Public Policy Commons^™

Residential Tax Exemption Policies: Trends, Impacts And Future Options For Boston, Joseph S. Slavet, Raymond G. Torto

McCormack Graduate School General Publications (active until 2013)

This is an extensive report on residential tax exemption issues in the City of Boston with an evaluation of recently proposed revisions in current policies.

Managing Change: Reflections On Innovation In The Public Sector, Ira A. Jackson, Jane P. O'Hern

New England Journal of Public Policy

In January 1983, when Governor Michael S. Dukakis appointed Ira Jackson as commissioner of revenue, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was facing an estimated $300 million deficit. The state was also suffering from a severe loss of public confidence in the integrity of its tax administration. His first and most urgent priority being the restoration of that confidence, Commissioner Jackson implemented a three-part strategy to improve voluntary compliance with the tax laws: raising the stakes for evaders, treating honest taxpayers as customers rather than victims, and changing public attitudes about tax evasion. Productivity gains and innovative procedures at the Department of …

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

In recent years, New England has done itself proud. The chronic post-World War II decline in its manufacturing sector has been replaced by what for the present at least continues to be a record growth in services directly and indirectly related to high technology and a continuing competitiveness in high technology itself. As a result, the region leads the nation in growth in per capita income and enjoys the lowest level of unemployment in the country as well. Self-congratulation, however, is too often a prescription for complacency, and complacency inhibits the kind of searching inquiry which assumes that economic miracles …

Demographic Trends In Boston: Some Implications For Municipal Services, Margaret O'Brien

New England Journal of Public Policy

The City of Boston is gaining in population during the 1980s, after several decades of loss. During the current decade and beyond, population trends will bring increases in the number of children, adults between the ages of twenty-five and forty-four, and those aged seventy-five and over, along with declines among the older teenagers and college-age population, the more mature adults, and the younger elderly. A recent analysis of the income distribution indicates that while there were more well-to-do residents in Boston in 1985 than there were in 1980, there were also more poor and near poor. Average family income has …

Affirmative Action: Problems And Perspectives, Clarence M. Pendleton

William Monroe Trotter Institute Publications

If I sound a little bit incoherent it is because I have only been in California for ten hours in the last three weeks, and that was just to change clothes and change bags and hug my little six-year-old tight and spend some time with my wife. I got back in last Tuesday night from a trip to the East Coast by way of Salt Lake City and got up at 2:00 a.m. to be at a local television show to be able to be on the "CBS Morning News." My options were slim-either go to New York and do …

Seniority And Affirmative Action: The Shadow Of Stotts, Drew S. Days Iii

William Monroe Trotter Institute Publications

The purpose of this paper is to discuss why I think the Reagan administration's avowed commitment to helping only "actual victims" of racial discrimination retards rather than advances the cause of civil rights. I make reference in my title to "seniority" and "the shadow of Stotts" because the current administration is relying upon Supreme Court decisions having to do with seniority, particularly its 1984 opinion in Memphis Firefighters v. Stotts, to justify a wholesale attack upon race-conscious remedies, not only in employment but in education and public contracting as well.

Affirmative Action: Problems And Prospects, James Farmer

William Monroe Trotter Institute Publications

Affirmative action has had an interesting history. I, with no attempted modesty, claim to have proposed the idea to Lyndon Johnson in either late 1962 or early 1963 when he was vice president. The only person I known who would disagree with me on that is the late Whitney Young, and he is not present to voice his disagreement now. When I reported to the Council on United Civil Rights Leadership, the group that was called the "Big Six" or the "Big Four" by the media, that I had had such a meeting with Vice President Lyndon Johnson and had …

War Stories--Defense Spending And The Growth Of The Massachusetts Economy, David L. Warsh

New England Journal of Public Policy

The defense industry has been an integral part of the Massachusetts economy since colonial days, and the Watertown Arsenal and Springfield rifle are virtually synonymous with the capital-intensive arms business of the nineteenth century. But after World War II, here as elsewhere, defense production became far more deeply embedded in the state 's division of labor, with the result that today it is hard to tell what is of military origin and what is not: the minicomputer and software industries, in their entirety, are properly viewed as a spin-off from the Cold War and the space race, for example. The …

De Facto New Federalism: Phase Ii?, John Shannon

New England Journal of Public Policy

1985 marked year seven for de facto new federalism, the fiscal decentralization process nudged along by strong public support for the Reagan administration's conservative policies and growing fiscal stringency at the federal level. New federalism is most dramatically illustrated by the national government retreat along the entire state-local aid front — a kind of "sorting out" — as an increasing share of the federal budget goes to strictly national government programs. The mounting public concern about massive federal deficits will quicken the federal pullback on the state-local aid front. The only question is whether it will be a ragged retreat …

De Facto New Federalism And New England: A Discussion, Kenneth Curtis, Chester Atkins, Richard Licht, David Walker, Roger Porter

New England Journal of Public Policy

Using John Shannons paper as a broad frame of reference (see previous article), a panel discussion titled "The Changing Nature of FederalI State Relations: The Fiscal Impact on New England" took place on 18 November 1985 at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. The discussion was sponsored by the John W. McCormack Institute of Public Affairs and was presented in a roundtable forum. The members of the panel were Kenneth Curtis, former governor of Maine; Chester Atkins, member of Congress from the Massachusetts Fifth Congressional District; Richard Licht, lieutenant governor of Rhode Island; David Walker, professor of political science at …

Regionalism: The Next Step, Ian Menzies

New England Journal of Public Policy

Although the New England states have, over the years, been regionally cooperative, they have not formally advanced the process since the establishment of the New England Governors' Conference in 1937. There is still no regional government in New England; no body politic that can enact regionwide laws; no organization authorized to perform regionwide planning, or with the power to regulate or direct growth and development or manage natural resources. There isn't even a public forum or assembly where such issues can be discussed. This article reviews the history of regionalism in New England and proposes that the six states develop …

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

Today much of public policy debate takes place in a social vacuum. This is so in part because policy issues are often rather arbitrarily assigned to particular and seemingly unconnected disciplines that put a premium on maintaining their separate baronies of intellectual hegemony, and in part because of our too-pervasive propensity to compartmentalize in order to simplify. One of the aims of the New England Journal of Public Policy is to invade, as it were, these baronies, to liberate the policy issues held hostage there and release them into a broader, more human context, one that accentuates the idea of …

Public Policy And The Missing Link: A Progress Report On The Design And Implementation Of The Massachusetts Linked Deposit Program, Jim T. Campen

McCormack Graduate School General Publications (active until 2013)

The idea underlying the Massachusetts Linked Deposit Program (LDP), which has been operated by the Treasurer since 1978, is that a portion of the money in the state's General Fund is deposited in Massachusetts banks, with the amounts awarded to individual banks linked to their performance in serving the people and communities of Massachusetts. Bidding banks must offer a required minimum interest rate and must furnish specific information on the composition of their loan and investment portfolios. This information is used to compute a "linked deposit score" for each bank, which provides a basis for linking the awarding of public …

Book Reviews: The Endangered Metropolis, Richard A. Hogarty

New England Journal of Public Policy

Reviews of books by Anne Whiston Spirn, Jane Jacobs, George Gallup, Jr., Gary Gappert, and Richard V. Knight.

What all of these books have in common is the futuristic glimpse they give us into urban life in the twenty-first century. In approaching such a milestone, one can be either an optimist or a pessimist. These authors present a balanced mixture; they bring tidings of good news and bad news. As one of them aptly puts it: "In the present lies not only the nightmare of what the city will become if current trends continue, but also the dream of what …

Fiscal Paternalism And New England Cities: A Policy For The Year 2000, Mark S. Ferber, Elizabeth A. Ferber

New England Journal of Public Policy

The following commentary explores the future of urban public finance by focusing on the fiscal ills of New England's major cities. The impact of general revenue sharing, categorical grants, federal tax policy, state aid, and own-source city revenues is assessed in light of a city's ability to support itself. The authors conclude that a pattern of "fiscal paternalism" — the past and present policies for annual financial assistance to narrow the expenditure-revenue budget gap — must be altered if cities are to enter the twenty-first century as fiscally stable governments capable of providing the necessary services for a varied constituency.

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

Central to the evolution of public policy, since all subsequent processes flow from it, is the question of problem identification — or, more broadly, the question of definition. The importance of definition derives not only from the need to address the "right" problem but from the often greater need not to address the "wrong" one, since the subsequent misallocation of resources can alter the nature of the problem itself. More is not always better, whether in reference to federal largesse, nuclear power generating capacity, or the length of the school day. In fact, as the articles in this issue of …

Community-Based Housing: Potential For A New Strategy, Rachel G. Bratt

William Monroe Trotter Institute Publications

While the housing problem in the United States has changed since Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed that "one-third of the nation is ill-housed," it has by no means disappeared. For most low-income people, and to a lesser extent for moderate income people, housing still presents formidable problems.

Academics and housing analysts recognize four major aspects of the housing problem: affordability (ratio of housing costs to income), adequacy (including quality and overcrowding), neighborhood conditions, and availability. Over the past decade, the nature of the country's housing problem has undergone some important transformations.

Until ten years ago the phrase "housing problem" conjured up …

Boston's Recurring Crises: Three Decades Of Fiscal Policy, Joseph S. Slavet, Raymond G. Torto

McCormack Graduate School General Publications (active until 2013)

The word "deficit" has dominated the most recent 35 years of Boston's fiscal history. This report probes the experience and lessons of this history in order to propose a more permanent resolution of Boston's financial difficulties.

Three deficit categories are identified and analyzed: appropriation deficits, revenue deficits and overlay deficits. Over the past 35 years, the City has had 12 years of appropriation deficits, 19 years of revenue deficits and 28 years of overlay deficits. In each year the City's budget was certified as in balance. Deficits became a way of life. Fortunately the overlay deficit problem, except for the …

Private Banks And Public Money: An Analysis Of The Design And Implementation Of The Massachusetts Linked Deposit Program, James T. Campen

McCormack Graduate School General Publications (active until 2013)

In March 1978, in accordance with the unanimous recommendations of two special commissions, the Treasurer of Massachusetts established a "linked deposit program." Under the terms of this program, a portion of the approximately $400 million available for short-term investment from the state's General Fund was to be deposited with in-state banks and thrift institutions, selected on the basis of their performance in promoting the economic and social welfare of Massachusetts citizens and communities through their lending and related activities.

Six years after its inception, the Massachusetts linked deposit program (LDP) has grown to become a sizable and stable part of …

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

Over the years, public policy issues have proliferated, and with proliferation has come the inevitable specialization. The result: fragmentation of effort and problems of communication not only between those who make policy and those who implement it, but between practitioners in general and the academic and research disciplines that complement them. Public policy constituencies have created their own languages, but too often the result is a confusion of tongues rather than a profusion of ideas.

The New England Journal of Public Policy is designed to create a profusion of ideas by providing a medium for practitioners, policy analysts, and academics …

The Demography Of New England: Policy Issues For The Balance Of This Century, George S. Masnick

New England Journal of Public Policy

New England's rapidly aging population, its traditionally low fertility rate, and the fact that net migration from other regions and abroad should continue to be close to zero means that only very slow population growth will characterize the region for the balance of this century. Nevertheless, New England's demographic metabolism is exceptionally dynamic: (1) the numbers of different age groups are growing at very different rates; (2) a redistribution of population is occurring from the southern to northern tier states; (3) within each state population is dispersing into non-metropolitan areas; and (4) metropolitan areas, both central and suburban, are quickly …

The New England Economic Revitalization And Future Research Priorities, James M. Howell

New England Journal of Public Policy

New England's recent economic revitalization is largely attributed to the region's success in technological innovation and adaptation. This capacity to supplant older, maturing technologies with new technologies — a willingness to continually shed the old to make room for the new — has been a characteristic of New England since the early nineteenth century. At that time, as today, the critical factors in the process of technological development were the presence of investment capital, skilled labor, entrepreneurs, and, above all, preeminent colleges and universities that foster unconventional thinking and risk-taking. While the region's economy should continue to benefit from these …

Urban Distress, Educational Equity, And Local Governance: State Level Policy Implication Of Proposition 2 1/2 In Massachusetts, Edward P. Morgan

McCormack Graduate School General Publications (active until 2013)

This report examines the impact of Proposition 2-1/2 on different types of communities and the implications of this impact for state aid and state-level policies. The effects of 2-1/2, especially first-year effects in public education, are evaluated from the perspective of four general policy objectives or values: equity, efficiency, accountability, and local autonomy. The primary concern of this report is for various considerations of equity and inequality.

Policy Issues Facing Boston: 1984, A Summary, Robert A. Corrigan, Edmund Beard, John W. Mccormack Institute Of Public Affairs, University Of Massachusetts Boston

McCormack Graduate School General Publications (active until 2013)

In the Fall of 1983 the John W. McCormack Institute of Public Affairs asked a number of experts in various fields from within and outside the University to prepare an analysis of the major policy issues facing the City of Boston in 1984.

In December 1983, the Boston School Committee and City Council, in separate half-day seminars, came to the University for discussions on the issues identified. At the same time, the papers prepared were delivered to the transition teams of the Flynn Administration. This report briefly summarizes the major findings of the effort.

Boston In Transition: A Financial Analysis, Raymond L. Flynn, Financial Analysis Research Group, John W. Mccormack Institute Of Public Affairs, University Of Massachusetts Boston

McCormack Graduate School General Publications (active until 2013)

The new Mayor of Boston must earn the confidence of the taxpaying public in his financial leadership by employing credibility and candor in the management of city affairs.

To begin the process of re-enfranchising Bostonians who have come to mistrust financial decisions seemingly determined by political calculations, the new Mayor must make an accurate disclosure of the City's financial picture, rely on the commitment of the state to properly support its capital city and restore integrity and strong management controls to government operations. Recommendations for budget cuts, hiring freezes and adjustments in tax rates, when they are necessary, should only …

Issues Facing Boston: 1984, Housing, Phillip L. Clay

McCormack Graduate School General Publications (active until 2013)

The housing problem in Boston is one issue facing the new council which offers both opportunity and complexity. In a city where 70 percent of the households are tenants, where incomes are low and housing expensive, and where major demographic and economic changes are taking place, easy answers are not available. But housing, unlike other issues, is a matter over which the city has some leverage so that progress will be noted and appreciated by an increasingly attentive electorate.

In recent years, the city has not faced the challenge of greater local discretion in housing policy (made available by the …

Housing Issues In Boston: Guidelines For Options And Strategies, Joseph S. Slavet

McCormack Graduate School General Publications (active until 2013)

Most of the recent analyses of Boston's housing problem reveal a complex and contradictory mix of positive trends and negative factors, clouded by a growing percentage of poor and near-poor resident households in the City and declining commitments by the federal government to housing, particularly for subsidies of new housing production.

That Boston's housing problem, unlike that of many other large cities, is of manageable proportions, however, is attributable mainly to the following demographic trends and forecasts that are not likely to exacerbate the problem and that many even ease some of the most serious current and future pressures of …

Boston's Housing In 1984: Issues And Opportunities, Rolf Goetze

McCormack Graduate School General Publications (active until 2013)

Sharp cutbacks in federal aid for housing and community development now challenge Boston to become more resourceful in its housing strategies. In the neighborhoods where new solutions are needed, much has already been happening that can be adapted and expanded. Fortunately, the City's resurgence can also help achieve more results with less public resources, but a fresh approach involving community interests is essential. At the same time, local laws, procedures and programs devised to address past problems must also be critically re-evaluated to determine their appropriateness to the new realities.

Confidence in Boston's future is being uplifted, and many neighborhoods …

Future Issues Facing Boston: The Assessing Department, Janet L. Hunkel

McCormack Graduate School General Publications (active until 2013)

Taxpayers' opinions of municipal government often focus on the property tax. Taxpayers are stingy, and they are critical as to whether their money is purchasing competent services. For citizens to have faith that government is democratic, taxes must be equitable — everyone must pay their fair share. For government to function efficiently, tax administration must be efficient in order to support city services.

The property tax is a complex, difficult tax to administer; it is vulnerable to misuse. However, there have been recent, dramatic changes to the tax laws. Municipal government in Massachusetts now has the political and legal wherewithall …

Future Issues Facing Boston: Financing Of The City's Operating And Capital Construction Program, J. Chester Johnson

McCormack Graduate School General Publications (active until 2013)

This paper reviews the important factors affecting the current status of debt finance and debt management by the City of Boston, including the City's significant credit problems and the financing implications. While significant challenges to Boston's finance and debt management have recently been met in part through a combination of fiscal austerity measures and altered operating and financing approaches, there are important new debt financing challenges facing Boston in 1984 and beyond.