Two Guys Promoting in the Mass Budget Transparency Project

Dear Hecate:

I read an op-ed in the Boston Globe about something called the Budget Transparency Project that was written by Noah Berger from the Mass Budget and Policy Center, a former policy director for a Democratic Senate President and Steve Crosby from the UMASS McCormack Institute, a former Secretary of Administration and Finance for a Republican Governor. Frankly I was surprised to see these two experts of hidden agendas and mixed messages agreeing that there ought to be a transparent policy making process. What gives?

Hecate says:

It's bigger than those two -- the Massachusetts Budget Transparency Project also includes two very savvy tough women. The first is Katherine Craven, former Policy Director of the House under Tom Finneran and the second is Katherine Gibson former VP at the Federal Reserve Bank. Two other experienced and highly regarded guys on the project are John McGinn former Budget Director of Senate Ways and Means and Mike Widmer President of the Mass Taxpayers Foundation.

Trust me, all six of these folks have had the occassion to be on opposite sides of a policy debate many times. I bet if we did a little research we could find at least one issue where they were all facing each other on different sides of a hexigon debate.

Noah will be briefing participants at the Public Policy Institute's Insider Budget Briefing on October 19th if you want to find out more.