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Print Edition StoriesWednesday, February 3, 2010
Policy Tracker
Mass. rep. complains of IT systems; Entrepreneurs don't plan to hire
MHT's Jackie Noblett: VC funds run short in 2009
MHT's Galen Moore: Honoring innovation in New England
Companies born in the recession
Mass. Rep: IT systems in cities and towns ‘insufficient’
A top Massachusetts lawmaker is pushing for regionalization of local services in cities and towns, particularly in the area of information technology systems. Rep. Paul Donato, house chair of the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government, said most towns have “insufficient” systems to protect municipal data from viruses, security breaches and hardware malfunctions.
Donato’s comments came at a meeting of a regionalization advisory commission charged with reviewing opportunities for cities and towns to combine education, public safety, public health, housing, veterans’ services, transportation and municipal finance functions.
Linda Dunlavy, executive director of the Franklin Regional Council of Governments, said information technology is a “growing concern for any governmental entity,” with new technologies offering “more potential for breaches.”
“The majority of communities have fewer than 10,000 people,” said Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, a member of the commission. “The fundamental inefficiency in our system is staggering. Virtually every town has one of everything. It’s so inefficient.”
— State House News Service
Entrepreneurs don’t plan to hire
More than 70 percent of entrepreneurs don’t plan to hire additional employees this year, according to a survey conducted this month for the Kauffman Foundation.
One-third had to reduce the size of their work force last year, the survey found.
That’s “a pretty grim picture,” said Carl Schramm, the foundation’s president and CEO, since new firms account for most of the nation’s job growth.
More than 60 percent of the entrepreneurs said the economy is on the wrong track, and a majority think the recession will continue for at least another year. More than 40 percent cited the ability to generate jobs as the economic problem facing the country that worries them the most. More than two-thirds of those surveyed favor expansion of R&D tax credits, temporary elimination of payroll taxes and expanded lending by the Small Business Administration. Schramm, whose foundation focuses on entrepreneurship, said entrepreneurs start new businesses even during economic downturns.
— Kent Hoover, ACBJ Wire Service
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