CLT
UPDATE
Monday, September 27, 2004
Finneran leaves ... behind his
hand-picked successor
Veteran state Representative Salvatore F. DiMasi yesterday consolidated his hold on the speakership of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, moving quickly to fill the vacancy expected by the sudden departure of Thomas M. Finneran from the leadership of the 160-member chamber, lawmakers said.
DiMasi, a Boston Democrat and the House majority leader, struck a deal with his major rival, Ways and Means chairman John H. Rogers, late Friday night, heading off what could have been a divisive showdown to succeed Finneran....
Finneran, the most controversial Beacon Hill figure in years, is expected to leave the Legislature this week to become president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council on Oct. 4, lawmakers said yesterday. The speaker has avoided the media for the last several days, but he was said by confidants to be wrapping up negotiations with the industry group, with a formal announcement expected as soon as tomorrow....
To convene the House, which ended its formal session in late July, 55 lawmakers must sign a petition. After the House formally gathers, the two parties meet in separate caucuses in which they nominate a candidate for speaker. Republicans have only 22 members in the 160-member House, so the Democrats' choice will prevail.
In 1996, Finneran quietly cobbled together a coalition of Democrats with the Republican leadership, a move that stunned the Democratic leadership, which had lined up behind then majority leader Richard
Voke. Finneran's lightning-quick power grab created deep divisions that still run through the Democratic caucus.
Lawmakers said yesterday Governor Mitt Romney, who has fielded a slate of GOP legislative candidates and is using the Democratic leadership as a foil, has asked the Republican leadership to remain clear of making any deals with the Democrats....
DiMasi, a lawyer, has a generally liberal voting record, getting high ratings from the Massachusetts Audubon Society and the National Organization for Women, and relatively low ratings from
Citizens for Limited Taxation, according to the Massachusetts Political Almanac.
The Boston Globe
Sunday, September 26, 2004
DiMasi said to secure speakership
Reaches deal with rival on tenure length
All around Tommy Finneran, it seems, the whispers have grown - maybe now, they say, it's time for the powerful House speaker to go.
The lawmakers in his own party running for re-election against Republicans using Finneran as a divisive campaign issue could use the help....
Finneran wants longtime friend Rep. Sal DiMasi (D-North End) to follow him - and Finneran knows DiMasi might not survive a long fight.
But adding to the pressure is Democrats on the hustings getting pummeled by Romney clones because they are tied to Finneran.
On the Cape, state Rep. Matthew Patrick is facing a hard fight because Finneran helped him secure his seat. In
MetroWest, ties to Finneran are tarring even Democrat Angus McQuilken, though Finneran probably couldn't pick the former state Senate aide out of a lineup. Even the GOP admits they'd be at a loss if their target of scorn were gone before Election Day.
"It would certainly take away a strong argument for change for many Republican legislative candidates," one Republican strategist said.
The Boston Herald
Saturday, September 25, 2004
In or out, fallout will be huge on Beacon Hill
The deal making had all but died down, but Salvatore F. DiMasi was in his State House office yesterday, spending a sunny Sunday talking to colleagues and arranging for the final steps in his stunning capture of the speakership of the House of Representatives.
It was the third day of a whirlwind of phone calling and ego-stroking that tapped all the tools that DiMasi has honed in 26 years on Beacon Hill. An inside player who knows the levers of power, he struck with amazing speed when it became clear Friday that House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran would leave office....
DiMasi, a Democrat from Boston's North End, is a social liberal who supports abortion rights, gay marriage, and social services. He rarely gives speeches on the floor or calls news conferences, often choosing to hover at the side of the House chamber, where he can cajole lawmakers into reaching agreement on tax bills, health care, and other business of the day.
Years ago, when antitax activist Barbara Anderson sat down to categorize lawmakers into fiscal liberals and conservatives, she fit DiMasi into a third category, "pols."
"I see him as a pol, the poster child for the pols, and I don't think he'd consider that as an insult, either," Anderson said. "He thinks in terms of the leadership and power."
The Boston Globe
Monday, September 27, 2004
Whirlwind for DiMasi
Takes final steps toward speakership
The redistricting case earlier this year was not Finneran's downfall, but it accelerated his unraveling. He treated a panel of federal judges with contempt, and was paid back with a federal investigation. It seems obvious that the probe forced him to begin thinking more seriously about an exit strategy, about how to leave on his own terms. Finneran served under George Keverian and Charles Flaherty -- he knows it tends not to end well for House speakers....
There is, of course, another side. Finneran's management style also contributed heavily to public cynicism of government, with terrible consequences. He gutted election reform. He destroyed the committee system. He squelched public debate of public business. He punished foes relentlessly.
The Boston Globe
Monday, September 27, 2004
Speaker not just words
By Adrian Walker
Governor Romney says he vetoed $32 million in retroactive pay raises for 13,000 of the state's workers in higher education because taxpayers "who have been denied the tax cut they voted for in 2000 should not be asked to pay for retroactive salary increases for state employees." But the math doesn't make sense. If the state *were* to cut taxes, it would have even less money to give these workers the raises they won in previous contract negotiations.
Four things are wrong with Romney's veto. First, reneging on the contract jeopardizes the state's credibility, especially now, when a budget surplus makes it financially possible to disburse the retroactive pay....
But it's voters who have to hold elected officials accountable. Romney is working hard to get more Republicans elected to the state Legislature running on a common tax cut platform.
In 2000, voters were told that the proposed tax cut would not necessitate program cuts, but program cuts have been deep across the board....
Romney's higher education veto is a mistake that diminishes the state.
A Boston Globe editorial
Saturday, September 25, 2005
Romney's ignorant veto
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
"Meet the new boss;
"Same as the old boss."
"Won't Get Fooled Again" - The Who
"Who's Next" (1971)
"The king is dead; long live the
king."
Since the Boston Herald broke the story on Friday
("Would you hire this man? Finneran jumps into job market," By Ann E. Donlan),
intrigue has been running rampant throughout Beacon Hill circles. Will
he or won't he resign -- he, of course, being House Speaker Tom
Finneran, aka., "Speaker for Life." And if he does, who will
attempt to replace him. It was a toss-up between Finneran's Majority
Leader, Rep. Sal DiMasi and Finneran's House Ways and Means Committee
chairman, Rep. John Rogers.
When push came to shove at a private meeting between
the three orchestrated by Mistah Speaker at DiMasi's home on Friday
evening, a puff of white smoke appeared over the North End home and a
new speaker was anointed.
Putting aside speculation over just why Finneran is
so suddenly stepping down, where he's going and why, this is another
example of Massachusetts politics at its worst: the shadowy meetings
behind closed doors where almost everything of any importance takes
place, where the important deals are
concocted out of public view, strictly decided by Finneran and
his inner cabal.
If Finneran is leaving, he'll decide who his
replacement will be, and only him.
"The more things change, the more they remain
the same."
In all other states, a House Speaker is chosen by
rank-and-file legislators after the position becomes vacant and
legislators interested in the position announce and campaign among their
colleagues for the position. In Massachusetts, rank-and-file legislators
rubber-stamp the outgoing speaker's preference even as he goes out the
door.
At least this time a speaker is chosen, it's
hopefully not with the help of "the loyal opposition," House
Republicans. As the Boston Globe reported on Sunday ["DiMasi said to secure speakership:
Reaches deal with rival on tenure length"]:
In 1996, Finneran quietly cobbled together a coalition of Democrats with the Republican leadership, a move that stunned the Democratic leadership, which had lined up behind then majority leader Richard Voke. Finneran's lightning-quick power grab created deep divisions that still run through the Democratic caucus.
Lawmakers said yesterday Governor Mitt Romney, who has fielded a slate of GOP legislative candidates and is using the Democratic leadership as a foil, has asked the Republican leadership to remain clear of making any deals with the Democrats.
If Republican members of the House follow the
governor's request, at least in the days ahead they can at last say,
"Don't blame me, I'm a Republican. I didn't vote for him."
Nonetheless, don't expect to see much if anything
change in the House under a Speaker DiMasi -- Finneran's Favorite. If
anyone knows what the House is getting when it anoints Finneran's
right-hand man it's Tom Finneran; and nobody worked closer or carried
more of Finneran's water than Sal DiMasi.
The only hope for any change is to replace many of
Finneran sycophants with fresh and able reformers. Without that
happening, Finneran's reign will continue even in his absence, through
the man to whom he passed his scepter, his protegé. Never will
there be a better opportunity for us citizens than on November 2.
Barbara was interviewed about Finneran's departure on
WRKO's Blute & Scotto Show this morning at 6:00 am, by Tony Gill on
Pioneer Valley's WAIC talk radio program, by WHDH TV-7 for its evening news and
was a guest on David Brudnoy's program on WBZ Radio this evening. She
will be a guest on NewsNight on New England Cable News tomorrow (Tuesday) at 8:00 pm.
There goes the incessant Boston Globe with yet
another reason to deny taxpayers their long-overdue tax rollback -- more
"unmet needs" of course, that grow faster even as more money
is thrown at them. There will never be an end to "unmet needs"
so long as our surplus money remains on Beacon Hill.
What's "ignorant" is not the governor's
reason for vetoing a retroactive (to 2001) pay hike for state higher
education workers, but the Globe's unrelenting demand for trampling
democracy into the mud by denying the electorates' 59 percent mandate --
no matter how many lame excuses the editorial socialists there must
concoct day after day. It's not only "ignorant," it's
contemptible.
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Chip
Ford |
The Boston Globe
Sunday, September 26, 2004
DiMasi said to secure speakership
Reaches deal with rival on tenure length
By Frank Phillips and Jenna Russell, Globe Staff
Veteran state Representative Salvatore F. DiMasi yesterday consolidated his hold on the speakership of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, moving quickly to fill the vacancy expected by the sudden departure of Thomas M. Finneran from the leadership of the 160-member chamber, lawmakers said.
DiMasi, a Boston Democrat and the House majority leader, struck a deal with his major rival, Ways and Means chairman John H. Rogers, late Friday night, heading off what could have been a divisive showdown to succeed Finneran.
A senior House leadership source said Finneran helped arrange a meeting Friday night between
DiMasi, 59, and Rogers, 39, at the majority leader's North End home. Knowledgeable lawmakers said yesterday that DiMasi held the upper hand because he had close to a majority, if not more, of Democrats in the House.
Finneran, the most controversial Beacon Hill figure in years, is expected to leave the Legislature this week to become president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council on Oct. 4, lawmakers said yesterday. The speaker has avoided the media for the last several days, but he was said by confidants to be wrapping up negotiations with the industry group, with a formal announcement expected as soon as tomorrow.
His resignation this week, barring a breakdown in the negotiations, would clear the way for the House members to return to Beacon Hill this week and elect a new speaker.
DiMasi, Finneran's second-in-command for the past two years, told colleagues yesterday that he hoped to complete the process by midweek. His succession to the post will be a major change for the House, which has been dominated by Finneran's strong hand and his socially and fiscally conservative views. DiMasi is far more liberal than the speaker, particularly in his support for same-sex marriage, abortion rights, and other social issues.
He said that he wanted to move quickly to avoid a distracting internal fight in the middle of election season, and to grab the reins of the House before a rival could muster sufficient votes. His move to consolidate power seemed to be successful. By yesterday, other potential rivals, including representatives Daniel Bosley of North Adams, Eugene O'Flaherty of Chelsea, and William Straus of Mattapoisett, were lining up behind
DiMasi.
Both DiMasi and Rogers had been quietly campaigning for the speakership this summer, as it became increasingly clear that Finneran was looking for a job in the private sector or in Washington if fellow Democrat John F. Kerry were elected president.
As news of Finneran's plans to vacate the office broke late last week, Rogers, a close Finneran ally, had tried to bargain a deal with
DiMasi, saying he would take the majority leader's position in return for a commitment from him for a time-certain on the length of DiMasi's tenure. He also wanted a say in the appointment of a new Ways and Means chairman.
One senior legislative source said DiMasi did not agree specifically to any of Rogers' suggestions, but he has agreed to reinstate the House rule limiting a speaker's term to eight years. Finneran, who became speaker in April 1996, persuaded colleagues to eliminate the rule in order to continue serving.
To convene the House, which ended its formal session in late July, 55 lawmakers must sign a petition. After the House formally gathers, the two parties meet in separate caucuses in which they nominate a candidate for speaker. Republicans have only 22 members in the 160-member House, so the Democrats' choice will prevail.
In 1996, Finneran quietly cobbled together a coalition of Democrats with the Republican leadership, a move that stunned the Democratic leadership, which had lined up behind then majority leader Richard
Voke. Finneran's lightning-quick power grab created deep divisions that still run through the Democratic caucus.
Lawmakers said yesterday Governor Mitt Romney, who has fielded a slate of GOP legislative candidates and is using the Democratic leadership as a foil, has asked the Republican leadership to remain clear of making any deals with the Democrats.
If DiMasi grabs the speakership, he would join Senate President Robert E. Travaglini of East Boston at the top of the Legislative leadership as the two most vocal counterweights to Romney. It would also mark the first time that two Italian-Americans led the Legislature; they are joined on the local political scene by Mayor Thomas M. Menino, first Italian-American mayor of Boston.
DiMasi is expected to bring a sharply different leadership style to the House. He pledged to colleagues yesterday that he would run a more open House than Finneran, who was considered an autocrat who tolerated little opposition from colleagues. DiMasi said he hoped to diversify the leadership of the House, adding more women and people of color to top House posts next year.
O'Flaherty said DiMasi will bring a different managerial style and political philosophy to the House leadership, resulting in a more open process. "Some people will perceive a more open House as a positive thing, and others may see it causing some problems with reaching consensus on important issues," he said.
When the state needed to raise taxes to respond to a fiscal crisis, the decision was "politically unpalatable," he said, because of pressure from Romney, but Finneran was able to "marshal the forces" and get the increase passed. "His management style was able to deal almost instantaneously with the crisis, without getting into too many meddlesome details," O'Flaherty said.
DiMasi, a lawyer, has a generally liberal voting record, getting high ratings from the Massachusetts Audubon Society and the National Organization for Women, and relatively low ratings from
Citizens for Limited Taxation, according to the Massachusetts Political Almanac. He has voted against adding slot machines at the state's four racetracks.
In this year's battle over same-sex marriage, DiMasi voted against Finneran's proposed constitutional amendment that would have defined marriage as solely the union of a man and a woman, and that stated the Legislature "may enact" civil unions for gay couples. The Finneran amendment, seen as weak endorsement of civil unions for gays, failed 100-98 in a Constitutional Convention earlier this year.
Lawmakers later advanced a proposed amendment that would ban same-sex marriage and establish civil unions. It must clear the Legislature one more time in order to get on the November 2006 ballot, putting DiMasi in the position of influencing the outcome of that divisive debate.
Jennifer Levi, senior staff attorney for Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, said last night DiMasi was a friend to their cause while Finneran failed to support them.
"Finneran has been no friend to the gay community, and a change of leadership will be helpful," she said. "There's a lot that can happen between now and the next vote, but I would hope that this would be something positive for gay and lesbian families throughout the Commonwealth."
Finneran's quick departure will leave Romney without a foil in the unfolding campaign for Legislative seats this fall. Romney has labeled Finneran as a major hurdle to the GOP governor's effort to overhaul state government, as he tries to seat more Republicans in the Democrat-dominated Legislature.
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The Boston Herald
Saturday, September 25, 2004
In or out, fallout will be huge on Beacon Hill
By David R. Guarino/ Analysis
All around Tommy Finneran, it seems, the whispers have grown - maybe now, they say, it's time for the powerful House speaker to go.
The lawmakers in his own party running for re-election against Republicans using Finneran as a divisive campaign issue could use the help.
Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, meanwhile, wants to add a reformer's notch by eliminating another of the "Gang of Three" State House power brokers - a group that includes Finneran, former treasurer Shannon P. O'Brien and Senate President Robert E. Travaglini (D-East Boston).
And certainly the Democrats busily trying to replace Finneran say there's no time like the present for their ascension to power.
"It would be a dream for so many people if he just took off," a ranking Democrat said yesterday.
A big factor in pushing Finneran toward leaving, insiders say, is the battle for succession. Finneran wants longtime friend Rep. Sal DiMasi (D-North End) to follow him - and Finneran knows DiMasi might not survive a long fight.
But adding to the pressure is Democrats on the hustings getting pummeled by Romney clones because they are tied to Finneran.
On the Cape, state Rep. Matthew Patrick is facing a hard fight because Finneran helped him secure his seat. In
MetroWest, ties to Finneran are tarring even Democrat Angus McQuilken, though Finneran probably couldn't pick the former state Senate aide out of a lineup. Even the GOP admits they'd be at a loss if their target of scorn were gone before Election Day.
"It would certainly take away a strong argument for change for many Republican legislative candidates," one Republican strategist said.
But even as allies and opponents speculated about Finneran's next job, a special election and his successor, they acknowledged he could just as easily try to retain his "speaker for life" title.
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The Boston Globe
Monday, September 27, 2004
Whirlwind for DiMasi
Takes final steps toward speakership
By Michael Levenson, Globe Correspondent
The deal making had all but died down, but Salvatore F. DiMasi was in his State House office yesterday, spending a sunny Sunday talking to colleagues and arranging for the final steps in his stunning capture of the speakership of the House of Representatives.
It was the third day of a whirlwind of phone calling and ego-stroking that tapped all the tools that DiMasi has honed in 26 years on Beacon Hill. An inside player who knows the levers of power, he struck with amazing speed when it became clear Friday that House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran would leave office.
DiMasi was awake past midnight Friday, calling a Jewish colleague on Yom Kippur by accident, before returning to his office Saturday and Sunday to talk with colleagues. In a late-night meeting at his North End home Friday, DiMasi had persuaded his chief rival, John H. Rogers, to become the majority leader.
It may have been the best behind-the-scenes performance yet for a man who has built a career-closing deals in the back rooms of the State House.
For the last three years, DiMasi has been the House majority leader, acting as Finneran's second in command and a vote counter when the Democrats needed to ensure a victory on the House floor. Now he will be thrust into higher-profile role, as the public face of the 160-member House and a leading negotiator with Senate President Robert E. Travaglini and Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican.
He was laying plans yesterday to gather his House colleagues as early as tomorrow, with Democrats expected to elect him the next speaker if Finneran completes negotiations for a job as president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council. It would be the first time since 1970 that both the speaker and the Senate president represented the same district -- DiMasi and Travaglini have overlapping districts.
DiMasi, a Democrat from Boston's North End, is a social liberal who supports abortion rights, gay marriage, and social services. He rarely gives speeches on the floor or calls news conferences, often choosing to hover at the side of the House chamber, where he can cajole lawmakers into reaching agreement on tax bills, health care, and other business of the day.
Years ago, when antitax activist Barbara Anderson sat down to categorize lawmakers into fiscal liberals and conservatives, she fit DiMasi into a third category, "pols."
"I see him as a pol, the poster child for the pols, and I don't think he'd consider that as an insult, either," Anderson said. "He thinks in terms of the leadership and power."
Representative Robert A. DeLeo sketched a similar profile: "Sal is sort of hard to pinpoint ideologically and philosophically -- not that he doesn't take positions, but he's not hard and fast."
Representative Lida Harkins, a Needham Democrat, said DiMasi's skill at calling lawmakers and forcing them to an agreement can cut both ways: Those left out of a deal feel they have been strong-armed; those included feel an accord has been reached.
"He can be tough. I've seen him. When he knows something is the right thing to do or the right way to do it, he doesn't waver, and he doesn't hesitate. He stands firm," Harkins said. "The thing that I really like about Sal is he can roll with the punches really well.
"And he gets along great with people of different political agendas, and he does it with a really self-effacing manner."
In the late 1980s, when DiMasi was at his North End home recuperating from a mild heart attack, he shooed away colleagues who asked whether he was going to show up for a vote on a tax increase. "I'm recovering from a heart attack, not a lobotomy," he said.
In other words, Harkins said, DiMasi knew when to avoid a sticky situation, with a good medical excuse and a dose of humor.
DiMasi, 59, married in August 2001, in a ceremony well attended by friends from the North End and the State House. His wife, Debbie, manages her father's liquor store, Harkins said. He frequently attends the soccer games of their two children.
He enjoys golf and leading lawmakers on tours of the North End's cafs and restaurants. Tall and easygoing, DiMasi rarely gets far without someone stopping him on the narrow streets with a "Hey Sal!," Harkins said.
In the House, he is known as an enforcer for Finneran and the man liberals go to if they can't get their way with the conservative speaker.
Deborah Blumer, a Framingham Democrat, recalled marching to DiMasi's office several years ago after she learned that health care coverage for about 55,000 poor people was threatened in a proposed House budget.
DiMasi intervened and helped set up a meeting that evening with Representative John H. Rogers, the top budget writer for the House, who unexpectedly seemed willing to compromise, Blumer recalled. "He was open to discussion and wasn't just restating his decisions," she said.
Yet, over the weekend, he held fast against demands by Rogers, the 39-year-old Norwood lawmaker who was close to Finneran personally and ideologically. Rogers, according to lawmakers, wanted DiMasi to limit his term as speaker, but DiMasi was confident enough that he had Democrats' support that he simply said no. Rogers will become majority leader; DiMasi has yet to name a new chairman of the Ways and Means Committee to replace Rogers.
By yesterday, DiMasi was focusing on unifying the Democratic Party before the November elections and Romney's well-financed effort to elect Republicans. DiMasi issued a statement saying he had been "humbled by my colleagues expressions of confidence in my judgment, leadership skills, and experience."
"I want to thank my colleague, Representative John Rogers, for recognizing that a leadership fight would have been counterproductive for House members and for the state as a whole," DiMasi said. "He deserves credit for helping to unify the House during this critical time. I look forward to working with him and all of the members as we move forward."
Globe Staff Writer Frank Phillips contributed to this report.
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The Boston Globe
Monday, September 27, 2004
Speaker not just words
By Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist
If this week will indeed mark the end of Thomas M. Finneran's reign on Beacon Hill, as seems likely, it will go down as one of the great lessons on the transience of power in state political history.
It seems startling, the idea of Finneran at the helm of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, but his exit has been coming for a while now, as his hold on the Legislature began gradually but inexorably slipping away.
Finneran's strengths and weaknesses have always been of a piece, the iron will and signature intransigence, the voracious curiosity and equally restless appetite for the next big battle. Finneran came into the speaker's office by brokering an almost unprecedented deal with House Republicans. It would be that same taste for risk-taking and unorthodox thinking that made him such a maddening foe for so many.
The conventional wisdom about Finneran has never begun to capture the man. He is far more thoughtful, interesting, and gracious than his media caricature. He is supposedly a conservative, and on some issues he is, but he was also the architect of the biggest tax hike in Massachusetts history, one that prevented social services from being decimated. He isn't easily reduced to shorthand or sound bites, and has paid for that complexity in public scorn. He has also invited that scorn; in fact, he has relished it.
Early in his tenure, Finneran was often compared to John Thompson, "the Iron Duke," who ruled the House with an iron fist in the 1960s. But former Senate president Kevin Harrington offered a more apt comparison. In his ability to unify an often-fractured body through sheer force of will, Finneran, he said, reminded him not of Thompson, but of Thomas P. O'Neill Jr., who ran the Massachusetts House before moving on to bigger things.
The redistricting case earlier this year was not Finneran's downfall, but it accelerated his unraveling. He treated a panel of federal judges with contempt, and was paid back with a federal investigation. It seems obvious that the probe forced him to begin thinking more seriously about an exit strategy, about how to leave on his own terms. Finneran served under George Keverian and Charles Flaherty -- he knows it tends not to end well for House speakers.
Finneran's legacy? First, he resurrected the House as an equal and often senior partner to the Senate. He himself has always asked to be judged by his contribution to the state's fiscal health, and indeed that record will bear scrutiny. Dating back to his days as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee during the fiscal crisis of the early 1990s, he never flinched from tough, unpopular decisions. If the measure of a leader is the ability to forge an agenda and bring it to fruition, then Finneran was a great speaker -- for a while.
There is, of course, another side. Finneran's management style also contributed heavily to public cynicism of government, with terrible consequences. He gutted election reform. He destroyed the committee system. He squelched public debate of public business. He punished foes relentlessly.
He has always understood that there was a price to be paid for his rigidity. In an interview in 1997 about how his personal beliefs informed his politics, we talked about the hostility in his party toward his position against abortion rights. "They think I'm retrograde," he said. "And I think they're wrong." He's never kidded himself about where he stands with the Democratic establishment. He wasn't going to be assistant secretary of anything in a Kerry administration, and I find it hard to believe that he ever seriously thought otherwise.
Tom Finneran is a man who knows his mind, and he never cared who disagreed with him. That was his armor, and then it became his Achilles' heel. Political mortality usually strikes suddenly, and his is no exception. Of all life's blessings, power is perhaps the most ephemeral.
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The Boston Globe
Saturday, September 25, 2005
A Boston Globe editorial
Romney's ignorant veto
Governor Romney says he vetoed $32 million in retroactive pay raises for 13,000 of the state's workers in higher education because taxpayers "who have been denied the tax cut they voted for in 2000 should not be asked to pay for retroactive salary increases for state employees." But the math doesn't make sense. If the state *were* to cut taxes, it would have even less money to give these workers the raises they won in previous contract negotiations.
Four things are wrong with Romney's veto. First, reneging on the contract jeopardizes the state's credibility, especially now, when a budget surplus makes it financially possible to disburse the retroactive pay.
Second, the veto is a blow to working people. Most of those waiting for these raises work in clerical jobs. They need the money to pay for normal increases in the cost of living.
Third, the veto adds to the hail storm of budget cuts that has plagued public colleges in Massachusetts, affecting everything from building maintenance to library acquisitions. Fourth, Romney is using the veto to amplify his view that taxes are evil. Obviously, few people enjoy paying taxes. But tax dollars are at the root of great public projects. One prominent example is public higher education.
Public colleges offer students a dynamic education. The University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester provides fertile ground for educating doctors and conducting research such as clinical trials of a new HIV vaccine. The state's colleges are making sure that the marriage of technology and education is successful. And the community colleges proudly contradict F. Scott Fitzgerald's contention that "there are no second acts in American lives" by giving adults of various ages a chance to build basic skills and achieve seemingly unreachable education and career goals.
Tax dollars make these and other public education accomplishments possible.
The Legislature should return and override this veto rather than waiting for the next legislative session in January. The workers have waited long enough.
But it's voters who have to hold elected officials accountable. Romney is working hard to get more Republicans elected to the state Legislature running on a common tax cut platform.
In 2000, voters were told that the proposed tax cut would not necessitate program cuts, but program cuts have been deep across the board. And nowhere have the cuts been deeper than in public colleges and universities, which can provide the solid, affordable education that is crucial to Massachusetts's high-skill job market.
Romney's higher education veto is a mistake that diminishes the state.
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