Keller @ Large Blog

The Junkness of it All

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:27:12 GMT

Foxwoods bonds downgraded to junk status by a major bond-rating agency?

Yet another reason to wonder of resort casino advocates here: what are they smoking?

Lights! Camera! Phony Spin!

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:31:44 GMT

Terriffic job here by the Boston Globe Spotlight team exposing the sham "Hollywood East" project that's been a highly-touted part of our state's "economic development strategy."

Punch line: "....a look behind the breathtaking vision of Plymouth Rock Studios reveals a project marred by over-the-top claims, broken promises, legal infighting, and the chronic lack of one crucial ingredient: money."

Sounds a lot like the Big Dig, the Rose Kennedy Greenway, transportation "reform" and universal health care, to name just a few of the mega-policy disasters of the last quarter-century or so here in Eden East. (Add to my list below.) Our arts-related resources are a potential source of legitimate economic growth, and movie and TV-production spending that generates profit for the Commonwealth ought to be a part of that. But pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die fantasies about thousands of high-paying jobs in Plymouth? Please. It was meep when Rev. Ike used to peddle it on late-night TV and it's been mega-meep coming from the Reverends Cellucci, Swift, Romney and Patrick.

By the way, while we're making lists, can you add to one I'm starting of disastrous legacies of the Cellucci years? A runaway Big Dig, the pretend 2000 income-tax rollback, infatuation with Hollywood, Jane Swift.....

Good News/Bad News

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:03:07 GMT

I know a guy, probably the most loyal supporter Deval. Patrick has left, who never whines to me about media coverage of the governor. But the other day he had a complaint - the lack of attention paid to a November 5 statement from three major bond-rating agencies praising the state's fiscal management.

He has a point. Not too many people think of Beacon Hill when they hear phrases like "effective management during strained economic times" (Moody's), "a record of prudent financial management" (Fitch's), and "strong and conservative budget management practices'" (Standard & Poors). But that's what they're saying. And it should be noted.

Then again, last Thursday also brought news of downgraded credit ratings for a number of municipalities. So all is not perfect here in the Garden of Eden. For which Patrick can probably expect plenty more blame.

For it Before He Was Against It

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:35:14 GMT

Q: Have you ever seen Mike Capuano and John Kerry photographed together? And are you sure it wasn't a fake?

Patrick's Housing Blunder

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:28:49 GMT

It comes as no surprise that Gov. Deval Patrick is putting a political crony, banker Ron Homer, in charge of the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency, the independent quasi-public that is the state's primary financial engine of affordable housing development. Patrick's been trying to get his paws on MassHousing since he took office.

The problem is what the governor says he wants to do with his new power in an extraordinary letter to members of the MassHousing board obtained by wbztv.com.

Necessary background: the 43-year-old agency sells bonds and lends the dough it takes in to needy home buyers and to developers who commit to generating desperately-needed affordable housing units. Under one of its most aggressive affordable-housing efforts, the State Housing Assistance for Rental Production (SHARP) program, developers got loans at bargain-basement interest rates to build mixed-income properties, in some cases taking out windfall profits long before their projects proved economically viable. In the early 1990s a downturn in the real estate market turned many SHARP investments into costly lemons and nearly dragged the entire agency off a financial cliff. Politically connected developers who had made out nicely off SHARP balked at making good on their soured loans. It has taken a bipartisan array of government officials more than a decade to restore MassHousing and SHARP to fiscal health, although there is still llingering red ink from the SHARP meltdown, and they've been fought every step of the way by greed-crazed wiseguys in the development community who resent being held accountable for the liberties they took with the agency.

And now, Patrick seems to want to make their sugar-plum dreams of a return to the bad old days come true. In his letter informing MassHousing board members of the Homer appointment, the governor lists some "specific areas for MassHousing to focus on over the next few years that I believe will enhance our ability to address our housing needs," including "resolution of two longstanding issues - SHARP refinancing and the reexamination of the lock-out policy."

People close to the long, arduous reclamation of SHARP's financial footing are appalled, seeing this language as a green light for the return of SHARP developer shenanigans. For instance, under SHARP, in exchange for a below-market interest rate and lower-than-normal down payment, developers are required to keep a certain number of units affordable for a minimum of 15 years. If Patrick's "reexamination" of the SHARP rules allows developers to easily refinance their MassHousing debt elsewhere, the "lock" is broken and the lucky entrepreneur can reduce the number of affordable units at will, thus maximizing profit. Some developers also chafe under the agency's requirement that generous subsidies given to SHARP projects be re-paid if the owner takes their financing elsewhere, a policy that has yielded millions of reclaimed dollars MassHousing pours into workforce housing. Busting that rule would let developers put off repayment for years, in some cases, decades.

In short, Patrick - in a letter citing "preservation of existing affordable housing" and "creation of workforce housing opportunities" as his desired "focus" - hints at policy changes that could well hamper both efforts.

The Reich Stuff

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:38:39 GMT

Those with vivid memories of former US Sec. of Labor Robert Reich's ill-fated 2002 run for governor will enjoy this post from Mickey Kaus of Slate, who gives the professor a thumbnail description that could well become boilerplate: "theatrical, left-cultivating, personal-branding semi-economist." LOL.

The Voters Are Speaking....

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:19:00 GMT

I'll give you my take on the message voters locally and nationally seems to be sending (if, in fact, there appears to be a coherent theme) at 11pm on WBZ-TV.

Meanwhile, give me your own testimonial. What message did you send with your own vote today? What was the one thing that compelled your choice most profoundly?

The Aloisi Debacle

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:23:09 GMT

Here is the text of former State Transportation Secretary Jim Aloisi's astonishingly narcissistic parting letter to Gov. Deval Patrick. Read what it says in print and between the lines, and you'll learn that:

* Aloisi thinks Patrick hung him out to dry

* Aloisi thinks the transportation reform bill is a sham

* Aloisi refuses to acknowledge - or, even more appallingly, doesn't even get - the key role he and other Big Dig mismanagers played in plunging us into the transportation funding crisis we're suffering today

* The governor displayed shockingly bad judgement in recruiting Aloisi for this crucial position

Junk Food on Jobs

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:45:17 GMT

An acquaintance of mine with many years of sorting through (and, at times, dishing out) political spin writes the following:

"Are you looking at yesterday's numbers on jobs 'created or saved?' Even if you accept the Patrick Administration's own numbers, consider:

* Buried in the Globe article: 'The 23,533 individual jobs created or retained amount to 8,792 full-time positions, according to the administration’s calculations.' They only created 8,792 jobs! Everyone who hears 'jobs' thinks they are full-time, 40 hours a week. They should be saying 23,533 part-time jobs, at best.

* According to the AP, the 23,533 includes 6,000 summer interns. So if my math is correct, a full 25% of the jobs went to college students. That's not exactly robust economic development.

* Teachers, firefighters and school teachers -- all necessary and valued jobs -- do not contribute to growing businesses or the economy. It's just the nature of the jobs. And I'm sorry, but adding a new job at the pizza shop because of a nearby construction project is not impressive economic stimulus.

* Where are the tax incentives for R&D? Where are the breaks on payroll taxes to encourage new hiring? What is Patrick doing at all to help private industry recover? (They always cite biotech, but that's a very small fraction of the total employment in Massachusetts.)"

To which I can only ruefully agree and add this: the feds are blowing smoke on job creation as well.

Buon appetito everyone!

Crunch Time for Wind Power

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:15:12 GMT

Oh, well, it was wishful thinking to hope the president would give a shout out to Cape Wind when he talked energy at MIT last week.

But actions speak louder than words. And as the Globe points out today, while the state holds the power to stop the latest NIMBY delaying tactic, the Obama administration could help break the impasse with a well-timed push. Or was all that talk about the urgency of now just a bunch of spin?