Officials at Boston University are bracing for impending cuts to research funding and financial aid after U.S. President Barack Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 into law Friday as part of Congress’s failure to agree on a deal avoiding the sequester. “The faculty has been more cautious with their spending,” said Jennifer Grodsky, vice president for BU Federal […]
An online map tool released Wednesday reveals the impact that Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick’s 2014 budget proposal will have on transportation and education funding in each district if the legislature passes it in 2013. “We hope people will see that, through this budget proposal, the city or town will be funded — transportation and education,” said Bonnie McGilpin, deputy press […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is looking to gather input on private student loans from borrowers and lenders, a policy Boston University faculty and students said will bring beneficial reform and lead to fewer student loan defaults. “The data are pretty clear that students are stuck with huge amounts of loans and then they default on it,” Sambuddha Ghosh, an […]
Redirecting tax-based aid to be more available for low-income students could both increase college enrollment and completion rates for such students, and serve to strengthen the economy, according to a new report. “The reason it [tax-based aid] is more accessible to higher-income families is that the aid is delivered through the income tax system,” said Patrick Reimherr, an author of […]
Massachusetts legislators are considering a bill that, if passed, would gradually increase the minimum wage to $11/hour over the next three years — an even more ambitious wage increase than that proposed by U.S. President Barack Obama. Massachusetts’s minimum wage is one of the highest in the country, but state legislators are concerned that $8 is insufficient to cover the […]
In an attempt to alleviate the highest debt burden of any U.S. transit agency, Massachusetts politicians proposed a regional tax imposed by the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority in the operating areas of the transit service. “The state needs to solve the problem that the [MBTA] has,” said Mass. Sen. William Brownsberger, author of the proposal. “But in the fall of […]
Boston real estate agencies are feeling the increase in demand for condominium sales and recognize that for many people, the best time to buy is now, agents said. “Newly renovated suites in the South End, Back Bay and Beacon Hill are very attractive to buyers,” said Eden Edwards, real estate agent at Metropolitan Boston Real Estate. “The opportunity to purchase […]
Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick spoke to state legislators Feb. 13, asking them to support his reformed tax plan which would generate an additional $1.9 billion annually for the Commonwealth. The plan was met with mixed responses. Patrick addressed a crowd outside the State House and asked them to consider the financial future of the Commonwealth. “We must — each of […]
Several Massachusetts-based defense companies have faced a less fiscally supportive U.S. government due to cutbacks in federal military spending, and with more automatic cuts scheduled to take place at the beginning of March, the bad news might not be over. In Massachusetts, where economic growth has been slow in the defense contracting industry, these cuts could jeopardize nearly 60,000 jobs, according to a report released […]
U.S. Rep. Ed Markey and U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch agreed to a “People’s Pledge” Wednesday to keep money spent by independent groups out of the Senate campaign to fill Secretary of State John Kerry’s former seat. “Because the candidates agree that they do not approve of such independent expenditure advertisements and/or direct mail, and want those advertisements and/or direct mail to immediately cease and desist […]
