOIA’d by the Herald. They have a database online that they seem to keep up to date; it doesn’t include all branches and authorities (?), but pretty complete w/Exec. Dept. secretariats/agencies. See: http://www.bostonherald.com/pr…

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        p>One could easily download these and calculate averages.

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        p>I see they’ve added some new data/features, including pensions data, see “your tax dollars at work” icon/drop down menu on homepage for selections.

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        p>I know, of course, obviously the posters here would like to see the State Govt. provide this data (via an all-inclusive “one-stop” spending portal) — I shall abstain from commenting for obvious reasons — just thought you’d want to know that it IS available from an alternate source.

        • Actually, although the salaries were requested by the Herald, there was no requirement that the governor comply with the request. His office isn’t subject to the document request statutes.

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          p>And, furthermore, you just proved my point.  Absent that Herald endeavor, there was no government site to access individual line items.  You pointed to a third party published data.  How about travel expense by dept?  Pension fund expense by department?  How much did the government spend funding 501(c)(3) organizations in fy 2009.  Absent the resources (not insubstantial !) of a third party, there’s no government source for this data.

          • Yes, I know I pointed to a third party source. That’s why I said in my post, “I know, of course, obviously the posters here would like to see the State Govt. provide this data (via an all-inclusive “one-stop” spending portal).”

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            p>I just thought that you might be interested to know that in the meantime, you could get SOME (not all) of your questions answered.

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            p>I’m not an expert on public records, so without researching it I can’t speak to Gov’s ofc salaries, but they ARE on the Herald site, which leads me to believe they have to comply w/the request. (The source of the data is actually the Comptroller.)

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