Radical Ideas for the T and Housing Affordability (insurance, taxes)

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by iAMtheVVALRUS

Can I get a list of companies that have moved from MA to NH?
.

Allegro Microsystems for one, as for a complete list that could take a while.

[btownboss4]

Originally Posted by iAMtheVVALRUS

Can I get a list of companies that have moved from MA to NH?



Revamped in what ways? Like removing stops or merging routes?

It doesn’t help that buses are subject to the same awful street traffic as cars.

Bus Lanes, straighten routes (eg some swerve off main roads) invest in greater frequencies on key routes, More bus shelters, they are working on all doors boarding, look into more effective routes, most of them have not changed since the 1910s streetcar routes. And yes looking into stop consolidation.

Revamping Bus systems has lead to a 3% increase in Detroit while the city has lost population. Columbus has seen a 5% y/y increase with a new and improved system (with more increases this year), as has Indy.

Meanwhile cities like Charlotte and LA that have done significant rail expansions have seen ridership drop sharply because they neglected their busses.

Something as small as not getting rained or being able to sit while waiting on would go a long way in getting people to take the bus.

[Bridge781]

No one else thinks work from home is the answer? For jobs that can.

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

1. Connecticut is the way it is because it failed to invest in its cities and urbanism and still does. it offers even more power to towns than does massachusetts. A graduated income tax is not the cause of tis woes. It was implementing an income tax at all for the first time in 1991. It was a tax haven from NYC, it implemented the graduated tax in 1996 but Connecticut was already very much in trouble by then. That and lack of public transit and education reforms did far far more damage than a graduated income tax.

2. You ignored what i said about an incentive and exception for maintenance and upgrade. Los Angeles also has rent control. Cambridge had rent control in the 1990s. New York City still has rent control. That argument is kind of dead, its far to oversimplistic and ignores a host of other economic and social ills.

3. High rents encourage folks to sublet -look at the airbnb market and why Boston had to add regulations. Take a look online and see how many thousands of sublets you see in Boston right this very second.

4. Under Patrick we fantastically weathered the Great Recession, implemented universal health care, improved and laready fantastic our educational standing in public schools, began the revitalization of some gateway cities, and was popular. He was horrific-he just was governor in 2009 and not 2019. People just have short memories.

Rent controls do not work. Boston zoning legally is different from the rest of the state. Residency requirements lock municple employees in areas with little market rare apartments so the lack of competion cases an increase in rents. Boston has 30,000 city employees.

Patrick was not popular. We didn't get cape wind and didn't get the movie studio in Plymouth. 50-55% is a majority but it wasn't a landslide https://www.wbur.org/news/2014/01/21...trick-approval health are was signed by Romney in 2006.

California has Prop 13 which has devastated affordibilty in the state.

We cannot lower prices for anything without competition. Mandating prices is a Nixon Era policy. Look at prevailing wages. They set mandatory minimums and many small and medium sized minority firms can't pay them. So they fall behind.

There are many ways to increase affordibilty in mass. Patrick threatened to regionalize housing authorities and lay off thousands. The compromise is gradually taking shape.

Do you know mass building code laws? If you improve a property beyond 30% then it all has to come up to code. Well that prevents renovations in western and Central mass.


Residency requirements, historical districts, prevailing wages, height restrictions, rent controls and building code all add to the costs of new production.

Of course most work these days is non physical. Just telecommute and use infrastructure for first responder response.

[bugelrex]

Originally Posted by mdovell

Do you know mass building code laws? If you improve a property beyond 30% then it all has to come up to code.

Wow, i did not know this. I thought they only forced a full electrical rewire. This explains why most houses have really dated interiors.. even the ones which look very nice from the outside.

Is there a loophole where you rennovate just 1 room each year to avoid the 30% threshold?

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by iAMtheVVALRUS

Can I get a list of companies that have moved from MA to NH?

With a 5.05% flat income tax, they don't have to. I used to reverse commute from Winchester to Salem NH. There was no point in doing the tax avoidance. If you put in California or NY graduated tax rates, you'd see a ton of tax avoidance among 1%ers. There are already a ton of people on the NH seacoast who have done it.

[BosYuppie]

Electrify the commuter rail to at least 128 and put up big collector garages/lots. You will get a majority of the inside-128 commuter traffic off the roads and free up deisel resources for the outer ring.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

With a 5.05% flat income tax, they don't have to. I used to reverse commute from Winchester to Salem NH. There was no point in doing the tax avoidance. If you put in California or NY graduated tax rates, you'd see a ton of tax avoidance among 1%ers. There are already a ton of people on the NH seacoast who have done it.

From what I hear of companies who have moved operations to NH, it's more a matter of less congestion (and space availability) and also being closer to their employees.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by BosYuppie

Electrify the commuter rail to at least 128 and put up big collector garages/lots. You will get a majority of the inside-128 commuter traffic off the roads and free up deisel resources for the outer ring.

Makes zero sense, are you talking about switching locomotives mid trip??? Electrify the whole dam thing.

[sawyer2]

Rent control is counter productive in the long term to increasing affordable housing supply.... one of the few things that economists agree on