Letter to the MetroWest Daily News
Friday, February 17, 2006
The root cause of Framingham’s problems with social service contractors like SMOC is the state system of contracting out social services. Even though the contractors spend state money under rules set forth in their contracts, there is little oversight from the state and little apparent concern for the effects of what the contractors do.
This system persists because of two huge advantages to the political class
that runs the state: plausible deniability and money.
If a state did what the social service contractors are doing in Framingham
the Legislature and governor would never hear the end of it. By contracting
everything out, they can deny all responsibility. The same plausible deniability
applies to the MWRA, the Turnpike Authority and hundreds of other similar
state bodies.
As for the money, the social contractor’s executives are paid much more than state employees and can afford much bigger political contributions. The contractor agencies can hire lobbyists that also make contributions, and they can pay legislators to serve on their boards of directors. The state contracts out billions in services, and it would be good to know how much gets funnelled back to politicians.
As long as the state contracts for services the way it does, Framingham is going to have problems.
RICHARD
J. WEADER, II,
Framingham
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