On today’s program, we speak with the president of Encore Boston Harbor, Jenny Holaday about their enormous success. We also speak with state Senator Barry Finegold from Andover Massachusetts about efforts to regulate AI. William McNamara, Comptroller for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts updates us on the states financial health. The executive editor of the Boston Business Journal shares reporting on the situation surrounding offshore wind projects. And finally, Tom Furrier owner of Cambridge Typewriter in Arlington talks about closing his store.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the New England Business Report with Joe short
Sleeve and Kim Carrigan, a weekly roundup and discussion of
the top business news impacting our New England economy.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
And Good Morning.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Good Sunday morning, January the twenty sixth, Welcome to the
New England Business Report here on WRKO, Joe short Sleeve
Kim Carrigan joining you on this Sunday morning. Kim, you know,
I'm looking at the calendar going, oh, this is the
last show in January. I mean, February is next week.
But there's a ray of hope though. I wanted to
(00:30):
share with you because last Thursday the Red Sox started
selling tickets for their April and May games, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
So I'm trying the boys of Summer.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I'm trying to put a positive spin on us.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
You know, I'll give you a positive spin.
Speaker 5 (00:46):
And maybe other people who are listening heard this this week,
but are some of our television meteorologists. We're talking about
the fact that this past week is traditionally the coldest
week of the year. We of course didn't let us down.
It gets a little better. So I don't know, Joe,
this is just a lot of positivity on a Sunday morning.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I know it.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Who can stomach that? Let let's move well, talk about positivity.
How about how about this story? I mean, and I'm
talking about I'm Today's program, folks. We bring it all
to you. We're going to bring you the president of
on Core Boston Harbor, Jenny Holliday. Okay, now why well,
because Encore it is staggering success here.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Now, there are two hundred and thirty five casinos outside
of the state of Nevada, two thirty five. Guess we're
on core ranks in terms of gross gaming revenue number three. Yeah,
I mean, it's seven hundred and fifty million dollars. It's
just it's staggering what's going on there.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Now.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Kim is going to be doing the interview with Jenny
Holiday in Today's program in just a few minutes. I'm
not going to take part because my daughter is an
executive over there at on Core Boston Harbor and has
been since they opened the doors in twenty nineteen, so
it's not appropriate for me to, you know, be part
of that. But Kim's gonna have a block a right, Kim.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
Absolutely, we're going to talk to Jenny and you know
what I really think is interesting because you and I
have been talking to Jenny since they opened those doors.
You know, she has been around chatting, and I'm anxious
to ask her about the influence that sports betting has
had or has not had on that bottom line over there.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
You know, I think it might be more has not
because they built I think the whole facility on the
gaming floor, right and when you go there, it's somewhat
empty because I mean basically, I think when people do this,
they're doing it.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I'm going a cell phone in their.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Car, you got it. So that's that's a little something
to chat with her about.
Speaker 6 (02:36):
All right.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
We're also going to be talking with the state Senator
Barry fine Gold from and over there on the North
Shore and efforts to regulate AI. Now he's a co
chair of the Economic Development Community up there on Beacon Hill.
I don't know, I see this headline I go regulate AI.
I mean, I feel like the horses not only have
left the barn, they're already running around the field. I mean,
how how how do we you know, ring, how do
(02:57):
we do this? I don't know how we do this?
With that should be a good conversation.
Speaker 5 (03:01):
Yeah, well he's doing with the backdrop of the idea
that we did not regulate social media? Are we going
to let this get out of hand as well? So
that'll be an interesting conversation. Then, of course, we are
going to in the second half of the show, we're
going to be talking to the Comptroller of Massachusetts, William
McNamar nara.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Now you may be saying to yourself, what does the
comptroller do?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
That's what I was saying.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Hello, So we're going to talk to him about what
he does.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
I will tell you this, he is very much involved
with the budget of the state and a lot has
been going on this last week associated with the budget
of the state, So we'll get some information from him
about that as well. Boston Business Journal executive editor Doug
Banks is going to join us. It's going to talk
to us about a number of things that have been
in the Journal this week, including the fact that one
(03:55):
of the big impacts Joe of the new administration on
the state, which we knew, is wind energy and some
of these projects. Now former President Biden tried to protect
some of those before he left office.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
We are going to talk to Doug.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
Banks about, you know, what that was all about, what
he tried to protect and where that may be going
from here.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
The headline suggests that they are protected, at least two
of them are, but you read deeper into these articles
and yeah, it is a real question mark.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
And we're going to be chatting with Tom frier Ear.
He is the owner of Cambridge Typewriter Company in Arlington.
He's owned that business for forty five years and in
March he is saying goodbye, and we're going to talk
to him about that bittersweet goodbye and why it's time
to close the shop. It kind of beatle pulls at
(04:49):
your heartstrings.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Well, you know, typewriters are back, and so are record players.
I can tell you that here around Christmas time. We've
got a record player going now and we're actually buying
records down on Main Street in hiatas well.
Speaker 7 (05:02):
Joe.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
Let's get started with our first guest now. She is
the president of one of the most lucrative casinos in
the US outside of Las Vegas. We are joined by
on Care Boston Harbor's Jenny Holiday and it's great to
have you, Jenny. Congratulations on these incredible numbers.
Speaker 8 (05:19):
Oh, it's always nice to hang out with you, Kim,
and thank you so much. You know how proud we
are of our little gim.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Over here that I do.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
Well, let's fill everybody in on what I'm talking about here. Recently,
the figures were compiled by the American Gaming Association, and
for those who don't know, that's a trade group that
represents the casino industry, and they show those numbers that
on Core Boston Harbor ranked third overall in gross gaming
revenue in twenty twenty three. Now, that is out of
(05:49):
two hundred and thirty five commercial casinos that are outside
of Nevada and Mississippi. That is absolutely incredible. Jenny, tell me,
first off, were you guys I'm sure probably not, but
were you somewhat surprised by the volume and the numbers?
Speaker 8 (06:08):
Oh my goodness, no, Kim. You know how competitive I
am actually Our size and scope and how top shelf
we are outside of the Vegas competitive set has been
one of my most favorite speaking points whenever I'm talking
to our employees or being interviewed, because we're such an
amazing unicorn. So not only are we number three in
(06:29):
revenue outside of Las Vegas, we are the only casino
resort outside of Las Vegas of that scale. That's also
a five star Forbes Travel Guide property. So we are
so special. And of course the other thing that makes
us very unique is the fact that we operate in
such a world class city. You know, not a lot
of casino markets have the benefit of operating in the
(06:50):
Commonwealth like we do, and we're incredibly proud to do so.
So no, we've been We've been well aware of our standing,
and I must consess somewhat boastful whenever I've had the
opportunity to talk about it, because it's pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
It's really cool. It's not just pretty cool.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Talk a little bit about the numbers, Jenny, so the
people understand what we're talking about.
Speaker 8 (07:10):
So over the last twelve months, our gross gaming revenue,
which is measured that the AGA was using to create
this list ours was about seven hundred and fifty million dollars,
which is the total top line revenue that you bring
in from your casino operation. So that's the number that
they were quoting.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
Yeah, and that's outside of you know, the resort itself.
Speaker 8 (07:35):
Yes, exactly. We are actually just shy of under a
billion dollars from a revenue standpoint. For the whole resort.
The gaming revenue is about eighty percent of our revenue
and our non gaming revenue is the other twenty We
will be a billion dollar resort someday. I've been making
that promise as long as I've been the president here.
We will get there. But yeah, no, it's it's a
very unique and beautiful property. And I think you know
(07:58):
when we talk about this team and how amazing this
team is, how dedicated they are to these customer experiences
that are what creates these financial results. You know, we're
just we're blessed.
Speaker 9 (08:10):
You know.
Speaker 8 (08:10):
I always say serving here has been the privilege of
my lifetime and I couldn't be prouder.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
So, Jenny, when this casino opened, which is helped me
out here, we're over five years?
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Are we six years in? Is that about where we
are here?
Speaker 8 (08:25):
We will be in June. We opened in June of
twenty nineteen.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
Yeah, which you know, I want everybody to keep in mind,
you guys open in June of nineteen. That gave you
six months essentially before COVID started, and then we all
lived through that, and your casino survived through that. But
the projections were sort of close to this and I
know there are other casinos in the state that have
(08:50):
opened and they've had these pretty lofty projections and they've
never reached them. Why do you think it is, And
I know you've stated some of the reasons, but why
do you think it is that Encore has been able
to reach those projections.
Speaker 8 (09:02):
Yeah, I'm so glad you brought that up, Kim, because
that's one of the things I heard a lot when
I first got here, is we're our projection too lofty.
And you're exactly right. The industry sort of has the
reputation for over promising and then under delivering. So that's
the other reason why we are so proud here is
that we actually are delivering the results that we were
expected to deliver all along. I think what makes it
(09:24):
possible for us to meet those projections. First of all,
the facility. I mean, we spent two point six billion
dollars building this gorgeous resort, and I think it shows
in every nook and cranny. We're incredibly lucky. The man
who was in charge of I think this is correct,
it was the single it was the largest single construction
(09:44):
project in the history of the Commonwealth. The man who
was in charge of that project. Peter Campo is still
with us to this day as our senior vice president
of facilities, and so he keeps us looking as beautiful
as we did the day we open. In fact, the
chief operating officer for Wind Resorts was out last week
and we were taking them on a tour. We just
spent seven million dollars refurbishing the room. Yes, the resort
(10:06):
is only six years old and we just spent seven
million dollars refurbishing the rooms, because that's how important it
is to us that the quality of this resort is maintained.
But when you have that type of commitment, investment and
you live it every day, I think the guests noticed,
they're aware, they can see the commitment and the quality
just by walking around. So I think that's part of
(10:27):
what helped us with our results. The other quite frankly,
it's very simple. I came up through marketing, so I
call it that, you know, Jenny's overly simplified rooftop analysis.
But we have just about four million people over the
age of twenty one in the Greater Boston area, and
so it's a large market. We knew coming in that
Massachusetts enjoyed the most successful lottery in the country. I
(10:48):
think one of the things we've talked about before was
how much of the revenue within the Commonwealth was going
down to Connecticut before we open, so we knew that
we had a very healthy market here, and so I
think it's really those two things well. And the third
thing is obviously the commitment of the team. I like
to tell everybody a new heart orientation. A two point
six billion dollar investment will get one visit, But if
(11:10):
you want customers to come back again and again, you've
got to create amazing experiences. And our team has done that.
So I think those three things great market, great facility,
great team are really the recipe of our success.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
Jenny, A couple of years ago, I sat right there
in the casino interviewing you about sports betting, and obviously
you guys had that gorgeous facility there right on the
casino floor.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Has that paid off? Because I know a.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
Lot of people do their sports betting on their phone,
So tell me what that's been for the casino.
Speaker 8 (11:46):
Yeah. I think about ninety eight percent of people do
their sports betting on their phones. It has not really
been much of a revenue driver for us. We really
think of our sports book as an amenity. It's a
beautiful space. You've been there. The TV, the av experience
is fantastic. It's very much what I call sort of
(12:06):
a special event kind of experience. Great place to come
down and watch the Super Bowl, great place to enjoy
March Madness. So that's really the purpose that that space
has served.
Speaker 5 (12:18):
Has sports betting taken dollars out of the encore Boston
Harbor's pocket, You know.
Speaker 8 (12:23):
It's really difficult to quantify that. I mean, sports betting
in Massachusetts is hugely successful. I don't know if you
follow the numbers, but you know, we sort of consider
September the end of March Madness as sports betting high season.
So we're in the middle of it right now, and
(12:44):
every single month the amount of money wagered on sports
in this market has been double digits over prior year.
You know, we've been lapping the calendar on this since
March of twenty twenty two. Now, I mean last month.
The numbers just came out yesterday seven hundred and seventy
(13:06):
seven million dollars wager in Massachusetts on course betting. So
it's a huge, very healthy market. If it was if
all of that was coming from us, we'd be at
a business. So obviously that's incremental to the market. But
you know people, you know their their discretionary budget is
their discretionary budget, and so that money is definitely coming
from someplace. But so far, we're holding our own.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Yeah, it sounds like it. I think you're doing okay.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
So, Jenny, what's the future hold for for the resort?
What you know, what kind of expansions do you want
to see happen? And what do you I know you
just said you wanted to be a billion dollar resort.
Speaker 8 (13:42):
Yeah, so our I think we have two really exciting
things happening here. The first one is that our catering
and convention business has just really hit its stride. And
you referenced Covid earlier in our conversation, and you are
spot on, miss Kim. Covid not only kind of killed
the catering and convention business for a while, that business
has a very long runway and so it took a
(14:05):
lot of time for it to build back. And we're
really enjoying the fruits of our team's labors right now
and really hitting our stride. We're sitting here on the
third week of January and all of our convention space
for twenty twenty five ninety percent of his book. So
we have a very robust business, and so that will
(14:26):
continue to help our growth. And then the rest of
it is just always sort of fine tuning the machine.
I'm a big fan of understanding that it's not one
or two big things that drive your business, it's two
or three dozen little things that create our success. And
so we have lots of smaller projects on the calendar
(14:47):
this year. The biggest one that we're excited about is
the relocation of our poker room. You know, poker used
to pick up a big chunk of our second floor.
Poker was the longest closed game during COVID, and ever
since it reopened, I don't think the experience has been
what any of us would want it to be. So
(15:08):
our night shift brewing space, which I think has always
been the most beautiful space in the entire building and
was never hugely popular, We're going to repurpose that and
turn it into a dedicated poker room and it's going
to be absolutely gorgeous. We're thrilled to be able to
create that kind of experience. We have a very dedicated,
very loyal group of poker players and able to create
(15:30):
their own space for them after all these years is
very exciting. So that's probably the biggest capital project we're
going to undertake this year. We've actually begun the demo
and we hope to have it open by October.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
Fantastic, well continued success, Jenny. I'm certainly pulling for you
all the time, and if you haven't had a chance
to visit Encore folks, be sure that you do all right.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Coming up next, Senator very Fine Gold.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
He has filed a bill on Beacon Hill to put
guard reels around the AI world.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
We'll have him explain.
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Speaker 2 (18:20):
Welcome back to the New England Business Report.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
On this Sunday morning, January the twenty sixth, Joe Shorts
with Kim Kerrigan here up next. You know, here's a
story that caught Kim's attention, my attention. Headline on the
Globe actually was a story written by John Cesto, and
the headline read like this, Barry fine Gold introduces bill
to crackdown on a i US. Of course, he co
chairs the Economic Development Committee on Beacon Hill. He is
(18:44):
a state Senator from Andover and he's been up on
Beacon Hill for a while, so he certainly knows what's
going on. He was a state rep starting in ninety
seven and he's been a state senator starting in twenty eleven,
and he joins us now to talk about efforts to
crack down on A and a senator. You know, we're
fascinated by the AI topic here on the New England
(19:06):
Business Report. But as I read this, I'm like, and
I said to Kim as we were opening up the
show today, I kind of feel like the horses has
not only left the barn, but they're out there running
around on the field, and I mean, how do we
possibly corral them again and regulate AI?
Speaker 2 (19:19):
At this point?
Speaker 11 (19:20):
Yeah, I think, first of all, thank you for having
me on. I think that AI is going to be
like electricity, It's going to be like the Internet, and
it already is playing such a large role in our
lives and it is still very early on, which is
hard to believe in the whole you know, AI function
in our world. And the one thing I will say
(19:43):
is that when it came to social media, like when
Facebook came out, we thought it was cute. We thought, well,
this is a nice little thing, but we didn't realize
the powerful use that it was going to be, and
we lacked putting the necessary guardrails in place and we
don't want to miss the boat when it comes to AI,
and that's why we're doing what we're doing.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
So what would those guardrails be? How would you control this?
Speaker 11 (20:08):
Well? I think I think there there there is a
bunch of things that we we we we want to do,
you know, we we we need to make sure that
we develop responsibly. We are talking to California. I've been
working with a state senator out there who has worked
on legislation as well, UH to set up models to
(20:31):
make sure that you know, information is correct. One of
the things that we want to have in there is
a kill switch, so like it's somehow this stuff starts
to get out of control, you can just pull the plug.
Uh And And I think I think that's super important
because AI is pretty simple now, but when we have
what's called genitor of AI, where AI learns from AI,
(20:52):
this thing can move very quickly and we have to
not only understand how AI is learning, like who is
Team AI to make decisions, but we've got to make
sure that it's accurate, that it's not misrepresenting, it's not discriminating.
And these are things that I think are super important.
I find myself right now, like I am on chat
(21:13):
GPT all the time, Like I really in the path
I need to go to Google and google something. Now
I spend all my time on chat GEPT. I think
I have a question on anything I look up chat GPT.
But the challenge with that is how do we know
the information is correct? And we need to make sure
that there are guardrails out there a making sure it's correct,
(21:34):
making sure these companies that are doing is that putting
into these large language models, are getting audited and making
sure there are things like not having people get information
how to do very destructive things like creating bombs and
things like that. So that's why this is still in
the very early innings and something that I think has
to happen.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Well, I shouldn't the senator. Shouldn't this be done on
the federal level? I mean, and what good does it
do on this Well, I think, But.
Speaker 11 (22:01):
I think that that is a great point, Joe, because
this is why I reached out to a state senator
in California, because what I'm hopeful is ultimately our legislation
and their legislation may be incredibly similar. You know, California
masters are really one of the top. You know, their
states for technology. If we're kind of setting the tone
(22:23):
of what the regulation would be, then get on New York,
maybe get on North Carolina or Texas. You know, I
think this could be the model for the rest of
the country and eventually get adopted on a federal level.
And you know, one thing that we're very proud about
here in Massachusetts is we've been an incubator of ideas
for many, many years. So in a lot of ways,
(22:46):
we've started legislation that we've passed in the legislature that
ultimately has been adopted by the federal government. But to
your point, and something I one hundredsent agree with, there
needs be uniformity, and I'm hopeful that what we're doing
with California will lead to that.
Speaker 5 (23:01):
Well, a Senator, obviously, we're a business show, so we're
looking at their through the lens of businesses here in
the base date, So talk about how this would impact businesses.
Would this would there be some kind of financial burden
put on businesses associated with the bill or or you know,
would there be some regulations associated with it for them?
Speaker 11 (23:18):
Yeah, it's less it's really less about the businesses that
use AI.
Speaker 12 (23:22):
It's it's more about the companies that are kind of
running the AI. They are running the large language models.
But you know, I think the other thing we want
to talk about too is that we are also you know,
putting together an AI innovation fund for startups, so we're
we we are also trying to promote AI as well.
(23:43):
So this is going to be a huge industry and
we want massa choos to capitalize on them. And and
I think that we understand what AI can do to businesses.
It can you know, you can offer innovations, low cost solutions.
It can streamline stuff, make things more efficient. So we
we do want and we hopeful that people do embrace AI,
(24:04):
and we want to be a leader for companies to
use AI in the state.
Speaker 11 (24:09):
So it's less about companies that use it, it's more
the larger companies that are putting these large language models
together to make sure that they have you know, good
protocols in place.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Figo states Senator Barry fine Gold from andover up there
in the North Shore, then up there in Beacon Hill
since well ninety seven, really talking about efforts to crack
down on AI or create some guardrails.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
I guess it's the phrase that they were using this morning.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
But you just mentioned this AI Innovation Fund that I
guess that's you know, that's really kind of the heart
of what Kim and I do, you know, encouraging local businesses.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
So give us a little more detail. How does that work?
Speaker 11 (24:43):
Yeah, I mean so really it's just you know, fun
for startups to get funding or you know, if they're
in the AI space. You know, we want to you know,
we're you know, we're not the home of open AI.
You know, we're not you know what other what Microsoft
is doing. You know a lot of that stuff that's
happened on the West coast, but there's going to be
(25:03):
so many application users that are AI related companies that
might approach a doctor's office, they might approach a law firm,
they might approach, you know, an insurance coming to say, hey,
use the software and this is how we can make
your business more efficient. And that's what we're trying to promote,
you know, to help businesses that are in the AI
space are using the technology to help other businesses, and
(25:27):
that's what we're hoping the money to be used for.
Speaker 5 (25:30):
Senator, we're just about out of time, but we'd be
remiss if we didn't ask you here real quickly. This
past week, Governor Heally putting out her budget for the
next fiscal year. Have you had a chance to look
at it and what are some of your just sort
of broadcast.
Speaker 11 (25:44):
Two thousand feet from ten thousand feet. I think there's
some good things. I think that I think as someone
who's Chair of Economic Development. The interesting thing that when
I ask CEOs of coming to the masters, I like,
you know, what are some things we can do to
help you out? The two things I hear the most
about are housing transportation, and I think we took a
big step last year to you know, move forward on housing.
(26:07):
But I think our next big thing is to get
transportation where it needs to be to make the team
more reliable, and I think we're heading in that direction.
So I think it's very positive what the governor is doing.
You know, we have an incredible state here in Massachusetts,
and we have a seven hundred and fifty billion dollar GDP,
but we want to become a trillion dollar economy, and housing,
(26:28):
transportation and getting startups is to me the way to go.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Allra He's a state Senator, Barry fine Gold, and we
appreciate you joining us this Sunday morning. On the New
England Business Report up next. Do you know who the
state comptroller as well? You're going to meet him next
if we're going to find out just exactly what he does.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Kim and Joe, we'll explore more business news that impacts
our New England economy when they return.
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That sounds great.
Speaker 5 (28:16):
But what about the costs, Bill, Because things have been
pretty tight for people these days.
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Our windows are half the price of the big window companies,
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But call us now.
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It sounds terrific.
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Speaker 3 (28:55):
And I'm Joe Shortsley. If you want to be part
of the New England Business Report, sponsorships are still available.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
You can email us at any Business Radio at gmail
dot com.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
That's any Business Radio all one word at gmail dot
com and we'll get your business on the show too.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
Welcome back, everybody to the New England Business Report on
this Sunday morning. I'm Kim Carrigan along with Joe short Sleeve.
I hope you're having a great Sunday morning. We've got
a good second half of the show coming up here
for you. But before we get started there, we always
like to talk about a few headlines that maybe you
missed or that we have not chatted about quite yet.
(29:41):
And this one certainly grabbed my attention, and I know
it probably did yours too. Boston Glow Media buys Boston Magazine. Yeah,
this happened. There had been some rumblings about the possibility
of this happening, and then it was announced that a
deal has been struck. It means that the Globe is
(30:03):
going to gain thirty employees and take over Boston Magazine,
which was actually published by the Philadelphia Magazine prior to
this Metro Corp. And it will increase the number of
employees to about one thousand for the Globe at this
stage of the game. Linda Henry, the CEO, says that
Boston Magazine has been a vital part of the city's
(30:25):
culture and they didn't want to see it go away.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
I would agree. It's a nice magazine. It's a good product.
It's been there for a long time. People identify with it.
I think their story selections are always right on. So
you know, I'm glad to see that because I would
hate to have seen it go away.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
Yeah, well, this is too big a city not to
have its own magazine like that. It really is when
it comes to Boston. The great part about this, too,
is that those who work at Boston Magazine apparently are
going to see very little change in their day to
day workflow and their day to day experience, which is
great for those people over there. So Boston Magazine, it's
going to be around for a while, folks.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Now, all right, Kim as promised to see.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Our next guest is the comtroller for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Now,
I know, I was asking myself when I first talked
to Bill McNamara, what does the comtroller and the Commonwealth do?
I mean, when you look around the state and you say, okay,
We've got a state treasurer, right, we have an auditor,
(31:25):
we have a Secretary of Administration in finance. So what
does the Comtroller do well. Bill McNamara is here to
answer that question. He's been on the job since twenty
sixteen up there on Beacon Hill. He actually spent sixteen
years at Fidelity before that, so he knows his way
around financial languages, that's for sure. One of the interesting
(31:48):
things is a look at the mission on the website.
On the state website talks about how the Office of
Comtroller is an independent, executive level agent see it. But
we can get into all that as well.
Speaker 11 (32:02):
Bill.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Welcome to the program, so tell us what the Controller does.
Speaker 6 (32:06):
Thank you, Joe, and good morning Kim. I'm very happy
to be here with you today and to have a
chance to talk a little bit about my office and
what we do, because it really is sort of in
the background for many residents and taxpayers in the Commonwealth,
so it's great to have a chance to share a bit.
So the Office of the Controller oversees the Commonwealth's financial systems.
(32:28):
Important to say right up front that we are a
non political, non partisan entity within state government. And if
your audience becomes interested, they'll find a lot of great
information at our website, which is mcontroller dot org. So
just macontroller dot org. As you mentioned, Joe, I've been
(32:51):
in state government for eight plus years now, but I
was originally appointed to this office of Controller by Governor
Baker in February twenty twenty, just as the pandemic was hitting,
and then in twenty twenty two, I was reappointed by
the Governor Heally. So to talk about the responsibilities in
(33:12):
a way that I hope will resonate with your audience,
we have one set of responsibilities that are unique to
government and another set that are very much like someone
would face in a major corporation. So on the governmental sides,
we played a central road ensuring that every time a
dollar is spent or moved within state government, it's in
(33:34):
accordance with states and ance law. And that includes the
annual state budget, as we may talk about. As you know,
Governor Healy just sent over to the legislature the f
fiscal year twenty six version of that budget. We essentially
either do or oversee all of those transactions. And then
(33:56):
the second critical thing that we do is do all
the accounting for them in the more formal sets, so
we can reduce reports. But then, in common with any
large enterprise, any corporation, we work to keep those financial
systems efficient and secure, and that's very important in these
days of cyber fraud, as as well as operating under
(34:19):
clear financial controls. Just like a corporation, the state has
to produce financial reports every year to well defined accounting standards,
and we're the folks who produce those reports. And then
finally I mentioned our website. It's a key part of
our mission that we deliver transparency on all state financial
(34:43):
items to taxpayers, citizens, residents, businesses that are here in Massachusetts.
So on that amacontroller dot org website you'll find our
see threw section with great information on that. So I
hope that was a good top line intro. And I
have to talk for a minute about how we relate
(35:04):
to those other states finance groups.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
Well, I'm going to have you do that in just
a second. I just have to ask you. Do you
have any friends up there on Beacon Hill? Does anybody
want to see you coming or are they a little
afraid of you?
Speaker 8 (35:15):
No?
Speaker 6 (35:16):
Well, yes, I have a lot of friends, and I
hope no one is afraid to see me coming. And
I would say that that's because it's not just myself
but the whole team here. We take that sort of nonpartisan,
non political part very seriously and so we're not on
either side of, say, a policy issue, because we don't
(35:38):
do policy. We just make sure that everything happens according
to the rulebook once the policy is decided. So you know,
I do my best to maintain good relationships all around.
But Tim, it's a great question, and it's a reason
that we emphasize the independent nature of this office. So
that the controller is a point by the governor, but
(36:01):
that's for a four year term so that it doesn't
serve as the pleasure of the governor. After that, it
becomes a more of an independent role now because the
legislature and the executives have to know that I'm sort of,
you know, right down the middle in both what we
say and do and what we were port afterwards.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
He's the comptroller for the Comonwealth of Massachusetts. Bill McNamara,
you know, Bilder was a big story that sort of
popped last week, and I'm looking at an article written
by John Chester the Globe had to do with this
whole idea of the Heally administration reaching a deal with
the Feds on a two point five billion dollar bill
for unemployment insurance insurance benefits. Apparently the Commonwealth was misspending
this money and then now we had to pay back
(36:41):
the Feds. And then the Feds gave us some deal
in the eleventh hour of the Biden administration to cut
a billion dollars off what we owed the Fed. What
was your role in that or did you actually find
this mistake?
Speaker 6 (36:54):
That's that's actually that's correct. You know, we were there
at the original point of finding this error. And that's because,
as I mentioned, you know, we do oversee all the
financial recording for the state as a whole, and in addition,
we manage something called the Federal Single Audit Process, and
(37:15):
that's where the federal government comes in every single year
and looks across every part of state government that spends
federal money. So, as part of both those elements of
our work, it was we who originally helped the Massachusetts
Office of Labor and Workforce Development identify that this was
(37:40):
a deficit.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Yeah, yeah, well, Bill, when you walked into the office
that day and said, oh, by the way, guys, we're
about two billion bucks off here, and we've been doing
this wrong. To Kim's point, were they happy to see
you that day?
Speaker 6 (37:53):
No one was happy to see me that day. Absolutely
admits to that. You know, it's definitely worth on this topic,
and I think this will be especially attuned to your
audience to talk the background on that a little bit.
Speaker 11 (38:09):
So.
Speaker 6 (38:10):
Obviously, the unemployment system is administered by the state, but
state tax dollars as we usually think of them, don't
play any role at all. Unemployment in normal times is
funded entirely by employers through their employer contributions, and I'm
sure your audience is well aware of that because it's
(38:31):
a very serious part of their expense as they add people,
and that money all goes into a trust fund and
it's entirely segregated from every other state dollar, completely separate.
What happens in any recession is the Feds step in
with additional money. And they do that because if there's
(38:53):
a real recession, every state's unemployment fund would get depleted
rapidly and fall beyond so the Feds make additional money available.
And that's this has been true since the thirties. Well,
there was almost no bigger events that took place in
unemployment than what happened with COVID, right, right, was this
(39:14):
sort of artificially induced nationwide decline and employment and increase
of unemployment. What I will say is virtually every state
during that COVID period had real difficulty in controls and
verifications on the All right.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
Well, good job there, good job figuring it out. We
were you know, it was a major, major story. And
nice to meet the guy behind at that, Bill mcnameric
Controller for the Commonwealth of Master and Bill, say hi
to your media guy up there, Mike Sangelang Kim and
I worked with him in the Channel four newsroom for
many years, so we do appreciate Mike and his efforts
(39:56):
today as well.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Okay, that is the controller for the come Wealthkin.
Speaker 4 (40:00):
All right, everybody.
Speaker 5 (40:02):
We are now joined by the executive editor of the
Boston Business Journal, Doug Banks, and you know Joe. As
we mentioned off the top of the show, the wind
energy industry in this state has been shaking since the
election last November because we have known for a long
time that President Trump has not been the biggest supporter
(40:24):
of wind energy, and this past week, his first week
in office, he's already made some declarations associated with this industry,
but before he could, President Biden, on his way out
the door, tried to protect a few projects that are
here in New England, and Doug, you guys have been
(40:44):
writing about that. Why don't you update us on where
those projects stand, because while they may be somewhat protected,
this could be along road.
Speaker 14 (40:53):
Right.
Speaker 15 (40:53):
So the two projects that you're describing are the Vineyard Wind,
which is you know, the six C two turbines off
of about fifteen miles off from Martha's Vineyard. Listeners may
remember the broken turbine blade let biasco last year that
was part of the Vineyard Wind project. And then South
Coast Wind, which is in the New England Wind owned
(41:16):
by Van Grid and that's also off of Martha's Vineyard.
So the two big projects, as you said, Biden administration
gave the final approval construction and operation plan the Federal
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management or POEM they have. All
of these projects have to go through there because it's
on federal in federal waters, and so the last major
(41:39):
construction permits. You know, just like if you're a building house,
you need a building permit. Well, these have you know,
massive projects have a lot of permits, but the main
one is a cop the construction and operations plan. You
got to get that done. And then because of the
blade failure into the Vineyard Wind one, they needed them
to amend that plan, so they had to resubmit everything.
(42:00):
And so if that if Biden's administration had not approved
that at the last minute, then they would have probably
been included in what President Trump last Monday issued, was
in that executive order that temporarily halted any new offshore
win leasing and permitting, So he stopped any new permitting
(42:20):
in federal waters, which would have stopped construction essentially for
those two But because they have those permits approved now,
you know, our sources people that Mary Cerres in our
newsroom at Providence in Boston talked to, including the Conservation
Law Foundation, we feel like those projects especially are pretty safe.
So Vineyard Win, Revolution Win, New England Win, those projects
(42:43):
are relatively safe. Now, will they take longer in some
of the smaller permits, some of the you know, minor
issues that have to get done over the next year. Yeah,
it's going to take longer. You know, there's a lot
up in the year. No question about it, but at
least those major approvals were done and that you know
that boats well, because these are major This is gonna
(43:05):
be major energy coming onto the grid after breaton points.
You know that coal fire generation plant closed, right, So
these are needed. I mean if people, you know, we
talked about the high cost of energy in Massachusetts in
New England, and you know, one of the reasons it's
so high cost is we don't have enough supply to
meet the man. So these are going to bring supply
that that is much.
Speaker 6 (43:24):
Needed to the grid.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
Doug Banks is our guest executive.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
Out of the Boston Business Journal headline on the b
GJU Biden gave eleventh hour life lifeline to two New
England off shore wind farm projects, right, and you just
sort of touched upon it, Doug. They got the big permit,
but there's still these little permits that you know are
going to be needed as time goes on here. And
I mean there's some reporting out there suggesting that, you know,
(43:50):
if they can't get these little permits, their their stock.
Speaker 8 (43:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 15 (43:55):
I mean I've saw some of the headlines saying that
stuff this was dead in the water that I think
that might be overstating it. Most of the folks that
we talked to said that, you know, will they slow down, yes,
But to just cancel these projects and stop them, the uh,
it's easier said than done.
Speaker 8 (44:15):
I mean, just think about it.
Speaker 15 (44:16):
This multi multi millions of dollars at stake here. These
companies would sue the Conservation Law Foundation, would sue our
attorney general, you know, and others in the state would
probably knowing that we can't add to the supply of energy,
would probably sue.
Speaker 8 (44:31):
It would get tied up. Yes, with every delay.
Speaker 15 (44:33):
Absolutely, would they actually be halted so that it didn't
get done, I doubt it. I mean, the turbines are
already being built. In fact, gie Vernova, which is a
local company, local energy company. They they said that they're
they're expecting to have the turbines that they built materially
complete by the end of this year. So those turbine
installations are taking place now off the off the coast
(44:56):
of Martha's Vineyard. To just turn that off, it would
really be hard to do.
Speaker 8 (45:02):
So.
Speaker 15 (45:03):
I think most people in the industry think that it
will you know, these will continue, But it is true
that new projects that had been in the works that
didn't get permits. Some of the projects like off the
Virginia Coast and other parts of the East Coast, those
are absolutely in jeopardy for at least for the next
four years.
Speaker 5 (45:19):
So, Doug, we've talked about this just briefly before after
the election, because again we knew that President Trump was
not a big supporter of turbine wind energy. So if
in fact this halt remains in place, what kind of
impact is that going to have on the Massachusetts economy
when it comes to jobs and dollars.
Speaker 8 (45:41):
That's a great question.
Speaker 15 (45:42):
We're talking about, you know, hundreds of construction jobs in
the ports in New Bedford, which is an aging area
for a lot of these you know, we're talking about
a local company, Giuvernova, that's supplying the turbines. I mean,
all told, I think the.
Speaker 11 (45:58):
National um that I saw was like twenty five.
Speaker 15 (46:01):
Billion dollars in offshore wind projects that are already flowing
into new ports, you know, the ships that bring stuff
back and forth, those manufacturing centers. All of the investment
that has been happening, that's billions and billions of dollars,
and at least in Massachusetts' hundreds and hundreds of jobs
that Without this industry, wouldn't you know, wouldn't exist the
(46:24):
PowerPoint They've shut down the coal powerpoints, so power plants,
so you know what else do they have?
Speaker 4 (46:30):
Absolutely?
Speaker 5 (46:31):
Doug Banks, Hey, thanks, like always, great to have you
here on the New England Business Report. Still come in
your way. It is a bittersweet goodbye in Arlington and
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Speaker 1 (46:47):
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Joe and Kim will be right back.
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Speaker 5 (49:12):
Well, Joe, I have to tell you it's being called
the end of an era. Yeah, and that is for
certain Cambridge typewriter company which is located in Arlington. It
has been there for forty five years, and its owner
has announced that on March thirty first, he will close
the doors for the last time. Tom Ferrier is joining us,
(49:35):
and we're so glad Tom that you could be with us.
Why March thirty first?
Speaker 11 (49:39):
Why?
Speaker 4 (49:39):
Now?
Speaker 14 (49:42):
Well, I've been trying for a whole year to sell
the company to somebody, and I've had a couple of
false starts and my wife's waiting for me to retire.
Who's supposed to retire together last summer, and I just
think it the end of the first quarter would be perfect.
Speaker 3 (50:00):
Tell us about the business, how is it doing, and
how much demand is they're out there?
Speaker 14 (50:05):
The demand is through the roof. This is the busiest
we've ever been in my forty five years, kind of
like going out on top. And the people, especially since
I since you know, the pandemic, and especially since I
said that I was closing the store, Everyone's coming in
from all over the country almost.
Speaker 3 (50:26):
Well, why what's going on, Tom? Why is this happening?
Why are you enjoying such success here? What are what
people looking for?
Speaker 14 (50:34):
Yeah? I think people you know who want to write
and want to create looking to do it old school,
and people are just tired of, you know, doing everything
on the computer and you know, the whole digital thing.
And then when they try to you know, write stories
or you know whatever, poetry or journaling whatever on a typewriter,
it's a whole different experience. I mean, totally different experience
(50:55):
that really resonates with people, you know, young and old
people alike. But it's mostly the younger people that are
driving the business. These days.
Speaker 5 (51:05):
So, Tom, you've been open for forty five years. Tell me,
you know, tell us if you will, sort of the
progression and what ten years ago, what was business like
when everybody was getting a computer.
Speaker 14 (51:17):
Yeah, when I started in nineteen eighty, which was, you know,
a few years before computers came out, and it was
typewriters were the office machine. You know, no computers. They
ran on typewriters. Every office had them, and I thought,
you know, this is great. I'm going to be able
to fix typewriters for the rest of my life. And
then computers came in the mid to late eighties and
(51:41):
basically wiped out the typewriter industry overnight. It was very
shocking to see how quickly it happened, and all the
deals just dropped out and it was only a handful
of people left and office machines, which was everybody's business model,
was gone.
Speaker 6 (51:59):
And uh, I.
Speaker 14 (52:01):
Through luck and attrition, I ended up being the last
guy in this area. But I had no business. And
it wasn't until early two thousands set this whole vintage
typewriter of things started up, and as soon as it did,
I recognize it as this is what the business is
going to be for now one, Well.
Speaker 3 (52:21):
Compare that you say you had no business compared to
what you have now, comparing contrash, what are you talking
about there?
Speaker 2 (52:26):
What's no business?
Speaker 14 (52:27):
And well, because our business is built on fixing and
selling office machine. Yeah, and you know, portable electrics of
people that you know do work at home, and that
was all gone because everybody was using computers.
Speaker 3 (52:39):
So what were you like, the Maytag repairman sitting there
waiting for the phone to ring.
Speaker 14 (52:42):
I mean, I tell people, I was sitting here. I
had my feet up on my bench, ip back watching
soap operas. That was crazy. And I jump every time
that I heard the front door over. I'm just jumping
right up front.
Speaker 5 (52:54):
So you sort of became then you went from being
an office you know, repairman to an antiques dealer.
Speaker 14 (53:02):
Kind of yeah, and uh yep. And it's the kids
really couldn't believe the difference it was in using a typewriter,
the sensory feedback they got off it, and and they would,
you know, put it on social media and then you know,
get their friends huked on it. And every year he
got a little a little busier, you know, a little
(53:23):
more mainstream. Uh, to the point where it's you know,
pretty common, you know for typewriters to you know, make
out of parents and homes across the country.
Speaker 3 (53:33):
Now, yeah, well we're talking to Tom Furrier and he
is a Cambridge a typewriter located there in Arlington, closing
up shop in at the end of March. I guess, uh, okay,
give us an idea of how many typewriters you sell
in a month.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
But then I also want to hear the Tom Hanks story. Right.
Is there a Tom Hanks story?
Speaker 14 (53:51):
Yeah, there's probably a couple of them, but the one
everybody knows about is is he sent us about a
year ago, he sent us a machine in the mail
from his private collection and he autographed it and sent
a nice letter with it that he also signed, you know,
saying he was just giving it to us and we
could do whatever we wanted with it. And what he
(54:13):
was doing was kind of thinding out the herd, that
type of thing. He was sending a machine to as
many type by the shops across the country as he could,
and people still come in and ask to see it.
It's really cool.
Speaker 2 (54:29):
I didn't cause was that what would you sell it for?
Speaker 14 (54:34):
Oh my god? If I was going to they've been
going on eBay for you know, about thirty five hundred.
Normally I would sell this particular machine for like three
hundred and fifty dollars, but because it was his and
because he signed it and the comes of the letter
authenticating it, they've been going for about thirty five hundred online.
Speaker 5 (54:55):
So Tom, would you still entertain the idea of selling
the business if somebody heard and they heard that it's
going gangbusters and that things have sort of changed and
it's reverting back for young people.
Speaker 14 (55:08):
Yep. Absolutely. My My dream all along was to keep
this business going, because it's been a great business, and
we have a great reputation and and we're like it's
for the metro Boston area. I really wanted more than
anything to keep this shop going, and it it's been
so disappointing that that I haven't been able to. I
(55:30):
just haven't been able to find the right the right person.
I've had plenty of people call, you know, wanting to
buy it, but they don't know how to fix typewriters,
So I don't know what to think it. But I
had a couple of guys you know, that that wanted it,
that I was okay with but they got coal feted
the last second.
Speaker 3 (55:50):
You know, Kim and I both remember the great Gil
Santos who left us already, and I remember being in
the newsroom all those years of Channel four walking by
and there was Gil Santos with the you know, the
one finger boom boom, boom boom. Wouldn't give it up
with their computer. Always used a typewriter, you know that.
You know, well, do you have a favorite story there
(56:12):
all these years, tom?
Speaker 14 (56:16):
My favorite stories always revolve around Christmas because that's our
busiest time of year and kids are writing typewriter on
the Christmas list, have been for a while, but the
progression of the parents come in. Like twenty years ago,
parents would come in, you know, looking for a machine
(56:37):
for their kid because that's all they wanted. That's the
only thing they wrote on the Christmas list. But they,
you know, they didn't understand the whole typewriter thing. So,
you know, like would come in walking his heads down
and he's like, I don't know why, but for some reason,
my kid wants the typewriter. Now the parents come in
and they're you know, proud of the peacock, you know,
because the kid wants the typewriter and not some digital screen.
Speaker 5 (57:00):
You know, well, Tom, you're probably dealing with a generation
of parents who barely know what a typewriter is themselves
at this stage at the game for sure. Listen, we
wish you the best of luck and congratulations on an
incredibly successful business forty five years Cambridge Typewriter Company, and
Tom Ferry, we really appreciate your time here on the
(57:21):
New England Business Report.
Speaker 14 (57:22):
Thank you very much for having me on. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (57:24):
All Right, that means it's time to talk about next week,
and we've got a good show for you. Next week
we're gonna be talking with the president of the CEO
of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, Jim Rooney.
Speaker 2 (57:32):
A lot to talk to him about.
Speaker 3 (57:34):
I mean, first, we got this developing mayor's race, right,
we have this whole white Stadium issue going on the controversy,
and then of course we have Encore Boston Harbor, which
is the staggering numbers and what it means for the city.
So anyway, I locked to talk to mister Rooney about
that's next Sunday.
Speaker 2 (57:49):
Morning on the New England Business Report.
Speaker 3 (57:52):
Right here on WRKO, The Voice of Boston am six
eighty
This is the New England Business Report with Joe short
Sleeve and Kim Carrigan, a weekly roundup and discussion of
the top business news impacting our New England economy.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
And Good Morning.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Good Sunday morning, January the twenty sixth, Welcome to the
New England Business Report here on WRKO, Joe short Sleeve
Kim Carrigan joining you on this Sunday morning. Kim, you know,
I'm looking at the calendar going, oh, this is the
last show in January. I mean, February is next week.
But there's a ray of hope though. I wanted to
(00:30):
share with you because last Thursday the Red Sox started
selling tickets for their April and May games, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
So I'm trying the boys of Summer.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I'm trying to put a positive spin on us.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
You know, I'll give you a positive spin.
Speaker 5 (00:46):
And maybe other people who are listening heard this this week,
but are some of our television meteorologists. We're talking about
the fact that this past week is traditionally the coldest
week of the year. We of course didn't let us down.
It gets a little better. So I don't know, Joe,
this is just a lot of positivity on a Sunday morning.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I know it.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Who can stomach that? Let let's move well, talk about positivity.
How about how about this story? I mean, and I'm
talking about I'm Today's program, folks. We bring it all
to you. We're going to bring you the president of
on Core Boston Harbor, Jenny Holliday. Okay, now why well,
because Encore it is staggering success here.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Now, there are two hundred and thirty five casinos outside
of the state of Nevada, two thirty five. Guess we're
on core ranks in terms of gross gaming revenue number three. Yeah,
I mean, it's seven hundred and fifty million dollars. It's
just it's staggering what's going on there.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Now.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Kim is going to be doing the interview with Jenny
Holiday in Today's program in just a few minutes. I'm
not going to take part because my daughter is an
executive over there at on Core Boston Harbor and has
been since they opened the doors in twenty nineteen, so
it's not appropriate for me to, you know, be part
of that. But Kim's gonna have a block a right, Kim.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
Absolutely, we're going to talk to Jenny and you know
what I really think is interesting because you and I
have been talking to Jenny since they opened those doors.
You know, she has been around chatting, and I'm anxious
to ask her about the influence that sports betting has
had or has not had on that bottom line over there.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
You know, I think it might be more has not
because they built I think the whole facility on the
gaming floor, right and when you go there, it's somewhat
empty because I mean basically, I think when people do this,
they're doing it.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I'm going a cell phone in their.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Car, you got it. So that's that's a little something
to chat with her about.
Speaker 6 (02:36):
All right.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
We're also going to be talking with the state Senator
Barry fine Gold from and over there on the North
Shore and efforts to regulate AI. Now he's a co
chair of the Economic Development Community up there on Beacon Hill.
I don't know, I see this headline I go regulate AI.
I mean, I feel like the horses not only have
left the barn, they're already running around the field. I mean,
how how how do we you know, ring, how do
(02:57):
we do this? I don't know how we do this?
With that should be a good conversation.
Speaker 5 (03:01):
Yeah, well he's doing with the backdrop of the idea
that we did not regulate social media? Are we going
to let this get out of hand as well? So
that'll be an interesting conversation. Then, of course, we are
going to in the second half of the show, we're
going to be talking to the Comptroller of Massachusetts, William
McNamar nara.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Now you may be saying to yourself, what does the
comptroller do?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
That's what I was saying.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Hello, So we're going to talk to him about what
he does.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
I will tell you this, he is very much involved
with the budget of the state and a lot has
been going on this last week associated with the budget
of the state, So we'll get some information from him
about that as well. Boston Business Journal executive editor Doug
Banks is going to join us. It's going to talk
to us about a number of things that have been
in the Journal this week, including the fact that one
(03:55):
of the big impacts Joe of the new administration on
the state, which we knew, is wind energy and some
of these projects. Now former President Biden tried to protect
some of those before he left office.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
We are going to talk to Doug.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
Banks about, you know, what that was all about, what
he tried to protect and where that may be going
from here.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
The headline suggests that they are protected, at least two
of them are, but you read deeper into these articles
and yeah, it is a real question mark.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
And we're going to be chatting with Tom frier Ear.
He is the owner of Cambridge Typewriter Company in Arlington.
He's owned that business for forty five years and in
March he is saying goodbye, and we're going to talk
to him about that bittersweet goodbye and why it's time
to close the shop. It kind of beatle pulls at
(04:49):
your heartstrings.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Well, you know, typewriters are back, and so are record players.
I can tell you that here around Christmas time. We've
got a record player going now and we're actually buying
records down on Main Street in hiatas well.
Speaker 7 (05:02):
Joe.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
Let's get started with our first guest now. She is
the president of one of the most lucrative casinos in
the US outside of Las Vegas. We are joined by
on Care Boston Harbor's Jenny Holiday and it's great to
have you, Jenny. Congratulations on these incredible numbers.
Speaker 8 (05:19):
Oh, it's always nice to hang out with you, Kim,
and thank you so much. You know how proud we
are of our little gim.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Over here that I do.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
Well, let's fill everybody in on what I'm talking about here. Recently,
the figures were compiled by the American Gaming Association, and
for those who don't know, that's a trade group that
represents the casino industry, and they show those numbers that
on Core Boston Harbor ranked third overall in gross gaming
revenue in twenty twenty three. Now, that is out of
(05:49):
two hundred and thirty five commercial casinos that are outside
of Nevada and Mississippi. That is absolutely incredible. Jenny, tell me,
first off, were you guys I'm sure probably not, but
were you somewhat surprised by the volume and the numbers?
Speaker 8 (06:08):
Oh my goodness, no, Kim. You know how competitive I
am actually Our size and scope and how top shelf
we are outside of the Vegas competitive set has been
one of my most favorite speaking points whenever I'm talking
to our employees or being interviewed, because we're such an
amazing unicorn. So not only are we number three in
(06:29):
revenue outside of Las Vegas, we are the only casino
resort outside of Las Vegas of that scale. That's also
a five star Forbes Travel Guide property. So we are
so special. And of course the other thing that makes
us very unique is the fact that we operate in
such a world class city. You know, not a lot
of casino markets have the benefit of operating in the
(06:50):
Commonwealth like we do, and we're incredibly proud to do so.
So no, we've been We've been well aware of our standing,
and I must consess somewhat boastful whenever I've had the
opportunity to talk about it, because it's pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
It's really cool. It's not just pretty cool.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Talk a little bit about the numbers, Jenny, so the
people understand what we're talking about.
Speaker 8 (07:10):
So over the last twelve months, our gross gaming revenue,
which is measured that the AGA was using to create
this list ours was about seven hundred and fifty million dollars,
which is the total top line revenue that you bring
in from your casino operation. So that's the number that
they were quoting.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
Yeah, and that's outside of you know, the resort itself.
Speaker 8 (07:35):
Yes, exactly. We are actually just shy of under a
billion dollars from a revenue standpoint. For the whole resort.
The gaming revenue is about eighty percent of our revenue
and our non gaming revenue is the other twenty We
will be a billion dollar resort someday. I've been making
that promise as long as I've been the president here.
We will get there. But yeah, no, it's it's a
very unique and beautiful property. And I think you know
(07:58):
when we talk about this team and how amazing this
team is, how dedicated they are to these customer experiences
that are what creates these financial results. You know, we're
just we're blessed.
Speaker 9 (08:10):
You know.
Speaker 8 (08:10):
I always say serving here has been the privilege of
my lifetime and I couldn't be prouder.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
So, Jenny, when this casino opened, which is helped me
out here, we're over five years?
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Are we six years in? Is that about where we
are here?
Speaker 8 (08:25):
We will be in June. We opened in June of
twenty nineteen.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
Yeah, which you know, I want everybody to keep in mind,
you guys open in June of nineteen. That gave you
six months essentially before COVID started, and then we all
lived through that, and your casino survived through that. But
the projections were sort of close to this and I
know there are other casinos in the state that have
(08:50):
opened and they've had these pretty lofty projections and they've
never reached them. Why do you think it is, And
I know you've stated some of the reasons, but why
do you think it is that Encore has been able
to reach those projections.
Speaker 8 (09:02):
Yeah, I'm so glad you brought that up, Kim, because
that's one of the things I heard a lot when
I first got here, is we're our projection too lofty.
And you're exactly right. The industry sort of has the
reputation for over promising and then under delivering. So that's
the other reason why we are so proud here is
that we actually are delivering the results that we were
expected to deliver all along. I think what makes it
(09:24):
possible for us to meet those projections. First of all,
the facility. I mean, we spent two point six billion
dollars building this gorgeous resort, and I think it shows
in every nook and cranny. We're incredibly lucky. The man
who was in charge of I think this is correct,
it was the single it was the largest single construction
(09:44):
project in the history of the Commonwealth. The man who
was in charge of that project. Peter Campo is still
with us to this day as our senior vice president
of facilities, and so he keeps us looking as beautiful
as we did the day we open. In fact, the
chief operating officer for Wind Resorts was out last week
and we were taking them on a tour. We just
spent seven million dollars refurbishing the room. Yes, the resort
(10:06):
is only six years old and we just spent seven
million dollars refurbishing the rooms, because that's how important it
is to us that the quality of this resort is maintained.
But when you have that type of commitment, investment and
you live it every day, I think the guests noticed,
they're aware, they can see the commitment and the quality
just by walking around. So I think that's part of
(10:27):
what helped us with our results. The other quite frankly,
it's very simple. I came up through marketing, so I
call it that, you know, Jenny's overly simplified rooftop analysis.
But we have just about four million people over the
age of twenty one in the Greater Boston area, and
so it's a large market. We knew coming in that
Massachusetts enjoyed the most successful lottery in the country. I
(10:48):
think one of the things we've talked about before was
how much of the revenue within the Commonwealth was going
down to Connecticut before we open, so we knew that
we had a very healthy market here, and so I
think it's really those two things well. And the third
thing is obviously the commitment of the team. I like
to tell everybody a new heart orientation. A two point
six billion dollar investment will get one visit, But if
(11:10):
you want customers to come back again and again, you've
got to create amazing experiences. And our team has done that.
So I think those three things great market, great facility,
great team are really the recipe of our success.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
Jenny, A couple of years ago, I sat right there
in the casino interviewing you about sports betting, and obviously
you guys had that gorgeous facility there right on the
casino floor.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Has that paid off? Because I know a.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
Lot of people do their sports betting on their phone,
So tell me what that's been for the casino.
Speaker 8 (11:46):
Yeah. I think about ninety eight percent of people do
their sports betting on their phones. It has not really
been much of a revenue driver for us. We really
think of our sports book as an amenity. It's a
beautiful space. You've been there. The TV, the av experience
is fantastic. It's very much what I call sort of
(12:06):
a special event kind of experience. Great place to come
down and watch the Super Bowl, great place to enjoy
March Madness. So that's really the purpose that that space
has served.
Speaker 5 (12:18):
Has sports betting taken dollars out of the encore Boston
Harbor's pocket, You know.
Speaker 8 (12:23):
It's really difficult to quantify that. I mean, sports betting
in Massachusetts is hugely successful. I don't know if you
follow the numbers, but you know, we sort of consider
September the end of March Madness as sports betting high season.
So we're in the middle of it right now, and
(12:44):
every single month the amount of money wagered on sports
in this market has been double digits over prior year.
You know, we've been lapping the calendar on this since
March of twenty twenty two. Now, I mean last month.
The numbers just came out yesterday seven hundred and seventy
(13:06):
seven million dollars wager in Massachusetts on course betting. So
it's a huge, very healthy market. If it was if
all of that was coming from us, we'd be at
a business. So obviously that's incremental to the market. But
you know people, you know their their discretionary budget is
their discretionary budget, and so that money is definitely coming
from someplace. But so far, we're holding our own.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Yeah, it sounds like it. I think you're doing okay.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
So, Jenny, what's the future hold for for the resort?
What you know, what kind of expansions do you want
to see happen? And what do you I know you
just said you wanted to be a billion dollar resort.
Speaker 8 (13:42):
Yeah, so our I think we have two really exciting
things happening here. The first one is that our catering
and convention business has just really hit its stride. And
you referenced Covid earlier in our conversation, and you are
spot on, miss Kim. Covid not only kind of killed
the catering and convention business for a while, that business
has a very long runway and so it took a
(14:05):
lot of time for it to build back. And we're
really enjoying the fruits of our team's labors right now
and really hitting our stride. We're sitting here on the
third week of January and all of our convention space
for twenty twenty five ninety percent of his book. So
we have a very robust business, and so that will
(14:26):
continue to help our growth. And then the rest of
it is just always sort of fine tuning the machine.
I'm a big fan of understanding that it's not one
or two big things that drive your business, it's two
or three dozen little things that create our success. And
so we have lots of smaller projects on the calendar
(14:47):
this year. The biggest one that we're excited about is
the relocation of our poker room. You know, poker used
to pick up a big chunk of our second floor.
Poker was the longest closed game during COVID, and ever
since it reopened, I don't think the experience has been
what any of us would want it to be. So
(15:08):
our night shift brewing space, which I think has always
been the most beautiful space in the entire building and
was never hugely popular, We're going to repurpose that and
turn it into a dedicated poker room and it's going
to be absolutely gorgeous. We're thrilled to be able to
create that kind of experience. We have a very dedicated,
very loyal group of poker players and able to create
(15:30):
their own space for them after all these years is
very exciting. So that's probably the biggest capital project we're
going to undertake this year. We've actually begun the demo
and we hope to have it open by October.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
Fantastic, well continued success, Jenny. I'm certainly pulling for you
all the time, and if you haven't had a chance
to visit Encore folks, be sure that you do all right.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Coming up next, Senator very Fine Gold.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
He has filed a bill on Beacon Hill to put
guard reels around the AI world.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
We'll have him explain.
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Speaker 2 (18:20):
Welcome back to the New England Business Report.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
On this Sunday morning, January the twenty sixth, Joe Shorts
with Kim Kerrigan here up next. You know, here's a
story that caught Kim's attention, my attention. Headline on the
Globe actually was a story written by John Cesto, and
the headline read like this, Barry fine Gold introduces bill
to crackdown on a i US. Of course, he co
chairs the Economic Development Committee on Beacon Hill. He is
(18:44):
a state Senator from Andover and he's been up on
Beacon Hill for a while, so he certainly knows what's
going on. He was a state rep starting in ninety
seven and he's been a state senator starting in twenty eleven,
and he joins us now to talk about efforts to
crack down on A and a senator. You know, we're
fascinated by the AI topic here on the New England
(19:06):
Business Report. But as I read this, I'm like, and
I said to Kim as we were opening up the
show today, I kind of feel like the horses has
not only left the barn, but they're out there running
around on the field, and I mean, how do we
possibly corral them again and regulate AI?
Speaker 2 (19:19):
At this point?
Speaker 11 (19:20):
Yeah, I think, first of all, thank you for having
me on. I think that AI is going to be
like electricity, It's going to be like the Internet, and
it already is playing such a large role in our
lives and it is still very early on, which is
hard to believe in the whole you know, AI function
in our world. And the one thing I will say
(19:43):
is that when it came to social media, like when
Facebook came out, we thought it was cute. We thought, well,
this is a nice little thing, but we didn't realize
the powerful use that it was going to be, and
we lacked putting the necessary guardrails in place and we
don't want to miss the boat when it comes to AI,
and that's why we're doing what we're doing.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
So what would those guardrails be? How would you control this?
Speaker 11 (20:08):
Well? I think I think there there there is a
bunch of things that we we we we want to do,
you know, we we we need to make sure that
we develop responsibly. We are talking to California. I've been
working with a state senator out there who has worked
on legislation as well, UH to set up models to
(20:31):
make sure that you know, information is correct. One of
the things that we want to have in there is
a kill switch, so like it's somehow this stuff starts
to get out of control, you can just pull the plug.
Uh And And I think I think that's super important
because AI is pretty simple now, but when we have
what's called genitor of AI, where AI learns from AI,
(20:52):
this thing can move very quickly and we have to
not only understand how AI is learning, like who is
Team AI to make decisions, but we've got to make
sure that it's accurate, that it's not misrepresenting, it's not discriminating.
And these are things that I think are super important.
I find myself right now, like I am on chat
(21:13):
GPT all the time, Like I really in the path
I need to go to Google and google something. Now
I spend all my time on chat GEPT. I think
I have a question on anything I look up chat GPT.
But the challenge with that is how do we know
the information is correct? And we need to make sure
that there are guardrails out there a making sure it's correct,
(21:34):
making sure these companies that are doing is that putting
into these large language models, are getting audited and making
sure there are things like not having people get information
how to do very destructive things like creating bombs and
things like that. So that's why this is still in
the very early innings and something that I think has
to happen.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Well, I shouldn't the senator. Shouldn't this be done on
the federal level? I mean, and what good does it
do on this Well, I think, But.
Speaker 11 (22:01):
I think that that is a great point, Joe, because
this is why I reached out to a state senator
in California, because what I'm hopeful is ultimately our legislation
and their legislation may be incredibly similar. You know, California
masters are really one of the top. You know, their
states for technology. If we're kind of setting the tone
(22:23):
of what the regulation would be, then get on New York,
maybe get on North Carolina or Texas. You know, I
think this could be the model for the rest of
the country and eventually get adopted on a federal level.
And you know, one thing that we're very proud about
here in Massachusetts is we've been an incubator of ideas
for many, many years. So in a lot of ways,
(22:46):
we've started legislation that we've passed in the legislature that
ultimately has been adopted by the federal government. But to
your point, and something I one hundredsent agree with, there
needs be uniformity, and I'm hopeful that what we're doing
with California will lead to that.
Speaker 5 (23:01):
Well, a Senator, obviously, we're a business show, so we're
looking at their through the lens of businesses here in
the base date, So talk about how this would impact businesses.
Would this would there be some kind of financial burden
put on businesses associated with the bill or or you know,
would there be some regulations associated with it for them?
Speaker 11 (23:18):
Yeah, it's less it's really less about the businesses that
use AI.
Speaker 12 (23:22):
It's it's more about the companies that are kind of
running the AI. They are running the large language models.
But you know, I think the other thing we want
to talk about too is that we are also you know,
putting together an AI innovation fund for startups, so we're
we we are also trying to promote AI as well.
(23:43):
So this is going to be a huge industry and
we want massa choos to capitalize on them. And and
I think that we understand what AI can do to businesses.
It can you know, you can offer innovations, low cost solutions.
It can streamline stuff, make things more efficient. So we
we do want and we hopeful that people do embrace AI,
(24:04):
and we want to be a leader for companies to
use AI in the state.
Speaker 11 (24:09):
So it's less about companies that use it, it's more
the larger companies that are putting these large language models
together to make sure that they have you know, good
protocols in place.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Figo states Senator Barry fine Gold from andover up there
in the North Shore, then up there in Beacon Hill
since well ninety seven, really talking about efforts to crack
down on AI or create some guardrails.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
I guess it's the phrase that they were using this morning.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
But you just mentioned this AI Innovation Fund that I
guess that's you know, that's really kind of the heart
of what Kim and I do, you know, encouraging local businesses.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
So give us a little more detail. How does that work?
Speaker 11 (24:43):
Yeah, I mean so really it's just you know, fun
for startups to get funding or you know, if they're
in the AI space. You know, we want to you know,
we're you know, we're not the home of open AI.
You know, we're not you know what other what Microsoft
is doing. You know a lot of that stuff that's
happened on the West coast, but there's going to be
(25:03):
so many application users that are AI related companies that
might approach a doctor's office, they might approach a law firm,
they might approach, you know, an insurance coming to say, hey,
use the software and this is how we can make
your business more efficient. And that's what we're trying to promote,
you know, to help businesses that are in the AI
space are using the technology to help other businesses, and
(25:27):
that's what we're hoping the money to be used for.
Speaker 5 (25:30):
Senator, we're just about out of time, but we'd be
remiss if we didn't ask you here real quickly. This
past week, Governor Heally putting out her budget for the
next fiscal year. Have you had a chance to look
at it and what are some of your just sort
of broadcast.
Speaker 11 (25:44):
Two thousand feet from ten thousand feet. I think there's
some good things. I think that I think as someone
who's Chair of Economic Development. The interesting thing that when
I ask CEOs of coming to the masters, I like,
you know, what are some things we can do to
help you out? The two things I hear the most
about are housing transportation, and I think we took a
big step last year to you know, move forward on housing.
(26:07):
But I think our next big thing is to get
transportation where it needs to be to make the team
more reliable, and I think we're heading in that direction.
So I think it's very positive what the governor is doing.
You know, we have an incredible state here in Massachusetts,
and we have a seven hundred and fifty billion dollar GDP,
but we want to become a trillion dollar economy, and housing,
(26:28):
transportation and getting startups is to me the way to go.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Allra He's a state Senator, Barry fine Gold, and we
appreciate you joining us this Sunday morning. On the New
England Business Report up next. Do you know who the
state comptroller as well? You're going to meet him next
if we're going to find out just exactly what he does.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Kim and Joe, we'll explore more business news that impacts
our New England economy when they return.
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Speaker 5 (27:46):
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that these windows are only sold by high Tech.
Speaker 13 (28:04):
That's right, Kim. Our Summer Series windows are designed to
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better than any other window on the market.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
That sounds great.
Speaker 5 (28:16):
But what about the costs, Bill, Because things have been
pretty tight for people these days.
Speaker 13 (28:19):
Well, that's a great reason to call us now, Kim.
Our windows are half the price of the big window companies,
and right now we are offering by one window, get
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But call us now.
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It sounds terrific.
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So the best prices and the best quality call high
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viz for a free estimate. Hi everybody, I'm Kim Kerrigan.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
And I'm Joe Shortsley. If you want to be part
of the New England Business Report, sponsorships are still available.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
You can email us at any Business Radio at gmail
dot com.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
That's any Business Radio all one word at gmail dot
com and we'll get your business on the show too.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
Welcome back, everybody to the New England Business Report on
this Sunday morning. I'm Kim Carrigan along with Joe short Sleeve.
I hope you're having a great Sunday morning. We've got
a good second half of the show coming up here
for you. But before we get started there, we always
like to talk about a few headlines that maybe you
missed or that we have not chatted about quite yet.
(29:41):
And this one certainly grabbed my attention, and I know
it probably did yours too. Boston Glow Media buys Boston Magazine. Yeah,
this happened. There had been some rumblings about the possibility
of this happening, and then it was announced that a
deal has been struck. It means that the Globe is
(30:03):
going to gain thirty employees and take over Boston Magazine,
which was actually published by the Philadelphia Magazine prior to
this Metro Corp. And it will increase the number of
employees to about one thousand for the Globe at this
stage of the game. Linda Henry, the CEO, says that
Boston Magazine has been a vital part of the city's
(30:25):
culture and they didn't want to see it go away.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
I would agree. It's a nice magazine. It's a good product.
It's been there for a long time. People identify with it.
I think their story selections are always right on. So
you know, I'm glad to see that because I would
hate to have seen it go away.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
Yeah, well, this is too big a city not to
have its own magazine like that. It really is when
it comes to Boston. The great part about this, too,
is that those who work at Boston Magazine apparently are
going to see very little change in their day to
day workflow and their day to day experience, which is
great for those people over there. So Boston Magazine, it's
going to be around for a while, folks.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Now, all right, Kim as promised to see.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Our next guest is the comtroller for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Now,
I know, I was asking myself when I first talked
to Bill McNamara, what does the comtroller and the Commonwealth do?
I mean, when you look around the state and you say, okay,
We've got a state treasurer, right, we have an auditor,
(31:25):
we have a Secretary of Administration in finance. So what
does the Comtroller do well. Bill McNamara is here to
answer that question. He's been on the job since twenty
sixteen up there on Beacon Hill. He actually spent sixteen
years at Fidelity before that, so he knows his way
around financial languages, that's for sure. One of the interesting
(31:48):
things is a look at the mission on the website.
On the state website talks about how the Office of
Comtroller is an independent, executive level agent see it. But
we can get into all that as well.
Speaker 11 (32:02):
Bill.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Welcome to the program, so tell us what the Controller does.
Speaker 6 (32:06):
Thank you, Joe, and good morning Kim. I'm very happy
to be here with you today and to have a
chance to talk a little bit about my office and
what we do, because it really is sort of in
the background for many residents and taxpayers in the Commonwealth,
so it's great to have a chance to share a bit.
So the Office of the Controller oversees the Commonwealth's financial systems.
(32:28):
Important to say right up front that we are a
non political, non partisan entity within state government. And if
your audience becomes interested, they'll find a lot of great
information at our website, which is mcontroller dot org. So
just macontroller dot org. As you mentioned, Joe, I've been
(32:51):
in state government for eight plus years now, but I
was originally appointed to this office of Controller by Governor
Baker in February twenty twenty, just as the pandemic was hitting,
and then in twenty twenty two, I was reappointed by
the Governor Heally. So to talk about the responsibilities in
(33:12):
a way that I hope will resonate with your audience,
we have one set of responsibilities that are unique to
government and another set that are very much like someone
would face in a major corporation. So on the governmental sides,
we played a central road ensuring that every time a
dollar is spent or moved within state government, it's in
(33:34):
accordance with states and ance law. And that includes the
annual state budget, as we may talk about. As you know,
Governor Healy just sent over to the legislature the f
fiscal year twenty six version of that budget. We essentially
either do or oversee all of those transactions. And then
(33:56):
the second critical thing that we do is do all
the accounting for them in the more formal sets, so
we can reduce reports. But then, in common with any
large enterprise, any corporation, we work to keep those financial
systems efficient and secure, and that's very important in these
days of cyber fraud, as as well as operating under
(34:19):
clear financial controls. Just like a corporation, the state has
to produce financial reports every year to well defined accounting standards,
and we're the folks who produce those reports. And then
finally I mentioned our website. It's a key part of
our mission that we deliver transparency on all state financial
(34:43):
items to taxpayers, citizens, residents, businesses that are here in Massachusetts.
So on that amacontroller dot org website you'll find our
see threw section with great information on that. So I
hope that was a good top line intro. And I
have to talk for a minute about how we relate
(35:04):
to those other states finance groups.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
Well, I'm going to have you do that in just
a second. I just have to ask you. Do you
have any friends up there on Beacon Hill? Does anybody
want to see you coming or are they a little
afraid of you?
Speaker 8 (35:15):
No?
Speaker 6 (35:16):
Well, yes, I have a lot of friends, and I
hope no one is afraid to see me coming. And
I would say that that's because it's not just myself
but the whole team here. We take that sort of nonpartisan,
non political part very seriously and so we're not on
either side of, say, a policy issue, because we don't
(35:38):
do policy. We just make sure that everything happens according
to the rulebook once the policy is decided. So you know,
I do my best to maintain good relationships all around.
But Tim, it's a great question, and it's a reason
that we emphasize the independent nature of this office. So
that the controller is a point by the governor, but
(36:01):
that's for a four year term so that it doesn't
serve as the pleasure of the governor. After that, it
becomes a more of an independent role now because the
legislature and the executives have to know that I'm sort of,
you know, right down the middle in both what we
say and do and what we were port afterwards.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
He's the comptroller for the Comonwealth of Massachusetts. Bill McNamara,
you know, Bilder was a big story that sort of
popped last week, and I'm looking at an article written
by John Chester the Globe had to do with this
whole idea of the Heally administration reaching a deal with
the Feds on a two point five billion dollar bill
for unemployment insurance insurance benefits. Apparently the Commonwealth was misspending
this money and then now we had to pay back
(36:41):
the Feds. And then the Feds gave us some deal
in the eleventh hour of the Biden administration to cut
a billion dollars off what we owed the Fed. What
was your role in that or did you actually find
this mistake?
Speaker 6 (36:54):
That's that's actually that's correct. You know, we were there
at the original point of finding this error. And that's because,
as I mentioned, you know, we do oversee all the
financial recording for the state as a whole, and in addition,
we manage something called the Federal Single Audit Process, and
(37:15):
that's where the federal government comes in every single year
and looks across every part of state government that spends
federal money. So, as part of both those elements of
our work, it was we who originally helped the Massachusetts
Office of Labor and Workforce Development identify that this was
(37:40):
a deficit.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Yeah, yeah, well, Bill, when you walked into the office
that day and said, oh, by the way, guys, we're
about two billion bucks off here, and we've been doing
this wrong. To Kim's point, were they happy to see
you that day?
Speaker 6 (37:53):
No one was happy to see me that day. Absolutely
admits to that. You know, it's definitely worth on this topic,
and I think this will be especially attuned to your
audience to talk the background on that a little bit.
Speaker 11 (38:09):
So.
Speaker 6 (38:10):
Obviously, the unemployment system is administered by the state, but
state tax dollars as we usually think of them, don't
play any role at all. Unemployment in normal times is
funded entirely by employers through their employer contributions, and I'm
sure your audience is well aware of that because it's
(38:31):
a very serious part of their expense as they add people,
and that money all goes into a trust fund and
it's entirely segregated from every other state dollar, completely separate.
What happens in any recession is the Feds step in
with additional money. And they do that because if there's
(38:53):
a real recession, every state's unemployment fund would get depleted
rapidly and fall beyond so the Feds make additional money available.
And that's this has been true since the thirties. Well,
there was almost no bigger events that took place in
unemployment than what happened with COVID, right, right, was this
(39:14):
sort of artificially induced nationwide decline and employment and increase
of unemployment. What I will say is virtually every state
during that COVID period had real difficulty in controls and
verifications on the All right.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
Well, good job there, good job figuring it out. We
were you know, it was a major, major story. And
nice to meet the guy behind at that, Bill mcnameric
Controller for the Commonwealth of Master and Bill, say hi
to your media guy up there, Mike Sangelang Kim and
I worked with him in the Channel four newsroom for
many years, so we do appreciate Mike and his efforts
(39:56):
today as well.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Okay, that is the controller for the come Wealthkin.
Speaker 4 (40:00):
All right, everybody.
Speaker 5 (40:02):
We are now joined by the executive editor of the
Boston Business Journal, Doug Banks, and you know Joe. As
we mentioned off the top of the show, the wind
energy industry in this state has been shaking since the
election last November because we have known for a long
time that President Trump has not been the biggest supporter
(40:24):
of wind energy, and this past week, his first week
in office, he's already made some declarations associated with this industry,
but before he could, President Biden, on his way out
the door, tried to protect a few projects that are
here in New England, and Doug, you guys have been
(40:44):
writing about that. Why don't you update us on where
those projects stand, because while they may be somewhat protected,
this could be along road.
Speaker 14 (40:53):
Right.
Speaker 15 (40:53):
So the two projects that you're describing are the Vineyard Wind,
which is you know, the six C two turbines off
of about fifteen miles off from Martha's Vineyard. Listeners may
remember the broken turbine blade let biasco last year that
was part of the Vineyard Wind project. And then South
Coast Wind, which is in the New England Wind owned
(41:16):
by Van Grid and that's also off of Martha's Vineyard.
So the two big projects, as you said, Biden administration
gave the final approval construction and operation plan the Federal
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management or POEM they have. All
of these projects have to go through there because it's
on federal in federal waters, and so the last major
(41:39):
construction permits. You know, just like if you're a building house,
you need a building permit. Well, these have you know,
massive projects have a lot of permits, but the main
one is a cop the construction and operations plan. You
got to get that done. And then because of the
blade failure into the Vineyard Wind one, they needed them
to amend that plan, so they had to resubmit everything.
(42:00):
And so if that if Biden's administration had not approved
that at the last minute, then they would have probably
been included in what President Trump last Monday issued, was
in that executive order that temporarily halted any new offshore
win leasing and permitting, So he stopped any new permitting
(42:20):
in federal waters, which would have stopped construction essentially for
those two But because they have those permits approved now,
you know, our sources people that Mary Cerres in our
newsroom at Providence in Boston talked to, including the Conservation
Law Foundation, we feel like those projects especially are pretty safe.
So Vineyard Win, Revolution Win, New England Win, those projects
(42:43):
are relatively safe. Now, will they take longer in some
of the smaller permits, some of the you know, minor
issues that have to get done over the next year. Yeah,
it's going to take longer. You know, there's a lot
up in the year. No question about it, but at
least those major approvals were done and that you know
that boats well, because these are major This is gonna
(43:05):
be major energy coming onto the grid after breaton points.
You know that coal fire generation plant closed, right, So
these are needed. I mean if people, you know, we
talked about the high cost of energy in Massachusetts in
New England, and you know, one of the reasons it's
so high cost is we don't have enough supply to
meet the man. So these are going to bring supply
that that is much.
Speaker 6 (43:24):
Needed to the grid.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
Doug Banks is our guest executive.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
Out of the Boston Business Journal headline on the b
GJU Biden gave eleventh hour life lifeline to two New
England off shore wind farm projects, right, and you just
sort of touched upon it, Doug. They got the big permit,
but there's still these little permits that you know are
going to be needed as time goes on here. And
I mean there's some reporting out there suggesting that, you know,
(43:50):
if they can't get these little permits, their their stock.
Speaker 8 (43:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 15 (43:55):
I mean I've saw some of the headlines saying that
stuff this was dead in the water that I think
that might be overstating it. Most of the folks that
we talked to said that, you know, will they slow down, yes,
But to just cancel these projects and stop them, the uh,
it's easier said than done.
Speaker 8 (44:15):
I mean, just think about it.
Speaker 15 (44:16):
This multi multi millions of dollars at stake here. These
companies would sue the Conservation Law Foundation, would sue our
attorney general, you know, and others in the state would
probably knowing that we can't add to the supply of energy,
would probably sue.
Speaker 8 (44:31):
It would get tied up. Yes, with every delay.
Speaker 15 (44:33):
Absolutely, would they actually be halted so that it didn't
get done, I doubt it. I mean, the turbines are
already being built. In fact, gie Vernova, which is a
local company, local energy company. They they said that they're
they're expecting to have the turbines that they built materially
complete by the end of this year. So those turbine
installations are taking place now off the off the coast
(44:56):
of Martha's Vineyard. To just turn that off, it would
really be hard to do.
Speaker 8 (45:02):
So.
Speaker 15 (45:03):
I think most people in the industry think that it
will you know, these will continue, But it is true
that new projects that had been in the works that
didn't get permits. Some of the projects like off the
Virginia Coast and other parts of the East Coast, those
are absolutely in jeopardy for at least for the next
four years.
Speaker 5 (45:19):
So, Doug, we've talked about this just briefly before after
the election, because again we knew that President Trump was
not a big supporter of turbine wind energy. So if
in fact this halt remains in place, what kind of
impact is that going to have on the Massachusetts economy
when it comes to jobs and dollars.
Speaker 8 (45:41):
That's a great question.
Speaker 15 (45:42):
We're talking about, you know, hundreds of construction jobs in
the ports in New Bedford, which is an aging area
for a lot of these you know, we're talking about
a local company, Giuvernova, that's supplying the turbines. I mean,
all told, I think the.
Speaker 11 (45:58):
National um that I saw was like twenty five.
Speaker 15 (46:01):
Billion dollars in offshore wind projects that are already flowing
into new ports, you know, the ships that bring stuff
back and forth, those manufacturing centers. All of the investment
that has been happening, that's billions and billions of dollars,
and at least in Massachusetts' hundreds and hundreds of jobs
that Without this industry, wouldn't you know, wouldn't exist the
(46:24):
PowerPoint They've shut down the coal powerpoints, so power plants,
so you know what else do they have?
Speaker 4 (46:30):
Absolutely?
Speaker 5 (46:31):
Doug Banks, Hey, thanks, like always, great to have you
here on the New England Business Report. Still come in
your way. It is a bittersweet goodbye in Arlington and
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Speaker 1 (46:47):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
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Joe and Kim will be right back.
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Speaker 5 (49:12):
Well, Joe, I have to tell you it's being called
the end of an era. Yeah, and that is for
certain Cambridge typewriter company which is located in Arlington. It
has been there for forty five years, and its owner
has announced that on March thirty first, he will close
the doors for the last time. Tom Ferrier is joining us,
(49:35):
and we're so glad Tom that you could be with us.
Why March thirty first?
Speaker 11 (49:39):
Why?
Speaker 4 (49:39):
Now?
Speaker 14 (49:42):
Well, I've been trying for a whole year to sell
the company to somebody, and I've had a couple of
false starts and my wife's waiting for me to retire.
Who's supposed to retire together last summer, and I just
think it the end of the first quarter would be perfect.
Speaker 3 (50:00):
Tell us about the business, how is it doing, and
how much demand is they're out there?
Speaker 14 (50:05):
The demand is through the roof. This is the busiest
we've ever been in my forty five years, kind of
like going out on top. And the people, especially since
I since you know, the pandemic, and especially since I
said that I was closing the store, Everyone's coming in
from all over the country almost.
Speaker 3 (50:26):
Well, why what's going on, Tom? Why is this happening?
Why are you enjoying such success here? What are what
people looking for?
Speaker 14 (50:34):
Yeah? I think people you know who want to write
and want to create looking to do it old school,
and people are just tired of, you know, doing everything
on the computer and you know, the whole digital thing.
And then when they try to you know, write stories
or you know whatever, poetry or journaling whatever on a typewriter,
it's a whole different experience. I mean, totally different experience
(50:55):
that really resonates with people, you know, young and old
people alike. But it's mostly the younger people that are
driving the business. These days.
Speaker 5 (51:05):
So, Tom, you've been open for forty five years. Tell me,
you know, tell us if you will, sort of the
progression and what ten years ago, what was business like
when everybody was getting a computer.
Speaker 14 (51:17):
Yeah, when I started in nineteen eighty, which was, you know,
a few years before computers came out, and it was
typewriters were the office machine. You know, no computers. They
ran on typewriters. Every office had them, and I thought,
you know, this is great. I'm going to be able
to fix typewriters for the rest of my life. And
then computers came in the mid to late eighties and
(51:41):
basically wiped out the typewriter industry overnight. It was very
shocking to see how quickly it happened, and all the
deals just dropped out and it was only a handful
of people left and office machines, which was everybody's business model,
was gone.
Speaker 6 (51:59):
And uh, I.
Speaker 14 (52:01):
Through luck and attrition, I ended up being the last
guy in this area. But I had no business. And
it wasn't until early two thousands set this whole vintage
typewriter of things started up, and as soon as it did,
I recognize it as this is what the business is
going to be for now one, Well.
Speaker 3 (52:21):
Compare that you say you had no business compared to
what you have now, comparing contrash, what are you talking
about there?
Speaker 2 (52:26):
What's no business?
Speaker 14 (52:27):
And well, because our business is built on fixing and
selling office machine. Yeah, and you know, portable electrics of
people that you know do work at home, and that
was all gone because everybody was using computers.
Speaker 3 (52:39):
So what were you like, the Maytag repairman sitting there
waiting for the phone to ring.
Speaker 14 (52:42):
I mean, I tell people, I was sitting here. I
had my feet up on my bench, ip back watching
soap operas. That was crazy. And I jump every time
that I heard the front door over. I'm just jumping
right up front.
Speaker 5 (52:54):
So you sort of became then you went from being
an office you know, repairman to an antiques dealer.
Speaker 14 (53:02):
Kind of yeah, and uh yep. And it's the kids
really couldn't believe the difference it was in using a typewriter,
the sensory feedback they got off it, and and they would,
you know, put it on social media and then you know,
get their friends huked on it. And every year he
got a little a little busier, you know, a little
(53:23):
more mainstream. Uh, to the point where it's you know,
pretty common, you know for typewriters to you know, make
out of parents and homes across the country.
Speaker 3 (53:33):
Now, yeah, well we're talking to Tom Furrier and he
is a Cambridge a typewriter located there in Arlington, closing
up shop in at the end of March. I guess, uh, okay,
give us an idea of how many typewriters you sell
in a month.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
But then I also want to hear the Tom Hanks story. Right.
Is there a Tom Hanks story?
Speaker 14 (53:51):
Yeah, there's probably a couple of them, but the one
everybody knows about is is he sent us about a
year ago, he sent us a machine in the mail
from his private collection and he autographed it and sent
a nice letter with it that he also signed, you know,
saying he was just giving it to us and we
could do whatever we wanted with it. And what he
(54:13):
was doing was kind of thinding out the herd, that
type of thing. He was sending a machine to as
many type by the shops across the country as he could,
and people still come in and ask to see it.
It's really cool.
Speaker 2 (54:29):
I didn't cause was that what would you sell it for?
Speaker 14 (54:34):
Oh my god? If I was going to they've been
going on eBay for you know, about thirty five hundred.
Normally I would sell this particular machine for like three
hundred and fifty dollars, but because it was his and
because he signed it and the comes of the letter
authenticating it, they've been going for about thirty five hundred online.
Speaker 5 (54:55):
So Tom, would you still entertain the idea of selling
the business if somebody heard and they heard that it's
going gangbusters and that things have sort of changed and
it's reverting back for young people.
Speaker 14 (55:08):
Yep. Absolutely. My My dream all along was to keep
this business going, because it's been a great business, and
we have a great reputation and and we're like it's
for the metro Boston area. I really wanted more than
anything to keep this shop going, and it it's been
so disappointing that that I haven't been able to. I
(55:30):
just haven't been able to find the right the right person.
I've had plenty of people call, you know, wanting to
buy it, but they don't know how to fix typewriters,
So I don't know what to think it. But I
had a couple of guys you know, that that wanted it,
that I was okay with but they got coal feted
the last second.
Speaker 3 (55:50):
You know, Kim and I both remember the great Gil
Santos who left us already, and I remember being in
the newsroom all those years of Channel four walking by
and there was Gil Santos with the you know, the
one finger boom boom, boom boom. Wouldn't give it up
with their computer. Always used a typewriter, you know that.
You know, well, do you have a favorite story there
(56:12):
all these years, tom?
Speaker 14 (56:16):
My favorite stories always revolve around Christmas because that's our
busiest time of year and kids are writing typewriter on
the Christmas list, have been for a while, but the
progression of the parents come in. Like twenty years ago,
parents would come in, you know, looking for a machine
(56:37):
for their kid because that's all they wanted. That's the
only thing they wrote on the Christmas list. But they,
you know, they didn't understand the whole typewriter thing. So,
you know, like would come in walking his heads down
and he's like, I don't know why, but for some reason,
my kid wants the typewriter. Now the parents come in
and they're you know, proud of the peacock, you know,
because the kid wants the typewriter and not some digital screen.
Speaker 5 (57:00):
You know, well, Tom, you're probably dealing with a generation
of parents who barely know what a typewriter is themselves
at this stage at the game for sure. Listen, we
wish you the best of luck and congratulations on an
incredibly successful business forty five years Cambridge Typewriter Company, and
Tom Ferry, we really appreciate your time here on the
(57:21):
New England Business Report.
Speaker 14 (57:22):
Thank you very much for having me on. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (57:24):
All Right, that means it's time to talk about next week,
and we've got a good show for you. Next week
we're gonna be talking with the president of the CEO
of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, Jim Rooney.
Speaker 2 (57:32):
A lot to talk to him about.
Speaker 3 (57:34):
I mean, first, we got this developing mayor's race, right,
we have this whole white Stadium issue going on the controversy,
and then of course we have Encore Boston Harbor, which
is the staggering numbers and what it means for the city.
So anyway, I locked to talk to mister Rooney about
that's next Sunday.
Speaker 2 (57:49):
Morning on the New England Business Report.
Speaker 3 (57:52):
Right here on WRKO, The Voice of Boston am six
eighty
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