Archive for June 2015
Exec. Board Requests Report By Harry Markopolos
Dear Ms. Healey, As members of the MBTA Retirement Board (MBTARF), we have read with interest and concern your two articles from Sunday, June 28, 2015 and Monday, June 29, 2015, respectively, describing a “report” authored by, among others, Harry Markopolos casting a negative light on the MBTARF’s financial and actuarial reporting. In order for…
Read MoreLegislative Alert: Protect the Taxpayer Protection Act
A harmful provision contained in the House version of the state budget seeks to exempt the MBTA from the Taxpayer Protection Act; a state law that requires private contractors to demonstrate at least one penny of savings to taxpayers before state services can be privatized. The State Senate chose not to go along with the…
Read MoreMass Fiscal Alliance’s Fraudulent Poll
Worcester Telegram | By Maurice Cunningham | June 24, 2015 In a June 12 As I See It: Give Baker tools to fix the T, Rick Green, chairman of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, boasts that a MFA poll shows eighty percent support for Gov. Baker’s MBTA plan. One problem: the poll is a fraud. I’ve read…
Read MoreDefining the Pacheco law
Commonwealth Magazine | By Michael Jonas | June 26, 2015 The temperature is rising on Beacon Hill in the battle over reforms to the much maligned MBTA. The Globe‘s David Scharfenberg reports today that both sides in the T debate are turning up the heat, with the Carmen’s Union that represents MBTA workers hitting the…
Read MorePrivatization Has Been a Colossal Flop
Huffington Post | By Allen Frances, professor emeritus at Duke University | May 23, 2015 Let’s get this straight. I am a penny pincher, who hates waste and wants a lean and efficient government. But, that said, we have to face the fact that our massive privatization of what once were government functions has been…
Read MoreThe Koch Brothers’ War on Transit
Billy Moyers & Company | By Angie Schmitt | October 3, 2014 Transit advocates around the country were transfixed by a story in Tennessee this April, when the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity made a bid to pre-emptively kill Nashville bus rapid transit. It was an especially brazen attempt by Charles and David Koch’s political…
Read MoreBaker exploits MBTA’s winter woes to push ill-conceived reform
Boston Globe | By Larry Hanley | June 15, 2015 Summer is here, but Governor Baker is still exploiting Bostonians’ frustration with last winter’s blizzard breakdown of public transit to push through an MBTA reform package that will jeopardize the service, safety, and affordability of Boston’s bus and rail service. The governor wants to…
Read MoreVolunteers Needed for Phone Banks!
Dear brothers and sisters, As you know, our rights, our livelihoods, and our families are under attack with current efforts to privatize the MBTA. However, let us be clear, this is not only an attack on Local 589―it is an attack on the labor movement itself! In response, Local 589’s executive board has organized phone…
Read MoreMarc Pacheco: Missing context to understanding ‘Pacheco Law,’ MBTA debate
Taunton Daily Gazette | By Marc R. Pacheco | June 07. 2015 I am writing to provide important context that is missing from a recent Taunton Daily Gazette Our View, titled, “Getting the T back on Track,” which deals with the Taxpayer Protection Act, sometimes referred to as the “Pacheco Law.” I am writing to provide…
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