Showing posts with label Boston Fed Res. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boston Fed Res. Show all posts

Friday, July 8, 2011

"consciously and carefully readjust policy parameters over time"

This paper provides an updated analysis of underlying municipal fiscal health, using a measure of municipal gap and recent data for Massachusetts cities and towns. The analysis shows that large disparities in municipal gaps exist among cities and towns, and that the disparities have grown in recent years. 
Created for the purpose of fiscal equalization, unrestricted municipal aid is not highly correlated with municipal gaps in Massachusetts. In fact, municipal gaps cannot explain the majority of the variation in municipal aid. This partly reflects large ad hoc aid cuts over the past 20 years. The consolidation of municipal aid programs in FY 2010 has not improved the aid distribution—that consolidation has simply perpetuated the existing inequity.
For those really interested in the systemic fiscal problems that Franklin and by extension the Commonwealth of MA faces in the redistribution of state aid, this paper from the Boston Federal Reserve Bank is a good read. I would love to obtain the full data set used to see where Franklin falls on the charts. The paper identifies the top 10 cities but stops there.

For the full text of this paper you can follow this link to the Federal Reserve website and download or view the PDF.



Sunday, April 10, 2011

How does New Hampshire do it?

New Hampshire is noted for its state liquor stores and no personal income tax. Yet they also have the highest property tax in New England. You have probably been part of a discussion on the pros and cons of what they do versus other states.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has just published their analysis with interesting results. New Hampshire is able to do what it does "in part because of favorable circumstances. States with needier populations or higher costs will likely spend more to provide the same level of services." The report shows ways in which MA and other New England states have needier populations and higher costs.

The report acknowledges that New Hampshire "has also made some policy choices to keep spending low and avoid broad based taxes." So can we do what they did? The report goes on to say that "some choices may be infeasible in the current environment or inappropriate in states with different preferences for public services."

So the bottom line works out to be, if you like MA stay here. If you think you like NH and the way they do things, go there. How NH does what they do doesn't translate well to other states.


FedResBkBoston_neppcrr1101-nhbriefing


This is the report summary. You can find the full report and accompanying tables of supporting figures on the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston website: http://www.bostonfed.org/news/press/2011/pr040711.htm

Note: email subscribers will need to click through to Franklin Matters to view the document.

Franklin, MA

Monday, December 20, 2010

Inside the chicken and egg story

Christopher L. Foote, a senior economist and policy advisor in the research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, currently serves as advisor to the Center for Behavioral Economics and Decisionmaking. Chris covers the "Great Recession" in a series of segments from one talk for the Boston Fed with good insights specifically for MA and New England.


The first of the series is available at this link. The remainder in the series can be found within the video player on the Boston Fed Reserve website. The player allows for linking but not embedding.

http://www.bos.frb.org/videos/index.htm?bcpid=645289453001&bckey=AQ~~,AAAAGFYn89E~,aFDfVsMsQ7Xbd2TWIkONvAkTltKaGd6w&bclid=701977326001&bctid=704600475001




Franklin, MA