Left In Lowell

All right, any article with the sentence, “Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is trying to make California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger look like a carbon girlie man” is going to make the blog’s front page. Hands down.

But the substance of the CNBC article is also really important. To quote:

According to the Eastern Research Group, Massachusetts is on target to cut carbon almost 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, thanks largely to significant programs that improve energy efficiency in factories, buildings, and transportation. Those programs will save money, making Massachusetts more competitive than, say California. Governor Patrick is also doing it with wind and solar energy incentive programs, creating jobs and new domestic energy sources.

At the same time, by participating in the regional carbon cap-and-trade program, Massachusetts earned about $50 million last year that provided the seed money for these programs, along with funding of home heating efficiency retrofits for low-income families and job training for these emerging low-carbon industries.

To be honest, even I didn’t know that was the progress we were making. Everyone always talks about going back to 1990 levels, but very few plans I’ve seen aim for below that - and, in less than a decade from now. Reason number one to reelect Governor Patrick.

Reason #2 is this new Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia independent report on how the 50 states are faring in the recovery (hint: we’re up there). According to an advance email from the Patrick campaign (bold not mine):

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, which issues important monthly indexes that measure the economic performance of all 50 states, reports that since the national recession began in December 2007, the Massachusetts economy has performed better than 33 of the 50 states.

In addition, in the last three months the performance of the Massachusetts economy has improved significantly, outperforming 48 of the 50 states!

The results of the index are based on employment, hours worked in manufacturing, the unemployment rate, and wages and salaries paid. The most recent release from the Bank came on January 26th and covers the period through December 2009.

I don’t have a link to the report right now but I’m sure that’ll be available soon.

Now, for the many people still unemployed and underemployed, I’m sure this news does nothing to excite you. But with the state poised to come back strong, it can only mean good things for the job market going forward. There are a lot of other states I’d much rather not live in, thanks!

A lot of the strength of our economy comes from balanced budgets, an administration that is trying to hold the line on basic services and local aid, and many, many initiatives which have been put into place by Governor Patrick working with the legislature. We have a long way to go, especially after the drastic backsliding we did under Mitt Romney (and the devastating cuts he made to local aid and education, among other things) but I think these accomplishments, in three years, speak to a serious government trying to solve the problems of today, as well as position us better for tomorrow. That’s why we need to keep going, and reelect the guy who’s led on these issues.

Tomorrow at 10am, at the East End Club (15 West Fourth St), the Lowell Democrats will hold a caucus for choosing delegates for this year’s state Democratic convention. I’m not sure what the cutoff date was to register as a Dem in time for this (can’t find it on the internets right now) but if you are a registered Dem and didn’t register as such in like, the last four weeks, you’re probably safe. I’m sure someone will post the actual deadline.

Anyway, this is a nominating convention year, and there are a lot of contested races (including the Governor’s) so it’ll be well worth being a delegate this year.

Yesterday’s Lowell Sun “The Column” had an item which made one scratch their head and say “What?” Unfortunately, I cannot link to it since the Sun has decided not to make this feature available on its free, on-line edition.

Here is what was written (in part):

“Speculation (my italic) has been that the majority of the School Committee – John Leahy, Connie Martin, Jackie Doherty and Jim Leary – have bigger plans for [Brian] Martin. They would have liked to have added ‘Superintendent of Schools’ to his lengthy resume.

“Despite given [School Superintendent Chris] Scott a positive evaluation, the prevailing thought (my italic) is that the committee majority has never been 100 percent behind her and would not be heartbroken to see her go.”

The comments go on to say how great the Superintendent is doing and how well are schools are performing.

And then the comments end with this “Scott has credited her staff and the teachers’ union for collaborating on several key initiatives that were impossible to achieve during the Karla Brooks Baehr era.

Some school board member still pine for Baehr’s frustrating leadership style – and that is the problem.”

I do not know how much truth there is to those comments, but I have not heard not any criticism of Superintendent Chris Scott. The great majority of people are saying it is too early to tell but for now they appreciate her efforts. I do not pretend to know as many people as the writers of the Column, nor do I have any of those connections but to me this was an unnecessary swipe at certain School Committee members and at the previous Superintendent. I wish the paper would get off Karla’s back. They succeeded in driving her out of town, what more do you want from the woman?

Now back to the current Superintendent, I have sent her an e-mail asking her what key initiatives would she identify that were achieved during her tenure. As soon as I hear from her, I will let you know what she said.

And the part about Brian Martin being the next Superintendent; where did that come from? Someone at the Sun wants to either create controversy or control the narrative. Or start beating up on a few, selected School Committee persons. Whatever the motivation, it is an absurd comment.

A nice article in the Lowell Sun about Move Lowell Forward’s push for more transparency and availability of Committee documents at the Greater Lowell Technical HS. The GLTHS SC was very receptive to our members’ request, and we appreciate their prompt action to address this. One of the biggest impediments to citizen participation in government is lack of access to information, so we’re glad to see that according to the Sun:

Morin and School Committee member David Laferriere of Lowell voted in favor of making the recommendation to the full board, according to a draft of the meeting minutes.

Morin said the recommendation will likely be brought to a vote when the full board meets Wednesday, and he expects the measure to pass.

We look forward to continuing our work and hope to keep Lowell informed about their government. We’re still here and we’re not going anywhere!

Update: helps to link to the article!

City Council packet and agenda posted on Move Lowell Forward’s home page, as well as the schedule for upcoming SC meetings (note: this week’s budget hearing was postponed to next week due to the impending snow).

Oh the hits keep on coming with Charlie Baker! He admits to being “absolutely am not smart enough.” The reason? He doesn’t want to give us an answer on where he stands in regards to tackling global climate change. This was his clarification, mind you, on a comment given at the Suffolk Law School.

Said Baker, “I can get eight professors from MIT on both sides of this issue and no one in this room will walk away understanding what they said about climate change.”

Um, sadly, no, Mr. Baker. The professors at MIT are too smart not to look at the scientific evidence and conclude we are, by burning up carbon once locked away for millions of years, changing our planet’s climate. There’s a consensus in the science community, and if you can’t get even a layperson’s understanding of this issue, how the hell can we trust you’ll do so for any other complex issue facing the Commonwealth? We don’t need that kind of nonleadership.

This is pretty incredible. Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker made a pretty gianormous pull-it-out-of-your-butt assertion about Romney leaving office with a mythological 5 BILLION dollar surplus (which he claims Patrick squandered). From Adrian Walker (bold mine):

When I reached him yesterday, Baker basically said he had misspoken. He meant to call it a “budget fund balance’’ and claimed the difference is essentially one of semantics.

“I tried to come up with a term that a Joe Q. Citizen could recognize,’’ he said. “I may have called it a surplus yesterday. I didn’t call it a surplus today.’’

The problem is, they aren’t the same thing. A surplus is what it sounds like, the amount of money left over after the operating budget is accounted for. Romney has claimed that he left the state with a $1 billion surplus, and even that is a stretch.

Hey voters, Baker is calling you dumb! How do you like them apples? (By the way, Walker also takes down the myth that past Republican governors were all that fiscally conservative in the first place.)

Apparently, Baker is using the same math that the Bush administration did, for instance when Bush kept all of the costs for his wars in a separate bill from the budget and therefore claiming, hey, look, our budgets aren’t THAT unbalanced. Uh huh. That worked out real good for the country; seems like Baker wants to do the same to Massachusetts. No thanks.

Joan Vennochi also tackles this gross misrepresentation of the truth. Oh, and she also reminds us,

When the Big Dig was short on cash, state officials found a way to fund it. They borrowed $1.5 billion against future highway aid, a debt that left various transportation agencies in economic shambles and a public transit system in dire straits.

Baker was top financial adviser to Cellucci at the time, but he refuses to accept any responsibility for Big Dig decisions made on his watch. They don’t fit the fiscal genius myth he cultivates.

Baker had a large roll in the punt-it-down-the-road decisions made over the Big Dig back then, but now he’s trying to run on being all fiscally smart and stuff. I hope that Massachusetts voters aren’t going to fall for it.

(Links via BMG.)

This Saturday, Governor Patrick will be in Chelmsford for an event open to the public, at the Java Room, 14 Littleton Rd. from around noon to 1pm.

Come on in, ask your questions, come listen to and meet the Governor.

Pretty cool event, the Lowell Film Collaborative is screening “The Invention of Lying” on Thursday, Feb. 18 at 7PM at The Old Court (upstairs), $5 at the door. This Lowell-shot movie, as you probably know, has a metric ton of familiar faces, Lowellians mugging for the camera as extras. Plus familiar places!

I am ashamed to admit I didn’t see this in the theaters, yeah I know, so I’m gonna try to make this one.

Investors have pulled out of the Billerica power plant development.

This development is significant, said Fitzpatrick, because it could remove the Billerica Energy Center from ISO New England’s waiting list to provide electricity to the region. ISO New England is the organization that operates the regional power grid.

“We’ve communicated (to ISO-New England) we are no longer actively developing the project,” said Fitzpatrick.

Mentioned also is that the plan could always be revived in a few years but losing its place on the ISO list is a pretty final thing for the current plan.