Trauma Intervention Program Annual Banquet

Posted on April 6, 2009 by billmanzi

The Trauma Intervention Program of the Merrimack Valley will hold its Volunteer Appreciation Banquet on Thursday May 21 at the Wyndham in Andover. I cannot say enough about this program and the wonderful benefit bestowed on the entire Merrimack Valley by its good work. A special thanks to Jayan Landry, who had the vision to not only create this organization but this year will be creating a Healing Garden here in Methuen. It is a great event that sells out quickly. Hope to see you there.

Trauma Intervention Program Of Merrimack Valley, Inc.
Invites you to join us at our celebration of the
Sixteenth Anniversary
Volunteer Appreciation Banquet

Thursday, May 21, 2009
Wyndham Andover
123 Old River Road Andover, Massachusetts

Reception 6:00 pm – Dinner 7:00 pm promptly
Buffet chicken and beef dinner
(Vegetarian option available with prior request)

Ticket are $45 individually or $400 for a table of 10 by May 7th
CALL TIP at: 978-975-8471

2009 HONOREE LISTING :
Mayor William Manzi
Senator Steven Baddour
Lisa Campaniello RN LGH ED
Brian Gallagher RN CHFH ED
Donna Fitzgerald RN MVH ED
Bill Bruner- Andover Police Dispatch
Stella & Bob Gosselin- Lawrence Citizens
Dennis Larocque- Race Organizer/Fundraising
Jerry Pagan –Dispatcher Choice Award
Kathy Larocque 10 year TIP volunteer
Sue Wartman 10 year TIP volunteer

Silent auction, wine raffle and general raffle to benefit TIP and the
TIP HEALING GARDEN AND BRENDA WALLER WAY AT SCHRUENDER PARK

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Rep. Barbara L’Italien at St Patrick’s Day

Posted on April 5, 2009 by billmanzi

State Rep. Barbara L’Italien sings her annual song at Methuen’s St Patrick’s bash at the Claddagh. Yes, her voice is just a little bit better than Rep. Linda Dean Campbell. She looks to make sure that the song is characterized as “political satire”. Hmmmm.

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State Tax Collections Continue Free Fall

Posted on April 4, 2009 by billmanzi

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts released the March tax receipt numbers, and the numbers were not good. Receipts were down from a year earlier by $309 million, and revenue missed the new downgraded target by $53 million. The overall drop in revenue after nine months is $979 million, and more importantly revenue is below the new lowered target number after nine months by $117 million. It now appears likely that absent additional state action the Commonwealth could face a FY2009 deficit in the $300 to $400 million dollar range. That will present the Governor and Legislature with some pretty difficult choices. Those choices, as terrible as they are, will need to be made immediately if not sooner to avoid a further hit to the rainy day fund that doing nothing brings us to.

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Wither the Globe?

Posted on April 4, 2009 by billmanzi

The New York Times is threatening to shutter the Boston Globe unless the newspapers unions agree to concessions totalling $20 million dollars. From the Globe:

Executives from the Times Co. and Globe made the demands Thursday morning in an approximately 90-minute meeting with leaders of the newspaper’s 13 unions, union officials said. The possible concessions include pay cuts, the end of pension contributions by the company, and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees now enjoyed by some veteran employees, said Daniel Totten, president of the Boston Newspaper Guild, the Globe’s biggest union, which represents more than 700 editorial, advertising, and business office employees.

The Globe has been rumored to be suffering steep losses, and its parent company is also in financial trouble, having just taken a cash infusion from a Mexican billionaire that allowed it to make its last debt payment.

The loss of the Globe, regardless of your ideology, would be a real blow to Massachusetts. The private sector unions will need to make concessions, and even with those the Globe’s current business model may not be sustainable. I do not know what the Globe balance sheet looks like but I suspect that the heavy use of leverage is a contributing factor in this disaster. I hope that there is a way out for the Globe, but those prospects, in my view, are dim without bankruptcy.

Posted in National News, State News | Tagged | 8 Comments

President Obama’s Weekly Address

Posted on April 4, 2009 by billmanzi

The President, appearing to be taping aboard Air Force One, talks about his foreign travels, including the G-20 summit, discussions with Russian President Medvedev about further securing and reducing nuclear arsenals, and his appeal to our NATO allies to become more involved in Afghanistan. First real concentration on foreign affairs in his weekly broadcast, and an admission that he did not get everything he sought diplomatically on this trip.

http://www.youtube.com/p/263D206A36953C4A&hl=en

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Sanford Decision on Stimulus Funds Due Today

Posted on April 3, 2009 by billmanzi

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, with his State’s unemployment rate hitting 11%, must decide by today whether to accept $700 million in federal stimulus money. Under rules governing this money Sanford’s decision will not be subject to review by South Carolina’s Legislature. The Governor, looking to burnish his conservative credentials, has indicated that he may refuse the money. That potential refusal is causing him some real political problems, even in Republican South Carolina. From the Wall Street Journal:

“I’m real disappointed in the governor that he’s doing what he’s doing for political reasons, apparently,” said Lexington County Sheriff James Metts, a Republican who echoed the rising indignation among the governor’s core base of conservative voters. “We have programs that are being cut, school teachers being cut, jobs being lost by the thousand across the state.”

Jimmy Ray Douglas agreed. The 66-year-old owner of Carolina Furniture Co. whose donations to the national Republican Party earned him Christmas cards from former President George W. Bush, said: “We need every cent we can get in South Carolina.”

Governor Sanford’s South Carolina is experiencing some severe budget problems.

South Carolina House Speaker Bobby Harrell, a Republican who has been critical of the governor’s position, said the state has already cut its budget by $1 billion to $5.6 billion since August, and will likely have to lay off as many as 5,000 teachers and close down several prisons without the money. …..Mr. Sanford and the president of the University of South Carolina, the state’s eight-campus public university, are feuding over looming cuts that would come on top of a 25% decrease in state dollars since June. The university has cut class sections, frozen hiring and stopped buying library books, among other measures, said Harris Pastides, the university’s president.

The Governor is trying to sell the proposition that portions of that $700 million should be used to retire debt.

The governor said he wants some say in how to spend the $700 million earmarked for schools, higher education and public safety. He said he wants to use some of this money to pay down South Carolina’s debt. He has asked for the White House’s permission but was twice denied.

“Say you win the lottery,” the governor said. “A prudent household would not only spend some of the money, they’d pay down the mortgage.” States should do the same, he added.

The Governor must make this call sometime today. Let us see if he puts the people of South Carolina ahead of his own political ambition.

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Gingrich Threatens Third Party Revolt

Posted on April 3, 2009 by billmanzi

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich, in remarks at the College of the Ozarks, warned that unless Republicans changed their “big government” ways, conservatives would bolt and form a third party in 2012. Gingrich attacked the policies of the Bush Administration with vigor. From Politico:

“Remember, everything Obama’s doing, Bush started last year,” Gingrich said. “If you’re going to talk about big spending, the mistakes of the Bush administration last year are fully as bad as the mistakes of Obama’s first two, three months.”

Gingrich’s threat, and more credible threats of a similar nature, will drive the Republican Party even further to the right. The circular firing squad continues on the right side of the aisle.

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Republicans File Budget Alternative

Posted on April 2, 2009 by billmanzi

The House Republicans unveiled their “alternative budget” yesterday, and this time it actually had numbers. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the House budget Committee, rolled out the Republican alternative, which I have attached below. From the New York Times:

The Republican plan, introduced after days of ridicule from Democrats about the absence of an alternative to President Obama’s proposal, would also freeze most domestic spending for five years, increase Pentagon spending, permanently extend the Bush-era tax breaks and eliminate any taxes on successful investments in 2010 as a way to spur the economy. Republicans said they would spend $4.8 trillion less than Democrats over 10 years.

I have not read the entire document as of yet, but one key feature is the projected deficits. The Republican budget projects less of a deficit than the Obama budget, but still contains huge deficit spending. David Bernstein over at the Phoenix has summarized the deficit issue very nicely:

Well, as I quickly read the GOP alternative, they’re jacking up the total debt to a total of $10.8 trillion in five years, and $13.6 trillion in ten years. That may be, as they claim, $3.6 trillion less than Obama’s version at the 10-year mark, but can you really make a big stink out of that difference? Can you really convince the public that one path would demolish the value of the dollar and trigger hyper-inflation, while the slighly-fewer-trillions path is good policy?

Hard to argue that point. The Republicans have been trying to use the deficit issue as a club against Obama and the Democrats. (Rather funny in light of their own deficit record). This budget simply gives that issue up, and will allow the Democrats to counter the deficit argument by citing Ryan’s own numbers. (Maybe the Republicans were better off filing without numbers.)

Other features that can be highlighted now include a five year spending freeze on discretionary spending (exempting veterans services, homeland security and defense), makes the Bush tax cuts permanent, converts Medicaid into a block grant program, and would convert Medicare for those under 55 to something like the plan that Congress enjoys for itself. (I am not sure if privatization is the right word, but it would be a substantial change). It would also eliminate the recently passed stimulus bill.

As I mentioned in my first posting on the Republican budget alternative that had no numbers they have been tormented by Democratic taunts on the budget, and have fallen into a political trap that will create divisions in their own ranks and allow the dems to parry Republican criticisms. Bernstein’s analysis, in my view, hits the nail right on the head. We will now await the Republican fallout on the deficit issue. Has Chairman Steele made any salient comments yet?

Read the David Bernstein piece here.

Read the Ryan Wall Street Journal piece here.

republican_budget_alternative

republican-budget-charts-and-graphs

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New York Looks to Repeal “Rockefeller Laws”

Posted on April 1, 2009 by billmanzi

New York State is moving to undo the Rockefeller era drug laws, which amongst other things, imposed tough minimum mandatory sentences for first time offenders. From the Washington Post:

Gov. David A. Paterson (D) and legislative leaders on Friday announced an agreement to roll back the state’s strict, 36-year-old drug laws, including eliminating tough mandatory minimum sentences for first-time, nonviolent drug offenders.

The “Rockefeller Drug Laws,” named after former governor Nelson Rockefeller (R), are among the strictest in the country and for critics have become a symbol of the failure of the “war on drugs,” which locked up large numbers of nonviolent drug offenders while having little apparent effect on drug use.

The agreement, announced in the state Capitol, follows a national shift away from criminal penalties to public health and treatment in America’s decades-old fight against illegal drug use.

What do you think? I do not have numbers but I would guess New York State has seen a huge spike in prison population because of the minimum mandatories. Is treatment better than incarceration? Is New York State doing the right thing by eliminating these laws. Should they spend billions on new prisons to house drug offenders, or is there a better way?

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Marian Walsh Withdraws

Posted on March 31, 2009 by billmanzi

Senator Marian Walsh today withdrew from consideration for the job at HEFA that had caused Governor Deval Patrick so much political heartburn. From the State House News Service:

Sen. Marian Walsh, standing next to Gov. Deval Patrick outside his office, announced Tuesday afternoon that she has withdrawn her name from consideration for a high-paying post at the Health and Education Facilities Authority. The HEFA board had voted to hire Walsh, a Patrick political supporter, to fill a long vacant assistant director’s post at a salary of $175,000. The move stirred public outrage and Walsh recently volunteered to take a $120,000 salary, a move that failed to quash sentiment against the hiring. Critics questioned her qualifications for the job, which was announced while Patrick was vacationing in Jamaica. The Boston Globe over the weekend published reports that Patrick administration officials had worked behind the scenes to engineer the Walsh appointment, moves that the governor’s opponents said were at odds with his campaign promises to clean up Beacon Hill. In withdrawing, Walsh said, “I feel that I have become the issue.” Walsh said she called Patrick chief of staff Doug Rubin Monday evening to announce her intentions.

It is a wise move for the Governor, and one that will help him extricate himself from this ongoing distraction. In this difficult economic climate the move was just not defensible, and the Globe releasing those internal emails provided the nails in this appointments coffin.

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