Answering the Governor's Call

When the 4:35 p.m. train to Lowell pulled out of North Station late last month, commuters sank back in their seats to read the paper or to relax from a day's work. Few passengers realized they were aboard the "Tax Train." But within 20 minutes, all aboard had been treated to a 20-minute summary of Massachusetts tax laws, courtesy of Internal Revenue Service and State Revenue officers.

The "Tax Tracks" program is just one of the innovations of the new State Commissioner of Revenue, Ira A. Jackson '70, one of three Kennedy School officials who left in January to join Dukakis at the statehouse.

In contrast to the King administration's revenue commission, which came under fire for corruption last year, Jackson has attempted to make the office more accessible to the public, setting up the "Tax Tracks" program, taxpayer telephone hotlines and walk-in tax clinics. "The Tax Train is a way of conveying symbolically that the Revenue Commission is not only muscle," Jackson says.

The former Associate Dean has to hustle to make up for lost federal funding because state taxes are the only growing source of revenue in the Commonwealth. Between now and April 15, as more than one million tax forms flood his office, one might suppose that Jackson would want to return to the sanctity of the Kennedy School.

But Jackson says he has no plans to come back. Having spent eight years at the Kennedy School as a student and as associate dean, Jackson says, "I've done all I can for the Kennedy School." And Jackson seems to have made much of his eight years. "More that any other person, he helped shape the school," says Graham T. Allison, dean of the Kennedy School.

Secretary of Human Services Manuel Carballo, on leave from his position as lecturer on public policy at the Kennedy School, says he plans eventually to return to Harvard. Working in the Dukakis government will bring fresh experiences to his teaching, he says. "I've always looked on the Kennedy School as home--like six years ago when I went to Washington--and I don't feel any differently now."

Ironically, Carballo will spend much of the money that Jackson collects, since 40 percent of the state budget goes to human service programs. New Federalism "has given the states more latitude but less money," Carballo says, adding that he wants to take advantage of this room to address in particular the problems of overcrowding in prisons, child abuse, and health care costs.

Nicholas T. Mitropoulos sees similarities between his new job of hiring the governor's staff and his old position of director of the Institute of Politics Forum. "There's a lot of politics involved in both." Juggling more than 100 telephone calls and 50 resumes a day, Mitropoulos says he has to keep in mind the many coalitions that helped elect Dukakis and balance them in the hiring of staff.

Dukakis's appointment of the trio to state positions is both an honor and a burden for the Kennedy School. "No one can ever take the place of Ira, Manny or Nick," Executive Dean Hale Champion says, although we're trying our hardest to find replacements." Champion emphasizes that two of the three who left are administrators rather then faculty, so that the loss to the teaching staff is not so great as some accounts made it out to be. For the time being, he added, Mitropoulos's and Jackson's duties are being divided among remaining administrators.

"If a new administration took office and didn't want any of our faculty or staff, we would worry that we were doing something wrong." Academic Dean Albert Carnesale says. "It's a price we have to pay and believe we ought to pay."