Keller @ Large: Beacon Hill 'Out Of Touch'

BOSTON (CBS) - File this one in the folder marked "not hard to believe."

Listen to Jon's commentary:

According to the Globe, the Bureau of State Office Buildings reports there is a "critical error" in the telephone system at the State House that has interrupted communication with the outside world for many who work there.

What a convenient explanation for how out of touch Beacon Hill has been so often over the years, especially when it comes to our local economy, how it works, and what's needed to help it prosper.

This unfortunate phenomenon was reportedly on display yesterday during a Senate committee hearing into the recent departure from our state of hundreds of good jobs at Fidelity Investments and Evergreen Solar.

Both companies benefited from state tax breaks - an industry-wide break in the mid-90s aimed at keeping mutual funds like Fidelity here, and the more recent bag of goodies bestowed on Evergreen by a Patrick administration eager to create jobs in a green industry it favors.

Yesterday, Sen. Mark Montigny decried the practice, saying, according to the State House News Service, that "government, should stay out of the marketplace and out of the private sector whenever possible...When we try to pick the flavor of the month, inevitably we lose more than we win."

So true, but as Montigny acknowledged, he's been part of the problem by voting for those tax breaks. And the problem doesn't stop there.

Don't forget the abysmal failure of the film tax credit, where the state spends more than $113,000 for every temporary job that credit creates.

Earth to Beacon Hill -- some tax breaks may be necessary.

But we clearly need to be doing much, much more to create a broadly competitive business environment and improve the quality of life here, or other states and countries will continue to steal our future.

Maybe if the phones worked and you spent more time on them talking to people who actually drive the economy instead of those who feed off it, you'd have more of a clue.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.