The Man Who Knows Too Much

By Dave Denison 0 Comments Apr 1, 1998

The Decline of Representative Democracy: Process, Participation, and Power in State Legislatures By Alan Rosenthal CQ Press, Washington, D.C., 1998, 369 pages. There can’t be more than a cloakroomful of people in America who know as much as Alan Rosenthal does about our state legislatures, and thus (one would think) about the health of representative(...)

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Questions of Character

By John C. Springer 0 Comments Apr 1, 1998

How much does character matter in a president? Bill Clinton’s many ethical entanglements have made his presidency a running debate on the link between private character and public leadership. While every president has been judged on his character, Americans today know far more about the president’s private life than we used to, if only because(...)

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Journal of the House

By CommonWealth Staff 0 Comments Apr 1, 1998

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts JOURNAL OF THE HOUSE Thursday, April 31, 1998 Met according to adjournment, at eleven o’clock A.M. in a Full Formal Session. Prayer was offered by the Guest Reverend Scarlet Byrd-Tanager of the First Unitarian Church of Salem, as follows: Oh God, Yahweh, Allah, Buddha, Divine Spirit, Great Whatever — shine your(...)

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Derailed in Belchertown and Weston

By Dave Denison 1 Comment Apr 1, 1998

BELCHERTOWN — It wasn’t hard to see that Bernie Kubiak was ready to take a vacation from local politics. He had yet to announce that he would not run for another term as selectman when I visited in late February, but it was a safe bet he would get out soon. “It’s been 15 years,”(...)

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John W Sears on the Grand Old Party

By Dave Denison 0 Comments Apr 1, 1998

There is little about John W. Sears that suggests a thoroughly modern man. From the Gilbert & Sullivan references dropped into conversation, to the books aligned on the top of the piano in his Beacon Hill home (assorted memoirs of such noted Massachusetts Republicans as Henry Cabot Lodge, Leverett Saltonstall, Elliot Richardson, and John Volpe),(...)

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Term Limits and Turnover

By CommonWealth Staff 0 Comments Apr 1, 1998

Massachusetts is above the national average in turnover among state Senators, but is lower than average in the House. A term limits law was approved by the voters in 1994 but was thrown out by the Supreme Judicial Court last July. Though 21 states have passed term limit laws, there are only 18 with term(...)

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Counterpoint

By Jim St. George 0 Comments Apr 1, 1998

A group of investors is clamoring to lower the taxes they pay. There’s nothing new here; wealthy people and businesses are always trying to shift the tax burden onto working families. What is surprising is how easily they have used weak claims to push their proposal to the top of the agenda. Any budget surplus(...)

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Argument

By William Tyler 0 Comments Apr 1, 1998

Is it fair that Massachusetts penalizes you for saving? At 12 percent, the tax on investment income is double the rate on wages and salaries, and is the highest tax on personal income in the nation. This tax unfairly penalizes hundreds of thousands of working men and women across the Commonwealth who are struggling to(...)

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Rainy Day Savings

By Dave Denison 0 Comments Apr 1, 1998

When Acting Gov. Paul Cellucci sent his budget proposal to the Legislature earlier this year, it represented a politician’s picture of paradise. The economic boom has lifted state revenues to the point where Cellucci could propose more spending on education, health care, child care, and crime fighting, while forecasting $30 million in savings from welfare(...)

Criminal Justice

Prisoners and Profit

By Cara Nissman 0 Comments Apr 1, 1998

In North Carolina, prison inmates process meat for private companies. In Minnesota they make fishing lures. And in Montana they help do the ranching. Convicted criminals in 24 states across the country work for private business from behind bars. So why shouldn’t Massachusetts prisoners do the same? Legislators have been pondering that policy question, and(...)

Spring 1998