August 11, 2024 • 58 mins
Today’s episode we chat with Massachusetts State Treasurer Deb Goldberg about online lottery. Goldberg tells us about the benefits of implementing the new games. We also have a conversation with Paul Carelis of MP:Wired for HR. Paul tells us about a new salary transparency law that will be implemented in the state this fall. And then Larry Lessard of Achieve Renewable Energy introduces us to Geothermal energy. Larry tells us how this will benefit businesses and homeowners and help everyone move toward the states’ emissions reduction goals.
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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 Shortsleeve
and Kim Care Again, a weekly roundup and discussion to
the top business news impacting our New England economy.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Good morning everybody, and welcome to the New England Business
Report on this Sunday morning. I'm Kim Care again and
Joe short Sleeve. With the week off, he's out enjoying
some leisure time as the summer starts to whind to
an end. I think everybody probably deserves that, so we
hope that Joe is having a great time. Of course,
it is August the eleventh. Wow, how this month has flown.
(00:33):
The Olympics behind us now and we start heading to
back to school, which I cannot believe. I was just
talking to someone who said, I think that the summer
has gone so quickly, and I think it's because it's
been such a beautiful summer. Well, what a crazy week
we had on Wall Street this week. We started with
what some are comparing to Black Monday. After a lower
(00:55):
than expected jobs report the week before, many people speculating
whether the would have to come back even before the
September meeting and cut rates just so that the markets
would rebound and things would stable out. Well. Fortunately, it
looks like things did stable out as the week went on.
In fact, I would venture to guess that some people
jumped the gun after just a tough Monday. We're going
(01:18):
to be talking a little bit later about rates here
in this show, so let's take a look at some
of the things coming up today here on the New
England Business Report. First off, in our second half hour,
I'm so excited State Treasurer Deb Goldberg is going to
join us. She's going to be our guest. She has
been working for years and I have been interviewing her
for years about the concept of online lottery here in
(01:39):
the state. She has said that at the lottery, which
by the way, Massachusetts Lottery one of the most successful
in the country, and if it was to remain successful,
then it absolutely had to move with the times and
that would be going online.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
The issue there has been retailers. Retailers say, if you
can sit in your home office and you can play
the lottery, then why would you stop by a convenience store.
So we're going to talk to Deb about, you know,
what has reconciled there and why it looks like the
lottery can survive in even better fashion if it's both
online and in retail stores. And by the way, we're
(02:16):
going to talk to her about where those dollars go.
You know, they are important to this state, they really are.
And right now lottery numbers are down because of online
betting for sports and again in other states that are
playing online. So we'll be anxious to talk to her
in the second half hour. Also passing up on Beacon
Hill this past session, salary transparency. This is an issue
(02:37):
that had been pushed for a really long time up there.
It now requires business owners with more than one hundred
employees to disclose salary benefits when they're posting a job listing.
So the question is what does that mean for businesses
and what does that mean for those who are looking
for a job. What are the benefits to both sides
if there has to be this transparency. Paul Corellas of
(02:58):
MP Wired for HR is going to join us and
he'll tell us a little bit more about transparency when
it comes to salaries. We're also talking renewable energy this morning.
Now we all know the guidelines for the state have
deadlines when it comes to renewable energy. We have emissions
that we have to cut. These deadlines are between now
(03:21):
and twenty forty, but lots of changes need to take
place in the state if we are to meet those deadlines.
Larry Lassard of Achieve Renewable Energy is going to join
us to talk about his company's efforts in the area
of geothermal energy. We all know about solar energy, but
do we know about geothermal This is where you pull
(03:42):
heat and cooling from the earth. Interesting, huh. This is
going to be something that more and more business owners
are going to be talking about as they use geothermal
energy to cool and heat their businesses, as well as
those of us who own homes. So again, Larry Lasar
joining us today. And finally, Anthony Lamachia is going to
be with us, of course, the president of Lamachia Realty.
(04:03):
This is the guy who's going to talk to us
about this tumbling market. I want to hear what kind
of panic he had last week as the markets look
like they would never stop going down, but then of
course it did rebound, and what he thinks is going
to happen when it comes to rate cuts in September.
I also want to talk to him about the housing
market because obviously this summer market has been a little
(04:25):
stronger than what we saw a year ago going into
the fall. Now, we'll see what he's anticipating, especially because
we think these rate cuts are on the horizon, But
of course we have an election on the horizon as well.
Anthony Lamachia will be our guest. But first, this past
six months or more, the plight of Stewart Healthcare and
its hospitals has been making headlines, there's no two ways
(04:47):
about that, and taking up space on the front page
of local newspapers. In the meantime, what has been happening
to other hospitals in the state, That is the question
Boston Business Journal reporter is about. Tihan has a cover
story in the Journal today and it's about some of
the other hospitals in the state and how they have
been struggling. And she joins us now to chat a
(05:09):
little bit more about that. Great to have you along.
Before we get any further, let's just talk for a
second about Steward. I know that you've been following that
story really closely, and you know there's there's just so
much concern about these hospitals closing. Any updates that you
have on what's taking place right now.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
Sure, Kim, So my understanding is that you know, the
state has secured the permission from bankruptcy court to give
the funding to to Stored through the end of August.
So that's that thirty million that Stored is on very
strict terms to only use for operating expenses for its
(05:50):
Massachusetts hospitals. It really seems like that's maybe the main
move here from the state. You know, heally is concerned
about making moves on the hospitals that Stewart has said
has secured buyers, and it's definitely still a concern for
many in the community. What's going to happen to people
(06:12):
who relied on Carney and Shoba but can't say that
anything has changed in terms of the plan from Stuart
to shut those down.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yeah, I know that the Boston City Council this past
week voted what they're calling a health emergency because of Carney.
So everybody, you know, doing their best to try to
service those who are going to lose their hospitals. Here,
let's talk a little bit more about the piece that
you have in the paper. Life support is the headline,
(06:44):
and you're talking about while this bankruptcy for Stewart was
going on, the attention had shifted away from other hospitals
that are also struggling. So walk us through a few
of those hospitals and what's taking place.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Sure, So the story came about as I was talking
to some hospital leaders that have been my sources, and they,
while very concerned about Steward and rightly so, you know,
really wanted to point out that that's not the only
story that should be a little bit scary to people
following Massachusetts healthcare. Rightly, So the attention is on seward
(07:20):
with a tospitals closing, with almost twelve hundred over twelve
hundred people losing their jobs, but no one's really knocking
it out of the park in terms of meeting margins
and you know, finding a lot of financial prosperity running
running hospitals in Massachusetts right now.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
So I know that one of the systems that you
talk about is a tough system. And a lot of
this started really just before COVID, with them losing some
of their employees and expenses getting high. Then of course
COVID hit and we had to start having traveling hospitals,
are traveling nurses and healthcare workers, and so many people
(07:59):
step doubt what are they telling you in the TOUGH system.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
When I spoke with the Tough leadership, you know, they're
not shy about giving you the answer, which is that
they did what they could to whether the storm while
it was happening. But there's certainly a fallout from that,
you know. I know, TOUGH is still almost paying five
times what they were for travel nursing and travel workers
(08:23):
since before the pandemic. You know, it's definitely more under
control than during the height of the pandemic. You know,
twenty twenty two was the worst financial year across the state,
but haven't figured out how to get things back on
track and heading in a sustainable direction. And that's you know,
not just TOUGH, that's not necessarily across the board. But
(08:43):
basically half of hospitals are losing money so far this
year and almost seventy five percent of hospital systems are
losing money. So it's not a tale of one or
two hospitals having a tough time. It's really this is
what we're looking.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
At, is what is the point as you talk to
these hospital administrators, what is the plan for the future?
I mean, how do you bring this back in control?
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Yeah, so a lot of it has to do with
rebuilding the healthcare workforce. It's not just in the hospitals.
A lot of people left healthcare roles, including at skilled
nursing facilities. And you know, the way the way the
ecosystem works is that if somebody is in acute care
in the hospital and then they're ready to be out
(09:28):
of the hospital but not ready to go home, there
needs to be an intermediate, intermediary step and that has
kind of been sticking up the process recently because there's
just not enough spaces for people to go once they
can be discharged in the hospital. So we're seeing people
stuck in the hospital, which is costing the systems a
(09:48):
lot of money. So they need to there's a lot
of programs to build that workforce back up. They're also
looking at ways to lean into new types of technology
that you can alleviate some of the workforce burden so
that the people who are there can be focusing on
what really needs, you know, a human hand, and those
(10:11):
are you know, two of the main two of the.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Main things Isabelle, thank you very much for your great
insight on this. Again. It's called life support. You'll find it. It
was a cover story this past week in the Buston
Business Journal. Still come in your way here on the
New England Business Report. What is the new Massachusetts law
that requires employers to be transparent about salary really mean?
You'll find out when the New England Business Report returns.
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Speaker 2 (13:21):
Welcome back, everybody. I'm Kim Carrigan and this is New
England Business Report. Joe short Sleeve has the week off.
Just a quick reminder still come in your way here
this Sunday morning. State Treasurer Deb Goldberg is going to
be my guests. We're going to talk about online lottery
which is coming to the state. But first, a new
law has been passed in the state that requires employers
(13:43):
to be transparent about salary when hiring new employees. And
we wanted to find out exactly what this law is
all about and how it will affect businesses. Joining me
to talk a little bit more about it is Paul
Correllis of MP Wired for HR. Paul, it's great to
have you on the show.
Speaker 7 (14:01):
Likewise, happy to be back.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
I hope you're having a great summer, sir. Indeed, we
are fantastic. I'll talk about this transparency law. It was
a really big deal up on Beacon Hill to get
this passed, and they did. So what exactly is in
this law? What does it mean?
Speaker 7 (14:16):
Yeah? Sure, yeah, it was a long time coming. I've
been talked about for several years now. And really what
this does is Massachusetts now joins a growing list of states,
over a dozen now that have adopted similar legislation. So
what this really means is a couple of pieces. So
a lot of these programs from state to state are
fairly similar, but there are some key differences. So for
(14:37):
the Massachusetts one in particular, what we're looking at is, first,
for employers who have twenty five or more employees in
the state, starting just under a year from now, so
July thirty, first of twenty twenty five, they're going to
have to start posting salary ranges for the positions at
their company whenever they're posting for a new role, so
(14:59):
when their recruit. Also if an internal employee is going
to be promoted or transferred, they need to list a
salary range at that time or upon request from an
employee currently in their role or considering moving into that role.
So where the Massachusetts one differs a little bit is
also for the larger employers. So if you have one
(15:19):
hundred or more employees and are subject to the Equal
Employment Opportunity filings, starting this February, so not too far
from now, you're going to have to start filing some
wage data with the state.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Okay, all right, so how will this affect employers, let's
start there.
Speaker 7 (15:37):
Yeah, sure, So again, where this only applies for businesses
with twenty five or more employees, I really suggest and
encourage smaller employers to jump on this as well and
consider being compliant with the transparency piece of it, just
because studies are showing that upwards of eighty percent of
potential hires are either not going to apply or strongly
(16:02):
considered not applying for a job if they're not seeing
the potential salary range posted up front. It just kind
of helps with negotiating to It avoids kind of that
awkward conversation of not having any idea of what an
employer is willing to pay or what an employee is
looking to get paid. So it's really going to be
a change if you're not currently including potential pay ranges
(16:23):
on your job postings when you're looking to hire. That's
something starting next to a lot that you're really going
to have to do if you're hiring in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
So I think what I'm hearing you say there is
that this may be if you're not doing it, it
precludes some people from even applying for your job.
Speaker 6 (16:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (16:39):
Yeah, there have been several studies now and they've all
been pretty consistent that right around eighty percent of people
are saying that they're either only apply for jobs that
have it are much more likely to apply for jobs
that have it posted even today without the lawn place.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Really interesting. How will this affect those who are looking
for a job.
Speaker 7 (16:57):
Well, again, I think it'll help get a better understanding.
It'll help you waste time and have a more efficient process.
You're not going to apply necessarily for a job if
it doesn't fit your salary requirements. It'll help you kind
of compare offers before you even have an offer, but
help you compare prospective employers, give you an understanding. I
(17:18):
think this is also good opportunity because, let's face it,
there are a lot of great nonprofits and other organizations
out there that may not be able to pay the
same money upfront as some of the larger corporations, but
this gives them the opportunity to highlight some of the
other benefits of working there, whether it's time off or
benefits or whatever it may be. It kind of gets
that conversation going organically.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
I'd say, sure, absolutely. Paul Corellis is our guest of
MP Wired for HR. So, Paul, I guess I'm trying
to understand, and I think you've you've laid out some
of the reasoning. But you mentioned right off the top
that this was a long time coming. Why did Beacon
Hill feel so strongly about passing this law.
Speaker 7 (17:59):
Yeah, yes, so despite you know, a few years back
they'd passed the pay equity law that really looked to
address pay equity concerns based on gender. They've seen some
progress with that, but still still finding some shortcomings depending
on the study you see or read, you know, anywhere
from seventy five cents to eighty five cents on the
(18:19):
dollar in terms of disparity between women and men in
the workplace. So definitely looking to further close that gap
as well. The pay equity law that was passed a
few years back really only addressed gender inequality and didn't
deal with any of the other protected classes or groups
that also seem to suffer from wage disparity, so and
(18:42):
there can be a number of reasons for that. You know,
some groups may negotiate more at the time of offer
than others and get those those pays really ramped up. Also,
employers who have been around for a while and have
had positions in place for a while, they may have
hired someone when you know, the market was weaker and
got them at a better price, and then when demand
shot up, they had to hire for that same position
(19:03):
but had to pay more for it. So there are
all different reasons for that disparity. But the state is
really just looking to get that conversation out in the
open and kind of create a level playing field for
all employees as well as perspective employees.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
So from your point of view, someone who's an expert
in these fields who benefits emotes from this twofold.
Speaker 7 (19:24):
I'd definitely say perspective employees people that are looking for
work again, it's going to make their process much more efficient,
help them avoid having to necessarily fight for pay. They'll
kind of know what the range is and what they
can reasonably negotiate for. I think recruiters also make out
really well in this too. You know it saves them
some time. It's going to make their process. They're not
(19:45):
going to get people where they're doing phone screens and
interviews and taking the time to put them through the
interview process only to find out that they're miles apart
on salary expectations. So I think the benefits the benefits
are twofold there.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Very interesting. All right, well, Paul Correllis, we want to
thank you so much for joining us here on New
England Business Report. Interesting information there new law that takes
effect almost immediately again for any company with twenty five
employees or more, transparency will be required. Coming up next
to Anthony Lamachia have Lamachia Realty with the latest on
(20:21):
rates and the effect of the upcoming election may have
on our markets. I'm Kim Kerrigan Joe Schwartzley with the
day off and you're listening to the New England Business Report.
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Kim and Joe will explore more business news that impacts
our New England economy when they return.
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Speaker 2 (23:26):
We welcome back everybody. I'm Kim Kerrigan Joe Shortsleeve with
the week off. I'm so glad that you could be
with me this morning here on the New England Business Report. Hey,
just a quick reminder that in this half hour, State
Treasurer Ted Goldberg is going to be my guest. She
is so excited about her push for online lottery in
the state and uh it has finally come to fruition.
(23:47):
She's going to talk to us about the impact this
kind of lottery we'll have on players as well as
the state's economy. She's coming up in this half hour,
so be sure you stay with us. This is the
time that Joe and I I like to always bring
up a story that maybe you missed this week, some
business headline and I love this one because whether we
like it or not, folks, we are headed directly toward
(24:10):
pumpkin season and then ultimately the holidays. And this is
an important one for a lot of people. Honey bake
Ham to triple its Massachusetts locations. Now, if you're like
my family, you love Honey bake Hans. And I gotta
tell you, I remember last Easter standing in line at
the Honey bake Ham place over on Route One. I
(24:31):
must have stood in line for fifty minutes or more
to pick up a ham. So maybe this is gonna
help because they are now going to have eight new
locations in the Greater Boston area, which is, by the way,
gonna include a restaurant in Worcester and a new Connecticut store.
It's also going to include Rhode Island with new stores,
(24:51):
and Providence and Warwick. I guess they've gotten the word
that people no longer want to stand in line when
we get close to the holidays. Sixty five years years ago,
it was a Detroit family who actually started the Honey
bake Hams. And now they have four hundred locations nationwide,
and we are going to have more right here in
(25:12):
the Boston area. So as we head into the holidays,
I think that is some pretty terrific News, it's time
for our weekly feature, asked them.
Speaker 9 (25:21):
Well.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
As I mentioned at the top of the hour, the
equity markets took a beating early last week after a
lesson expected jobs report was released, and since Monday, Wall
Street has rebounded pretty well, but there was certainly a
lot of talk this week about what that meant in
terms of rate hikes by the Fed. Joining us to
talk a little bit more about it, President of Lamachia Realty,
(25:43):
Anthony Lamachia, good to have you.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
With us, sir, Thank you, Kim, happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
So let's talk about that scared give me an idea
of generally what was going on in the real estate
world as we were watching the market drop.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Well, i'll tell you Sunday night, I was at the
Metallica concert and I kept checking Twitter because I was
watching what was happening in overseas market. And my friends
that I was with said, why do you keep checking
your phone? Will truth be told? I knew that the
worst the market's got, the better mortgage rates would get.
And that's the thing that confuses so many people is
they say, wait, wait, what do you mean the worst? Yes,
(26:17):
the worse the news, the better it is for mortgage
interest rates. So last Friday, for example, the jobs report
came in way under what they expected. It was like
one hundred thousand jobs versus almost two hundred thousand was
the expectation. So race went down. Then the Sunday night
there was problems overseas. It came into Monday, stock market
went down eleven hundred points. Rates got even better. So
(26:38):
this week mortgage rates have been anywhere between this past
week anywhere between six point four six point seven percent.
That's the best they've been in about a year and
a half. And it's very good news for real estate.
And that's the part that confuses people is it has
the opposite impact.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Sure, So you know, a lot of talk early in
the week was, oh, my goodness, Defense are going to
have to come back and cut rates even before or
the September meeting. We're gonna have to have an emergency
meeting that clearly doesn't appear to be needed. But what
do you think is going to happen in September.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
I think they are going to probably lower rates. I
wouldn't be surprised if they lower them a half point.
But everyone needs to keep in mind there's a big
difference between the overnight federal funds rate and mortgage rates.
Mortgage rates are not directly tied to the federal funds rate,
and mortgage rates are more impacted by the investors buying bonds.
You know, when the stock markets having a tough time,
(27:30):
investors pull money out, they buy bonds, and that helps
bring mortgage rates down. It's a whole confusing world. So
there's not a direct correlation.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yeah, that was my next question. How long you thought
it would be realized on the ground, But you're saying,
you know, it could be some time with their not
being a direct correlation.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
No, there's not. And think about it. With mortgage rates,
they move a little faster in the sense that the
jobs report was poor last right, what it was it
two Fridays ago, and within three hours mortgage rates came down.
So it's tricky. Overall, we need mortgage rates to come down,
we need all rates to come down. They've been too
damn high high. They're affecting the economy, they're affecting housing,
(28:09):
and they're stopping sellers from listing their homes because sellers
do not want to trade at two point eight or
a three percent rate for a seven percent rate.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah, he you talk to us a lot about this
big settlement that took place in the real estate world
after a big lawsuit, and so the effects of that
are going to be felt sometime this week. Talk to
me about where we are in all of that and
what you're anticipating.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Yeah. So the actual date that the settlement takes effect
is August the seventeenth, and that's when all of the
so called practice changes are supposed to take place. From
a buyer and a seller perspective of what's really going
to be different, I wouldn't say a ton. Buyers will
notice that when they want when they want to see
a home and they get connected with a realtor, realtors
(28:53):
are going to require a written agreement of some sort
in order to show them homes, even if they're showing
them home virtually over a zoom. That's one of the
practice changes that they are requiring us of us. And
then the other one is when sellers are hiring a
realtor and talking to them about, you know, who they
see best fit to sell their home, that relter is
(29:16):
going to be talking likely about how the payment of
commission is going to be handled differently. There's been a
lot of misinformation in the news. They've said, oh, commissions
are going to come down. I've even heard things as
stupid as prices will come down. Prices are not affected
by commissions. Prices are affected by crazy. Prices are affected
by supply and demand. That was one of the catch
(29:38):
phrases that the plaint to Floyer used in Missouri last fall,
as he told the jury, prices will come down. Well
half the jury with people that have never owned the home.
That was music to their ears. It's not true that's
affected by supplying demand. So there'll be different conversations about
how the compensation is paid. Historically, for a number of decades,
a home seller would normally pay the entire compensation to
(30:01):
their listing broker, and oftentimes a listing broker would share
part of that compensation with the buyer broker who brought
the buyer. Now there's going to be a lot of
companies where one of them that are saying, you know what, hey,
we want the payment directly from the seller. We don't
want to be sharing commissions with other companies because that
was part of their lawsuit. So it's an interesting time
that we're entering into. You know, another one is the
(30:23):
posting of the compensation offering can't be in the multiple
listing service system and that has flowed through to Zillo,
so home buyers over the years. The last few years
they've been able to go on Zillow and see what
their agent would get as far as a percentage. Now
that won't be there because it won't be posted anywhere.
I truthfully don't think any of these changes are really better,
but there's something that are necessary based on the settlement.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
But we cannot fight change, that's for sure. Anthony, Anthony
Lomachy have Lomachy Realty. Thanks so much for being a
part of the New England Business Report. You know, renewable energy.
When we think about heating our homes and business with
renewable energy, we typically think about solar, I think, but
that's not the only source out there, and my next guest,
(31:05):
his company has some other alternatives. Happy to be joined
this morning by Larry Lassard, he of Achieve Renewable Energy.
It's based in Salem, Massachusetts. Larry, it is so great
to have you with us today.
Speaker 9 (31:18):
Thank you for having me. It's great that you're interested
in what we do.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Oh, absolutely well. I think everybody needs to be really
interested in renewable energy. At this stage of the game,
let's talk about your company. You work with thermal energy,
our geothermal energy rather tell us what that is.
Speaker 9 (31:37):
Geothermal energy is a channel term that can be used
to describe direct use pop water that you can get
from the ground in places where the ground is hot,
like in ice fund or electric power generation, as they
do at several locations in the Western UAI. But we
(32:01):
do geo exchange, which is a technique that exchanges heat
from a building to the ground to cool it and
extracts heat from the ground to heat the building. And
our technology does not require you'd be near a volcano.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Okay, very interesting, So obviously there must be technology that
does require that.
Speaker 9 (32:26):
Well. Sure, the direct use to your thermal and the
power generation are typically in areas where the ground is
much hotter due to some type of volcanic activity. The
geo exchange can be used pretty much anywhere and actually
benefits tremendously from the ground temperatures we have in New
England that are moderate and very conducive to having the
(32:49):
equipment do either heating or cooling depending on the season.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
So Larry walk me through how does geo exchange heat
and cool homes and businesses.
Speaker 9 (32:59):
Then sure the geo exchange normally is designed to provide
one hundred percent of the heating and cooling for a building,
can also provide hot water or industrial process water that
can be their hot or cold. There are three parts
to a system. The first is a ground heat exchanger,
and that's typically installed outside, but in some cases can
(33:23):
be installed under a building during construction, and in our
area that's most commonly a series of geothermal borings that
are drilled two hundred to five hundred feet into the ground.
And how deep we go and how many borings we
need to do depends on how much heating and cooling
the building requires. With that ground heat exchanger, we then
(33:47):
inside have equipment called groundsource heat pumps, which are specially
designed heat pumps that can extract heat from the ground
heat exchanger to heat the building and reject heat to
the ground heating chander to cool it. And where we
have a typical average temperature in Eastern Mass of maybe
(34:08):
fifty three fifty forty Greece fahrenheit, that's right in the
middle between our target heating and cooling temperatures, so that's perfect.
Then The third component of the system is a distribution system,
and that's usually duct in, but there are other possibilities
depending on the building.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Larry Lassard is our guest of achieve renewable energy. It's
based in Salem, Massachusetts, so Larry. Commonwealth has some really
specific climate and greenhouse gas reduction goals over the next
you know, fifteen to twenty thirty years. Tell me how
your company and what you guys do can benefit reaching
(34:48):
those goals.
Speaker 9 (34:50):
Sure, the Commonwealth has a goal to move buildings towards
electrified heating and cooling, and move transportation towards in an
electrified direction as well, and geo exchange. Our groundsource heat
pumps operate on using electricity and they have no on
(35:12):
site fossil fuel use, so there's no on site greenhouse
gas emissions. As the electric grid gets more green through
use of more solar and wind and even renewable gas,
which is something that's being looked at now, the greenhouse
gas emissions associated with heating the building go down and
(35:33):
down as the electric grid becomes cleaner, to a point
where once electric grid is fully renewable, there'll be zero
greenhouse gas emissions from heating and cooling. Now, there are
two primary ways that people electrified building. One our groundsource
heat pumps or geo exchange, which is what we do,
(35:54):
and the other are air source heat pumps. And groundsource
heat pumps are more than twice as efficient as air
source heat pumps and that has a benefit looking forward
as electric grid is built out for the larger needs
of electrified buildings and transportation. So geo exchange providing half
(36:16):
the demand of air source heat pumps reduces the scope
of that electric grid build out that will be ongoing.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Give me a sense of what kind of workers are
involved in these projects, what's your labor force?
Speaker 9 (36:31):
Like, I'm personally a professional geologist and we work with
mechanical engineers and civil engineers on our projects. The ground
heat exchangers are normally installed by drilling contractors or excavation contractors.
Electricians help wire the equipment, sheet metal installers installed deducting
(36:55):
with HVAC installers and technicians on staff that the install
the equipment, and then general construction laborers as well. So
we touch on many of the building trades.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
And is there enough labor force here in the New
England area to sustain you guys?
Speaker 9 (37:13):
No, we need more people. Right now in Massachusetts, the
employment rate is somewhere near three percent. I think in
our industry the unemployment rate is closed as zero percent.
So we need to attract more people from trade schools
and more geology and engineering types to what we do
(37:34):
because we expect our business to expand substantially as the
Commonwealth tries to electrified buildings.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Yeah, we hope a lot of young people out there
listening to that. What's the installation expense? Is it more
or less to install than maybe just an average heating
system or a cooling system.
Speaker 9 (37:54):
The top line installation cost is higher for geo exchange.
It's about forty or fifty percent more than a similar
quality conventional system to be newly installed in the building.
But they're tremendous federal and Massachusetts incentives. We actually have
here in mass some of the best incentives in the
(38:14):
nation for commercial projects. The federal government provides a thirty
percent federal tax credit, and there's an option to add
of two additional ten percent adders, so the tax credit
in some cases can be as high as fifty percent,
and then mass Save provides forty five hundred dollars per
(38:34):
ton of cooling capacity and together those incentives eliminate the
cost differential for the net installed cost after incentives, so
they give geothermal cost parity with traditional installations and that
allows people to make a sensible climate choice without having
(38:55):
a financial penalty. They're also good residential centers here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Larry, it's fascinating and no doubt it is the way
of the future. Larry Lassard achieve renewable energy. Thanks so
much for being a part of the New England Business Report.
Coming up next, deb Goldberg Sake, Treasurer of the Commonwealth,
is going to be my guest. This is the New
England Business Report.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
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Speaker 2 (42:45):
Welcome back everyone. I'm Kim Kerragan. Great to have you
with us on this Sunday morning Chris Joe Show. Itslaef
has the week off. I'm very excited about my next guest.
She's certainly now stranger to any of us. Deb Goldberg
was the was first elected treasurer here in the Commonwealth
back in twenty fifteen, and now some eight years later,
she is celebrating a very big win. That's online lottery.
(43:09):
Madam Treasurer. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 10 (43:12):
It's good to be with you, Kim.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
It's great.
Speaker 10 (43:14):
It doesn't seem possible. I was thinking about it, and
I was It's almost my ten year anniversary from the
day I was actually elected, and I can't I don't
know where the years went because I just loved my job.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
So I remember. I remember when you were running and
when you were elected. So it's a little bit hard
for me to believe that you're coming up on ten
as well.
Speaker 10 (43:39):
Well, I get younger every year, but me too.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
That's the beauty of it. Listen, this issue of online lottery.
I've spoken to you many times about this until a
research I didn't realize that this that The first time
that it came up was back in twenty twelve. It
was actually Steve Grossman, who was the treasurer at the time,
and he predicted that I lottery would be absolutely imperative
(44:02):
if the lottery was going to survive and if it
was going to compete. Now, you carried that torch and
this last month the governor signed it finally it into law.
So talk to me a little bit about why you
believe so strongly that the state has needed online lottery.
Speaker 10 (44:19):
Well, you know, it's it's it's kind of funny because
I came into local elected office in back in nineteen
ninety eight and was kind of a not I never gambled,
I don't gamble, and I thought, you know, the lottery
is in that vein. And yet as I became more
(44:40):
and more in my role in Brookline as a local
it's now called select board, but at the time was selectmen,
I realized the understanding of what Proposition two and a
half percent had done to holding back the ability of
local communities to raise money to pay for services, and
(45:01):
that Bob Crane, the treasurer back in the nineteen seventies,
created the Massachusetts State Lottery explicitly to replace the monies
that the local communities would not be getting from the
state once two and a half percent was passed, and
that we very badly needed it on the local level. Literally,
(45:23):
we'd be looking at whether we could add a police
officer or a firefighter, and the lottery dollars coming in,
which is unrestricted to the local communities, paid for that position.
So you sort of had to balance the need for
public safety, the need for crossing guards or an additional teacher.
(45:44):
And at that point I realized how essential the lottery
is to Massachusetts communities, which means the people who lived
there and became a proponent of the lottery. Once I
was elected, I the pre work as you mentioned took place,
(46:05):
and I also saw that the casinos had come online
that they were had agreed to have lottery machines in
the casinos. So that was sort of taking the sting
away from local communities losing out to casinos which were
typically visited by out of staters. But I, you know,
(46:27):
I said, if Massachusetts is going to do a casino,
we're really over that, and we're having gambling. Why not
have something that continues to be a not for profit.
You know, no one is benefiting by profits. We're not
a private corporation and have additional revenues that go out
(46:48):
to people in the states. So that was the impetus
behind really wanting to make sure that we got an
online lottery, and I watched the states around US and
other states throughout the country go ahead and institute an
online lottery. The head of the New Hampshire Lottery has
(47:09):
loved taunting us that New Hampshire has it and that
if people drive across the border they can play it.
So it's been it's been an interesting experience, and here
we are well.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
You know, a lottery in this state has certainly been successful.
I know we've had one of the most successful lotteries
in the country since you know, the casinos and of
course sports betting. Have we seen a decline in retail lottery, Well.
Speaker 10 (47:38):
There have been a couple of things that have actually
happened that the you know, person on the street wouldn't
really notice. For example, I'm going to share with you
something that was really a heartbreak for me. The mess
State Lottery has always been the co sponsor with the
Boston Celtics of the Hero among Us Award. We lost
(47:59):
that this year because we got overplayed by sports betting
casinos and they raise the price. And as I said,
we're are not for profit. Our profits go out to
the people of Massachusetts. We couldn't compete because we couldn't
pay for that sponsorship anymore, and we don't do the
(48:21):
kind of advertising. Now, you know, I come from the
business world, sure, and that I came from retailing and
marketing and all that kind of thing, and so I
was a grosser. So I understand competitive businesses, but when
you own your market, you don't sit still and allow
your competition to come in outspend you on marketing and
(48:44):
you just sit there. It's just not what you should
do because I realized where our money goes, and that's
taking care of people. So it had has been very,
very frustrating for me to not be able to risk bond.
I never will forget the first time I went to
a Red Sox game, and I would say it was
(49:05):
around twenty fifteen and saw all these advertisements for daily
fantasy sports. I said, who are they? What are they doing?
Speaker 3 (49:13):
Right?
Speaker 10 (49:14):
And thats state lottery wasn't there. So it's good that
this has happened in the sense that also, as we
all know, revenues for the state have not been as robust,
and this will be a stream of money that will
be well used for people in our state.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
Well, we're going to talk about how it's going to
be used specifically here in just a minute. I also
want to talk about how it works, but before we
do that, you know, one of the real concerns about
online lottery has always been retail locations. You know that
someone would stay in there, you know, in their office
at home, and would buy lottery tickets or whatever, as
opposed to stopping off for a cup of coffee and
(49:57):
a lottery ticket on the way to work. How is
this going to work with the bricks and mortars? You know,
what's what's the side effects?
Speaker 10 (50:04):
First of all, the good news of letting all these
other states do this first is we've gotten a chance
to study what works and what doesn't to drive business
into the retail bricks and mortars. And you know, I
always said to the retailers, I'm one of you. I
know about upping the sale. I know people come in
and they're going to buy a lottery ticket, and they're
(50:25):
going to buy milk, and they're going to grab a
bag of potato chips, and they're going to pick up
their newspapers. Some people really do still read it. I
read a heart what the newspaper. I do every day,
two newspapers every day. But so I said, we have
the data. Michigan retailers have increased their sales because you
(50:50):
can do promotions and drive business into the retailers. Additionally,
there is a new market out there, and sports betting
and daily fantasy sports have proven that and you can
get those new people also into the stores through promotions
and so that and you can will be able to
(51:12):
do all sorts where we looked at every state at
what has worked successfully to generate that extra revenue for
local retailer.
Speaker 2 (51:23):
I know that it's sort of scheduled. The date is
December of twenty twenty five to go online and be ready.
What can players expect in December of twenty twenty five,
So I'm.
Speaker 10 (51:36):
We're saying sixteen months okay, but we're not going to
go live unless it's going to work perfectly. You know,
you hear about certain things going online in different places.
I'm not going to comment on how it happens and
whether it happens correctly. We're not going online unless it
works properly. You heard that from me right now. But
(51:57):
what it is is there's just there's first while you
are able to purchase if you if you go, but
you can't do it while you're in Massachusetts. If you're
taking a vacation drive across state lines, you can see
the kind of games that are available. Now. We're going
to have some that are unique to the mass State
Lottery because we always do that. I think you might
(52:20):
have heard that the other day we came out with
our Game of Thrones right ticket, and you heard about
our huge shark promotion. Oh my goodness, that was off
the charts, and people will be going to MUD's vineyard
who won who won those? But we will be having
our own tickets. They're similar, they're similar to instance, they're
(52:40):
similar to games that you will see that you see
in Quino in the bars, but you can play it
on your phone, on your computer, and you'll be able
to do Powerball and Mega Million. So let's say we
have a major power Ball and Boy though, you know
what those are like, right, and that's those are those
are multi state games. But once we are allowed to
(53:03):
go online, I had more people saying to me, friends
of mine, I really want to buy a Powerball ticket,
but I don't feel like leaving the house in the
middle of a rainstorm to go pick one up that
will then be able to be purchased on at home online.
Speaker 2 (53:18):
Also so a treasure. How do you keep this game safe?
You know, I know that we have examples of it
in other states, and we certainly have it with sports betting,
But how will the Massachusetts Lottery keep the game safe?
How will they know who's actually placing bets? What would
you do about people who this makes it too accessible
(53:38):
for them?
Speaker 10 (53:39):
There is a risk, obviously with any form of gambling,
that there will be people who are addicted. The thing
about online is that number one, we're working with the
Mass Council on Gaming and Health on all of this,
and we're also again looking at best practices that are
out there. But you can't you can better see who
(54:01):
is overly placing bets better online because of the ability
to have an IP address. Then someone who buys a
ticket in Lexington, gets on the highway, stops in the
next town, gets on, buys another ticket, drives down the road,
gets another ticket. You don't know what that's doing. You
(54:22):
do know what's going on online, and there are a
lot of programs and algorithms that will allow you to
monitor that and help people monitor themselves also online regular
lottery tickets can be bought from the age of eighteen
on up in the brick and mortars. That will not
be allowed online. It will be twenty one years old
(54:44):
and up. So those are some of the safety things
being put in place, and we're prepared to implement a
safe and reliable eye lottery.
Speaker 2 (54:54):
So the last question Treasurer I really want to ask
you about, is this money that's going to come in
from eye lottery where it will be used. I know
obviously it goes to cities in towns, but is it
specifically earmarked for anything, Well, actually it is.
Speaker 10 (55:08):
It is earmarked, and it's earmarked for something that isn't
as specific as going to cities in towns. This is
actually ear marked for early childhood care and childcare. So
it is going to be directed towards those grants to
support childcare throughout Massachusetts, which has been identified for years
(55:34):
but never completely funded in a way it needs to be.
I'm sure you hear from anecdotically from friends, but also
from businesses. The tremendous need for childcare is a is
connected to people being able to be available to work,
and that impacts our whole economy.
Speaker 2 (55:55):
Absolutely. Any estimates on what online lottery will bring in
in the first.
Speaker 10 (56:00):
Year or so, we don't know exactly the first year
because also that would mean we would know exactly when
it's going to go live. So, but we believe that
it will generate an additional two hundred million in annual
revenue once we're up and running and have a full
year of operation.
Speaker 2 (56:19):
Well, it's going to be a very exciting venture for
the State, and I know that you are very excited
about it. I'm glad that you could join us this
morning to chat a little bit about it. And I'll
tell you what, maybe we'll circle back and get an
update on the progress as this continues to unfold.
Speaker 10 (56:34):
Well, you know, it's going to be a very technically
oriented process and we are going to take it slow,
and we're going to put it out forbid. Nobody has
a way of you know, just handing us the operation
and when we're going to turn it on. That's why
we're going to take our time, because we're going to
do it right because at the end of the day,
(56:56):
the mass State Lawtery has the lowest operating costs and
the highest profits and that's what we want to continue
to do for all the people here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2 (57:07):
Day. Treasurer Deb Goldberg, great to have you here on
the New England Business Report. So great to have the
Treasurer with us. Very exciting this online lottery situation. Will
certainly keep an eye on that. We've got about eighteen
months before it actually takes effect, but we will no
doubt speak to the Treasurer again between now and then. Hey,
that's going to do it for this edition of the
New England Business Report. So happy that you could be
(57:29):
with me this morning, Thank you so much. Taking a
look at next Sunday, we're going to be joined by
the owner of Doom Jewelry. It's a unique brand of
beach themed pieces and it's headquartered right here in Norwood.
We'll hear more about what inspires that line and what
it's like to run such a niche business. That's next Sunday,
right here on the New England Business Report. Have a
(57:51):
great week everybody, and we hope you'll join us again
next Sunday at eight am m
This is the New England Business Report with Joe Shortsleeve
and Kim Care Again, a weekly roundup and discussion to
the top business news impacting our New England economy.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Good morning everybody, and welcome to the New England Business
Report on this Sunday morning. I'm Kim Care again and
Joe short Sleeve. With the week off, he's out enjoying
some leisure time as the summer starts to whind to
an end. I think everybody probably deserves that, so we
hope that Joe is having a great time. Of course,
it is August the eleventh. Wow, how this month has flown.
(00:33):
The Olympics behind us now and we start heading to
back to school, which I cannot believe. I was just
talking to someone who said, I think that the summer
has gone so quickly, and I think it's because it's
been such a beautiful summer. Well, what a crazy week
we had on Wall Street this week. We started with
what some are comparing to Black Monday. After a lower
(00:55):
than expected jobs report the week before, many people speculating
whether the would have to come back even before the
September meeting and cut rates just so that the markets
would rebound and things would stable out. Well. Fortunately, it
looks like things did stable out as the week went on.
In fact, I would venture to guess that some people
jumped the gun after just a tough Monday. We're going
(01:18):
to be talking a little bit later about rates here
in this show, so let's take a look at some
of the things coming up today here on the New
England Business Report. First off, in our second half hour,
I'm so excited State Treasurer Deb Goldberg is going to
join us. She's going to be our guest. She has
been working for years and I have been interviewing her
for years about the concept of online lottery here in
(01:39):
the state. She has said that at the lottery, which
by the way, Massachusetts Lottery one of the most successful
in the country, and if it was to remain successful,
then it absolutely had to move with the times and
that would be going online.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
The issue there has been retailers. Retailers say, if you
can sit in your home office and you can play
the lottery, then why would you stop by a convenience store.
So we're going to talk to Deb about, you know,
what has reconciled there and why it looks like the
lottery can survive in even better fashion if it's both
online and in retail stores. And by the way, we're
(02:16):
going to talk to her about where those dollars go.
You know, they are important to this state, they really are.
And right now lottery numbers are down because of online
betting for sports and again in other states that are
playing online. So we'll be anxious to talk to her
in the second half hour. Also passing up on Beacon
Hill this past session, salary transparency. This is an issue
(02:37):
that had been pushed for a really long time up there.
It now requires business owners with more than one hundred
employees to disclose salary benefits when they're posting a job listing.
So the question is what does that mean for businesses
and what does that mean for those who are looking
for a job. What are the benefits to both sides
if there has to be this transparency. Paul Corellas of
(02:58):
MP Wired for HR is going to join us and
he'll tell us a little bit more about transparency when
it comes to salaries. We're also talking renewable energy this morning.
Now we all know the guidelines for the state have
deadlines when it comes to renewable energy. We have emissions
that we have to cut. These deadlines are between now
(03:21):
and twenty forty, but lots of changes need to take
place in the state if we are to meet those deadlines.
Larry Lassard of Achieve Renewable Energy is going to join
us to talk about his company's efforts in the area
of geothermal energy. We all know about solar energy, but
do we know about geothermal This is where you pull
(03:42):
heat and cooling from the earth. Interesting, huh. This is
going to be something that more and more business owners
are going to be talking about as they use geothermal
energy to cool and heat their businesses, as well as
those of us who own homes. So again, Larry Lasar
joining us today. And finally, Anthony Lamachia is going to
be with us, of course, the president of Lamachia Realty.
(04:03):
This is the guy who's going to talk to us
about this tumbling market. I want to hear what kind
of panic he had last week as the markets look
like they would never stop going down, but then of
course it did rebound, and what he thinks is going
to happen when it comes to rate cuts in September.
I also want to talk to him about the housing
market because obviously this summer market has been a little
(04:25):
stronger than what we saw a year ago going into
the fall. Now, we'll see what he's anticipating, especially because
we think these rate cuts are on the horizon, But
of course we have an election on the horizon as well.
Anthony Lamachia will be our guest. But first, this past
six months or more, the plight of Stewart Healthcare and
its hospitals has been making headlines, there's no two ways
(04:47):
about that, and taking up space on the front page
of local newspapers. In the meantime, what has been happening
to other hospitals in the state, That is the question
Boston Business Journal reporter is about. Tihan has a cover
story in the Journal today and it's about some of
the other hospitals in the state and how they have
been struggling. And she joins us now to chat a
(05:09):
little bit more about that. Great to have you along.
Before we get any further, let's just talk for a
second about Steward. I know that you've been following that
story really closely, and you know there's there's just so
much concern about these hospitals closing. Any updates that you
have on what's taking place right now.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
Sure, Kim, So my understanding is that you know, the
state has secured the permission from bankruptcy court to give
the funding to to Stored through the end of August.
So that's that thirty million that Stored is on very
strict terms to only use for operating expenses for its
(05:50):
Massachusetts hospitals. It really seems like that's maybe the main
move here from the state. You know, heally is concerned
about making moves on the hospitals that Stewart has said
has secured buyers, and it's definitely still a concern for
many in the community. What's going to happen to people
(06:12):
who relied on Carney and Shoba but can't say that
anything has changed in terms of the plan from Stuart
to shut those down.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yeah, I know that the Boston City Council this past
week voted what they're calling a health emergency because of Carney.
So everybody, you know, doing their best to try to
service those who are going to lose their hospitals. Here,
let's talk a little bit more about the piece that
you have in the paper. Life support is the headline,
(06:44):
and you're talking about while this bankruptcy for Stewart was
going on, the attention had shifted away from other hospitals
that are also struggling. So walk us through a few
of those hospitals and what's taking place.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Sure, So the story came about as I was talking
to some hospital leaders that have been my sources, and they,
while very concerned about Steward and rightly so, you know,
really wanted to point out that that's not the only
story that should be a little bit scary to people
following Massachusetts healthcare. Rightly, So the attention is on seward
(07:20):
with a tospitals closing, with almost twelve hundred over twelve
hundred people losing their jobs, but no one's really knocking
it out of the park in terms of meeting margins
and you know, finding a lot of financial prosperity running
running hospitals in Massachusetts right now.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
So I know that one of the systems that you
talk about is a tough system. And a lot of
this started really just before COVID, with them losing some
of their employees and expenses getting high. Then of course
COVID hit and we had to start having traveling hospitals,
are traveling nurses and healthcare workers, and so many people
(07:59):
step doubt what are they telling you in the TOUGH system.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
When I spoke with the Tough leadership, you know, they're
not shy about giving you the answer, which is that
they did what they could to whether the storm while
it was happening. But there's certainly a fallout from that,
you know. I know, TOUGH is still almost paying five
times what they were for travel nursing and travel workers
(08:23):
since before the pandemic. You know, it's definitely more under
control than during the height of the pandemic. You know,
twenty twenty two was the worst financial year across the state,
but haven't figured out how to get things back on
track and heading in a sustainable direction. And that's you know,
not just TOUGH, that's not necessarily across the board. But
(08:43):
basically half of hospitals are losing money so far this
year and almost seventy five percent of hospital systems are
losing money. So it's not a tale of one or
two hospitals having a tough time. It's really this is
what we're looking.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
At, is what is the point as you talk to
these hospital administrators, what is the plan for the future?
I mean, how do you bring this back in control?
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Yeah, so a lot of it has to do with
rebuilding the healthcare workforce. It's not just in the hospitals.
A lot of people left healthcare roles, including at skilled
nursing facilities. And you know, the way the way the
ecosystem works is that if somebody is in acute care
in the hospital and then they're ready to be out
(09:28):
of the hospital but not ready to go home, there
needs to be an intermediate, intermediary step and that has
kind of been sticking up the process recently because there's
just not enough spaces for people to go once they
can be discharged in the hospital. So we're seeing people
stuck in the hospital, which is costing the systems a
(09:48):
lot of money. So they need to there's a lot
of programs to build that workforce back up. They're also
looking at ways to lean into new types of technology
that you can alleviate some of the workforce burden so
that the people who are there can be focusing on
what really needs, you know, a human hand, and those
(10:11):
are you know, two of the main two of the.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Main things Isabelle, thank you very much for your great
insight on this. Again. It's called life support. You'll find it. It
was a cover story this past week in the Buston
Business Journal. Still come in your way here on the
New England Business Report. What is the new Massachusetts law
that requires employers to be transparent about salary really mean?
You'll find out when the New England Business Report returns.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
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Speaker 2 (12:46):
Hi everybody, I'm Kim Karrigan and I'm Joe Shortsley.
Speaker 5 (12:49):
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Speaker 2 (12:54):
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Speaker 2 (13:21):
Welcome back, everybody. I'm Kim Carrigan and this is New
England Business Report. Joe short Sleeve has the week off.
Just a quick reminder still come in your way here
this Sunday morning. State Treasurer Deb Goldberg is going to
be my guests. We're going to talk about online lottery
which is coming to the state. But first, a new
law has been passed in the state that requires employers
(13:43):
to be transparent about salary when hiring new employees. And
we wanted to find out exactly what this law is
all about and how it will affect businesses. Joining me
to talk a little bit more about it is Paul
Correllis of MP Wired for HR. Paul, it's great to
have you on the show.
Speaker 7 (14:01):
Likewise, happy to be back.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
I hope you're having a great summer, sir. Indeed, we
are fantastic. I'll talk about this transparency law. It was
a really big deal up on Beacon Hill to get
this passed, and they did. So what exactly is in
this law? What does it mean?
Speaker 7 (14:16):
Yeah? Sure, yeah, it was a long time coming. I've
been talked about for several years now. And really what
this does is Massachusetts now joins a growing list of states,
over a dozen now that have adopted similar legislation. So
what this really means is a couple of pieces. So
a lot of these programs from state to state are
fairly similar, but there are some key differences. So for
(14:37):
the Massachusetts one in particular, what we're looking at is, first,
for employers who have twenty five or more employees in
the state, starting just under a year from now, so
July thirty, first of twenty twenty five, they're going to
have to start posting salary ranges for the positions at
their company whenever they're posting for a new role, so
(14:59):
when their recruit. Also if an internal employee is going
to be promoted or transferred, they need to list a
salary range at that time or upon request from an
employee currently in their role or considering moving into that role.
So where the Massachusetts one differs a little bit is
also for the larger employers. So if you have one
(15:19):
hundred or more employees and are subject to the Equal
Employment Opportunity filings, starting this February, so not too far
from now, you're going to have to start filing some
wage data with the state.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Okay, all right, so how will this affect employers, let's
start there.
Speaker 7 (15:37):
Yeah, sure, So again, where this only applies for businesses
with twenty five or more employees, I really suggest and
encourage smaller employers to jump on this as well and
consider being compliant with the transparency piece of it, just
because studies are showing that upwards of eighty percent of
potential hires are either not going to apply or strongly
(16:02):
considered not applying for a job if they're not seeing
the potential salary range posted up front. It just kind
of helps with negotiating to It avoids kind of that
awkward conversation of not having any idea of what an
employer is willing to pay or what an employee is
looking to get paid. So it's really going to be
a change if you're not currently including potential pay ranges
(16:23):
on your job postings when you're looking to hire. That's
something starting next to a lot that you're really going
to have to do if you're hiring in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
So I think what I'm hearing you say there is
that this may be if you're not doing it, it
precludes some people from even applying for your job.
Speaker 6 (16:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (16:39):
Yeah, there have been several studies now and they've all
been pretty consistent that right around eighty percent of people
are saying that they're either only apply for jobs that
have it are much more likely to apply for jobs
that have it posted even today without the lawn place.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Really interesting. How will this affect those who are looking
for a job.
Speaker 7 (16:57):
Well, again, I think it'll help get a better understanding.
It'll help you waste time and have a more efficient process.
You're not going to apply necessarily for a job if
it doesn't fit your salary requirements. It'll help you kind
of compare offers before you even have an offer, but
help you compare prospective employers, give you an understanding. I
(17:18):
think this is also good opportunity because, let's face it,
there are a lot of great nonprofits and other organizations
out there that may not be able to pay the
same money upfront as some of the larger corporations, but
this gives them the opportunity to highlight some of the
other benefits of working there, whether it's time off or
benefits or whatever it may be. It kind of gets
that conversation going organically.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
I'd say, sure, absolutely. Paul Corellis is our guest of
MP Wired for HR. So, Paul, I guess I'm trying
to understand, and I think you've you've laid out some
of the reasoning. But you mentioned right off the top
that this was a long time coming. Why did Beacon
Hill feel so strongly about passing this law.
Speaker 7 (17:59):
Yeah, yes, so despite you know, a few years back
they'd passed the pay equity law that really looked to
address pay equity concerns based on gender. They've seen some
progress with that, but still still finding some shortcomings depending
on the study you see or read, you know, anywhere
from seventy five cents to eighty five cents on the
(18:19):
dollar in terms of disparity between women and men in
the workplace. So definitely looking to further close that gap
as well. The pay equity law that was passed a
few years back really only addressed gender inequality and didn't
deal with any of the other protected classes or groups
that also seem to suffer from wage disparity, so and
(18:42):
there can be a number of reasons for that. You know,
some groups may negotiate more at the time of offer
than others and get those those pays really ramped up. Also,
employers who have been around for a while and have
had positions in place for a while, they may have
hired someone when you know, the market was weaker and
got them at a better price, and then when demand
shot up, they had to hire for that same position
(19:03):
but had to pay more for it. So there are
all different reasons for that disparity. But the state is
really just looking to get that conversation out in the
open and kind of create a level playing field for
all employees as well as perspective employees.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
So from your point of view, someone who's an expert
in these fields who benefits emotes from this twofold.
Speaker 7 (19:24):
I'd definitely say perspective employees people that are looking for
work again, it's going to make their process much more efficient,
help them avoid having to necessarily fight for pay. They'll
kind of know what the range is and what they
can reasonably negotiate for. I think recruiters also make out
really well in this too. You know it saves them
some time. It's going to make their process. They're not
(19:45):
going to get people where they're doing phone screens and
interviews and taking the time to put them through the
interview process only to find out that they're miles apart
on salary expectations. So I think the benefits the benefits
are twofold there.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Very interesting. All right, well, Paul Correllis, we want to
thank you so much for joining us here on New
England Business Report. Interesting information there new law that takes
effect almost immediately again for any company with twenty five
employees or more, transparency will be required. Coming up next
to Anthony Lamachia have Lamachia Realty with the latest on
(20:21):
rates and the effect of the upcoming election may have
on our markets. I'm Kim Kerrigan Joe Schwartzley with the
day off and you're listening to the New England Business Report.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Kim and Joe will explore more business news that impacts
our New England economy when they return.
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Speaker 2 (23:26):
We welcome back everybody. I'm Kim Kerrigan Joe Shortsleeve with
the week off. I'm so glad that you could be
with me this morning here on the New England Business Report. Hey,
just a quick reminder that in this half hour, State
Treasurer Ted Goldberg is going to be my guest. She
is so excited about her push for online lottery in
the state and uh it has finally come to fruition.
(23:47):
She's going to talk to us about the impact this
kind of lottery we'll have on players as well as
the state's economy. She's coming up in this half hour,
so be sure you stay with us. This is the
time that Joe and I I like to always bring
up a story that maybe you missed this week, some
business headline and I love this one because whether we
like it or not, folks, we are headed directly toward
(24:10):
pumpkin season and then ultimately the holidays. And this is
an important one for a lot of people. Honey bake
Ham to triple its Massachusetts locations. Now, if you're like
my family, you love Honey bake Hans. And I gotta
tell you, I remember last Easter standing in line at
the Honey bake Ham place over on Route One. I
(24:31):
must have stood in line for fifty minutes or more
to pick up a ham. So maybe this is gonna
help because they are now going to have eight new
locations in the Greater Boston area, which is, by the way,
gonna include a restaurant in Worcester and a new Connecticut store.
It's also going to include Rhode Island with new stores,
(24:51):
and Providence and Warwick. I guess they've gotten the word
that people no longer want to stand in line when
we get close to the holidays. Sixty five years years ago,
it was a Detroit family who actually started the Honey
bake Hams. And now they have four hundred locations nationwide,
and we are going to have more right here in
(25:12):
the Boston area. So as we head into the holidays,
I think that is some pretty terrific News, it's time
for our weekly feature, asked them.
Speaker 9 (25:21):
Well.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
As I mentioned at the top of the hour, the
equity markets took a beating early last week after a
lesson expected jobs report was released, and since Monday, Wall
Street has rebounded pretty well, but there was certainly a
lot of talk this week about what that meant in
terms of rate hikes by the Fed. Joining us to
talk a little bit more about it, President of Lamachia Realty,
(25:43):
Anthony Lamachia, good to have you.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
With us, sir, Thank you, Kim, happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
So let's talk about that scared give me an idea
of generally what was going on in the real estate
world as we were watching the market drop.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Well, i'll tell you Sunday night, I was at the
Metallica concert and I kept checking Twitter because I was
watching what was happening in overseas market. And my friends
that I was with said, why do you keep checking
your phone? Will truth be told? I knew that the
worst the market's got, the better mortgage rates would get.
And that's the thing that confuses so many people is
they say, wait, wait, what do you mean the worst? Yes,
(26:17):
the worse the news, the better it is for mortgage
interest rates. So last Friday, for example, the jobs report
came in way under what they expected. It was like
one hundred thousand jobs versus almost two hundred thousand was
the expectation. So race went down. Then the Sunday night
there was problems overseas. It came into Monday, stock market
went down eleven hundred points. Rates got even better. So
(26:38):
this week mortgage rates have been anywhere between this past
week anywhere between six point four six point seven percent.
That's the best they've been in about a year and
a half. And it's very good news for real estate.
And that's the part that confuses people is it has
the opposite impact.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Sure, So you know, a lot of talk early in
the week was, oh, my goodness, Defense are going to
have to come back and cut rates even before or
the September meeting. We're gonna have to have an emergency
meeting that clearly doesn't appear to be needed. But what
do you think is going to happen in September.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
I think they are going to probably lower rates. I
wouldn't be surprised if they lower them a half point.
But everyone needs to keep in mind there's a big
difference between the overnight federal funds rate and mortgage rates.
Mortgage rates are not directly tied to the federal funds rate,
and mortgage rates are more impacted by the investors buying bonds.
You know, when the stock markets having a tough time,
(27:30):
investors pull money out, they buy bonds, and that helps
bring mortgage rates down. It's a whole confusing world. So
there's not a direct correlation.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yeah, that was my next question. How long you thought
it would be realized on the ground, But you're saying,
you know, it could be some time with their not
being a direct correlation.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
No, there's not. And think about it. With mortgage rates,
they move a little faster in the sense that the
jobs report was poor last right, what it was it
two Fridays ago, and within three hours mortgage rates came down.
So it's tricky. Overall, we need mortgage rates to come down,
we need all rates to come down. They've been too
damn high high. They're affecting the economy, they're affecting housing,
(28:09):
and they're stopping sellers from listing their homes because sellers
do not want to trade at two point eight or
a three percent rate for a seven percent rate.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah, he you talk to us a lot about this
big settlement that took place in the real estate world
after a big lawsuit, and so the effects of that
are going to be felt sometime this week. Talk to
me about where we are in all of that and
what you're anticipating.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Yeah. So the actual date that the settlement takes effect
is August the seventeenth, and that's when all of the
so called practice changes are supposed to take place. From
a buyer and a seller perspective of what's really going
to be different, I wouldn't say a ton. Buyers will
notice that when they want when they want to see
a home and they get connected with a realtor, realtors
(28:53):
are going to require a written agreement of some sort
in order to show them homes, even if they're showing
them home virtually over a zoom. That's one of the
practice changes that they are requiring us of us. And
then the other one is when sellers are hiring a
realtor and talking to them about, you know, who they
see best fit to sell their home, that relter is
(29:16):
going to be talking likely about how the payment of
commission is going to be handled differently. There's been a
lot of misinformation in the news. They've said, oh, commissions
are going to come down. I've even heard things as
stupid as prices will come down. Prices are not affected
by commissions. Prices are affected by crazy. Prices are affected
by supply and demand. That was one of the catch
(29:38):
phrases that the plaint to Floyer used in Missouri last fall,
as he told the jury, prices will come down. Well
half the jury with people that have never owned the home.
That was music to their ears. It's not true that's
affected by supplying demand. So there'll be different conversations about
how the compensation is paid. Historically, for a number of decades,
a home seller would normally pay the entire compensation to
(30:01):
their listing broker, and oftentimes a listing broker would share
part of that compensation with the buyer broker who brought
the buyer. Now there's going to be a lot of
companies where one of them that are saying, you know what, hey,
we want the payment directly from the seller. We don't
want to be sharing commissions with other companies because that
was part of their lawsuit. So it's an interesting time
that we're entering into. You know, another one is the
(30:23):
posting of the compensation offering can't be in the multiple
listing service system and that has flowed through to Zillo,
so home buyers over the years. The last few years
they've been able to go on Zillow and see what
their agent would get as far as a percentage. Now
that won't be there because it won't be posted anywhere.
I truthfully don't think any of these changes are really better,
but there's something that are necessary based on the settlement.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
But we cannot fight change, that's for sure. Anthony, Anthony
Lomachy have Lomachy Realty. Thanks so much for being a
part of the New England Business Report. You know, renewable energy.
When we think about heating our homes and business with
renewable energy, we typically think about solar, I think, but
that's not the only source out there, and my next guest,
(31:05):
his company has some other alternatives. Happy to be joined
this morning by Larry Lassard, he of Achieve Renewable Energy.
It's based in Salem, Massachusetts. Larry, it is so great
to have you with us today.
Speaker 9 (31:18):
Thank you for having me. It's great that you're interested
in what we do.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Oh, absolutely well. I think everybody needs to be really
interested in renewable energy. At this stage of the game,
let's talk about your company. You work with thermal energy,
our geothermal energy rather tell us what that is.
Speaker 9 (31:37):
Geothermal energy is a channel term that can be used
to describe direct use pop water that you can get
from the ground in places where the ground is hot,
like in ice fund or electric power generation, as they
do at several locations in the Western UAI. But we
(32:01):
do geo exchange, which is a technique that exchanges heat
from a building to the ground to cool it and
extracts heat from the ground to heat the building. And
our technology does not require you'd be near a volcano.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Okay, very interesting, So obviously there must be technology that
does require that.
Speaker 9 (32:26):
Well. Sure, the direct use to your thermal and the
power generation are typically in areas where the ground is
much hotter due to some type of volcanic activity. The
geo exchange can be used pretty much anywhere and actually
benefits tremendously from the ground temperatures we have in New
England that are moderate and very conducive to having the
(32:49):
equipment do either heating or cooling depending on the season.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
So Larry walk me through how does geo exchange heat
and cool homes and businesses.
Speaker 9 (32:59):
Then sure the geo exchange normally is designed to provide
one hundred percent of the heating and cooling for a building,
can also provide hot water or industrial process water that
can be their hot or cold. There are three parts
to a system. The first is a ground heat exchanger,
and that's typically installed outside, but in some cases can
(33:23):
be installed under a building during construction, and in our
area that's most commonly a series of geothermal borings that
are drilled two hundred to five hundred feet into the ground.
And how deep we go and how many borings we
need to do depends on how much heating and cooling
the building requires. With that ground heat exchanger, we then
(33:47):
inside have equipment called groundsource heat pumps, which are specially
designed heat pumps that can extract heat from the ground
heat exchanger to heat the building and reject heat to
the ground heating chander to cool it. And where we
have a typical average temperature in Eastern Mass of maybe
(34:08):
fifty three fifty forty Greece fahrenheit, that's right in the
middle between our target heating and cooling temperatures, so that's perfect.
Then The third component of the system is a distribution system,
and that's usually duct in, but there are other possibilities
depending on the building.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Larry Lassard is our guest of achieve renewable energy. It's
based in Salem, Massachusetts, so Larry. Commonwealth has some really
specific climate and greenhouse gas reduction goals over the next
you know, fifteen to twenty thirty years. Tell me how
your company and what you guys do can benefit reaching
(34:48):
those goals.
Speaker 9 (34:50):
Sure, the Commonwealth has a goal to move buildings towards
electrified heating and cooling, and move transportation towards in an
electrified direction as well, and geo exchange. Our groundsource heat
pumps operate on using electricity and they have no on
(35:12):
site fossil fuel use, so there's no on site greenhouse
gas emissions. As the electric grid gets more green through
use of more solar and wind and even renewable gas,
which is something that's being looked at now, the greenhouse
gas emissions associated with heating the building go down and
(35:33):
down as the electric grid becomes cleaner, to a point
where once electric grid is fully renewable, there'll be zero
greenhouse gas emissions from heating and cooling. Now, there are
two primary ways that people electrified building. One our groundsource
heat pumps or geo exchange, which is what we do,
(35:54):
and the other are air source heat pumps. And groundsource
heat pumps are more than twice as efficient as air
source heat pumps and that has a benefit looking forward
as electric grid is built out for the larger needs
of electrified buildings and transportation. So geo exchange providing half
(36:16):
the demand of air source heat pumps reduces the scope
of that electric grid build out that will be ongoing.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Give me a sense of what kind of workers are
involved in these projects, what's your labor force?
Speaker 9 (36:31):
Like, I'm personally a professional geologist and we work with
mechanical engineers and civil engineers on our projects. The ground
heat exchangers are normally installed by drilling contractors or excavation contractors.
Electricians help wire the equipment, sheet metal installers installed deducting
(36:55):
with HVAC installers and technicians on staff that the install
the equipment, and then general construction laborers as well. So
we touch on many of the building trades.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
And is there enough labor force here in the New
England area to sustain you guys?
Speaker 9 (37:13):
No, we need more people. Right now in Massachusetts, the
employment rate is somewhere near three percent. I think in
our industry the unemployment rate is closed as zero percent.
So we need to attract more people from trade schools
and more geology and engineering types to what we do
(37:34):
because we expect our business to expand substantially as the
Commonwealth tries to electrified buildings.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Yeah, we hope a lot of young people out there
listening to that. What's the installation expense? Is it more
or less to install than maybe just an average heating
system or a cooling system.
Speaker 9 (37:54):
The top line installation cost is higher for geo exchange.
It's about forty or fifty percent more than a similar
quality conventional system to be newly installed in the building.
But they're tremendous federal and Massachusetts incentives. We actually have
here in mass some of the best incentives in the
(38:14):
nation for commercial projects. The federal government provides a thirty
percent federal tax credit, and there's an option to add
of two additional ten percent adders, so the tax credit
in some cases can be as high as fifty percent,
and then mass Save provides forty five hundred dollars per
(38:34):
ton of cooling capacity and together those incentives eliminate the
cost differential for the net installed cost after incentives, so
they give geothermal cost parity with traditional installations and that
allows people to make a sensible climate choice without having
(38:55):
a financial penalty. They're also good residential centers here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Larry, it's fascinating and no doubt it is the way
of the future. Larry Lassard achieve renewable energy. Thanks so
much for being a part of the New England Business Report.
Coming up next, deb Goldberg Sake, Treasurer of the Commonwealth,
is going to be my guest. This is the New
England Business Report.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
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Speaker 2 (42:45):
Welcome back everyone. I'm Kim Kerragan. Great to have you
with us on this Sunday morning Chris Joe Show. Itslaef
has the week off. I'm very excited about my next guest.
She's certainly now stranger to any of us. Deb Goldberg
was the was first elected treasurer here in the Commonwealth
back in twenty fifteen, and now some eight years later,
she is celebrating a very big win. That's online lottery.
(43:09):
Madam Treasurer. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 10 (43:12):
It's good to be with you, Kim.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
It's great.
Speaker 10 (43:14):
It doesn't seem possible. I was thinking about it, and
I was It's almost my ten year anniversary from the
day I was actually elected, and I can't I don't
know where the years went because I just loved my job.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
So I remember. I remember when you were running and
when you were elected. So it's a little bit hard
for me to believe that you're coming up on ten
as well.
Speaker 10 (43:39):
Well, I get younger every year, but me too.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
That's the beauty of it. Listen, this issue of online lottery.
I've spoken to you many times about this until a
research I didn't realize that this that The first time
that it came up was back in twenty twelve. It
was actually Steve Grossman, who was the treasurer at the time,
and he predicted that I lottery would be absolutely imperative
(44:02):
if the lottery was going to survive and if it
was going to compete. Now, you carried that torch and
this last month the governor signed it finally it into law.
So talk to me a little bit about why you
believe so strongly that the state has needed online lottery.
Speaker 10 (44:19):
Well, you know, it's it's it's kind of funny because
I came into local elected office in back in nineteen
ninety eight and was kind of a not I never gambled,
I don't gamble, and I thought, you know, the lottery
is in that vein. And yet as I became more
(44:40):
and more in my role in Brookline as a local
it's now called select board, but at the time was selectmen,
I realized the understanding of what Proposition two and a
half percent had done to holding back the ability of
local communities to raise money to pay for services, and
(45:01):
that Bob Crane, the treasurer back in the nineteen seventies,
created the Massachusetts State Lottery explicitly to replace the monies
that the local communities would not be getting from the
state once two and a half percent was passed, and
that we very badly needed it on the local level. Literally,
(45:23):
we'd be looking at whether we could add a police
officer or a firefighter, and the lottery dollars coming in,
which is unrestricted to the local communities, paid for that position.
So you sort of had to balance the need for
public safety, the need for crossing guards or an additional teacher.
(45:44):
And at that point I realized how essential the lottery
is to Massachusetts communities, which means the people who lived
there and became a proponent of the lottery. Once I
was elected, I the pre work as you mentioned took place,
(46:05):
and I also saw that the casinos had come online
that they were had agreed to have lottery machines in
the casinos. So that was sort of taking the sting
away from local communities losing out to casinos which were
typically visited by out of staters. But I, you know,
(46:27):
I said, if Massachusetts is going to do a casino,
we're really over that, and we're having gambling. Why not
have something that continues to be a not for profit.
You know, no one is benefiting by profits. We're not
a private corporation and have additional revenues that go out
(46:48):
to people in the states. So that was the impetus
behind really wanting to make sure that we got an
online lottery, and I watched the states around US and
other states throughout the country go ahead and institute an
online lottery. The head of the New Hampshire Lottery has
(47:09):
loved taunting us that New Hampshire has it and that
if people drive across the border they can play it.
So it's been it's been an interesting experience, and here
we are well.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
You know, a lottery in this state has certainly been successful.
I know we've had one of the most successful lotteries
in the country since you know, the casinos and of
course sports betting. Have we seen a decline in retail lottery, Well.
Speaker 10 (47:38):
There have been a couple of things that have actually
happened that the you know, person on the street wouldn't
really notice. For example, I'm going to share with you
something that was really a heartbreak for me. The mess
State Lottery has always been the co sponsor with the
Boston Celtics of the Hero among Us Award. We lost
(47:59):
that this year because we got overplayed by sports betting
casinos and they raise the price. And as I said,
we're are not for profit. Our profits go out to
the people of Massachusetts. We couldn't compete because we couldn't
pay for that sponsorship anymore, and we don't do the
(48:21):
kind of advertising. Now, you know, I come from the
business world, sure, and that I came from retailing and
marketing and all that kind of thing, and so I
was a grosser. So I understand competitive businesses, but when
you own your market, you don't sit still and allow
your competition to come in outspend you on marketing and
(48:44):
you just sit there. It's just not what you should
do because I realized where our money goes, and that's
taking care of people. So it had has been very,
very frustrating for me to not be able to risk bond.
I never will forget the first time I went to
a Red Sox game, and I would say it was
(49:05):
around twenty fifteen and saw all these advertisements for daily
fantasy sports. I said, who are they? What are they doing?
Speaker 3 (49:13):
Right?
Speaker 10 (49:14):
And thats state lottery wasn't there. So it's good that
this has happened in the sense that also, as we
all know, revenues for the state have not been as robust,
and this will be a stream of money that will
be well used for people in our state.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
Well, we're going to talk about how it's going to
be used specifically here in just a minute. I also
want to talk about how it works, but before we
do that, you know, one of the real concerns about
online lottery has always been retail locations. You know that
someone would stay in there, you know, in their office
at home, and would buy lottery tickets or whatever, as
opposed to stopping off for a cup of coffee and
(49:57):
a lottery ticket on the way to work. How is
this going to work with the bricks and mortars? You know,
what's what's the side effects?
Speaker 10 (50:04):
First of all, the good news of letting all these
other states do this first is we've gotten a chance
to study what works and what doesn't to drive business
into the retail bricks and mortars. And you know, I
always said to the retailers, I'm one of you. I
know about upping the sale. I know people come in
and they're going to buy a lottery ticket, and they're
(50:25):
going to buy milk, and they're going to grab a
bag of potato chips, and they're going to pick up
their newspapers. Some people really do still read it. I
read a heart what the newspaper. I do every day,
two newspapers every day. But so I said, we have
the data. Michigan retailers have increased their sales because you
(50:50):
can do promotions and drive business into the retailers. Additionally,
there is a new market out there, and sports betting
and daily fantasy sports have proven that and you can
get those new people also into the stores through promotions
and so that and you can will be able to
(51:12):
do all sorts where we looked at every state at
what has worked successfully to generate that extra revenue for
local retailer.
Speaker 2 (51:23):
I know that it's sort of scheduled. The date is
December of twenty twenty five to go online and be ready.
What can players expect in December of twenty twenty five,
So I'm.
Speaker 10 (51:36):
We're saying sixteen months okay, but we're not going to
go live unless it's going to work perfectly. You know,
you hear about certain things going online in different places.
I'm not going to comment on how it happens and
whether it happens correctly. We're not going online unless it
works properly. You heard that from me right now. But
(51:57):
what it is is there's just there's first while you
are able to purchase if you if you go, but
you can't do it while you're in Massachusetts. If you're
taking a vacation drive across state lines, you can see
the kind of games that are available. Now. We're going
to have some that are unique to the mass State
Lottery because we always do that. I think you might
(52:20):
have heard that the other day we came out with
our Game of Thrones right ticket, and you heard about
our huge shark promotion. Oh my goodness, that was off
the charts, and people will be going to MUD's vineyard
who won who won those? But we will be having
our own tickets. They're similar, they're similar to instance, they're
(52:40):
similar to games that you will see that you see
in Quino in the bars, but you can play it
on your phone, on your computer, and you'll be able
to do Powerball and Mega Million. So let's say we
have a major power Ball and Boy though, you know
what those are like, right, and that's those are those
are multi state games. But once we are allowed to
(53:03):
go online, I had more people saying to me, friends
of mine, I really want to buy a Powerball ticket,
but I don't feel like leaving the house in the
middle of a rainstorm to go pick one up that
will then be able to be purchased on at home online.
Speaker 2 (53:18):
Also so a treasure. How do you keep this game safe?
You know, I know that we have examples of it
in other states, and we certainly have it with sports betting,
But how will the Massachusetts Lottery keep the game safe?
How will they know who's actually placing bets? What would
you do about people who this makes it too accessible
(53:38):
for them?
Speaker 10 (53:39):
There is a risk, obviously with any form of gambling,
that there will be people who are addicted. The thing
about online is that number one, we're working with the
Mass Council on Gaming and Health on all of this,
and we're also again looking at best practices that are
out there. But you can't you can better see who
(54:01):
is overly placing bets better online because of the ability
to have an IP address. Then someone who buys a
ticket in Lexington, gets on the highway, stops in the
next town, gets on, buys another ticket, drives down the road,
gets another ticket. You don't know what that's doing. You
(54:22):
do know what's going on online, and there are a
lot of programs and algorithms that will allow you to
monitor that and help people monitor themselves also online regular
lottery tickets can be bought from the age of eighteen
on up in the brick and mortars. That will not
be allowed online. It will be twenty one years old
(54:44):
and up. So those are some of the safety things
being put in place, and we're prepared to implement a
safe and reliable eye lottery.
Speaker 2 (54:54):
So the last question Treasurer I really want to ask
you about, is this money that's going to come in
from eye lottery where it will be used. I know
obviously it goes to cities in towns, but is it
specifically earmarked for anything, Well, actually it is.
Speaker 10 (55:08):
It is earmarked, and it's earmarked for something that isn't
as specific as going to cities in towns. This is
actually ear marked for early childhood care and childcare. So
it is going to be directed towards those grants to
support childcare throughout Massachusetts, which has been identified for years
(55:34):
but never completely funded in a way it needs to be.
I'm sure you hear from anecdotically from friends, but also
from businesses. The tremendous need for childcare is a is
connected to people being able to be available to work,
and that impacts our whole economy.
Speaker 2 (55:55):
Absolutely. Any estimates on what online lottery will bring in
in the first.
Speaker 10 (56:00):
Year or so, we don't know exactly the first year
because also that would mean we would know exactly when
it's going to go live. So, but we believe that
it will generate an additional two hundred million in annual
revenue once we're up and running and have a full
year of operation.
Speaker 2 (56:19):
Well, it's going to be a very exciting venture for
the State, and I know that you are very excited
about it. I'm glad that you could join us this
morning to chat a little bit about it. And I'll
tell you what, maybe we'll circle back and get an
update on the progress as this continues to unfold.
Speaker 10 (56:34):
Well, you know, it's going to be a very technically
oriented process and we are going to take it slow,
and we're going to put it out forbid. Nobody has
a way of you know, just handing us the operation
and when we're going to turn it on. That's why
we're going to take our time, because we're going to
do it right because at the end of the day,
(56:56):
the mass State Lawtery has the lowest operating costs and
the highest profits and that's what we want to continue
to do for all the people here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2 (57:07):
Day. Treasurer Deb Goldberg, great to have you here on
the New England Business Report. So great to have the
Treasurer with us. Very exciting this online lottery situation. Will
certainly keep an eye on that. We've got about eighteen
months before it actually takes effect, but we will no
doubt speak to the Treasurer again between now and then. Hey,
that's going to do it for this edition of the
New England Business Report. So happy that you could be
(57:29):
with me this morning, Thank you so much. Taking a
look at next Sunday, we're going to be joined by
the owner of Doom Jewelry. It's a unique brand of
beach themed pieces and it's headquartered right here in Norwood.
We'll hear more about what inspires that line and what
it's like to run such a niche business. That's next Sunday,
right here on the New England Business Report. Have a
(57:51):
great week everybody, and we hope you'll join us again
next Sunday at eight am m
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