BOSTON - A study released today by The Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University shows that a proposed increase in the state minimum wage would lead to the destruction of 26,970 jobs, the preponderance of which would be among low wage workers, women workers and workers 20 and older. It would also raise consumer prices and, in doing so, reduce the ability of state businesses, particularly businesses located near the New Hampshire border, to attract customers.
Beacon
Hill Institute Survey 2005: Half of all respondents expect Massachusetts economy
to improve in 2005; Fiscal conservatives divided on health care mandates, tax
breaks for biotech industry and tobacco taxes; Respondents continue to support
right to buy Canadian prescription drugs.
Respondents
to the Beacon Hill Institute’s 2005 State of the Household Survey are more
optimistic about the national economy than about the state economy and more
optimistic about the state economy than about their personal finances. While
64% believe that the national economy will improve this year, only 50% are similarly
hopeful about the Massachusetts economy. Fifty percent (50%) see their household
finances as neither improving nor worsening with only 34% seeing improvement.
Only 21% believe that their own economic standing and that of the state is improving
as they enter the new year. MORE
Press Release with summary table PDF
From
NewsLink Winter 2005
It is not often
in the annals of history that peaceful revolutions evoke peaceful transitions.
But in December in Kiev, Ukraine in the midst of electoral turmoil, the atmosphere
did not fit the definition of a wide-ranging revolution. The waves of orange,
the choice color of reformers in the streets, became etched in memory.
Where
three years earlier protestors clashed with police, the Orange Revolution remained
benevolent in the aftermath of a corrupt election won by Moscow-backed Victor
Yanukovich.
The once unpopular police guarding the presidential compound, convinced that their fellow countrymen meant no harm, soon allowed their shields to be draped in orange flowers and ribbons. Journalists also became a part of the revolution by revolting against government control and strict censorship on the part of both the government and the owners of private media. December 2004 was a thrilling time to be in this renowned city and I, as a Ukrainian native, consider myself privileged to have been there to experience it. (More)