August 17, 2025 • 58 mins
On today’s program, we talk with the CEO of Subaru of New England Ernie Boch. Doug Banks executive editor of the Boston Business Journal shares the top business headlines. Colin Young deputy editor of the State House News Service brings us up to speed on Beacon Hill. And Jon Chesto business reporter with The Boston Globe Talks about the loss of federal dollars.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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 (00:10):
Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the New England Business
Report on this Sunday. It is August the seventeenth. I'm
Kim Kerrigan along with Joe short Sleeve.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Good morning, sir, Oh, good morning, Kim. Are you okay?
I mean August the seventeenth you okay?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Oh no, really not really.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Well, let's sit down, let's hear about it. What do
you need? What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Put yourself on the couch, Kim, get through this.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Yeah, you know, I think.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Everybody's feeling the same way. First of all, the college
kids headed back to school.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I don't have college kids in my life anymore, but
I just think about the place I was just a
few years ago at this time of year. And then
of course all of our school kids here in the
state they still have a little longer, a lot of
them not going back till after Labor Day.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
But Labor Day so early this year, Joe, I have
grandkids starting before Labor Day, really Wednesday, Thursday, Friday before
Labor Day, which is you mentioned it early Monday September first,
I mean, oh, yeah, no, so you know we're leaning
right on it at.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
This Yeah, we really are, We really are. Well, it's
been a terrific summer for certainly everybody at the Kragan household.
I hope that the short Sleep household as well. I
know you guys have had a lot of weddings and
and lots of celebrating this summer, so I'm I'm assuming
it's probably been pretty great.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Oh yeah, yeah, you know, summer of twenty twenty five
is one for the record books, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
So and do you want to show us your pockets?
I think they're.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Empty, right, h you want to talk about the New
England business support and the coast of weddings, take a
seat show right now.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
To get loud, you have to put you on the cat.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
And all of us, especially getting those heaters.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
At the last oh more expensive than you know when you.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Plan to get them. You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, of surge pricing, right, it's called surge price.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
That's how.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
We want to take a look at our show today,
which is compiled. We have compiled a number of the
really great interviews that we've done over the course of
the summer. A lot of people vacationing this week, so
we thought, you know what, let's just take a look
back a little bit here at some of these great
interviews that maybe you missed the first time they aired,
and we certainly would want you to be able to
(02:23):
hear them. So we're going to get started today talking
with Ernie Bach. Of course, he's the CEO of Subaru
of New England. You know, Joe, you and I have
found over the years that so goes the car industry,
so goes the economy, whether it's local or national, and
Ernie has certainly said that to us in one way
(02:45):
or another for a lot of years. He talks about
the first half of the year and how it looked
and what he anticipates is going to happen in the
second half. First half was pretty good for the car industry,
by the way.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yeah, and then we also talked to Ernie about the
tropic side of his life, and he is very involved,
whether it's music drives us or they're at the music center,
the box center, and he's the guy who always gives back,
and yeah, sure he has a lot to say there
as well.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
We're going to talk to Doug Banks, the executive editor
of the Boston Business Journal. We so appreciate the friendship
that we have in the partnership with the Boston Business Journal.
Each week they join us with some of the biggest
business stories of the week. In this particular interview, Doug
Banks was talking to us about the new owner of
the Celtics. A lot of people have been like, who
(03:37):
is this guy? You know, he sort of popped up
out of nowhere. So Doug tells us all about him
as they wait for the NBA Executive Board to approve
the sale of the Celtics. That is when Doug joined us,
and we think this is still a very relevant story
because I think a lot of people want to get
(03:57):
to know this owner as we see as we can
actually see basketball season just around the corner.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
We're also going to be talking about that poll and
the race for mayor, and not much has changed. There
were showing with the incumbent to mayor Woo some thirty
points ahead of challenger of Craft. And then we're going
to talk with Colin Young the State House News Service.
He of course is the deputy editor up there on
Beacon Hill, now he's going to talk about crime stats.
(04:24):
And you know, this didn't really get a lot of attention.
I'm sort of surprised, but crime stats are down, down, down,
So we'll break it down in terms of what it
means for the business people. But there are a couple
of stats that are on going the wrong direction, and
one of them is shoplifting. So that's of course bad
for small businesses and things.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
And you do wonder if that's reflective of the economy.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah, and then John justocheso mains business with the Boston Globe.
He's going to be along just O. Well, he's talking
about all that federal money that whoops, all of a
sudden is getting yanked, you know, just some three hundred
million dollars of the state was planning to realign the
mass Pike that is now gone. So John Chester will
(05:10):
talk about that, and then he's going to bring us
up to speed and what's going on with that stadium
proposal by the craft folks over there on Everett for
the New England Revolution, and of course joining us now
is well you all know his name. He's Ernie Bakie,
of course, is the CEO of Subaru of New England.
The chairman of Bach Enterprises. He is also a major
sponsor to this program and we always are delighted to
(05:33):
have a conversation with Ernie back he joined us on
the phone right now, Ernie, good morning to you, sir.
So how's the summer of twenty twenty five treating yet?
Speaker 5 (05:42):
It's good, it's good. Thank you for having me. It's
this weather is amazing and all that rain we got,
the landscaping and everything around is so green. I love it,
absolutely love it. It's an interesting time to the automotive industry,
Joe and Kim, very very interesting.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
All right, well please explain.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
Okay, let me give you a little bit of a
synopsis of what is happening. Last year, the SAR seasonally
adjustable annual rate was fifteen point nine million vehicles, So
the US and twenty four all brands sold fifteen point
nine million vehicles. It's projected to be fifteen seven in
(06:25):
twenty five, so it's going to be it's going to
be a little bit less. The first half of the
year was really driven by the threat of tariffs. The
April in May was March and April. Excuse me, March, actually,
March and April. May a little bit was super super
(06:48):
exciting and a lot of sales went down. But now
with the political climate and such, the consumer has a
little bit of uncertain so the you know, the the
sales are going down. And I don't believe it's because
of the economy because the projected GDP is two point
(07:10):
six percent, but is the big butt. The average new
car price right now is forty nine thousand dollars and
the average payment and American makes for a car is
seven hundred and forty seven dollars a month with an
average rate of nine point one percent and the term
(07:31):
sixty nine months. Yes, I know, I know. The average
the average incentive that the manufacturer is giving as a
whole all brands is about twenty seven hundred dollars. The
hybrid situation, which we've talked about before, was was really
(07:52):
heating up and really going. Last months, eighteen percent of
all cars sold in the six states of New England
were hybrids, but full size ice internal combustion engine trucks
are up seven percent, So there's a little bit of
a dichotomy right now. Well, I think I think the hybrids,
(08:16):
they're settling in the hybrid, the non plug in hybrid
is really the most favorite that people are buying. You
can have about hybrid and you can plug it in,
but the self generating non plug in hybrids are the
most popular. The evs. The EV's really nobody's making any
(08:39):
money on the evs. The manufacturer's notn't making money, the
dealers aren't making money. There's about two months left in
the seventy five hundred federal tax credit, which is going
to stop, so it's going to get Tesla is down
thirteen percent, But I think Tesla is down because of
the political climate. I don't think it's down because people
(09:02):
don't like the vehicle.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Ernie Buck is our guest. Ernie, I just want to
ask you, you know, you talk about how expensive cars are.
Is there is there any break inside or any way
the cars can somehow become more affordable for families in
the country.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
Yes, I think so. I think as the technology goes
between the new technology in building cars and maybe a
little bit of deconctating I'm sorry, making less equipment in
it's got to be tough. I mean, forty nine thousand
(09:39):
dollars average, that's a high. That's very, very high.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
So, Ernie, would you say that things have smoothed out
a little bit in terms of the uncertainty that the
auto industry was facing there for a while.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
I think, yes, yes, compared to last year, sales are
up seven percent, but that was because of the strong,
strong first quarter. But yeah, yeah, it's it's it's kind
of even out. The towers are going to get under control.
And it's really, in my opinion, by keeping my heir
(10:12):
to the ground in the industry that it's a confidence problem.
It really is. It's a confidence problem on should I
buy now Shaw not. Tower's going to go down, Tower's
going to go up. It's just very uncertain.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
What about inventory? What does that look like?
Speaker 5 (10:28):
Inventory? Inventory right now in the United States all dealerships
is two point five million unsold vehicles, which is not bad,
it's not terrible, but that is the act. The actual
inventory as of a couple of days ago, two point
five million vehicles to sale in the United States.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Ernie Box our guests, of course, the CEO of Super
Bowl of New England. Ernie. What about AI and new
cars and the implementation of AI, whether it's you know,
getting your car serviced or the future of driving. I mean,
how do you see AI playing out here.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
Well, there's there's I think there's going to be two camps.
AI is absolutely being integrated into the automotive industry, and
you've got Tesla, you've got the self driving I was
in I forget what city I was in, but I
saw Weimo for the first time. And there are people
(11:30):
that are going to use the AI technology and transportation,
whether they're driving, whether they're not driving, whether it's electric,
whether it's the car is self driving while they're in
the car. There's a certain amount of people that want that.
But then you never discount the people that really want
to drive, you know what I mean. I mean they
(11:52):
want to drive, they want to experience the road, they
want the freedom, the you know that type of driver.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
And is the auto industry discounting that type of driver.
Speaker 6 (12:04):
No.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
As a matter of fact, the EV sales are waning,
and as the government gives people a choice what to buy,
I am I am. I am all for hybrids, I
am all for EV and I am all for ice
and I am all for the choice. If you want
to drive an ice car, an internal combustion engine car,
(12:27):
you should be able to do it. The government should
not force everybody to evs so as the regulations loosen
up on the ice cars, I think you'll you'll see
a more a more realistic opinion of what the customer
wants to drive.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Hey, Ernie, can I change gears just a bit and
ask you a little bit about some of your charitable ventures.
I love to hear about some of those, because I
know you've got some really great things going on.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
Well. I mean, I have Music drives Us, which next
year will celebrate its twentieth anniversary. Music drives Us a
Music drives Us dot Org. It's a it's a great
it's a great organization. We're putting instruments all over New England.
It's really close to my heart. And then then of
(13:22):
course we have the Subaru Love Promise. If you go
into any Subaru dealer in the sixth States of New England,
we have the Love Promise where we're constantly trying to,
you know, make the community around the dealerships you know, better,
and and and not just sell cars and make money.
That's a that's a really big thing.
Speaker 7 (13:43):
We believe that that the the people that live in
the community around the dealerships that we have should should
be we should be part of.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
The community and then I just have so much other stuff.
But I appreciate you asking me.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
What about the Box Center? What is the latest there?
Speaker 5 (14:02):
Yes, the Box Center, the Box Center, there's a couple
of Robert Plant going to play there very soon, Robert
Plant of the led Zeppelin, He's going to play. I'm
very excited about those shows. And yeah, everything's going good
with tremendous, tremendous community outreach at that theater. I've said
(14:23):
this before, but it's worth saying it again. We are
not a theater that opens at five, has shows and
closes at eleven. We are a living, breathing part of
the community at the Box Center.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Have you been traveling this summer, Arnie, and where have
your travels taken you?
Speaker 5 (14:40):
I have, I've traveled. I've traveled. I'm you know, constantly.
I'm actually trying not to travel, but i have to
travel because of business. You know, for the first time ever,
Subaru Nationally is going to host annual meeting in Boston. Wow,
(15:04):
so at the end of August you're going to see
more Subaru retailers in the city of Boston than ever
before in history.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Well that's good news, all right. Well, Ernie, we wish
you well, we hope the summer of twenty twenty five
continues to go the way you want it to. We
appreciate your support on this program. We certainly couldn't do
it without your pal. Looking ahead here, well, we're going
to be talking with Doug Banks. He of course is
the executive editor of the Boston Business Journal. And what
(15:32):
Doug does, of course, if you log onto the BBJ
is they have the five things you need to know
about business today. Well, we talked to Doug and we say, okay,
what are the five things you need to know about
business this week? So Doug Banks will be along with
those headlines and just a moment.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the Voice of Boston WRKO six eighty Joe and Kim,
we'll be right back.
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Speaker 2 (18:16):
Hi everybody, I'm Kim Kerrigan.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
And I'm Joe Shortslee. If you want to be part
of the New England Business Report, sponsorships are still available.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
You can email us at any Business Radio at gmail
dot com.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
That's any Business Radio all one word at gmail dot
com and we'll get your business on the show too.
Speaker 12 (18:43):
Well.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Each week we like to look at some of the
major business headlines with our friends at the Boston Business Journal.
Executive editor Doug Banks is with us this morning, and Doug,
we learned earlier this year that the Celtics would have
a new owner, and you guys have done sort of
a deep on William Chisholm. So what have you guys learned.
Speaker 13 (19:03):
Yeah, so, first of all, thanks for having me, Joe
and Kim. It's great to talk to you again. And
you may recall last March that the Celtics were sold
for six billion dollars, which was a record amount, and
the buyer was one Bill Chisholm, who pretty much everybody
said who's that? And turns out he's a private equity guy.
(19:27):
His firm is called STG Partners, and he was mostly
based in Silicon Valley in the West Coast. So people
around here are like, all right, who's this guy? And
nobody could tell. I mean, the Wall Street Journal within
a day had a story that said exactly that, like
he's sort of, you know, this really underground, secretive person.
So we given that the Board of Governors for the
(19:49):
NBA was expected to vote to approve that sale to
Bill Chisholm and his minority partners, whom I'll talk about
in a second sometime in June or July. They just
met this past week and didn't take up the Celtics
vote as part of that. So we're expecting the vote
to formally approve the sale of the Celtics to come
(20:09):
as soon as this coming week. And so we said,
all right, we got to start making calls. So our reporters,
Eli Chavez and Grant Welker, they reached out to dozens
of entities in Silicon Valley and the Boston area to
find out more about who Bill Chisholm is. We talked
to venture capital firms, banks, credit unions, industry observers, nonprofit executives,
(20:32):
portfolio companies, and interestingly, very few people wanted to go
on the record because he's a very private person.
Speaker 6 (20:39):
Right.
Speaker 13 (20:40):
Well, it turns out he's a big fan of the Celtics.
He grew up in Georgetown on the North Shore. We
did actually find out that he's a deal maker. He
loves to be the underdog. His firm STG Partners is
pretty small, and yet they've done some pretty big deals locally.
(21:00):
Some of our listeners may remember r S, a security
which was a part of Dell Technologies for a while
publicly traded and then not publicly traded, and we spoke
with r SA's CEO, who again they used to be
based here now there, the CEO is based on the
(21:21):
West Coast, and he actually knows Bilchism very well. And
he called that deal one of the most complex carve
outs in the history of carveouts, and called a tenacious negotiator,
punches above his weight against much larger competitors, was really
convincing in trying to get that deal done, and so
(21:41):
had a lot of great things to say about him.
In fact, most people really praised his business acumen and
his ability to have be a steady hand in deals
that are not for the faint of heart. So those
are the kind of qualities I think we want in
a Celtics owner. And so it was fun to to,
you know, fund for our guys to kind of dig
(22:02):
in and find out who he was.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Talk with Doug Banks, executive editor of the Boston Business Journal,
and yeah, they're looking at private equity executive built Chisholm,
all right. So you know, it makes sense that, you know,
since the NBA Board of Governors has not voted yet
on this, that that Chishom would remain quiet, right, I mean,
I suppose I understand that. But at the same time,
it's such a high profile team and such a high
(22:25):
profile projected sale. I was surprised when you said that,
you know, in most cases you were reaching out, your
reporters are reaching out and and your messages went unreturned.
And you said a few confirmed they knew Chisholm, but
even these folks wouldn't comment. Are you surprised that you
ever met with such silence silence?
Speaker 13 (22:45):
I would say yes, But as you pointed out, the
vote is not formal. He is certainly someone who knows
how to get a deal across the finish line, and
he knows that if he comes out and says too
much publicly before anything's official, that's not going to help
his chances. So I don't think he or anybody or
in his circle are going to to do anything.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
To jeopardize that they've already.
Speaker 13 (23:08):
I think they're you know, And I think that that
speaks to his influence, his ability to get people to
step in line, and not just him, but you know
his partner. So he's got two minority owners partners and owners.
One Rob Hale, founder of Granite Telecommunications and Fox Rock Properties.
He is a big developer down in Quinsy and the
surrounding area, and Bruce Beale, Junior also a developer, president
(23:30):
of related Beal And those guys have already been minority
owners in the Celtics, but they came in on this
deal as well. And Rob Hale is another one, a
big philanthropist, has given out millions to local charities. At
one point in twenty twenty two, him and his wife
Karen gave away a million dollars to local charities each
week for fifty two weeks back in twenty twenty two.
(23:53):
They're very philanthropic, very locally based. Again, devout fans of
the Celtics. And but yeah, quiet like Rob Hill does
not do interviews very often. It's hard to get him
on the record as well. So I think this is
the kind of ownership that's going to want to just
you know, not say a lot publicly and you know,
hopefully get the job done. And and we'll see, because
(24:16):
we've got some some big shoes to fill for the
in the Celtics. The last couple years we had some
pretty good teams and I think Celtics fans want to
see that keep going.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
That's for sure. Hey, let's change gears just a bit.
You guys were sort of on the sports, uh you know,
business beat. This week, and you had a great story
about the Lowell Spinners coming back to Lowell.
Speaker 13 (24:38):
Yeah, so from the hard court to the baseball diamond, right.
You guys may remember the Lowell Spinners. They were the
uh the single A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox
and had been playing up in lellash Park at in
Lowell for for many years. But then the for whatever reason,
the Sucks dissolved the team in twenty twenty as part
(25:02):
of a broader restructuring of minor league teams by Major
League Baseball, and so that single A ball club kind
of went away. And I don't know if you ever
went to a Spinners game, but they were a lot
of fun. So the Spinners are. They're coming back, but
not as a Major League Baseball affiliate. They'll be playing
as part of the Futures League, which is it's sort
(25:24):
of a college amateur league, so not professional, similar to
the Cape Cod Baseball League. Probably not quite as high
profile as Cape Cod Baseball, but you'll see a lot
of potential Division IE players. You'll see, you know, potential
recruits for ball clubs, and in the same league that
(25:46):
the Brockton Rocks is in. The Brockton Rocks used to
be in the canam League. Now they're part of the
Futures League and that league's been around, I think, say
about fourteen years. There's six teams total in New England
and so yeah, so it'll be interesting. They haven't I
don't think they've released their branding of their logo yet,
but it'll be it'll be fun to see if they
(26:08):
go with that, you know, that spindle with the you know,
hearkening back to the Lowell textile mill industry, and I
mean that's where the Spinners comes from, right the name.
So let's see, we'll see what they have to do.
But yeah, a couple of sports business stories this week
was fun to write.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Yeah, and I'm glad you said what is it La
La Suer Park because I saw that. I'm okay, how
do we say that? Lot? You said it very well,
LA Park. Okay. Now, as you point it out, they're
not returning as a professional team, okay. And then you
point out that in the regular season the Spinners would
bring in five hundred thousand dollars in donations alone and
(26:43):
revenue averaging around fifty thousand dollars per home game. Do
you see the same financial impact here of this non
professional team.
Speaker 13 (26:51):
No, I don't think so. I mean, when you're a
Red Sox affiliate, people are gonna come out, for sure.
I mean, they were averaging over three thousand fans per
game sold out for over a decade the park. I'm sure,
you know, it's going to be younger players. People won't
know who they are. On the other hand, you know, families,
little kids, you want to you know, you want to
(27:12):
go to a ball game. It's a great it's a
great place to go, and you know, it's a fun
night and it's cheap, right, You're not going to drop
four or five hundred dollars that you'd have to pay
if you were going to Fenway Park. And and so
I think, you know, I think that they'll do well.
We'll we'll see if they can sell it out and
we'll see what that looks like for them. But the
park is also home to the UMass Lowell baseball team,
(27:32):
so when UMS Lowell's in town, they'll be sharing the
park with them. So yeah, so we'll see, we'll see
how they do. But it's just nice to have that.
It's nice to have more more baseball that's affordable, family
friendly in the region, So Lowell and Merrimack Valley people
don't have to drive to Worcester to Polar Park. We're
down to Boston. They'll have a ball club that their own.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Sure, all right, he is Doug Banks. We thank you
very much, sir. Coming up next, the legislative session on
Beacon Hill winds down for summer. Theation. We'll take a
look at what's past, what hasn't, and what lawmakers will
be focusing on. On the second half of this session, Kim.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
And Joe will explore more business news that impacts our
New England economy when they return.
Speaker 8 (28:20):
There's a that's a love about it. There's a that's
a love about you.
Speaker 9 (28:27):
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Speaker 10 (28:50):
Are you a brother or a sister of one of
a Greater Boston's local trade unions? And finally thinking about
getting ready to hang up your tools after thirty five
years of working your tail off. Congratulates you worked hard
to build your retirement nest egg. But now what Let
me help you break through the nonsense and financial speak
so we can get to the questions that are important
to you. As you know, nothing gets built without a
(29:11):
set of plans, and neither will your financial future. My
name is Mike Marshall, President and CEO of Marshaal Wealth
Management and creator of the Marshall Plan, a comprehensive customized
plan that will help you answer important questions in all
seven key areas. You don't have to do it alone.
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Speaker 11 (29:42):
Advisory services offered through Capital Analysts or Linkel Investment Registered
Investment Advisors. Securities offered through Lincoln Investment Broker Dealer member
FINRA SIPC. Lincoln Investment dot Com, Marshal Wealth Management and
the above firms are independent and not affiliated.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
And welcome back to the New England Business Report on
this Sunday morning, July the twenty seventh, it's Joe short
Sleeve and Kim Kerrigan with you on this Sunday. Kim,
you know this spot in the programmer. We talk about
other things, other business news, and I mean this certainly
qualifies as business news. It's this poll and the Boston
mayoral race, and I think it's a little surprising to
(30:16):
a lot of people. I'm sure you saw it the
headline on the Globe story written by Emma Platoff. Boston
Mayor Michelle Woohold's commanding a thirty point lead over Josh Kraft,
Suffolk University, Boston Globe poll shows, and Kim, I want
to get your reaction because Adrian Walker in the Globe
wrote something and it hit me, and he writes, I
(30:37):
certainly wasn't surprised to see that the Craft campaign isn't
getting significant traction with voters. But for a candidate with
a war chest of millions of dollars, name recognition, an
a tack dog pack in his corner to be doing
so poorly is shocking. I would have guessed he was
down maybe twenty points, but not thirty. Do you agree, right?
Speaker 12 (30:54):
Right?
Speaker 9 (30:55):
You know?
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Actually I was surprised by it too, because we're seeing
so many ads. He is spending all kinds of money.
But you know, I think that Michelle wu Is sort
of backed him in a corner talking about a connection
to the administration in Washington, and I think that has
scared a lot of people away.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Yeah, I mean, and I guess one of these issues
they talk about, you know, bike lanes. You know, folks
don't like the idea of bike lanes, and they say
that voter I mean that issue. Yeah, voters are concerned
about it, but it's not a kick Woo out of
office issue, right. That maybe is part of the problem.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
I think people here too are looking for a little
more consistency. They want to give her another shot for
a few more years to see what happens. So really
interesting though, thirty points is a lot. Although let's see
what happens once Labor Day rolls around, right.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Yeah, And this quote, of course from David Paleologos, who
did the poll, all the ingredients are here to set
up a big win for.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Will Well Joe. As we know, every year, the legislative
session up there on Beacon Hill comes to a close
on July the thirty first. However, sessions are two years
and we're in the middle of one of those cycles
this July. So while things may slow down a little
bit in August, they're not quite as crazy as they
might be next year this time.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
What did Colin say, it's a little bit sane up here.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Yeah, this is good news for our next guest, Colin Young.
He's the deputy editor at State House News and Colin,
great to have you with us. So a little saying
there right now.
Speaker 12 (32:28):
Huh, yeah, you know, it's not it's a far cry
from last July when we were here all night July
thirty first into August first. You know, no one got
any sleep.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Let's talk about some of what they've been focusing on
up there on Beacon Hill.
Speaker 12 (32:43):
Yeah, you know, so far this year, the focus has
really been on budgeting, and that means the annual state
budget that Governor Mara heally signed at the beginning of July.
But it also means these supplemental budgets, these mid year
spending plans that pop up as deficiencies arise or as
(33:04):
emergent needs come up across state government. That's really been
the bulk of the work of the legislature so far.
There's been money for early education. There was an emergency
funding for the Group Insurance Commission a few months ago,
and for the most part, you know, the policy has
(33:25):
been kind of pushed to the back burner so far.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Colin Young, State House News Services our guest Colin the
I guess I'm wondering politically, We've we've got a mayor's race,
We've got a governor's race. What's the temperature on Beacon
Hill as it relates to those two races and how
much do they care?
Speaker 12 (33:46):
You know, the governor's race particularly, is it's starting to
shape up here, although it's it's it's starting to shape
up with these proxy battles, you know, they're really hasn't
been much engagement between Mara Heely, who's running for reelection,
and either of the two Republican candidates, Mike Knely and
(34:08):
Brian short Sleeve. But all of these issues are being
looked at through the lens of a campaign. So, you know,
when things come up on Beacon Hill, the governor always
tries to talk about the cost of living angle and
the affordability lens of it all. You know, that's all
(34:29):
with an eye towards going back to voters next year
and asking to be re elected, She's going to want
to be able to show voters how she's been working
to make their lives easier and more affordable. And of
course Republicans are trying to point out things the governor
and her administration are doing that maybe aren't totally in
(34:50):
line with all voters across Massachusetts. So there hasn't been
any real direct skirmishes, but we're definitely starting to see
the themes of campaign emerge.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Colin Young from State House News is our guest. Colin,
I saw some great stats related as they relate to
crime stats in the state. Talk us through some of
those stats.
Speaker 12 (35:13):
Yeah, I thought this one was fascinating, Kim, And you know,
here's a great example of where campaign themes are starting
to emerge. You know, crime is always part of a campaign,
and it's never as simple of a picture as either
side wants to make it seem.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
So.
Speaker 12 (35:31):
Mark Healey's administration this month put out twenty twenty four
crime stats for Massachusetts showing crime is down six point
five percent across the state, and of course they painted
it as look at this great momentum, we're doing such
a great job keeping Massachusetts safe. The other side, of course,
(35:52):
will say, you know, the numbers are masking other trends,
and there's some truth to both.
Speaker 5 (36:00):
Crime is down.
Speaker 12 (36:01):
In Massachusetts, there's no doubt about that. Like I said,
down six point five percent last year alone. We're way
down from the peak crime rate of this century, which
was back in two thousand and eight. But there are
things that are up, and the big one that jumped
out to me was shoplifting. We hear about it in
(36:22):
the news all the time, and if you look at
the numbers, shoplifting was up twenty one percent in Massachusetts
last year and compared to immediately pre pandemic in twenty nineteen,
shoplifting is up forty seven percent across Massachusetts.
Speaker 5 (36:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
I mean, how much of that, Colin has to do
with all the chatter and the district attorney's offices about
decriminalizing some of these offenses.
Speaker 12 (36:49):
Oh, absolutely, that's a big part of the conversation, and
especially in Boston, and the shoplifting trend is especially pronounced
in Suffolk County, which includes Boston. Of course, in Suffolk
County over five years, shoplifting is up three hundred and
eighty percent. That's definitely going to be a theme in
(37:11):
the mayoral race this fall in Boston, no doubt about that.
And in Boston Mayor Michelle wou has said, you know,
we want people to be reporting these crimes more so,
she says, in some cases the numbers reflect greater reporting
rather than just more instances.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Could they also be economic?
Speaker 12 (37:32):
Oh sure, you know. And that's one thing that also
jumped out to me looking at these these crime stats
is how the numbers in the crime stats sort of
respond to changes in society and in the economy. So
exactly as times are getting harder for people, maybe there
is an increase in crimes like shoplifting. The one that
(37:56):
really jumped out to me looking at the last twenty
five years of in Massachusetts is a huge rising credit
card fraud and the uptick there started in about two
thousand and five, you know, about the time online shopping
was really taking off and people were putting everything on
a credit card rather than carrying cash. So when you
(38:19):
look at these numbers, you really can see how society
is shifting.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Yeah. Colin Young with State House News Service our guests, Colin, you,
in your story about crime stats, you break it down
category by category by category, and you know it is
good news when you look at the bottom line here
in terms of all these stats are going down, take
us through some of them.
Speaker 12 (38:41):
Yeah, So, for example, last year alone, homicides were down
eleven point four percent. There were one hundred and thirty
two homicides across the whole state for the entire year.
You know, that number stuck out to me as pretty low.
You know, I would guess there are cities in America
(39:01):
that have more homicides than Massachusetts did as a state.
Robbery was down almost ten percent last year. Another big
one which was interesting to motor vehicle thefts were down
more than sixteen percent last year. I mentioned shop listing
is up. There are other crimes that have been sort
(39:22):
of up and down over the years. All rape crimes
sort of lumped together as one category, have been up
over the last twenty five years. Aggravated assault, same thing,
even murder. You know, while it's a fairly low number,
it is more than twenty five years ago.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
So Colin, as we kind of wrap things up here,
let me ask you about the fourth quarter up there
on Beacon Hill. What's something you're going to be watching?
Speaker 12 (39:49):
You know, one thing that's on the move now that
I'm interested in keeping an eye on is the idea
of banning cell phones in schools the Massachusetts and it's
starting to move a bill to that effect, And I'm
going to be interested to see whether that's something that
really gets attention as the new school year starts, and
(40:10):
if there's a push from lawmakers to have some kind
of a cell phone ban in place maybe for the
start of next school year.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Yeah, my daughter has three small children and she is
a big fan of banning cell phones. I mean, Colin,
what do we know about that issue? I think it's
a fascinating topic because you know, Kim and I you know,
everybody couldn't grab a cell phone fast enough, and now
everybody's saying, well, whoa, whoa, whoa slow down on this. Yeah,
I mean, what do we know about how we stack
(40:39):
up with other states? Or are we watching what other
people are doing on this topic?
Speaker 9 (40:43):
We are?
Speaker 12 (40:43):
You know, there are other states that have been moving
in this direction. I know Rhode Island just in the
last couple of months maybe in their state budget enacted
as a ban on cell phones in schools. That largely
leaves it up to districts to figure out the exact
plan for that, but We always hear so much about bullying,
(41:05):
cyber bullying, the dangers of social media and some of
these anonymous social media services, and how this can really
really throw a wrench in the development of teenagers. In particular.
We had one expert up here at the State House
called cell phones electronic cocaine for the sort of addictive nature,
(41:28):
the addictive properties they have for teens. But parents are
also worried that if you ban cell phones and god
forbid there's some emergency, that students wouldn't have a way
to get in touch either with emergency personnel or with
their family in that situation. So that's sort of what
lawmakers are going to have to balance here.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
He's Colin Young. Colin, thank you so much for the update,
very much, appreciate it. All right, still come in your way.
News out of Washington earlier this month not good when
it comes to funding for the mag a project in Allston.
Will have a full details.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the Voice of Boston w RKO six 't eighty. Joe
and Kim will be right back.
Speaker 8 (42:17):
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a love about you.
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Speaker 10 (43:17):
Are you a brother or a sister of one of
Greater Boston's local trade unions and finally thinking about getting
ready to hang up your tools after thirty five years
of working your tail off. Congratulations, you worked hard to
build your retirement nest egg. But now what let me
help you break through the nonsense and financial speak so
we can get to the questions that are important to you.
As you know, nothing gets built without a set of plans,
(43:38):
and neither will your financial future. My name is Mike Marshall,
President and CEO of Marshall Wealth Management and creator of
the Marshall Plan, a comprehensive customized plan that will help
you answer important questions in all seven key areas. You
don't have to do it alone. There is no cost
or obligation. Call us at eight five seven three four
(43:59):
two ten thirds. That's eight five seven three four two
ten thirty. We'll check us out online at Marshallwealth dot com,
Marshall with two els, Marshallwealth dot Com.
Speaker 11 (44:09):
Advisory services offered through Capital Analysts or Linkol Investment Registered
investment Advisors. Securities offered through Lincoln Investment Broker Dealer Member FINRA, SIPC,
Lincoln Investment dot Com, Marshal Wealth Management and the above
firms are independent and not affiliated.
Speaker 8 (44:20):
There's a that's a love about it. There's a lot's
a love about you.
Speaker 9 (44:27):
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love events. Get more of what you value most with
the Trusted twenty twenty five subrew out Bent with symmetrical
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Speaker 2 (44:54):
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Speaker 3 (44:57):
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Speaker 1 (45:21):
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Speaker 3 (45:38):
And welcome back to the New England Business Report on
this Sunday morning. I guess we sort of you know
you can. I guess we could say, Kim, we saved
the best for last night. That's not fair that Ernie
Park doesn't want to hear that. That's for darn sure
an artist Doug Banks. But anyway, we love John Custo,
business reporter with the Boston Globe, and certainly if anybody
knows what's going on in this city as it relates
to business. It's John H. John. Thanks, thanks so much
(46:00):
for joining us on the New England Business Report. You
have been a busy, busy guy. I say your name
on all kinds of stories. Let's start with the one
that really caught my attention, a headline being John Chester
on the Globe. Congress pulls a plug on three hundred
and twenty seven million dollars in federal funding for the
Allston Mega project. So what is next? What happened here, John.
Speaker 6 (46:23):
Well, what happened here is the state is playing a
two billion dollar realignment of the Massachusetts Turnpike in Austin
and among that also part of that would be a
new train station called West Station, and they were counting
on three hundred and thirty five million dollars from the feds.
But this was a Biden error program from the Infrastructure
(46:47):
Act passed under President Joe Biden, and the current Congress
and the current Trump administration have been trying to scale
back some of those some of that spending, and so
the program that the three hundred and thirty five million
was supposed to come from has been zeroed out in
the Big Beautiful Bill that Congress passed that meant that
(47:08):
all the money that hadn't been spent yet some two
and a half billion, would not go out. And unfortunately
for Massachusetts and for the Austin project, they only got
eight million of the three thirty five. So that's how
you come to three hundred and twenty seven million dollars
that we were hoping to get from the FEDS that
we're not getting.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
So what's next for the project then, John.
Speaker 6 (47:31):
Well, it's a good question, you know. I think that
this is now forcing some hard conversations at Massachusetts Department
of Transportation. I think they're looking at ways to pair
back the project to do things a little bit more cheaply.
They're going to have an outside firms to study exactly
how they can accomplish some of the main transportation goals,
(47:51):
presumably the realignment and straightening and refurbishing of the highway
and providing some train service there without spending as much,
which is what was originally proposed. So they're basically giving
in another look trying to get throw the price tag down.
I think that's going to be challenging because this two
billion dollar price tag has sort of been in place
for a few years now, and I think if they
(48:14):
redid the numbers, it would be actually a lot more.
So I think they've got a ways to go to
get it back under two billion. I think it's going
to be tough. There are other ways that the state
can you borrow more money. We've been doing for good
or for bad. We've been getting a lot more money
from the millionaire's tax than everyone expected, and so that
(48:36):
higher earners tax it can be used for transportation, and
they can actually borrow money off that tax flow. So
it's possible that they can borrow more money. They also
have a huge rainy day fund, but it's a state
really going to want to do that. It'll start to
look bad if the state starts spending, you know, significantly
(48:58):
more money on this problem without any federal assistance other
than it's possible they can get a federal loan, but
again it's a loan, so the state's going to have
to pay that back. So without any federal grant money
like that, I mean, there was billions with a big gig,
it'll be it'll fall completely on mass s doot and
(49:21):
I think if that happens, as it looks like it will,
they're going to have to rethink and scale back.
Speaker 3 (49:27):
John Justo of The Boston Globes our guest business reporter.
You know, John, I'm not you know, I know you're
not an engineer. But yeah, when I look at like
federal money and projects in Massachusetts that need the federal money,
like I look at the Cape Cod bridges, right, I
guess the Sycamore is okay, but the Bourne's a big
question mark at this point, Like a bridge like the
Bourne is just out of date at some point becomes dangerous.
(49:49):
I mean, this realignment of the mass Pike project, I
guess i'd ask you how necessary is it if it
doesn't happen.
Speaker 6 (49:57):
I mean, it's not the world. I mean, we are
in the middle of a refurbishing of the viaduct. So
in that part of Austin, the highway is raised on
a viaduct, and because it's above the ground, it deteriorates,
and so they are doing sort of a patchwork, piecemeal
(50:20):
repair to prevent pieces of it from falling on the
ground and keep it stable. And you could keep doing
that every ten twenty years, and there's some fear within
the neighborhood that that's what they'll do. The idea that
we can straighten out and lower the highway. And really
part of the motivation is unlocking all this land that
(50:42):
Harvard owns in the old rail yard that's sort of
in that kind of landlocked by the highway and the
railroad tracks in that area, straightening it out all of
a sudden, you and getting rid of this elevated highway
that goes over this area. You now, so I've got
all this land you can develop and it could be
a boom for that neighborhood and you can have a
(51:02):
lot of housing build, And that's one of the main
goals here. So it's not just a transportation project. If
it was just transportation, I think it would have been
dropped a while ago. But because of the potential for
redeveloping that whole neighborhood and making it sort of a
Kendall Square West, there are a lot of constituencies that
(51:25):
want to see it happen.
Speaker 2 (51:26):
We're talking with John Cesto from the Boston Globe. We're
talking about the Alston Mega Project, a story that no
doubt will be following for a while and have been following.
By the way. Another one we've been following here on
the New England Business Report, John is the story about
market Basket, and there was some movement this past week.
Why don't you update us?
Speaker 6 (51:44):
Yeah, so what happened this week is so for listeners
that don't quite know what's going on with the market
Basket Saga. The company is owned by Arthur T. Demoulis
and his three sisters, and the three sisters together the
majority of the voting shares. They, for reasons that still
aren't entirely clear to me, want their brother out. There's
(52:07):
a real power struggle happening. Their brother actually runs the
companies at CEO. They've put him on temporary paid leave,
and they put some of his lieutenants on temporary paid leave.
This week they announced that they were firing two of
his top lieutenants, Joe Schmidt, Tom Gordon, people who have
been with the company for decades. And so it's sort
of like the first shoe to fall there. You know,
(52:30):
the sisters are concerned, maybe we'll have a reducs of
twenty fourteen when Arthur's cousin fired him and then everyone
you know, walked out and there was a customer boycott,
and they don't want that to happen for obvious reasons,
because it would and I honestly don't think Arthur wants
that to happen because it would be really bad for
the company. The company lost a lot of money during
(52:51):
that walkout back in twenty fourteen, and they only kind
of got Arthur back in because he worked with his
sisters to buy out his cousins, so they were all
cooperative in twenty fourteen. But now over the last few
years there's been a real friction between the sisters and Arthur,
and it's now come to a breaking point. And so
(53:13):
what we don't know is what's going to happen to Arthur.
He's sort of been sidelined as they investigate quote unquote
the claims that he might be trying to start a
similar work stoppage. He has denied that, and I haven't
seen any evidence that he has been as of yet.
(53:34):
So it's really we're sort of on the nice edge
with what can happen with this beloved supermarket chain. Now
that you know two of the defectives have been fired,
I think there will be more firings, unfortunately, and I
don't know you know what Arthur's and fate will be.
(53:55):
I mean, I don't think he knows. So we really
got away. You can see to see what the sisters
decided to do next.
Speaker 3 (54:04):
John Justo's our guests of the Boston Globe. John, the
other story that you've been following has to do with
the potentials for a new soccer stadium. There an Everett
headline on the Globe. Will administration steps up pressure for
REVS stadium mitigation. A mediator is entering the negotiations between
city Hall and the Craft Group over the Everett project.
What's the latest?
Speaker 6 (54:25):
So, in this case, the New England Revolution owned by
the Craft Group, they want to build their own stadium.
The Revs have been playing in Jiete Stadium with the Patriots,
but they want their own stadium. They want it closer
to downtown. So they found a location in Everett, right
over the city line from Boston on the Mystic River.
And because it's so close to Boston, because you have
(54:46):
to go through Sullivan Square for most people have to
go through Sllivan Square in Boston to get there. The
legislature has required that there be negotiations with both Everett
and Boston and those incase negotiations have been pleasant but
slow to come up with a community benefits agreement UH
(55:09):
and now the legislation uh. That was passed last year
require requires a mediator to be brought into the fold,
and they've picked one and so now as as a
result of having a meterior coming in, the Wood administration
has asked the Crafts for very specific, detailed things that
they want to see addressed, from you know, transportation issues,
(55:32):
to environmental issues to what does this mean for the
rival concert venues, especially as the TV Garden or Fenerally
Park in Boston. And they're frustrated that the Crafts are
not providing uh uh, this information and they want they
are trying to lay out sort of some of the
mitigation that the craft should provide. The Crafts Meanwhile, they're saying,
(55:54):
we've been quite cooperative. This is still early in the process.
You know, we'll address some of the things as we
work together. But I think that the Mayor's office is
really trying to step up the pressure as they bring
in a mediator to kind of clarify the things they
really want.
Speaker 3 (56:13):
H All right. He's John chesnow, business reporter with the
Boston Globe, and those are just three of those stories
that he's been following. And we do appreciate John taking
time in joining us on the new England Business Report
on this Sunday morning.
Speaker 2 (56:26):
All right, Joe, Well that's going to do it for
this look back over the summer at some of our
great interviews, and I stand by it, Joe. These were
some of the good ones this summer. But we've had
a lot of good ones.
Speaker 3 (56:38):
We certainly have, and that's what we do every Sunday
morning here on the New England Business Report.
Speaker 2 (56:43):
You bet so. We hope you join us again next
Sunday at eight am right here on the Voice of
Boston WRKO 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 (00:10):
Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the New England Business
Report on this Sunday. It is August the seventeenth. I'm
Kim Kerrigan along with Joe short Sleeve.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Good morning, sir, Oh, good morning, Kim. Are you okay?
I mean August the seventeenth you okay?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Oh no, really not really.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Well, let's sit down, let's hear about it. What do
you need? What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Put yourself on the couch, Kim, get through this.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Yeah, you know, I think.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Everybody's feeling the same way. First of all, the college
kids headed back to school.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I don't have college kids in my life anymore, but
I just think about the place I was just a
few years ago at this time of year. And then
of course all of our school kids here in the
state they still have a little longer, a lot of
them not going back till after Labor Day.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
But Labor Day so early this year, Joe, I have
grandkids starting before Labor Day, really Wednesday, Thursday, Friday before
Labor Day, which is you mentioned it early Monday September first,
I mean, oh, yeah, no, so you know we're leaning
right on it at.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
This Yeah, we really are, We really are. Well, it's
been a terrific summer for certainly everybody at the Kragan household.
I hope that the short Sleep household as well. I
know you guys have had a lot of weddings and
and lots of celebrating this summer, so I'm I'm assuming
it's probably been pretty great.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Oh yeah, yeah, you know, summer of twenty twenty five
is one for the record books, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
So and do you want to show us your pockets?
I think they're.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Empty, right, h you want to talk about the New
England business support and the coast of weddings, take a
seat show right now.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
To get loud, you have to put you on the cat.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
And all of us, especially getting those heaters.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
At the last oh more expensive than you know when you.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Plan to get them. You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, of surge pricing, right, it's called surge price.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
That's how.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
We want to take a look at our show today,
which is compiled. We have compiled a number of the
really great interviews that we've done over the course of
the summer. A lot of people vacationing this week, so
we thought, you know what, let's just take a look
back a little bit here at some of these great
interviews that maybe you missed the first time they aired,
and we certainly would want you to be able to
(02:23):
hear them. So we're going to get started today talking
with Ernie Bach. Of course, he's the CEO of Subaru
of New England. You know, Joe, you and I have
found over the years that so goes the car industry,
so goes the economy, whether it's local or national, and
Ernie has certainly said that to us in one way
(02:45):
or another for a lot of years. He talks about
the first half of the year and how it looked
and what he anticipates is going to happen in the
second half. First half was pretty good for the car industry,
by the way.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yeah, and then we also talked to Ernie about the
tropic side of his life, and he is very involved,
whether it's music drives us or they're at the music center,
the box center, and he's the guy who always gives back,
and yeah, sure he has a lot to say there
as well.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
We're going to talk to Doug Banks, the executive editor
of the Boston Business Journal. We so appreciate the friendship
that we have in the partnership with the Boston Business Journal.
Each week they join us with some of the biggest
business stories of the week. In this particular interview, Doug
Banks was talking to us about the new owner of
the Celtics. A lot of people have been like, who
(03:37):
is this guy? You know, he sort of popped up
out of nowhere. So Doug tells us all about him
as they wait for the NBA Executive Board to approve
the sale of the Celtics. That is when Doug joined us,
and we think this is still a very relevant story
because I think a lot of people want to get
(03:57):
to know this owner as we see as we can
actually see basketball season just around the corner.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
We're also going to be talking about that poll and
the race for mayor, and not much has changed. There
were showing with the incumbent to mayor Woo some thirty
points ahead of challenger of Craft. And then we're going
to talk with Colin Young the State House News Service.
He of course is the deputy editor up there on
Beacon Hill, now he's going to talk about crime stats.
(04:24):
And you know, this didn't really get a lot of attention.
I'm sort of surprised, but crime stats are down, down, down,
So we'll break it down in terms of what it
means for the business people. But there are a couple
of stats that are on going the wrong direction, and
one of them is shoplifting. So that's of course bad
for small businesses and things.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
And you do wonder if that's reflective of the economy.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah, and then John justocheso mains business with the Boston Globe.
He's going to be along just O. Well, he's talking
about all that federal money that whoops, all of a
sudden is getting yanked, you know, just some three hundred
million dollars of the state was planning to realign the
mass Pike that is now gone. So John Chester will
(05:10):
talk about that, and then he's going to bring us
up to speed and what's going on with that stadium
proposal by the craft folks over there on Everett for
the New England Revolution, and of course joining us now
is well you all know his name. He's Ernie Bakie,
of course, is the CEO of Subaru of New England.
The chairman of Bach Enterprises. He is also a major
sponsor to this program and we always are delighted to
(05:33):
have a conversation with Ernie back he joined us on
the phone right now, Ernie, good morning to you, sir.
So how's the summer of twenty twenty five treating yet?
Speaker 5 (05:42):
It's good, it's good. Thank you for having me. It's
this weather is amazing and all that rain we got,
the landscaping and everything around is so green. I love it,
absolutely love it. It's an interesting time to the automotive industry,
Joe and Kim, very very interesting.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
All right, well please explain.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
Okay, let me give you a little bit of a
synopsis of what is happening. Last year, the SAR seasonally
adjustable annual rate was fifteen point nine million vehicles, So
the US and twenty four all brands sold fifteen point
nine million vehicles. It's projected to be fifteen seven in
(06:25):
twenty five, so it's going to be it's going to
be a little bit less. The first half of the
year was really driven by the threat of tariffs. The
April in May was March and April. Excuse me, March, actually,
March and April. May a little bit was super super
(06:48):
exciting and a lot of sales went down. But now
with the political climate and such, the consumer has a
little bit of uncertain so the you know, the the
sales are going down. And I don't believe it's because
of the economy because the projected GDP is two point
(07:10):
six percent, but is the big butt. The average new
car price right now is forty nine thousand dollars and
the average payment and American makes for a car is
seven hundred and forty seven dollars a month with an
average rate of nine point one percent and the term
(07:31):
sixty nine months. Yes, I know, I know. The average
the average incentive that the manufacturer is giving as a
whole all brands is about twenty seven hundred dollars. The
hybrid situation, which we've talked about before, was was really
(07:52):
heating up and really going. Last months, eighteen percent of
all cars sold in the six states of New England
were hybrids, but full size ice internal combustion engine trucks
are up seven percent, So there's a little bit of
a dichotomy right now. Well, I think I think the hybrids,
(08:16):
they're settling in the hybrid, the non plug in hybrid
is really the most favorite that people are buying. You
can have about hybrid and you can plug it in,
but the self generating non plug in hybrids are the
most popular. The evs. The EV's really nobody's making any
(08:39):
money on the evs. The manufacturer's notn't making money, the
dealers aren't making money. There's about two months left in
the seventy five hundred federal tax credit, which is going
to stop, so it's going to get Tesla is down
thirteen percent, But I think Tesla is down because of
the political climate. I don't think it's down because people
(09:02):
don't like the vehicle.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Ernie Buck is our guest. Ernie, I just want to
ask you, you know, you talk about how expensive cars are.
Is there is there any break inside or any way
the cars can somehow become more affordable for families in
the country.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
Yes, I think so. I think as the technology goes
between the new technology in building cars and maybe a
little bit of deconctating I'm sorry, making less equipment in
it's got to be tough. I mean, forty nine thousand
(09:39):
dollars average, that's a high. That's very, very high.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
So, Ernie, would you say that things have smoothed out
a little bit in terms of the uncertainty that the
auto industry was facing there for a while.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
I think, yes, yes, compared to last year, sales are
up seven percent, but that was because of the strong,
strong first quarter. But yeah, yeah, it's it's it's kind
of even out. The towers are going to get under control.
And it's really, in my opinion, by keeping my heir
(10:12):
to the ground in the industry that it's a confidence problem.
It really is. It's a confidence problem on should I
buy now Shaw not. Tower's going to go down, Tower's
going to go up. It's just very uncertain.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
What about inventory? What does that look like?
Speaker 5 (10:28):
Inventory? Inventory right now in the United States all dealerships
is two point five million unsold vehicles, which is not bad,
it's not terrible, but that is the act. The actual
inventory as of a couple of days ago, two point
five million vehicles to sale in the United States.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Ernie Box our guests, of course, the CEO of Super
Bowl of New England. Ernie. What about AI and new
cars and the implementation of AI, whether it's you know,
getting your car serviced or the future of driving. I mean,
how do you see AI playing out here.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
Well, there's there's I think there's going to be two camps.
AI is absolutely being integrated into the automotive industry, and
you've got Tesla, you've got the self driving I was
in I forget what city I was in, but I
saw Weimo for the first time. And there are people
(11:30):
that are going to use the AI technology and transportation,
whether they're driving, whether they're not driving, whether it's electric,
whether it's the car is self driving while they're in
the car. There's a certain amount of people that want that.
But then you never discount the people that really want
to drive, you know what I mean. I mean they
(11:52):
want to drive, they want to experience the road, they
want the freedom, the you know that type of driver.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
And is the auto industry discounting that type of driver.
Speaker 6 (12:04):
No.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
As a matter of fact, the EV sales are waning,
and as the government gives people a choice what to buy,
I am I am. I am all for hybrids, I
am all for EV and I am all for ice
and I am all for the choice. If you want
to drive an ice car, an internal combustion engine car,
(12:27):
you should be able to do it. The government should
not force everybody to evs so as the regulations loosen
up on the ice cars, I think you'll you'll see
a more a more realistic opinion of what the customer
wants to drive.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Hey, Ernie, can I change gears just a bit and
ask you a little bit about some of your charitable ventures.
I love to hear about some of those, because I
know you've got some really great things going on.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
Well. I mean, I have Music drives Us, which next
year will celebrate its twentieth anniversary. Music drives Us a
Music drives Us dot Org. It's a it's a great
it's a great organization. We're putting instruments all over New England.
It's really close to my heart. And then then of
(13:22):
course we have the Subaru Love Promise. If you go
into any Subaru dealer in the sixth States of New England,
we have the Love Promise where we're constantly trying to,
you know, make the community around the dealerships you know, better,
and and and not just sell cars and make money.
That's a that's a really big thing.
Speaker 7 (13:43):
We believe that that the the people that live in
the community around the dealerships that we have should should
be we should be part of.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
The community and then I just have so much other stuff.
But I appreciate you asking me.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
What about the Box Center? What is the latest there?
Speaker 5 (14:02):
Yes, the Box Center, the Box Center, there's a couple
of Robert Plant going to play there very soon, Robert
Plant of the led Zeppelin, He's going to play. I'm
very excited about those shows. And yeah, everything's going good
with tremendous, tremendous community outreach at that theater. I've said
(14:23):
this before, but it's worth saying it again. We are
not a theater that opens at five, has shows and
closes at eleven. We are a living, breathing part of
the community at the Box Center.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Have you been traveling this summer, Arnie, and where have
your travels taken you?
Speaker 5 (14:40):
I have, I've traveled. I've traveled. I'm you know, constantly.
I'm actually trying not to travel, but i have to
travel because of business. You know, for the first time ever,
Subaru Nationally is going to host annual meeting in Boston. Wow,
(15:04):
so at the end of August you're going to see
more Subaru retailers in the city of Boston than ever
before in history.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Well that's good news, all right. Well, Ernie, we wish
you well, we hope the summer of twenty twenty five
continues to go the way you want it to. We
appreciate your support on this program. We certainly couldn't do
it without your pal. Looking ahead here, well, we're going
to be talking with Doug Banks. He of course is
the executive editor of the Boston Business Journal. And what
(15:32):
Doug does, of course, if you log onto the BBJ
is they have the five things you need to know
about business today. Well, we talked to Doug and we say, okay,
what are the five things you need to know about
business this week? So Doug Banks will be along with
those headlines and just a moment.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the Voice of Boston WRKO six eighty Joe and Kim,
we'll be right back.
Speaker 8 (16:09):
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working your tailoff? Congratulations, you worked hard to build your
retirement nest egg. But now what? Let me help you
break through the nonsense and financial speak so we can
get to the questions that are important to you. As
you know, nothing gets built without a set of plans,
(17:32):
and neither will you a financial future. My name is
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creator of the Marshall Plan a comprehensive, customized plan that
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You don't have to do it alone. There is no
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Speaker 11 (18:02):
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Speaker 2 (18:16):
Hi everybody, I'm Kim Kerrigan.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
And I'm Joe Shortslee. If you want to be part
of the New England Business Report, sponsorships are still available.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
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Speaker 3 (18:29):
That's any Business Radio all one word at gmail dot
com and we'll get your business on the show too.
Speaker 12 (18:43):
Well.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Each week we like to look at some of the
major business headlines with our friends at the Boston Business Journal.
Executive editor Doug Banks is with us this morning, and Doug,
we learned earlier this year that the Celtics would have
a new owner, and you guys have done sort of
a deep on William Chisholm. So what have you guys learned.
Speaker 13 (19:03):
Yeah, so, first of all, thanks for having me, Joe
and Kim. It's great to talk to you again. And
you may recall last March that the Celtics were sold
for six billion dollars, which was a record amount, and
the buyer was one Bill Chisholm, who pretty much everybody
said who's that? And turns out he's a private equity guy.
(19:27):
His firm is called STG Partners, and he was mostly
based in Silicon Valley in the West Coast. So people
around here are like, all right, who's this guy? And
nobody could tell. I mean, the Wall Street Journal within
a day had a story that said exactly that, like
he's sort of, you know, this really underground, secretive person.
So we given that the Board of Governors for the
(19:49):
NBA was expected to vote to approve that sale to
Bill Chisholm and his minority partners, whom I'll talk about
in a second sometime in June or July. They just
met this past week and didn't take up the Celtics
vote as part of that. So we're expecting the vote
to formally approve the sale of the Celtics to come
(20:09):
as soon as this coming week. And so we said,
all right, we got to start making calls. So our reporters,
Eli Chavez and Grant Welker, they reached out to dozens
of entities in Silicon Valley and the Boston area to
find out more about who Bill Chisholm is. We talked
to venture capital firms, banks, credit unions, industry observers, nonprofit executives,
(20:32):
portfolio companies, and interestingly, very few people wanted to go
on the record because he's a very private person.
Speaker 6 (20:39):
Right.
Speaker 13 (20:40):
Well, it turns out he's a big fan of the Celtics.
He grew up in Georgetown on the North Shore. We
did actually find out that he's a deal maker. He
loves to be the underdog. His firm STG Partners is
pretty small, and yet they've done some pretty big deals locally.
(21:00):
Some of our listeners may remember r S, a security
which was a part of Dell Technologies for a while
publicly traded and then not publicly traded, and we spoke
with r SA's CEO, who again they used to be
based here now there, the CEO is based on the
(21:21):
West Coast, and he actually knows Bilchism very well. And
he called that deal one of the most complex carve
outs in the history of carveouts, and called a tenacious negotiator,
punches above his weight against much larger competitors, was really
convincing in trying to get that deal done, and so
(21:41):
had a lot of great things to say about him.
In fact, most people really praised his business acumen and
his ability to have be a steady hand in deals
that are not for the faint of heart. So those
are the kind of qualities I think we want in
a Celtics owner. And so it was fun to to,
you know, fund for our guys to kind of dig
(22:02):
in and find out who he was.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Talk with Doug Banks, executive editor of the Boston Business Journal,
and yeah, they're looking at private equity executive built Chisholm,
all right. So you know, it makes sense that, you know,
since the NBA Board of Governors has not voted yet
on this, that that Chishom would remain quiet, right, I mean,
I suppose I understand that. But at the same time,
it's such a high profile team and such a high
(22:25):
profile projected sale. I was surprised when you said that,
you know, in most cases you were reaching out, your
reporters are reaching out and and your messages went unreturned.
And you said a few confirmed they knew Chisholm, but
even these folks wouldn't comment. Are you surprised that you
ever met with such silence silence?
Speaker 13 (22:45):
I would say yes, But as you pointed out, the
vote is not formal. He is certainly someone who knows
how to get a deal across the finish line, and
he knows that if he comes out and says too
much publicly before anything's official, that's not going to help
his chances. So I don't think he or anybody or
in his circle are going to to do anything.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
To jeopardize that they've already.
Speaker 13 (23:08):
I think they're you know, And I think that that
speaks to his influence, his ability to get people to
step in line, and not just him, but you know
his partner. So he's got two minority owners partners and owners.
One Rob Hale, founder of Granite Telecommunications and Fox Rock Properties.
He is a big developer down in Quinsy and the
surrounding area, and Bruce Beale, Junior also a developer, president
(23:30):
of related Beal And those guys have already been minority
owners in the Celtics, but they came in on this
deal as well. And Rob Hale is another one, a
big philanthropist, has given out millions to local charities. At
one point in twenty twenty two, him and his wife
Karen gave away a million dollars to local charities each
week for fifty two weeks back in twenty twenty two.
(23:53):
They're very philanthropic, very locally based. Again, devout fans of
the Celtics. And but yeah, quiet like Rob Hill does
not do interviews very often. It's hard to get him
on the record as well. So I think this is
the kind of ownership that's going to want to just
you know, not say a lot publicly and you know,
hopefully get the job done. And and we'll see, because
(24:16):
we've got some some big shoes to fill for the
in the Celtics. The last couple years we had some
pretty good teams and I think Celtics fans want to
see that keep going.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
That's for sure. Hey, let's change gears just a bit.
You guys were sort of on the sports, uh you know,
business beat. This week, and you had a great story
about the Lowell Spinners coming back to Lowell.
Speaker 13 (24:38):
Yeah, so from the hard court to the baseball diamond, right.
You guys may remember the Lowell Spinners. They were the
uh the single A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox
and had been playing up in lellash Park at in
Lowell for for many years. But then the for whatever reason,
the Sucks dissolved the team in twenty twenty as part
(25:02):
of a broader restructuring of minor league teams by Major
League Baseball, and so that single A ball club kind
of went away. And I don't know if you ever
went to a Spinners game, but they were a lot
of fun. So the Spinners are. They're coming back, but
not as a Major League Baseball affiliate. They'll be playing
as part of the Futures League, which is it's sort
(25:24):
of a college amateur league, so not professional, similar to
the Cape Cod Baseball League. Probably not quite as high
profile as Cape Cod Baseball, but you'll see a lot
of potential Division IE players. You'll see, you know, potential
recruits for ball clubs, and in the same league that
(25:46):
the Brockton Rocks is in. The Brockton Rocks used to
be in the canam League. Now they're part of the
Futures League and that league's been around, I think, say
about fourteen years. There's six teams total in New England
and so yeah, so it'll be interesting. They haven't I
don't think they've released their branding of their logo yet,
but it'll be it'll be fun to see if they
(26:08):
go with that, you know, that spindle with the you know,
hearkening back to the Lowell textile mill industry, and I
mean that's where the Spinners comes from, right the name.
So let's see, we'll see what they have to do.
But yeah, a couple of sports business stories this week
was fun to write.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Yeah, and I'm glad you said what is it La
La Suer Park because I saw that. I'm okay, how
do we say that? Lot? You said it very well,
LA Park. Okay. Now, as you point it out, they're
not returning as a professional team, okay. And then you
point out that in the regular season the Spinners would
bring in five hundred thousand dollars in donations alone and
(26:43):
revenue averaging around fifty thousand dollars per home game. Do
you see the same financial impact here of this non
professional team.
Speaker 13 (26:51):
No, I don't think so. I mean, when you're a
Red Sox affiliate, people are gonna come out, for sure.
I mean, they were averaging over three thousand fans per
game sold out for over a decade the park. I'm sure,
you know, it's going to be younger players. People won't
know who they are. On the other hand, you know, families,
little kids, you want to you know, you want to
(27:12):
go to a ball game. It's a great it's a
great place to go, and you know, it's a fun
night and it's cheap, right, You're not going to drop
four or five hundred dollars that you'd have to pay
if you were going to Fenway Park. And and so
I think, you know, I think that they'll do well.
We'll we'll see if they can sell it out and
we'll see what that looks like for them. But the
park is also home to the UMass Lowell baseball team,
(27:32):
so when UMS Lowell's in town, they'll be sharing the
park with them. So yeah, so we'll see, we'll see
how they do. But it's just nice to have that.
It's nice to have more more baseball that's affordable, family
friendly in the region, So Lowell and Merrimack Valley people
don't have to drive to Worcester to Polar Park. We're
down to Boston. They'll have a ball club that their own.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Sure, all right, he is Doug Banks. We thank you
very much, sir. Coming up next, the legislative session on
Beacon Hill winds down for summer. Theation. We'll take a
look at what's past, what hasn't, and what lawmakers will
be focusing on. On the second half of this session, Kim.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
And Joe will explore more business news that impacts our
New England economy when they return.
Speaker 8 (28:20):
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Are you a brother or a sister of one of
a Greater Boston's local trade unions? And finally thinking about
getting ready to hang up your tools after thirty five
years of working your tail off. Congratulates you worked hard
to build your retirement nest egg. But now what Let
me help you break through the nonsense and financial speak
so we can get to the questions that are important
to you. As you know, nothing gets built without a
(29:11):
set of plans, and neither will your financial future. My
name is Mike Marshall, President and CEO of Marshaal Wealth
Management and creator of the Marshall Plan, a comprehensive customized
plan that will help you answer important questions in all
seven key areas. You don't have to do it alone.
There is no cost or obligation. Call us at eight
five seven three four two ten thirty. That's eight five
(29:34):
seven three four two ten thirty. Well check us out
online at Marshalwealth dot Com Marshall with two ls Marshallwealth
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Speaker 11 (29:42):
Advisory services offered through Capital Analysts or Linkel Investment Registered
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FINRA SIPC. Lincoln Investment dot Com, Marshal Wealth Management and
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Speaker 3 (29:55):
And welcome back to the New England Business Report on
this Sunday morning, July the twenty seventh, it's Joe short
Sleeve and Kim Kerrigan with you on this Sunday. Kim,
you know this spot in the programmer. We talk about
other things, other business news, and I mean this certainly
qualifies as business news. It's this poll and the Boston
mayoral race, and I think it's a little surprising to
(30:16):
a lot of people. I'm sure you saw it the
headline on the Globe story written by Emma Platoff. Boston
Mayor Michelle Woohold's commanding a thirty point lead over Josh Kraft,
Suffolk University, Boston Globe poll shows, and Kim, I want
to get your reaction because Adrian Walker in the Globe
wrote something and it hit me, and he writes, I
(30:37):
certainly wasn't surprised to see that the Craft campaign isn't
getting significant traction with voters. But for a candidate with
a war chest of millions of dollars, name recognition, an
a tack dog pack in his corner to be doing
so poorly is shocking. I would have guessed he was
down maybe twenty points, but not thirty. Do you agree, right?
Speaker 12 (30:54):
Right?
Speaker 9 (30:55):
You know?
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Actually I was surprised by it too, because we're seeing
so many ads. He is spending all kinds of money.
But you know, I think that Michelle wu Is sort
of backed him in a corner talking about a connection
to the administration in Washington, and I think that has
scared a lot of people away.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Yeah, I mean, and I guess one of these issues
they talk about, you know, bike lanes. You know, folks
don't like the idea of bike lanes, and they say
that voter I mean that issue. Yeah, voters are concerned
about it, but it's not a kick Woo out of
office issue, right. That maybe is part of the problem.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
I think people here too are looking for a little
more consistency. They want to give her another shot for
a few more years to see what happens. So really
interesting though, thirty points is a lot. Although let's see
what happens once Labor Day rolls around, right.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Yeah, And this quote, of course from David Paleologos, who
did the poll, all the ingredients are here to set
up a big win for.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Will Well Joe. As we know, every year, the legislative
session up there on Beacon Hill comes to a close
on July the thirty first. However, sessions are two years
and we're in the middle of one of those cycles
this July. So while things may slow down a little
bit in August, they're not quite as crazy as they
might be next year this time.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
What did Colin say, it's a little bit sane up here.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Yeah, this is good news for our next guest, Colin Young.
He's the deputy editor at State House News and Colin,
great to have you with us. So a little saying
there right now.
Speaker 12 (32:28):
Huh, yeah, you know, it's not it's a far cry
from last July when we were here all night July
thirty first into August first. You know, no one got
any sleep.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Let's talk about some of what they've been focusing on
up there on Beacon Hill.
Speaker 12 (32:43):
Yeah, you know, so far this year, the focus has
really been on budgeting, and that means the annual state
budget that Governor Mara heally signed at the beginning of July.
But it also means these supplemental budgets, these mid year
spending plans that pop up as deficiencies arise or as
(33:04):
emergent needs come up across state government. That's really been
the bulk of the work of the legislature so far.
There's been money for early education. There was an emergency
funding for the Group Insurance Commission a few months ago,
and for the most part, you know, the policy has
(33:25):
been kind of pushed to the back burner so far.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Colin Young, State House News Services our guest Colin the
I guess I'm wondering politically, We've we've got a mayor's race,
We've got a governor's race. What's the temperature on Beacon
Hill as it relates to those two races and how
much do they care?
Speaker 12 (33:46):
You know, the governor's race particularly, is it's starting to
shape up here, although it's it's it's starting to shape
up with these proxy battles, you know, they're really hasn't
been much engagement between Mara Heely, who's running for reelection,
and either of the two Republican candidates, Mike Knely and
(34:08):
Brian short Sleeve. But all of these issues are being
looked at through the lens of a campaign. So, you know,
when things come up on Beacon Hill, the governor always
tries to talk about the cost of living angle and
the affordability lens of it all. You know, that's all
(34:29):
with an eye towards going back to voters next year
and asking to be re elected, She's going to want
to be able to show voters how she's been working
to make their lives easier and more affordable. And of
course Republicans are trying to point out things the governor
and her administration are doing that maybe aren't totally in
(34:50):
line with all voters across Massachusetts. So there hasn't been
any real direct skirmishes, but we're definitely starting to see
the themes of campaign emerge.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Colin Young from State House News is our guest. Colin,
I saw some great stats related as they relate to
crime stats in the state. Talk us through some of
those stats.
Speaker 12 (35:13):
Yeah, I thought this one was fascinating, Kim, And you know,
here's a great example of where campaign themes are starting
to emerge. You know, crime is always part of a campaign,
and it's never as simple of a picture as either
side wants to make it seem.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
So.
Speaker 12 (35:31):
Mark Healey's administration this month put out twenty twenty four
crime stats for Massachusetts showing crime is down six point
five percent across the state, and of course they painted
it as look at this great momentum, we're doing such
a great job keeping Massachusetts safe. The other side, of course,
(35:52):
will say, you know, the numbers are masking other trends,
and there's some truth to both.
Speaker 5 (36:00):
Crime is down.
Speaker 12 (36:01):
In Massachusetts, there's no doubt about that. Like I said,
down six point five percent last year alone. We're way
down from the peak crime rate of this century, which
was back in two thousand and eight. But there are
things that are up, and the big one that jumped
out to me was shoplifting. We hear about it in
(36:22):
the news all the time, and if you look at
the numbers, shoplifting was up twenty one percent in Massachusetts
last year and compared to immediately pre pandemic in twenty nineteen,
shoplifting is up forty seven percent across Massachusetts.
Speaker 5 (36:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
I mean, how much of that, Colin has to do
with all the chatter and the district attorney's offices about
decriminalizing some of these offenses.
Speaker 12 (36:49):
Oh, absolutely, that's a big part of the conversation, and
especially in Boston, and the shoplifting trend is especially pronounced
in Suffolk County, which includes Boston. Of course, in Suffolk
County over five years, shoplifting is up three hundred and
eighty percent. That's definitely going to be a theme in
(37:11):
the mayoral race this fall in Boston, no doubt about that.
And in Boston Mayor Michelle wou has said, you know,
we want people to be reporting these crimes more so,
she says, in some cases the numbers reflect greater reporting
rather than just more instances.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Could they also be economic?
Speaker 12 (37:32):
Oh sure, you know. And that's one thing that also
jumped out to me looking at these these crime stats
is how the numbers in the crime stats sort of
respond to changes in society and in the economy. So
exactly as times are getting harder for people, maybe there
is an increase in crimes like shoplifting. The one that
(37:56):
really jumped out to me looking at the last twenty
five years of in Massachusetts is a huge rising credit
card fraud and the uptick there started in about two
thousand and five, you know, about the time online shopping
was really taking off and people were putting everything on
a credit card rather than carrying cash. So when you
(38:19):
look at these numbers, you really can see how society
is shifting.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Yeah. Colin Young with State House News Service our guests, Colin, you,
in your story about crime stats, you break it down
category by category by category, and you know it is
good news when you look at the bottom line here
in terms of all these stats are going down, take
us through some of them.
Speaker 12 (38:41):
Yeah, So, for example, last year alone, homicides were down
eleven point four percent. There were one hundred and thirty
two homicides across the whole state for the entire year.
You know, that number stuck out to me as pretty low.
You know, I would guess there are cities in America
(39:01):
that have more homicides than Massachusetts did as a state.
Robbery was down almost ten percent last year. Another big
one which was interesting to motor vehicle thefts were down
more than sixteen percent last year. I mentioned shop listing
is up. There are other crimes that have been sort
(39:22):
of up and down over the years. All rape crimes
sort of lumped together as one category, have been up
over the last twenty five years. Aggravated assault, same thing,
even murder. You know, while it's a fairly low number,
it is more than twenty five years ago.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
So Colin, as we kind of wrap things up here,
let me ask you about the fourth quarter up there
on Beacon Hill. What's something you're going to be watching?
Speaker 12 (39:49):
You know, one thing that's on the move now that
I'm interested in keeping an eye on is the idea
of banning cell phones in schools the Massachusetts and it's
starting to move a bill to that effect, And I'm
going to be interested to see whether that's something that
really gets attention as the new school year starts, and
(40:10):
if there's a push from lawmakers to have some kind
of a cell phone ban in place maybe for the
start of next school year.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Yeah, my daughter has three small children and she is
a big fan of banning cell phones. I mean, Colin,
what do we know about that issue? I think it's
a fascinating topic because you know, Kim and I you know,
everybody couldn't grab a cell phone fast enough, and now
everybody's saying, well, whoa, whoa, whoa slow down on this. Yeah,
I mean, what do we know about how we stack
(40:39):
up with other states? Or are we watching what other
people are doing on this topic?
Speaker 9 (40:43):
We are?
Speaker 12 (40:43):
You know, there are other states that have been moving
in this direction. I know Rhode Island just in the
last couple of months maybe in their state budget enacted
as a ban on cell phones in schools. That largely
leaves it up to districts to figure out the exact
plan for that, but We always hear so much about bullying,
(41:05):
cyber bullying, the dangers of social media and some of
these anonymous social media services, and how this can really
really throw a wrench in the development of teenagers. In particular.
We had one expert up here at the State House
called cell phones electronic cocaine for the sort of addictive nature,
(41:28):
the addictive properties they have for teens. But parents are
also worried that if you ban cell phones and god
forbid there's some emergency, that students wouldn't have a way
to get in touch either with emergency personnel or with
their family in that situation. So that's sort of what
lawmakers are going to have to balance here.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
He's Colin Young. Colin, thank you so much for the update,
very much, appreciate it. All right, still come in your way.
News out of Washington earlier this month not good when
it comes to funding for the mag a project in Allston.
Will have a full details.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the Voice of Boston w RKO six 't eighty. Joe
and Kim will be right back.
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Speaker 2 (44:54):
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Speaker 3 (45:38):
And welcome back to the New England Business Report on
this Sunday morning. I guess we sort of you know
you can. I guess we could say, Kim, we saved
the best for last night. That's not fair that Ernie
Park doesn't want to hear that. That's for darn sure
an artist Doug Banks. But anyway, we love John Custo,
business reporter with the Boston Globe, and certainly if anybody
knows what's going on in this city as it relates
to business. It's John H. John. Thanks, thanks so much
(46:00):
for joining us on the New England Business Report. You
have been a busy, busy guy. I say your name
on all kinds of stories. Let's start with the one
that really caught my attention, a headline being John Chester
on the Globe. Congress pulls a plug on three hundred
and twenty seven million dollars in federal funding for the
Allston Mega project. So what is next? What happened here, John.
Speaker 6 (46:23):
Well, what happened here is the state is playing a
two billion dollar realignment of the Massachusetts Turnpike in Austin
and among that also part of that would be a
new train station called West Station, and they were counting
on three hundred and thirty five million dollars from the feds.
But this was a Biden error program from the Infrastructure
(46:47):
Act passed under President Joe Biden, and the current Congress
and the current Trump administration have been trying to scale
back some of those some of that spending, and so
the program that the three hundred and thirty five million
was supposed to come from has been zeroed out in
the Big Beautiful Bill that Congress passed that meant that
(47:08):
all the money that hadn't been spent yet some two
and a half billion, would not go out. And unfortunately
for Massachusetts and for the Austin project, they only got
eight million of the three thirty five. So that's how
you come to three hundred and twenty seven million dollars
that we were hoping to get from the FEDS that
we're not getting.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
So what's next for the project then, John.
Speaker 6 (47:31):
Well, it's a good question, you know. I think that
this is now forcing some hard conversations at Massachusetts Department
of Transportation. I think they're looking at ways to pair
back the project to do things a little bit more cheaply.
They're going to have an outside firms to study exactly
how they can accomplish some of the main transportation goals,
(47:51):
presumably the realignment and straightening and refurbishing of the highway
and providing some train service there without spending as much,
which is what was originally proposed. So they're basically giving
in another look trying to get throw the price tag down.
I think that's going to be challenging because this two
billion dollar price tag has sort of been in place
for a few years now, and I think if they
(48:14):
redid the numbers, it would be actually a lot more.
So I think they've got a ways to go to
get it back under two billion. I think it's going
to be tough. There are other ways that the state
can you borrow more money. We've been doing for good
or for bad. We've been getting a lot more money
from the millionaire's tax than everyone expected, and so that
(48:36):
higher earners tax it can be used for transportation, and
they can actually borrow money off that tax flow. So
it's possible that they can borrow more money. They also
have a huge rainy day fund, but it's a state
really going to want to do that. It'll start to
look bad if the state starts spending, you know, significantly
(48:58):
more money on this problem without any federal assistance other
than it's possible they can get a federal loan, but
again it's a loan, so the state's going to have
to pay that back. So without any federal grant money
like that, I mean, there was billions with a big gig,
it'll be it'll fall completely on mass s doot and
(49:21):
I think if that happens, as it looks like it will,
they're going to have to rethink and scale back.
Speaker 3 (49:27):
John Justo of The Boston Globes our guest business reporter.
You know, John, I'm not you know, I know you're
not an engineer. But yeah, when I look at like
federal money and projects in Massachusetts that need the federal money,
like I look at the Cape Cod bridges, right, I
guess the Sycamore is okay, but the Bourne's a big
question mark at this point, Like a bridge like the
Bourne is just out of date at some point becomes dangerous.
(49:49):
I mean, this realignment of the mass Pike project, I
guess i'd ask you how necessary is it if it
doesn't happen.
Speaker 6 (49:57):
I mean, it's not the world. I mean, we are
in the middle of a refurbishing of the viaduct. So
in that part of Austin, the highway is raised on
a viaduct, and because it's above the ground, it deteriorates,
and so they are doing sort of a patchwork, piecemeal
(50:20):
repair to prevent pieces of it from falling on the
ground and keep it stable. And you could keep doing
that every ten twenty years, and there's some fear within
the neighborhood that that's what they'll do. The idea that
we can straighten out and lower the highway. And really
part of the motivation is unlocking all this land that
(50:42):
Harvard owns in the old rail yard that's sort of
in that kind of landlocked by the highway and the
railroad tracks in that area, straightening it out all of
a sudden, you and getting rid of this elevated highway
that goes over this area. You now, so I've got
all this land you can develop and it could be
a boom for that neighborhood and you can have a
(51:02):
lot of housing build, And that's one of the main
goals here. So it's not just a transportation project. If
it was just transportation, I think it would have been
dropped a while ago. But because of the potential for
redeveloping that whole neighborhood and making it sort of a
Kendall Square West, there are a lot of constituencies that
(51:25):
want to see it happen.
Speaker 2 (51:26):
We're talking with John Cesto from the Boston Globe. We're
talking about the Alston Mega Project, a story that no
doubt will be following for a while and have been following.
By the way. Another one we've been following here on
the New England Business Report, John is the story about
market Basket, and there was some movement this past week.
Why don't you update us?
Speaker 6 (51:44):
Yeah, so what happened this week is so for listeners
that don't quite know what's going on with the market
Basket Saga. The company is owned by Arthur T. Demoulis
and his three sisters, and the three sisters together the
majority of the voting shares. They, for reasons that still
aren't entirely clear to me, want their brother out. There's
(52:07):
a real power struggle happening. Their brother actually runs the
companies at CEO. They've put him on temporary paid leave,
and they put some of his lieutenants on temporary paid leave.
This week they announced that they were firing two of
his top lieutenants, Joe Schmidt, Tom Gordon, people who have
been with the company for decades. And so it's sort
of like the first shoe to fall there. You know,
(52:30):
the sisters are concerned, maybe we'll have a reducs of
twenty fourteen when Arthur's cousin fired him and then everyone
you know, walked out and there was a customer boycott,
and they don't want that to happen for obvious reasons,
because it would and I honestly don't think Arthur wants
that to happen because it would be really bad for
the company. The company lost a lot of money during
(52:51):
that walkout back in twenty fourteen, and they only kind
of got Arthur back in because he worked with his
sisters to buy out his cousins, so they were all
cooperative in twenty fourteen. But now over the last few
years there's been a real friction between the sisters and Arthur,
and it's now come to a breaking point. And so
(53:13):
what we don't know is what's going to happen to Arthur.
He's sort of been sidelined as they investigate quote unquote
the claims that he might be trying to start a
similar work stoppage. He has denied that, and I haven't
seen any evidence that he has been as of yet.
(53:34):
So it's really we're sort of on the nice edge
with what can happen with this beloved supermarket chain. Now
that you know two of the defectives have been fired,
I think there will be more firings, unfortunately, and I
don't know you know what Arthur's and fate will be.
(53:55):
I mean, I don't think he knows. So we really
got away. You can see to see what the sisters
decided to do next.
Speaker 3 (54:04):
John Justo's our guests of the Boston Globe. John, the
other story that you've been following has to do with
the potentials for a new soccer stadium. There an Everett
headline on the Globe. Will administration steps up pressure for
REVS stadium mitigation. A mediator is entering the negotiations between
city Hall and the Craft Group over the Everett project.
What's the latest?
Speaker 6 (54:25):
So, in this case, the New England Revolution owned by
the Craft Group, they want to build their own stadium.
The Revs have been playing in Jiete Stadium with the Patriots,
but they want their own stadium. They want it closer
to downtown. So they found a location in Everett, right
over the city line from Boston on the Mystic River.
And because it's so close to Boston, because you have
(54:46):
to go through Sullivan Square for most people have to
go through Sllivan Square in Boston to get there. The
legislature has required that there be negotiations with both Everett
and Boston and those incase negotiations have been pleasant but
slow to come up with a community benefits agreement UH
(55:09):
and now the legislation uh. That was passed last year
require requires a mediator to be brought into the fold,
and they've picked one and so now as as a
result of having a meterior coming in, the Wood administration
has asked the Crafts for very specific, detailed things that
they want to see addressed, from you know, transportation issues,
(55:32):
to environmental issues to what does this mean for the
rival concert venues, especially as the TV Garden or Fenerally
Park in Boston. And they're frustrated that the Crafts are
not providing uh uh, this information and they want they
are trying to lay out sort of some of the
mitigation that the craft should provide. The Crafts Meanwhile, they're saying,
(55:54):
we've been quite cooperative. This is still early in the process.
You know, we'll address some of the things as we
work together. But I think that the Mayor's office is
really trying to step up the pressure as they bring
in a mediator to kind of clarify the things they
really want.
Speaker 3 (56:13):
H All right. He's John chesnow, business reporter with the
Boston Globe, and those are just three of those stories
that he's been following. And we do appreciate John taking
time in joining us on the new England Business Report
on this Sunday morning.
Speaker 2 (56:26):
All right, Joe, Well that's going to do it for
this look back over the summer at some of our
great interviews, and I stand by it, Joe. These were
some of the good ones this summer. But we've had
a lot of good ones.
Speaker 3 (56:38):
We certainly have, and that's what we do every Sunday
morning here on the New England Business Report.
Speaker 2 (56:43):
You bet so. We hope you join us again next
Sunday at eight am right here on the Voice of
Boston WRKO AM six eighty
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