Yes, they can use more effective cost saving methods; however, the systemic reasons for its fiscal problems come from sources outside their governing and administrative purview.

If elected to the state Legislature, I will seek ways to relieve the unfair burden of debt that has been placed upon the MBTA, in addition to its own operating and daily costs.

Political support to do so is needed, as well as that from the public and business sectors of our state. I will advocate for this networking to occur and provide time to make it happen.

Any comprehensive solution to the T’s budget crisis must consider the overall challenges facing our transportation infrastructure as well, particularly with a proactive eye to our future and to our future generations. Shared problem finding and problem solving must be borne by all the major stakeholders in this area of our economy.

Sustainable and green economic measures are also necessary to use in an approach that holds everyone to be equitable and fair while advocating for increasing use of our systems of public transit.

20th century kneejerk approaches to 21st century challenges only keep us in a reactive and ineffective ability to leap forward into this new century. We have the ability, the ingredients, and the power to lead our state into a restoration of the values we hold toward achieving a higher quality of life in a democratic society.

The mutual working relationship that has been encouraged and established in this issue results in creating a positive rather than a punitive regard between the Health Policy Commission and those entities subject to the performance improvement plan requirements.

Massachusetts now has the enviable opportunity to present a working model for other states and the federal government in regard to further creating a similar public/private partnership in promoting cost containment strategies.

I believe that the measures thus far enacted, along with the coalition of supporters who have brought this reform into being, is a real opportunity to provide relief in healthcare costs to our businesses, to our citizens, and to our economy.

We have a cost-growth plan that is multi-layered in its approach to rising costs.

It builds on past, recent, and present-day reforms.

It offers groundbreaking approaches and solutions based on our economic marketplace.

It helps free up monies that can go to other critical areas and services in our economy as well as give start-up companies and established businesses in our local regions more money for research and development and expansion.

This act creates no new major government agency. It has been freed from political meddling as it does not contain itself in a one-size-fits-everything model that is saturated in bureaucratic over regulation.

The mere fact that, here in Massachusetts, we are trying to reign in such expenses is admirable. It remains a model of bipartisan support that is in complete contrast to what other states and the federal government are presently experiencing.

The educational historian Diane Ravitch has characterized 95 percent of the charter school movement in our nation to be non-union, and that it follows an unsustainable practice of making its teachers work unusually long hours.

The current framework of private to public schools cannot work well because it creates political positioning, bargaining, dealing, and trade-offs among competing political interests.

I do not support raising the cap on charter schools because the public money to do so simply is not there. Also, charter schools embrace a philosophy that needs to stand on its own, be funded on its own, and run on its own as a private, independent school enterprise.

Public tax dollars need to be used in raising our standards and adhering to the principles of an open democracy, which public schools follow, model, and are responsible for demonstrating.

The notion of charter schools is based on the for-profit business model. They should be run on that basis in the private sphere, allowing needed competition and choice for those who wish to engage in its practice.

The idea of a charter school is one in which the marketplace will help run it. Running over to the public treasury to help run it corrupts charter school thinking. Doing so dishonors its own creed of operation, interferes with its philosophical focus of education, and betrays the conservative notion of avoiding further draining of our tax dollars.

The public school movement is one of the greatest movements in history. It has helped this nation attain the great achievements it has made that, otherwise, could never have happened. Diluting its promise by draining resources away from itself weakens the power of its effectiveness.

1. They provide uniform wages, benefits, overtime pay, hours, working conditions, and work rules for work on major construction projects.

2. They provide contractors with a reliable and uninterrupted supply of qualified workers at predictable costs.

3. They ensure that a project will be completed on time and on budget due to the supply of qualified labor and relative ease of project management.

4. They ensure no labor strife by prohibiting strikes and lockouts and including binding procedures to resolve labor disputes.

5. They make large projects easier to manage by placing unions under one contract, the PLA, rather than dealing with several unions that may have different wage and benefit structures.

6. They may include provisions to recruit and train workers by requiring contractors to participate in recruitment, apprenticeship, and training programs for women, minorities, veterans, and other under-represented groups (this is a common CWA provision).

7. They reduce the misclassification of workers and the related underpayment of payroll taxes, workers compensation, and other requirements.

8. They may mean a larger percentage of construction wages stay in state.

9. They may improve worker safety by requiring contractors and workers to comply with project safety rules.

Community workforce agreements (CWAs) are also provisions in PLAs that include targeted building trade hiring provisions to create employment and career paths for low-income or under-represented people.

PLAs have a positive impact in creating career paths for women, minorities, veterans, and other under-represented populations. Developing qualified workers in the construction trades, and including people who historically were under-represented in the trades, has positive long-term economic benefits for the industry.

1. Future public employees are seemingly being singled out to help solve an unfunded liability that they did not create.

2. Find ways to encourage young people to seek jobs as police officers, firefighters, and teachers.

3. Maintaining economic oversight into the savings made from these reforms is important to the state’s bond rating. If rating agencies lose confidence in state government finances, our state rating could be reduced. Such a rating decrease would increase the cost of our borrowing money.

4. Find ways of state pension reform that reflect a shared-sacrifice approach.

5. In order to help our state government run in a consistent and proactive manner, we need to ensure that our state workers are encouraged to stay in the public sector rather than bolt for the private one when the economy experiences more productive times.

1. Restore the income tax rate to 5.95% (its rate in 1999).

2. Increase the tax rate on dividend and interest income, raising $700 million to invest in our state if there is an exemption for moderate income seniors.

3. Raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour.

4. I would like to see a graduated income tax similar to the federal Alternative Minimum Tax, keeping the flat rate, but imposing an additional tax for income above a certain level.

5. Support a resolution calling on Massachusetts’ Congressional delegation to vote to reduce the federal military budget 25 percent and use the savings for jobs, housing, education, healthcare, and aid to the states.

6. Everyone should be participating in shared sacrifice and contribute to the common good by paying their fair share of taxes, especially those who can afford to do so.

7. Continue the reforms being made to our health insurance system.

8. Continue with the reforms being made to our state pension system.

There are a number of programs and line items that could be pruned from state spending so that we can have additional financial resources for critical appropriations such as local aid and transportation.

The Legislature can set an example by tightening its belt first. Why do we need a House Committee on Personnel & Administration to dole out office space and assign staffing levels when we have a House personnel office which does the very same thing? We can also get by with fewer court officers at the State House. These reforms would allow us to whittle down the more than $39 million for legislative operations.