Worcester Business Journal

36 Worcester Business Journal • June 8, 2015 www.wbjournal.com T hree years ago, Massachusetts voters approved the medical use of marijuana via a binding ballot referendum. Now with two states having made recreational pot legal and others leaning that way, should voters here decide that too? Last month, Senate President Stanley Rosenberg said he has floated the idea of a non-binding ballot question for 2016. Should a ballot question on legalizing marijuana be binding? Most of last week's Flash Poll voters said it should. Should a 2016 ballot referendum calling for the legalization of marijuana be binding or not binding? Marijuana for all? Let voters' decision count Best Advertising Agency Best Web Design Firm Proud Winner of Two 2015 Best of Business Awards COMMENTS: Join the WBJ's LinkedIn discussion group by scanning the code to the left on your smartphone. To scan the code, you need the NeoReader. Visit get.neoreader.com to download it onto your phone. Want to participate in the conversation? T he state Senate has agreed to put the MBTA under the management of a fiscal control board, a priority of Gov. Charlie Baker after this year's severe winter weather caused equipment breakdowns, as well as service delays and widespread cancellations on the public transit system. The T is important here in Central Massachusetts since the commuter rail lines that extend to Worcester, Fitchburg and Franklin bring workers into and out of the region. Will a fiscal control board help? Most respondents to our poll for the week of May 25 said "yes." Will a new state-run fiscal control board help improve operations and properly establish the MBTA's spending priorities? Readers endorse fiscal control board for the T COMMENTS: F L A S H P O L L O T H E R V O I C E S 55% Binding "If the majority (wants) it, you should give it. We are a democratic society, after all." "We should not even consider it. Allowing it will only lead to more use and more people using it." 54% Yes "The only good from this is that the government can tax it." "Is this just another board? Will it actually have fiscal controls? The devil is in the details. Who manages the board?" "The old system was more like a fiefdom." 37% Not binding 8% Not sure A roundup of recent opinions and perspectives from other major Massachusetts media: "Gov. Charlie Baker should put his famed management expertise to work to solve this problem, which appears to have been around as long as elevators themselves." Boston Herald editorial (May 28) on the state's failure to keep up with mandatory safety inspections of elevators. "He never shied away from hot-button issues and his frankness earned him critics, most recently when he balked at backing a measure to support the local Police Department in the wake of racial tensions in Ferguson, Missouri." Telegram & Gazette columnist Dianne Williamson (May 31) on Worcester City Councilor Frederick "Rick" Rushton, who will not seek re-election this year. "There's no need for dubious changes made via lightly scrutinized budget amendments." Boston Globe (May 30), arguing against a bill before the state legislature that would let cities and towns set rates for ambulance trips that originate in their jurisdictions and require that payments be made directly to the ambulance company. Currently, rates are established through negotiations between insurers and ambulance companies. "It will help but a non-state-run control board would be much better." 15% No 31% Can't tell at this point

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