Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Spoiling the wingnut narrative: Fidelity’s job action had nothing to do with MA’s business climate

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If you listen to our friends on the other side of the aisle, you’d think that (a) Massachusetts is a terrible place to do business, and (b) Fidelity’s decision to move 1,100 jobs from Marlborough to Rhode Island is because of (a).

We already knew that (a) is false – CNBC surprised even itself by declaring that MA is the 5th best state in the country in which to do business.  Some claim that a survey by something hilariously called “Chief Executive Magazine” is more important.  I find that claim to be an amusing one.

Anyway, we now know that (b) is false too.  How do we know?  Because the Governor just met with Fidelity’s Abigail Johnson, and she told him so.

Officials with Fidelity Investments told Gov. Deval Patrick Thursday that their decision to move more than 1,100 jobs out of Massachusetts as it shutters operations in Marlborough had nothing to do with the state’s business climate, according to the governor.

Speaking to State House reporters after a meeting with Abigail Johnson, a company president, Patrick said Fidelity told him the move had to do with the quality of the facilities in the various locations, and the decision stands.

Now, maybe Johnson was just trying to make the Governor feel good.  But why would she do that?  She’s a company president, not a therapist.  If there was something she wanted in terms of an improved business climate, wouldn’t she ask for it?  After all, she’s still got a lot of employees in MA.

Is there more to be done in terms of making MA “business-friendly” in a good way (i.e., not by watering down labor or environmental standards, but rather by sensible streamlining of regulations etc.)?  Almost certainly.  But this notion that jobs started streaming out of Massachusetts the day Deval Patrick took office is simply absurd.  Today’s news helps give the lie to it once again.

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Comments

  1. Faster, more reliable, and more expansive mass transit would help employees get to and from downtown Boston more easily.  That’s something we could do to be more business-friendly.

  2. “But why would she do that? ”

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    p>Maybe Fidelity wants to hold on to the state accounts they currently manage. From NECN: “Steve Grossman said Friday he is moving ahead on plans — already announced and in the works, not punishment for Fidelity’s job-cut move — to put back out for bid billions of dollars in state financial business Fidelity now manages as a bond underwriting manager or custodian of short-term state cash holdings…”

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    p>Maybe they want the best reception possible when the company appears before the  Senate’s post audit and oversight committee.

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    p>Without a doubt, we’ll hear more about the quality facilities during that hearing…

    • Improve the business climate for the other 100K+ business in the state. Stop bribing the big ones. You might get political brownie points, but it doesn’t help the state.

        • Patrick deserves no credit for anything good that has ever happened in the history of the universe up ’til now!  Why hadn’t I realized that sooner.  Of course, I am fully aware that all the bad stuff may fairly be laid at his doorstep.  He sure screwed up on Libya, huh?  Wow.  What a loser.

          • If Patrick wants to take credit for job expansion, then he must accept blame for job loss.  Really, I don’t think government has much to do with market cycles – it’s a sort of lucky sperm club thing when economic growth occurs.  He would do better if he stopped targeting SPECIFIC industries and companies.  And stop pouting that they should tell him to his face.  He just sounded silly and irrelevant there.

            <

            p>What he COULD do is streamline regulatory policies for ALL businesses.  Then he could fairly claim to have aided growth, but it wouldn’t be a splashy press release Evergreen-Genentech-Happy Company thing, so he appears to not be interested.

            <

            p>You can go back to laying the history of the universe at Scott Bown’s door now.

            • when did we start losing jobs all of a sudden.

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              p>Don’t know if you’ve been able to figure this out yet but Massachusetts has more than one company.  All these different companies gain and lose jobs, the net effect is that we gain jobs and have been doing so for quite some time now.

            • Fidelity said their decision was not based on MA policies.  Our state has netted job gains faster than the rest of the country.  Patrick can absolutely claim credit for job gains without blame for job losses if that is where the facts of the various cases lead.

            • I have a better idea.  How about: Patrick takes credit or blame for things that he had something to do with, and not for things that he wasn’t involved in.

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              p>So.  Fidelity = not Patrick’s fault.  Huge job losses during recession = also not Patrick’s fault.  In contrast, Evergreen = Patrick’s fault.  Also, fact that MA has consistently been recovering faster than the rest of the US from the recession = Patrick gets some credit.  No, not all credit.  But some credit.  Will you at least admit that?  Or does he continue to get zero credit for anything good that has happened in the history of the world?

  5. Patrick said Fidelity told him the move had to do with the quality of the facilities in the various locations, and the decision stands.

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    p>He said that she said that they figured that others said….

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    p>Your post is beyond hilarious. Because there were simply no better facilities in massachusetts they had to move to another state?  

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    p>Law 101.  Here class is why hearsay isn’t permitted into evidence.  Oh wait, governor patrick flunked the bar twice.

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    p>

        • all those southern NH residents taking jobs in MA, since your linked list is based on residency. Is there one that directly compares population to in-state employment?

          • If you compare the state using  business climate index you get the exact same sequence. Using the tax foundation best climates for business  pdf, with lower numbers being a better business climate.

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            p>RI 42
            MA 32
            NH 7

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            p>Forbes magazine finds the same

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            p>Only reason Fidelity is moving to RI is they were bribed by the state. We should not do that.

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            p>

            • Your Tax Foundation pdf link ranks Business TAX Climate, not necessarily best climates for business.

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              p>Your Forbes link is from 2007.  Their most recent report, from October, ranks Mass ahead of both NH and RI.

              <

              p>I think this reinforces your point that Fidelity was given a Curt Schilling sweetheart deal.

              • There are other issues that figure into their overall rating. Businesses with tight margins will not stay here, why  lose money in Massachusetts when you can make money in New Hampshire.

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                p>I see Massachusetts becoming Manhattan. Only the very wealthy will be able to afford to live her.

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                p>The people who work the jobs that pay “normal wage” will live and work elsewhere. Notice we just lost a congressional seat.

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                p>

                • Which was about unemployment rates. If huge numbers of NH residents work in MA, that will lower the unemployment rate reported in your linked table, but will not improve the reported MA unemployment rate. Anyone who commutes on Rte 3 or 93 between 128 and the NH border is all too well aware that huge numbers of NH residents do work in MA.

                • During the evening rush hour on 93 North, easily 1/3 of the cars are from NH. I’d love to see data on the actual numbers of NH residents working in MA. Aside from in southern NH, there aren’t a lot of sizable businesses in NH that could employ hundreds or thousands of people like in MA. If the business climate is so good in NH, why aren’t there more innovative, growing companies springing up there, rather than small offices of large conglomerates and mom and pop businesses?

                • at the 5.3 rate as they have no local income tax to offset it by.  They pay for use of the road.

                • Imagine if you lived in a place where they want to “bypass a Supreme Court decision ordering the state to pay for the cost of an adequate education for every public schoolchild”.

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                  p>Really.  Who really wants to provide adequate education to their children, forget about superior, adequate is too much for those freeloaders.

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                  p>Then that compulsory school attendance, glad they are getting rid of that nonsense.

                  <

                  p>How did Bruce vote on those two?  He’s in the NH House now, actually, I don’t even want to know.

                • I believe that bill  is trying to take spending out of the hands of judges and put it in the hands of the legislators, where it belongs.

                  <

                  p>BTW NH seems to have very good schools Psk12 rating

                  <

                  p>

                • Why would the republicans be against good schools ? In Massachusetts both democrats and republicans got together and passed some serious reforms, you  might not like them, I do  but now Massachusetts has one of the better school systems in the world.

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                  p>I believe NH has always had a good school systems, Massachusetss was spotty in recent history.

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                  p> Judges should not be usurping power from legislature.

                  <

                  p>

                • Sorry, I’m not from NH, but I do know judges should not be setting budgets. I do know that spending more money does not give you better schools.

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                  p>I live in a town that spends 30% less than the surrounding communities and the school are better.

                  <

                  p>  

                • Isn’t he calling for what a judge did in NH, overturn a law. Child labor laws came from the legislature not a judge.

                  <

                  p>

                • No, they do NOT pay for the use of the road. Meanwhile, New Hampshire has been happily collecting tolls from Massachusetts residents who vacation in New Hampshire (or drive through New Hampshire on the way to Maine) for years.

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                  p>Massachusetts should erect toll booths on I93 south, just before the Rt 113 exit, and on I95 south, just across the state line. Massachusetts should agree to remove those toll booths in exchange for New Hampshire agreeing to take down it’s predatory tolls on I93 and I95.

      • As noted when EaBo was posting about this …. (6.00 / 1)
        Explain why we gained 15,400 jobs last month.  
        Bad business climate?

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        p>Kinda like saying that global warming isn’t real because it was cold last month.

        <

        p>

        • It is stupid to draw conclusions about global weather based on local patterns. It is not stupid to draw conclusions about the local economic climate based on local economic data.

          • Who said anything about ‘local patterns’?  Read my post, but read it sans stupidity.

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            p>Then, determine whether it’s stupid to draw a determination of good or “bad business climate” based on a snapshot of one month.

            • you might have noticed that we were adding jobs and lowering our unemployment at a higher rate than the nation.

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              p>Don’t you recall, there was an awful candidate that kept on repeating what you were saying and we just kept on adding jobs then he lost.  Ring a bell?

              <

              p>Must be the bad business climate.

              • See, now you’re figuring out that a conclusion must be formed from months or years of data, not the snapshot of a month!

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                p>Attaboy.

                • You should pass it along to the Baker campaign apparatus and our friends at RMG, who as I recall went through the roof over a single month’s job loss data (September 2010, I believe).  We tried and tried to point them in the right direction, but people can be so darn stubborn sometimes.  Don’tcha think?

                • Strawman alert, strawman alert….

                  <

                  p>Data was published that said ________, and there were some strawmen Republicans who went through the roof, and here’s why those darn strawmen were wrong.  Rant follows…

  6. Not long after Fidelity announced the outsourcing project, it was MA GOP consultant Eric Fehrnstrom who took to the twittertubes to directly blame Patrick. While his assertion was, on its face silly, it’s very revealing that the GOP establishment and the wingnuts united behind this meme.

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    p>http://twitter.com/EricFehrn/s…

    <

    p>http://twitter.com/EricFehrn/s…

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    p>It’s like John Boehner pounding his chest last fall asking “where are the jobs?” Yet, the GOP House leadership has yet to introduce a jobs bill. But hey, #SoBeIt.

    • Very good catches.  I love how “conservatives” seem to think that if only government was more involved in the private sector, it would solve all our problems.

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