Word: finneran
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However, in the recently finalized state budget, House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran (D-Mattapan) and Senate President Thomas F. Birmingham '72 (D-Boston) inserted language that would have gutted this proposal, according to proponents of the law. The changes would have allowed incumbents to raise huge amounts of money while in office and still be able to qualify for public funds in the last six months before an election...
Pressed to explain their changes to the Clean Elections law, Birmingham and Finneran cited the need for some representatives to maintain district offices. They claimed that representatives would not have enough money to run for these offices if they agreed to limit fundraising under the new law. However, such a minor problem could surely have been dealt with in a more effective way. If this had indeed been the true issue at stake, the law could have been tweaked to allow an exception for constituent services. However, there has been widespread speculation that more powerful interests were at work...
...though Finneran infamously labeled the 59 percent of the prospective teachers who failed the first teacher tests in April of 1998 "idiots," he is not a big advocate of extending testing to seasoned veterans...
...like to think that we would find a way of measuring proficiency without a pencil and paper test," Finneran said...
...While he has quite strongly embraced choice programs, I believe the Governor is still committed to the public schools," Finneran said...