What this report will mean for the Town budget remains to be seen. We heard last week (Joint Budget Subcommittee meeting) that the Town is expecting to get the new health care rates in a couple of weeks. Both Town and School budgets forecast an increase of 5-8 percent:
"After years of ever-increasing spending on health care that left policymakers struggling to contain costs, Massachusetts finally found the key to lowering spending on health care: a global pandemic.
Ironically, spending on health care declined by 2.4 percent in Massachusetts in 2020, an unprecedented drop that can be attributed to fewer people seeking care during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report released Monday by the Center for Health Information and Analysis."
Continue reading the article online
A logical extension of MA law to include early childhood education in the overall education system to bring about more equity is going to cost.
"MASSACHUSETTS’S EARLY CHILDHOOD education system is unaffordable and inaccessible to too many families, and it will cost an estimated $1.5 billion a year to improve it, according to a report released Monday by a special legislative commission looking at the economics of early education and care.
The commission, led by Education Committee co-chairs Sen. Jason Lewis and Rep. Alice Peisch, calls for expanding the subsidies available to families while increasing financial support to childcare centers themselves and their workers. But it stops short of calling for universal public pre-kindergarten, as some activists have been calling for. "
Continue reading the article online
https://commonwealthmagazine.org/economy/fixing-early-ed-system-could-cost-1-5-billion-a-year/
https://commonwealthmagazine.org/economy/fixing-early-ed-system-could-cost-1-5-billion-a-year/
Moving the public transit system to reduce the use of fossil fuels is timely and necessary:
"WARNING THAT the pace of electrification underway for the MBTA’s bus fleet is “too slow for the Legislature,” a top senator is newly forecasting that his chamber plans to make the transportation sector a focus in upcoming climate legislation.Sen. Michael Barrett, who co-chairs the Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy Committee, told leaders of the Baker administration’s transportation secretariat on Friday that he expects a forthcoming Senate bill will make another pass at requiring the T to transition its bus network to full electrification by a specific date. "
Continue reading the article online
 |
| State News Roundup: health care costs; early childhood education; transit system electrification |
No comments:
Post a Comment