though state finances are back at a point where almost everyone agrees that spending must be brought “under control,” Massachusetts already has fewer government employees, when taking into account our […]
Robert David Sullivan
Posted inEconomy
Money from home
UPDATE: To get FY 2010 data on the percentage of each community’s revenue that comes from property tax, download an Excel file or PDF. You can also go to the […]
Posted inPolitics
Going dutch
Illustrations by Travis Foster State officials and legislators looking for a justifiable trade junket might want to get some plane tickets to Amsterdam. A new report from the International Trade […]
Posted inPolitics
Statistically Significant
Illustrations by Travis Foster big employers still hold sway in bay state Politicians in Massachusetts often refer to the economic importance of smaller employers (for instance, in her speech on […]
Posted inEconomy
Where the economic action is
after ranking 13th in growth of gross domestic product (GDP) over the period from 1997 through 2004, Massachusetts came in a lowly 42nd the following year, behind every northeastern state […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Cherry pie
the low-income cities of Lawrence and Holyoke are the only two communities in the state that will receive more than $2,000 per citizen in state aid during the current fiscal […]
Posted inEconomy, Health Care
Spend shift
A long line at JP Licks is an inconvenience, but it may also signal a turning point in Boston’s spending habits. While the rest of the country spends less and […]
Posted inPolitics
Statistically Significant
Illustrations by Travis Foster the graying of the do-gooders According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, volunteerism is on the decline in Massachusetts, while it’s flat in the […]
Posted inUncategorized
New neighbors
Cape cod apparently saw a lot of moving vans last year, but the South Coast was unusually quiet in home-buying activity. The larger map below shows the number of single-family […]
Posted inUncategorized
New states for newcomers
Massachusetts has long been losing native-born citizens to New Hampshire. Are we about to start losing immigrants to our northern neighbor too?To be sure, the immigrant population in the Bay […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Statistically Significant
Illustrations By Travis Foster hedging on pork futures Notwithstanding our fame as the site of the “Big Pig” tunnel project, the Bay State gets only scraps of pork from the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
The price of justice
despite its lower-than-average crime rate, Massachusetts ranks near the top in state spending per capita on the criminal-justice system. One reason is that the Bay State tends to spend more […]
Posted inUncategorized
A downanddirty look at negative campaigning
Do democracy and mudslinging go together like ice cream and apple pie? this spring in California, a candidate for a legislative seat attacked his Republican-primary opponent for having had a […]
Posted inUncategorized
No brakes
if you thought the Bay State’s flat population growth meant more room for parking, forget it. According to the state Department of Revenue, the number of registered passenger vehicles in […]
Posted inEducation
Grading the graders
massachusetts is about as good as it gets when it comes to setting standards for public school teachers and holding schools accountable for outcomes, according to Quality Counts 2006, the […]
Posted inPolitics
Constituent service
one effect of the ongoing shift in population from city to suburb is that more and more town selectmen in Massachusetts have constituencies that dwarf that of city councilors. The […]
Posted inPolitics
Statistically Significant
Illustrations By Travis Foster GLOBAL SOUL MATESWe usually compare Massachusetts with other states, but there’s a whole world out there to search for possible doppelgangers. According to the 2006 World […]
Posted inPolitics
Shifting Ground
Illustrations By Travis Foster Four years ago, Mitt Romney beat Shannon O’Brien to become governor of Massachusetts. Another way to look at it is that the town of Westwood, where […]
Posted inUncategorized
Statistically Significant
Illustrations By Travis Foster WHERE ARE WE LOSING?Massachusetts made headlines in late December as the only state in the US to lose population two years in a row, according to […]
Posted inHealth Care
Off-peak condition
Increases in the infectious disease rate and the percentage of people without health insurance, along with a drop in per-capita public health spending, caused Massachusetts to slip three notches, to […]
Posted inEconomy
Growth spurts
The 21st century has brought more choices to people looking for apartments and condos just outside Boston or spacious homes in the Berkshires, but the construction spurt hasn’t been so […]
Posted inUncategorized
Revolting development
Popular culture is filled with sympathetic characters who provide food for our tables, from Ernest Borgnine’s lonely butcher in the 1955 film Marty and the sweet-tempered grocer Mr. Hooper on […]
Posted inUncategorized
Statistically Significant
Illustrations by Travis Foster BIGGER, TALLER, COOLERCalling them McMansions may be an exaggeration in most cases, but as a rule, single-family homes were indeed built on a larger scale in […]
Posted inUncategorized
Flat growth
Whether because of “smart growth” policies or market forces, multifamily housing seems to be making a comeback in the Bay State. By 2004, Massachusetts had almost caught up to the […]