That MBTA report is finally out and basically concludes Charlie Baker and legislative leaders need to take over control of the authority through a new "Fiscal and Management Control Board" to replace the new MassDOT board Deval Patrick and legislative leaders set up to take over control of the authority.
The report calls for an end to restrictions on fare increases - in fact, it criticizes the T for offering pass holders higher discounts than other transit agencies in the US and England and says that's "unsustainable."
The state should look at creating a special property-tax levy in the communities served by the T to fund capital improvements and pay off the T's debt - with a state commitment to pay off Big Dig related debts but no new ones.
Oh, and New Bedford? You might want to rethink those plans that assume you're getting commuter rail anytime soon.
The recommendations also include making the T figure out how to spend the capital money it already has - and just on capital projects, not salaries - and crack the whip on workers, too many of whom the panel concluded are system-abusing layabouts.
The report also calls for a halt to any spending on system expansion that doesn't already have federal funding until that program is actually in place. That means the Green Line Extension, which recently received a commitment of nearly $1 billion in federal funds is OK, but plans for an electrified commuter-rail line to New Bedford should be shelved.
The report estimates a 20-year period for "the complete restoration" of the T's physical assets.
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Comments
This is true
By ChrisInEastie
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 3:15pm
But it's my understanding that the transit portion of the Big Dig was required for environmental purposes to make the rest of it happen. It was pretty much forced debt, regardless of what was done with it.
But hey, at least the Silver Line is efficient, rig...nevermind.
Whatever
By BostonDog
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 12:19pm
I don't give a shit how the T is run or who runs it. They can take their pick provided one thing is clear:
NO SERVICE CUTS OR DISRUPTIONS
If they claim they can squeeze more out of the system, fine. If they think a better manager will solve the problem, fine. The only thing that matters to users and Metro Boston is that the trains arrive on time, on the same schedule used for the last few years, and that they operate reliably. But they can't claim the T is fully funded and then cut services.
Communities served by the T
By anon
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 12:22pm
meaning that if you drive to a MBTA stop from an outlying town like Dover or whatever, you don't have to pay for it? I can see not asking the citizens of Springfield, etc.... to pay but then again metro Boston generates more taxes than it receives* so why not?
* I think?
So now we see the MBTA get reformed with further service impacts and then maybe in 2-3 years after the reforms have failed to solve all the issues, we can look at fixing the funding? I hope it's a mild winter next year.
I'm okay with this
By anon
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 12:23pm
As long as the wester part of the state gets an equal amount of tax levys to start paying for all the money they steal from us in the city :)
But it makes perfect sense to
By anon
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 2:09pm
But it makes perfect sense to tax washing machines in Pittsfield to fund buses in Wakefield.
If it wasn't for all the income tax paid by bus-riding Wakefielders, income which clearly couldn't exist if only eastern Mass sales tax funded the T, our state would be so poor that we'd all be using washboards and wringers.
"it criticizes the T for
By J
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 12:27pm
"it criticizes the T for offering pass holders higher discounts"
This panel really is clueless. Pass holders get a deal for two major reasons:
1) Guaranteed revenue for MBTA. Cash in hand is better than cash in bush, or however that saying goes. Basically, when someone buys a pass, MBTA gets cash up front, versus the POSSIBILITY of future rides
2) It encourages off-peak ridership, where extra bodies cost the MBTA a grand total of zero, and the MBTA competes with FREE parking and little traffic congestion.
If the passes cost more than
By anon
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 1:08pm
If the passes cost more than 40 single-ride fares, many if not most of the people who just use the T to commute to and from work are going to stop buying passes. (See page 11 in the report, currently the passes cost 30-35 times the single-ride price.)
Exactly, and how much money
By Lyndsay
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 1:09pm
Exactly, and how much money are they really losing by giving a discount when a company, let's say, buys in bulk for its workers when it wouldn't have otherwise? it's called a sales incentive - Charlie should know this. It's a guaranteed payment per month no matter how often the person uses it. Sure, they might get ten more bucks a month from one person if they charged them per ride, but another month let's say that person goes on vacation and they're making twice as much for half as many rides. They get the money whether the person uses it or not. The person gets a tax deduction for taking the T. The company gets to offer it as a benefit. Everybody wins!
Too good a deal?!
By Mjolnir
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 1:09pm
When I was first pricing out the monthly pass, I chose not to get one. Looking at current prices, a monthly pass is $75. A single ride is $2.10. In order to not be spending MORE money than per-trip, you would have to be taking at bare minimum 35.7 rides a month - which makes sense for a commuter taking it at least twice a day, but commuters often have other options - walk, bike, drive/carpool, company shuttle or taxi... and they flood the system during peak time, as you mention. The cost is prohibitive for people who may not take the T that many times, and those people would likely be off-peak.
If anything, the discounts on monthlies should be higher, so people who don't need the T to commute but live/work around the system use it more, pumping money into the system. It should be reversed - high costs for street parking permit, resident discount on T pass.
Factor In Taxes
By BlackKat
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 1:35pm
One thing you need to factor in with the T Pass is that for many employees, whose employer funds a pre-tax transit deduction, is you save even more money. For those who don't have that option, remember you can and should claim a deduction for transit passes bought with post-tax pay.
deduction
By Saul
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 1:48pm
I believe that's only a state deduction, right?
If your employer doesn't
By anon
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 1:57pm
If your employer doesn't offer pre-tax transit (which can be either employer- or employee-funded, by the way), the only deduction you get is on your state income tax. That's 5.15% of a maximum of $750. Woo hoo, $38.63 -- party at my place!
Also note that while pre-tax transit can be used for pay-per-ride fares or passes on any transit agency, the post-tax deduction is only valid for MBTA monthy and weekly passes. If you're in the unfortunate situation of living in Lowell or Springfield and have to commute by bus, sucks for you. They say you can also deduct commuter rail "Twelve-Ride" passes, or T express bus or commuter boat "Ten-Ride" passes, but those don't exist any more.
So, let me see if I understand
By Kaz
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 1:52pm
They want us to double-check the discounts that monthly pass holders are getting?
They think this discount double-check is going to save us money?
There is no way in the last month that they actually ran any numbers regarding whether reducing the pass discounts would actually generate more revenue. They would need to determine what user thresholds were for when they buy a pass versus when they buy a single ride. They would need to determine all the intrinsic reasons people buy them versus don't buy them and determine if users see enough value added to justify buying a pass even if it is purely at face value.
This discount double-check couldn't possibly even raise enough money to do anything meaningful compared to the millions of dollars of debt service per year and maintenance needs and winterization and everything else!
Why would this panel even go there when there is so much more to deal with that they could have had more depth on and instead decided to spend ANY time at all brainstorming ways to bilk users for a few bucks more without actually running ANY of the necessary projects to determine if the idea would even result in what they claim it would?!
I take the Franklin line.....
By Pete Nice
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 4:11pm
Once in a great while, and everyone on the damn train seems to have a pass. In fact I have no idea what they have because the conductor always seems to ignore them and come straight to me. Anyway, if everyone had to pay cash each time (no passes) I can only imagine they would need more conductors during rush hours.
And wouldn't you still make money on monthly passes because people might be willing to pay more for services they probably won't max out on?
Increasing off-peak ridership...
By octr202
Thu, 04/09/2015 - 9:06am
...which is cheap for the T (uses existing service they're mandated to provide), also helps increase their total ridership, which helps increase certain streams of federal transit funding which all transit authorities receive.
That's why the old Sunday guest free program was good - very few of those Sunday guests were maxing out capacity on their services (no extra cost), and it helped increase other funding (and provided another incentive for folks to purchase passes rather than nickel and dime their transit payments each month).
(On a side note, spend some time traveling in other cities and you learn what a great and handy benefit the T's passes are. It'll be a shame if these great offerings are gutted or eliminated in the city that largely pioneered them.)
Similarly, as of 2014, the
By anon
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 12:30pm
More retirees than employees. So IOW the MBTA is basically a retirement program that happens to provide public transit as a side-business.
This is (unfortunately) not
By leaving DTX
Thu, 04/09/2015 - 9:09am
This is (unfortunately) not uncommon. In the early/middle of the 20th century, a lot of industries gave their workers generous pensions, ironically as an argument against communism. ("Look, industry can take care of workers - we don't need big government doing it!") But if they didn't think those pension commitments through, eventually they swamped the company. Bethlehem Steel is just one example - they no longer exist as a company anymore, the business entity which used to run a steel mill is now just a shell for the pension fund of its former workers.
KochPuppetry
By SwirlyGrrl
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 12:40pm
Charlie loves him some Pioneer Institute, and the Pioneer Institute gets funding from various Koch holes.
This is chapter 1 of the playbook for destroying your middle class and unions: create an unnecesary "unfixable" crisis, replace the leadership with receivership followed by looting and ravaging and union busting.
Laugh all you want - Massachusetts is their latest target for all the wonderful things that have happened in Michigan, Kansas, and Wisconsin.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Pioneer_Insti...
Watch for Charlie Baker to claim that our public education system is too broken and he needs unchallenged power to bust unions there, too.
Damn girl, you just didn't
By anon
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 12:36pm
Damn girl, you just didn't drink the kool-aid but chugged the whole punchbowl.
Seriously how many people complaining here have bothered to read the entire report?
It sums up everything known to be wrong with the MBTA for decades now.
Dear Anon
By SwirlyGrrl
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 2:56pm
Didn't your mother ever tell you to FOLLOW THE MONEY? Just google "Pioneer Institute" and "ALEC" or "Koch Brothers". No kool-aid there.
This is an all-out war on the middle class. Just because they've managed to dupe you into some auto-immune frenzy against your fellow citizens and your own best interests with a cooked-to-order report doesn't make Baker's ties to ALEC any less clear.
And left-wing groups are
By anon
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 6:54pm
And left-wing groups are funded by the likes of George Soros and Warren Buffet. Pointing to boogeymen behind the scenes is just a distraction.
False equivalence is false
By Kaz
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 9:15pm
http://billmoyers.com/2014/04/10/nothing-really-co...
are you implying...
By Malcolm Tucker
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 12:39pm
...that Gov. Baker is a Koch sucker?
other end
By SwirlyGrrl
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 12:41pm
Puppet. They want him to show his face.
I say bring it on.
By RA
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 1:01pm
I say bring it on.
It sucks the way it is now.
So lets see how it is with some changes. If it sucks, go back to the way it is.
And what about unions that are corrupt?
By whyaduck
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 1:04pm
I am not anti-union by a long shot but, from what I read, it appears that the MBTA union(s) have some 'splaining to do.
The specific situation is irelevant
By SwirlyGrrl
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 1:52pm
Baker is going to try to do in Massachusetts what Walker did to Wisconsin.
It has nothing to do with the specific situation, just the ease with which he can implement the ALEC policy plans to bust unions.
That's what people need to understand here: this is a manufactured crisis (or, at least, a massively inflated one) and this "report" is merely a pretense to gain the powers needed to try to nullify collective bargaining. The MBTA is simply an easy place to start the war on the middle class.
Do you have any proof and/or citations
By anon
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 3:01pm
Or are you getting this from you tin-foil thinking cap?
There is this thing called "google"
By SwirlyGrrl
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 3:39pm
I'm sure even an anon can work it.
Try these searches:
Pioneer Institute Charlie Baker
Pioneer Institute ALEC
Pioneer Institute Koch Brothers
and for fun ...
Koch Brothers Ilse Koch
Then I suggest:
Scott Walker ALEC unions
Wisconsin economy
Kansas economy
(oh, and my original post had a link to where the money flows, dear)
I am a working class man.
By Steven Gallanter
Thu, 04/09/2015 - 12:07am
I am a working class man. Why should i give a fig about what those who have more than I have to "endure?"
Exactly!!! This is happening
By Lyndsay
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 1:03pm
Exactly!!! This is happening in states all over the country. Union busting, plain and simple. Trying to break into teachers' pensions as well. They'll use any excuse to lay the blame at the workers' feet.
The unions could strike
By Ari O
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 10:07pm
I'm not exactly sure how strike provisions work for 589 and I think any strike would be illegal, but if the T unions wanted to impress upon the populace the importance of the transportation network, a strike would be an interesting tactic. There hasn't been a transit strike in Boston since 1982 when, apparently, the city devolved in to traffic chaos. Something like 75% of commuter rail riders (about 45,000 people) have access to cars and take the train instead. Let's assume that another 100,000 rail riders have the same. If you try and double or triple the number of cars coming in to Boston 93 on a Friday afternoon in the summer is going to look like a cakewalk. Uber will surge and we'll see what a privatized transportation system looks like: only the rich can get anywhere, and not quickly, either.
Charlie would probably wind up sitting in traffic as his Statie chauffer tried to navigate gridlock on 1A. (Gone are the good old days when Duke rode the T—and, yes, I certainly fault Patrick for not walking a few blocks and taking the Red Line in to the State House.) Remember the traffic-pocalypses of February? Part of that was due to narrow, snowy streets. But a lot of it was due to many more people driving, and nowhere for the cars to go. So, yeah, see how far you can push 589. If they see union busting coming down the pike (or, er, the rails) they might strike back.
And if they message it right, they might have a lot of the riders on their side.
"criticizes the T for
By anon
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 12:57pm
"criticizes the T for offering pass holders higher discounts than other transit agencies"
I hope this criticism doesn't extend to the commuter rail. Per mile, Boston's commuter rail passes are the most expensive in the United States.
Maybe if they could figure out how to run more efficiently (no more 4-person crews on off-peak trains that only have 1 car open), they could reduce fares *and* reduce the required subsidy.
And I haven't compared the data, but the T commuter rail's abysmal mean distance between failures of about 5000 miles could be the worst in the country as well. Yesterday's major failure on the Fitchburg Line might be the last straw that drives me to buy a car.
Page 11 of the report gives
By anon
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 6:59pm
Page 11 of the report gives the details of what they were comparing; it's only subway and bus fares vs. passes they looked at.
Did you see today's news about the recent fire at Forest Hills potentially putting CR signalling equipment out of commission for months? It's like a transit system in a third-world country.
Driver error
By Ari O
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 10:09pm
Apparently that was a driver effing up yesterday that burned holes 3" deep in the rails (I've seen pictures). Basically, he set the parking brake, pressed down on the regular brake and then tried to floor the train. Do that in your car and the wheels smoke a lot. Do it on a train and the wheels spin around, get real hot and melt the rail. Apparently said driver is no longer in the employ of the railroad.
Kudos to the track crews for getting the whole thing operable in a couple hours.
pictures
By blues_lead
Thu, 04/09/2015 - 1:32am
That sounds interesting -could you share some of those pictures?
Fitchburg stuckage
By anon
Fri, 04/10/2015 - 12:54pm
Thanks for the explanation. Where did you hear it?
did anyone catch this?
By anon
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 1:00pm
Did anyone see this?
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/201...
1. Use the mean instead of the median. Get some skewed statistics that show employees "abusing" their benefits as an excuse. 2. Blame the problems on the employees. 3. Break the unions.
This is a Republican governor's wet dream, and a huge hit for labor in this state.
The public's sympathy...
By issacg
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 4:49pm
is not going to lie with the unions, though. Not anymore. That's why this absenteeism thing is so front and center.
Say what you want about the Baker people, but I will say this - they seem to be covering their bases (and tuchases) very well here.
I don't think you understand
By SwirlyGrrl
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 8:17pm
They are covering their asses, but they are cooking the numbers to inflate their case for a takeover and nullification of collective bargaining.
FMLA is not "absenteeism". Neither is short-term disability (or taking sick days built up over the years in lieu of short-term disability).
This isn't about improving the T at all, in any way. This is about disrupting collective bargaining. It won't stop with the MBTA.
I wonder if 589 has their own stats
By Ari O
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 10:11pm
The books seem cooked on this one.
Wait until they come out with the guy who took FMLA because his kid had cancer. The commission is playing with fire on this one.
Somehow I'm pretty sure...
By octr202
Thu, 04/09/2015 - 9:27am
...589 and their allies are sharpening some pencils right now.
The interesting thing will be to see how this plays with the other side on Beacon Hill. These unions have some powerful allies, there will be some fireworks before Baker's able to go all "Scott Walker" on us.
Swirly
By cybah
Thu, 04/09/2015 - 9:46am
Since this post was updated today. I'll comment.
Funny how you mention Public Schools above.. I saw this on twitter this morning from Chris Faraone.
https://digboston.com/dear-boston-media-please-ste...
But the point I want you to see is :
Not sure what he means, but I find it funny that he mentions something about privatizing schools, which kinda was what you were saying yesterday to Baker and this being the beginning of the attack on the middle class (a la Wisconsin).
Sick days shouldn't be
By anon
Fri, 04/10/2015 - 12:57pm
Sick days shouldn't be allowed to accumulate. I hope they remove this from future versions of the contract.
Not only does it cost the T a lot, it also means people who get sick end up losing money (the very thing paid sick leave is supposed to prevent), since they get paid for fewer unused sick days when they retire.
Hokey, so we fix all the problems of the past winter by...
By whyaduck
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 1:38pm
"...the MBTA prepares 1 and 5 year operating plans
that rely primarily on own-source revenue and cost containment to
balance the agency’s budget."
Own-source revenue: Want to pay more to commute and park? Wait a minute, you will be.
Cost containment: Curtail T absenteeism.
But my favorite part is where the report is "Dispelling a Debt Myth", page 15, where the panel informs us that the Big Dig debt really ain't that bad folks.
Not sure whether to laugh or cry, at this point.
I agree that there has to be accountability (i.e. management) changes but you can shuffle deck chairs on the Titanic all you want. It comes down to brass tacks: more money is going to be needed and all the fare increases and having folks shell out more to park is not going to do a damn bit of anything.
We need a recall provision....
By Michael Kerpan
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 1:49pm
... in the Mass Constitution. Time to get rid of Baker before he totally trashes the joint. And, while we are at it, we need to fix the structure of the legislature so that a schmuck elected by a relative handful of local voters can't serve as a de facto state dictator.
it's a catch 22
By cybah
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 1:53pm
Like any sort of politics.. sure we can suggest it. But it's the politicians themselves need to act on it. And they wont.
Just look at how long people have been talking about Term Limits in congress... decades and it's still not done because they just don't want it to happen because it means them and their cronies would be out of jobs so quick. And they can't let that happen...
Same with MediPot here in MA.. it was voted on, won by a large margin, and we're what year three and not one dispensary has opened yet.
Like I said above.. the politicians are only out for themselves and not their constituents.
I'm really beginning to dislike the political machine in this country as a whole, it's always just more of the same. and two steps forward, three steps back all the time.
It's time for the Choo-Choo Charlie song!
By necturus
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 2:35pm
Once upon a time there was an engineer;
Choo-choo Charlie was his name, we hear;
He had a railroad, and he sure had fun;
He was cuttin' all the budgets
That made the trains run.
Charlie says, "love my budget-cuttin'!"
Charlie says, "it really rings my bell!"
Charlie says, "let's bust up all the unions!
As for all you commuters, you can go to hell."
To what melody...
By Michael Kerpan
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 2:45pm
... should we sing this?
Oooh, ooooh! I know! The "Good and Plenty" song!
By issacg
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 4:46pm
n/t
Hard Facts
By Roslindaler
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 1:45pm
Having read the report, I find it surprisingly even handed. The panel is acknowledging that more funding is needed (but should be restricted or come from new sources like fares), that the legislature has hamstrung the MBTA in many respects through legislation preventing it from acting efficiently, and that serious management problems exist that must be addressed before a blank check can be written from the Commonwealth for more funding. One can debate all of the findings about adequate oversight of employees, etc., but two things jumped out at me that I found hard to ignore - (1) the MBTA has not spent nearly all of the money set aside for capital improvements each year for any of the past several years; and (2) the MBTA's tools for procurement are well out of alignment with other state agencies (much less private entities). Unless this is just fuzzy math, and the MBTA has actually spent all of its capital improvement money, it seems like there is, indeed, some low hanging fruit to be had, particularly as most people agree that the major problems with the T are related to age of equipment and facilities. Furthermore, re-aligning the procurement process to allow the T to, for example, consider "best value" in procurement is a no-brainer. The fact that it is not allowed to today, has resulted in the issues we are now seeing with the quality of the new commuter rail coaches, the past problems we have seen with the quality of the new green line cars, and likely the problems we are seeing with the procurement of the new orange and red line cars. I say let the governor take a crack at it by adopting all of their recomendations and see what happens.
Beacon Hill created the
By markg
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 1:58pm
Beacon Hill created the current arrangement to avoid accountability. Which begs the question why would they want to reassert control and and be held accountable. Actually the three men in room who run the state. State reps are just along for the ride.
You to hand it to the Baker people...
By issacg
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 2:12pm
because their roll-out has been perfectly calibrated to support their position.
To the casual observer/citizen (particularly one who doesn't ride the T regularly - and there really are a lot of those, fellow UHubbers!) it absolutely looks like the T's management is totally inept and the T definitely does not need more money.
Govvernment by....
By Michael Kerpan
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 2:16pm
... bright young B-school marketing whizzes. Just what we need.
Rebuttal #1
By Kaz
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 2:49pm
Since 2000, the MBTA has been operating on an unsustainable model of funding. It was never acceptable long-term and was unpredictable and poorly predicted but put into place anyways as Forward Funding. Thus the remedy was designed poorly and should be acknowledged as such. The 2013 funding of the operating deficit *IS* that acknowledgement and your solution of the MBTA trying to file a budget that remains within the sales tax cap (a nonsensical standard to forcibly stuff a public transit agency inside of) is exactly the OPPOSITE of that even in the face of the evidence YOU provide that doing so has ALREADY proven not to work!
What do you think was responsible for the ruination of the MBTA between 2000 and 2013 that ultimately led to a state bailout in 2013? Even the Pioneer Institute got that right when it recognized that the debt refinancing was the only thing keeping the MBTA afloat for so long without help. Your answer to the current predicament is to pretend that everything was fine up until 2013 when the state started bailing the MBTA out as opposed to the fact that it was 2000 that STARTED the downward spiral! Returning to the ideas of 2000 are NOT the answer...but it's the answer that you gave here!
Furthermore, you're system comparisons and monthly pass rate comparisons are not justifiable. All of your zoned trips are about 8 miles apart whereas 8 miles would get you from Newton to North Station. 8 miles gets you out of the city of Boston in almost every direction on the MBTA. How does that adequately add up to the average ride on the MBTA? Why would your take away be that monthly passes are too discounted and not that the subway's one-fare rate should be tiered since nearly all of your comparisons are to tiered systems?
Calling the CA/T debt "diminishing in importance" is a here-and-now ignorance of the history that led to the billions in debt that you attribute to mismanagment! BECAUSE of the CA/T debt service, the funds provided by Forward Funding could not be spent on the transit system and had to go to the debt THUS LEADING TO MORE DEBT! This sort of ignorance of history speaks volumes about your ability to understand the issues on which you've been tasked to solve.
The new order
By Angry Dan
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 6:24pm
First order of business: The 8th of April will henceforth be known as "PowerPoint Day" and will be a fully paid holiday for all the well-connected worthies who are fortunate enough to be appointed to the "Fiscal and Management Control Board".
Aloisi's response to the
By anon
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 6:31pm
Aloisi's response to the report: http://commonwealthmagazine.org/transportation/bak...
Pretty much
By Kaz
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 9:20pm
I was going to keep rebutting all of their points, but Aloisi does a more succinct job of it and highlights a replacement for this commission's plan that actually solves problems. So, read that piece. That's largely similar to the points I wanted to make.
By Rebecca Murray. FOI & Public Records Law in Massachusetts
By theszak
Thu, 04/09/2015 - 12:48am
Contact ILL Interlibrary Loan services at a branch public library or college library for a very useful Massachusetts FOI book...
Freedom of Information and Public Records Law in Massachusetts...
Rebecca S Murray; Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc.
Publisher: Boston, MA : Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc., ©2012.
Edition/Format: Print book : English : 3rd ed. 2012
Freedom of information and public records law in Massachusetts : a discussion of the mechanics of the public records law and the impact of the law's application
http://www.worldcat.org/title/freedom-of-informati...
http://www.mcle.org/product/catalog/code/2120290B03
Rebecca S. Murray
Assistant Director/Associate Legal Counsel
National Voter Registration Act NVRA Coordinator Elections Division
Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth
One Ashburton Place, Room 1705
Boston, Massachusetts 02108
Phone: 617-727-2828
Fax: 617-742-3238
http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/cfsdd/madir.htm
see also
http://muckrock.com
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