Monday, May 13, 2013
The week encouraging bike-based activities is May 11-19.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation along with several other public and private entities have banded together to tell you to get out of your cars and onto your bikes this week. May 11 to 19 is Bay State Bike Week, a week unique to Massachusetts which celebrates all things bicycle. Winchester residents are encourage to bike to work. There are bike-based events going on around the Bay State this week, and several in the Boston area. The Bay State Bike Week website has provided a searchable calendar to find dates, locations and times for events closest to you. What would a statewide bike week be without a little friendly competition? The MassCommute Bicycle Challenge will award those who log the most miles by bicycle. Other local …
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Alan Macdonald, of Winchester, was one of seven members appointed to the state's Special Public-Private Partnership Infrastructure Commission.
A Winchester man was one of seven individuals appointed to the state's Special Public-Private Partnership Infrastructure Commission, according to a press statement by Gov. Deval Patrick's office. The legislatively-mandated commission reviews and approves all public-private partnership transportation infrastructure requests for proposals for design-build-finance-operate-maintain contract services, according to the statement. Four members are appointed by the governor and one each by the Senate President Therese Murray, House Speaker Robert DeLeo and State Treasurer Steve Grossman. The four members appointed by Governor Patrick to the Commission for a two-year period include: The three members appointed by Senate President Murray, House …
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
The transportation bond bill would provide funding for modernization and maintenance of the transportation system.
Governor Deval Patrick filed a transportation bond bill Wednesday that will finance an ambitious 10-year plan to overhaul the state’s ailing transportation system. The bill would invest $13.7 billion over 10 years in The 21st Century Transportation Plan “The Way Forward” if it is accepted by the state’s legislature, according to a press statement from the governor’s office. The funding would address a backlog of deferred maintenance and strategically improve the state’s transportation system by reducing congestion on roads, curbing delays and minimizing crowding on trains and buses, according to the press statement. “These investments will create the jobs and opportunity today that will build a stronger Commonwealth for tomorrow,” Patrick …
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Governor Deval Patrick's plan focuses on investments in transportation and education while calling for an income tax increase coupled with a lower sales tax.
In submitting his $34.8 billion budget to the Legislature Wednesday, Patrick said the proposed income tax hike is part of a comprehensive package aimed at investing in the state's infrastructure and in driving growth. The proposal asks for an increase in the income tax from 5.25 percent to 6.25 percent coupled with a reduction in the sales tax from 6.25 percent to 4.5 percent. It also doubles personal exemptions. Despite the proposed income tax hike, Patrick says that low and modest-income workers will pay less in taxes under his proposal, and only the "more fortunate see a larger increase." "I do not submit this proposal lightly. I understand that many households in Massachusetts continue to struggle from the impact of the Great …
Monday, January 7, 2013
A drop in the state's median household income led to the salary reduction.
Massachusetts lawmakers will get a pay cut this year, in accordance with a state law that links legislators’ salaries to the state’s median household income. Governor Deval Patrick’s office announced the drop in wages this week. “As required by Article CXVIII of the Amendments to the Constitution, for the purpose of adjusting the base compensation of members of the General Court, we have ascertained, from the federal census American Community Survey and reports of average weekly wages, that the median household income for the Commonwealth for the preceding two-year period decreased by 1.8 percent,” Patrick said in a Jan. 2 letter to State Treasurer Steven Grossman. The pay cut amounts to about $1,000 annually from legislators’ current base…
JT
12:18 am on Thursday, March 21, 2013
"Investing"--translation: spending money by raising taxes on hard-working folks who have already tightened their belts--in some cases several times--in a continuously poor economy. (Don't be fooled by jobs figures as thousands have just given up looking for work & don't be fooled by the stock market highs as inflation tempers every penny there and in circulation.) more ›