CLT UPDATE
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
HRM's "New Versailles" already crumbling
Patrick's request to his Cabinet secretaries was publicized
in a Jan. 18 news release issued by his office. In that release, the governor
said he instructed his Cabinet to propose cuts from 5 percent to 10 percent "to
prepare to meet the challenges the state faces in (fiscal) 2008." The
recommendations were due Jan. 26.
Citizens for Limited Taxation and several news outlets, including The
Eagle-Tribune, have since fought for access to those budget documents, but those
requests were denied.
Patrick, speaking Friday at a Statehouse press conference, said his Cabinet's
proposals would be apparent in the fiscal 2008 budget, which he's required to
file by Feb. 28. But the behind-the-scenes work in developing the proposals for
cutting state spending would not be released to the public. Only the final
product will be.
"My budget is what matters, and that will be public shortly," Patrick said....
Soon after Cabinet officials filed their budget-cut suggestions, several media
outlets, including The Eagle-Tribune and State House News Service, separately
filed public-record requests with the governor's office and Cabinet secretaries
to pry the information loose. Citizens for Limited Taxation also asked for the
documents.
Barbara Anderson, the tax watchdog group's founder, said she jumped in
only because Patrick publicized his request in a press release.
But Anderson said she kept on the case, appealing the governor's office's
rejection, because she believes Patrick is backtracking on his campaign pledge
to have a transparent government and increased citizen participation in civic
affairs.
"He invited us in and then he's weaseling out of it," Anderson said....
Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said
Patrick should be allowed to keep budget deliberations private. After all, he
may accept or reject any number of proposed cuts. But he agreed that Patrick's
action was inconsistent with his campaign promises.
"You raise a good point. Perhaps it was unnecessary for him to announce he was
asking his Cabinet secretaries to do this. I think as someone who campaigned on
transparency and open government, it puts him in an awkward position."
The Eagle-Tribune
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Patrick refuses to reveal documents
that led to formation of his budget
Soon after taking office, Gov. Deval Patrick did what
most smart managers would do, especially on discovering their operations
were looking at a $1 billion deficit: He asked his top people to
identify opportunities in their agencies to cut spending.
Their reports have now been turned in, and they should be interesting
reading for legislators and taxpayers. But Patrick, unfortunately,
doesn't want to share that information. He has denied a public records
request for the documents from Barbara Anderson, head of the
anti-tax Citizens for Limited Taxation.
A MetroWest Daily News editorial
Friday, February 16, 2007
Don't hide the savings
Legal watchdogs said state legislators who are also lawyers
did not break any professional conduct rules by not allowing an up-or-down vote
last month on a proposed state constitutional amendment about health care....
"A legislator's vote is a political act and, absent crime or fraud, the vote of
a legislator who happens to be a lawyer is not subject to the rules of
professional conduct," Bar Counsel Constance Vecchione wrote to anti-tax
advocate Barbara Anderson, who requested an investigation....
Anderson, executive director of
Citizens for Limited Taxation, said she
is frustrated the Board of Bar Overseers and Office of Bar Counsel --
independent bodies created by the Supreme Judicial Court -- did not act against
the 34 lawyer/lawmakers.
"It would have been a small thing for the court (via the Board of Bar Overseers
and Office of Bar Counsel) to do to back up the court's authority which I would
have thought the court would be happy to do," Anderson said.
Anderson said she wanted some kind of reprimand "that the Legislature wouldn't
like so that the next time an initiative petition comes before them they stop
and think and give it a vote."
The MetroWest Daily News
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Legal watchdogs say lawyer politicians
did nothing wrong
“For a whole lot of people, a whole lot about what it is
we’re trying to do doesn’t fit their image of what it is a governor ought to
look like, ought to be like here in Massachusetts.”
- Gov. Deval Patrick, responding to Herald stories on his use of state police
helicopters and purchase of a luxury Cadillac as his official car
What? When Patrick was simply saying that he needed the chopper to touch base
with far-flung areas of the state and required the high-powered Caddy for
security reasons, most folks were probably willing to play along. This quote
pushes the outside of the arrogance envelope. True, people here want their
governor to function as frugally as possible -- what’s wrong with that? But
“what it is a governor ought to look like” -- is he bringing race into the
equation here? Wow.
The Boston Herald
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Needle on spin
By Jon Keller/ Spin-O-Meter
Apparently, you can't be a man of the people in a Cadillac
DTS.
That's the only conclusion to be drawn from the public criticism Governor Deval
Patrick is taking for choosing a $46,000 car as his official vehicle. The
explanation that the State Police thought it was a good choice is doing little
to mollify the talk-radio public.
The governor is being denounced as a phony and unfavorably compared to that
great champion of mass transit, Michael S. Dukakis. It is seen as unbecoming at
a time when state departments are all being asked to submit cuts.
To all this I say: Lighten up....
Few would claim that it makes any real fiscal difference what the governor is
driven around in. In the context of a $25 billion budget, his lease is a minor
consideration....
As we wait for that, the time gets filled with tales of helicopter trips and, as
the Herald described it, his "tricked-out" Cadillac. That description was so
stereotypical it was comical: I wondered why they didn't just call it a
pimpmobile, so clear was the implication.
Patrick ran as a populist, so he can't complain about being judged as one. It is
worth remembering, though, that anyone can adopt the trappings of a man of the
people -- witness folksy Mitt Romney. Patrick's first important test is little
more than a week away, and when it comes, it won't matter what he's driving.
The Boston Globe
Monday, February 19, 2007
Critics, hit the brakes
By Adrian Walker
In leasing a Cadillac instead of a Chrysler as his official
car, Governor Deval Patrick got something else in the bargain: a fuel-injected
political symbol that flies in the face of his image as grass-roots populist....
"This is the imperial governorship," said Barbara Anderson, head of
Citizens for Limited Taxation, an antitax organization. "We were all
expecting another Dukakis, but you didn't have this level of phoniness from
Dukakis. He was riding the T. This is a whole new level of absurdity, even for
Massachusetts."
The Boston Globe
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Patrick's Cadillac raises some objections
Governor, come in, please. Loosen your ascot and stay a
while.
A quick question before we get started: Who are you getting your political
advice from these days, Leona Helmsley? ...
Pretty much everything you've been doing since the day you were elected, knock
it all off, every single bit. Knock off the self-celebrations at record-setting
expense. Knock off the fancy new Cadillac DTS that costs more a month than a
house. Knock off the $72,000 publicly funded appointments secretary for your
wife. And knock off that exasperated tone as if no one can possibly imagine how
tough it is to be you.
I don't know how else to put this, sir, but you're at risk of making a fool of
yourself -- and that's not even the worst part. No, the worst part is you're at
risk of making a fool of the people who elected you....
I know what you don't stand for, and that's pretty much all of the proposals
that you made during your campaign -- property tax reductions, 1,000 new cops, a
new way of doing business on Beacon Hill. Though think of the bright side: If
you can break all these promises, you certainly shouldn't have any trouble
breaking a lease.
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
False start for Deval
By Brian McGrory
The Municipal Partnership Act filed by the Patrick
administration last week includes welcome provisions enabling
communities to reduce health-insurance costs and ensuring competent
management of the more than 100 independent public pension funds across
the state. However, provisions allowing communities to piggyback local
taxes on existing state taxes demand close scrutiny.
At first blush the provision billed as “Property Tax Relief and
Stabilization” seems to fulfill Gov. Deval L. Patrick’s campaign pledge
of property tax relief. Instead of the targeted boost in local aid
sometimes mentioned during the campaign, however, it would allow
communities to levy local meals and lodging taxes on top of existing
state taxes....
Indeed, at a time when residents are being priced out of Massachusetts
by the high cost of living — eroding the work force needed for healthy
economic growth — the immediate influx of revenue from new taxes are apt
to become a net loss in the long run.
A Telegram & Gazette editorial
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Tax conundrum
Local option proposals need close scrutiny
It has become clear that the main reason for keeping public
employee contract negotiations behind closed doors is because it protects unions
from scrutiny of their demands, and it protects elected officials from being
held accountable for caving to unaffordable demands.
And it is those unaffordable agreements that lead us every year to the season of
"fixed costs."
You've been hearing those little buzzwords, and you're going to be hearing them
a lot more as political leaders in community after community start building a
case for property tax overrides to fund budget increases of two or three times
the rate of inflation.
It's all just to maintain services, they will say. And the cost of keeping
things the same keeps going up because of those fixed costs....
There is nothing they can do about it, they all say. Your taxes have to go up,
or we have to cut services, because of fixed costs. Really? Who fixed them? ...
But the rest of them are fixed by the ones who are complaining about them, who
sign unaffordable contracts because they are afraid of the unions' political
power. In short, it is the negotiations of past years that are today's fixed
costs.
The Eagle-Tribune
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Let's see how 'fixed costs' get fixed
By Taylor Armerding
- BREAKING NEWS -
Gov. Deval Patrick said Tuesday he will reimburse the state
for the cost of upgrading his official car to a Cadillac DeVille, after being
criticized for extravagant spending in the face of a potential $1 billion budget
deficit....
Patrick, who also raised eyebrows for his use of a State Police helicopter and
for hiring a $72,000-per year staff member to handle scheduling and interview
requests for his wife, said he'll personally reimburse the state for the
difference between the Crown Victoria and the Cadillac -- $543 per month.
In the same written statement, Patrick said will also personally reimburse the
state $27,387 for the cost of new furnishings in his office.
Associated Press
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Gov. Patrick to reimburse state for Cadillac
Chip Ford's CLT Commentary
$27,387 for new office furnishings for our new royal
governor, we just learned. In Friday's CLT Update
Commentary I wrote: "Don't be surprised if the Bay State Sun
King decrees the royal family's '24-room, 10,000-square foot mansion on
77 acres in Richmond' in the Berkshires 'The New Versailles' and burdens
taxpayers with its whopping mortgage." This is sounding even less
absurd.
But His Royal Excellency, Potentate of the People's
Republic of Taxachusetts, apparently has finally recognized there is a
limit to the patience of his perceived kingdom's serfs and scribes.
Very late today His Majesty decreed that he will assume some of his
extraordinary burden on taxpayers. Obviously, the Bay State Sun
King saw tomorrow's headlines coming: "Gov squanders $27K on regal
office furnishings!" He scrambled out ahead of the next exposé waving a
white flag announcement before peasants with torches and pitchforks
stormed Beacon Hill.
Since the weekend we've read dueling columns from
Boston Globe columnists Adrian Walker and Brian McGrory. Walker
can usually be depended upon to find a race factor in any situation;
McGrory is generally center-to-left pro-establishment. I think
McGrory won today, recognizing the impact of the Bay State Sun King's
hubris.
What we've yet to read is anything from the
ivory tower editorial elites at the Boston Globe. Not a word, not
a sound. That silence is uniquely deafening, a first. How
bad this abuse of power must be when even the Morrissey Boulevard
elitist apologists can't find a word of defense. When's the last
time the Boston Globe's editorial page didn't race to the rescue of any
liberal cause or anointed celebrity, regardless of the embarrassing
contortions required of it?
CLT was notified at the end of last week that its
appeal to the Board of Bar Overseers was, again,
denied. We ran the gauntlet and came up empty, not that it was
a surprise. It had to be done, carried through -- but though we
thought we had good grounds for at least a violation-of-oath reprimand
for lawyer/legislators, this is after all Massachusetts and everybody in
power is connected. We didn't honestly expect a different result
in the end.
Today we received a
response from the Supervisor of Public Records (Office of the
Secretary of State) to our appeal of His Royal Majesty's refusal to
release documents, based on his interpretation of divine rights I
suppose, of where his department heads found their alleged 5-10 percent
cuts he'd demanded of them. Our appeal is open and ongoing; I'll
keep you apprised here as it evolves.
As we know, His Royal Majesty's plan for "tax
freedom" -- granting municipalities under his hand the power to create
new taxes -- won't provide honest property tax relief, which Candidate
Patrick pledged to do. It will certainly provide more money for
public employee unions to demand, for town officials to squander on
"fixed costs."
Eagle-Tribune editorial page editor and columnist
Taylor Armerding has captured the situation as well as I've ever seen.
This column of his is a keeper, to pull out and circulate at your next
town meeting when yet another override is on the agenda.
 |
|
Chip Ford |
The Eagle-Tribune
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Patrick refuses to reveal documents
that led to formation of his budget
By Edward Mason, Staff writer
As he faced a possible $1.3 billion deficit, Gov. Deval Patrick last
month asked his Cabinet to recommend ways to trim the budget. Now he has
refused to release memos detailing what his top aides told him.
Patrick's request to his Cabinet secretaries was publicized in a Jan. 18
news release issued by his office. In that release, the governor said he
instructed his Cabinet to propose cuts from 5 percent to 10 percent "to
prepare to meet the challenges the state faces in (fiscal) 2008." The
recommendations were due Jan. 26.
Citizens for Limited Taxation and several news outlets, including
The Eagle-Tribune, have since fought for access to those budget
documents, but those requests were denied.
Patrick, speaking Friday at a Statehouse press conference, said his
Cabinet's proposals would be apparent in the fiscal 2008 budget, which
he's required to file by Feb. 28. But the behind-the-scenes work in
developing the proposals for cutting state spending would not be
released to the public. Only the final product will be.
"My budget is what matters, and that will be public shortly," Patrick
said.
Soon after Cabinet officials filed their budget-cut suggestions, several
media outlets, including The Eagle-Tribune and State House News Service,
separately filed public-record requests with the governor's office and
Cabinet secretaries to pry the information loose. Citizens for Limited
Taxation also asked for the documents.
Barbara Anderson, the tax watchdog group's founder, said she
jumped in only because Patrick publicized his request in a press
release.
But Anderson said she kept on the case, appealing the governor's
office's rejection, because she believes Patrick is backtracking on his
campaign pledge to have a transparent government and increased citizen
participation in civic affairs.
"He invited us in and then he's weaseling out of it," Anderson said.
Indeed, Anderson thought Patrick was trying to have it both ways: He'd
get credit in media reports for calling for spending cuts when faced
with a fiscal crisis, but then not take a public beating for what his
Cabinet secretaries did or didn't recommend.
Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation,
said Patrick should be allowed to keep budget deliberations private.
After all, he may accept or reject any number of proposed cuts. But he
agreed that Patrick's action was inconsistent with his campaign
promises.
"You raise a good point. Perhaps it was unnecessary for him to announce
he was asking his Cabinet secretaries to do this. I think as someone who
campaigned on transparency and open government, it puts him in an
awkward position."
Patrick's claim that the budget documents are private isn't unusual.
Patrick's lawyers asserted a familiar privilege - that documents used in
developing a policy do not need to be made public.
There is a common-sense reason for withholding such documents, said
Jonathan Albano, a media attorney with Bingham McCutchen LLP.
"The rationale is to let people freely deliberate and consider options,"
Albano said. "They can think in private."
But there is a limit on how long the governor and Cabinet's thoughts can
remain private.
"While they're still working on (the policy), they can keep their
deliberations from the public," Albano said. "Once it's developed or
reasonably complete or there's a factual study ready, they become
public."
Asked if he would release those documents to the public after the budget
is public, Patrick said, 'No." The only glimpse into the
administration's thinking will come in the final budget, he said.
"What will be made public are the judgments, and they will be reflected
in the budget and they will be out in a couple of weeks," Patrick said.
Patrick could have released the documents, Albano said.
"If he wanted to release it he could," Albano said. "It's not a
prohibition. He is saying, 'I don't have to so I'm not going to.'"
Pam Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause, said she is not
surprised Patrick's campaign rhetoric has not transferred to the Corner
Office.
"Transparency is well and good when talking about somebody else, and
much more difficult when running things yourself," Wilmot said. "It's in
the nature of power to want to control."
That doesn't make Patrick unusual, Wilmot said.
"We have a lot of other political leaders who are generally good
government in orientation but have difficulty in this aspect," Wilmot
said.
The MetroWest Daily News
Friday, February 16, 2007
A MetroWest Daily News editorial
Don't hide the savings
Soon after taking office, Gov. Deval Patrick did what most smart
managers would do, especially on discovering their operations were
looking at a $1 billion deficit: He asked his top people to identify
opportunities in their agencies to cut spending.
Their reports have now been turned in, and they should be interesting
reading for legislators and taxpayers. But Patrick, unfortunately,
doesn't want to share that information. He has denied a public records
request for the documents from Barbara Anderson, head of the
anti-tax Citizens for Limited Taxation.
Patrick's counsel argues that a 1997 Supreme Judicial Court opinion
exempts the governor's office from the requirements of the state Public
Records Law. The state supervisor of public records disagrees, as does
Anderson, who plans to appeal. We wish her success.
Patrick campaigned as a champion of transparency in government, but his
administration so far has been fairly opaque. His office recently denied
a request from the Daily News for his complete January schedule.
Anderson has picked a good test case. Releasing a list of options for
reducing government waste doesn't jeopardize national security or
violate anyone's personal privacy. Nothing is more clearly the public's
business than how their money is being spent.
Making those lists public wouldn't foreclose any of Patrick's options,
but it would illuminate the choices he faces. It is a way of inviting
greater citizen engagement in their government, and isn't that what
Patrick promised to do?
The MetroWest Daily News
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Legal watchdogs say lawyer politicians
did nothing wrong
By Emelie Rutherford
Legal watchdogs said state legislators who are also lawyers did not
break any professional conduct rules by not allowing an up-or-down vote
last month on a proposed state constitutional amendment about health
care.
Advocates charged 34 lawmakers violated their oath as lawyers to uphold
the constitution by, along with the majority of the Legislature, not
allowing a vote on a proposed constitutional amendment Jan. 2. The 34
lawyer/lawmakers include state Sens. Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, and Scott
Brown, R-Wrentham, and state Reps. Peter Koutoujian, D-Waltham, and John
Rogers, D-Norwood.
The now-dead proposal called for writing a guarantee for affordable and
comprehensive health care for Massachusetts residents into the
constitution.
Yet the Board of Bar Overseers agreed last week with a finding by the
Office of the Bar Counsel last month that the 34 lawyer/lawmakers did
not violate their duties as members of the Massachusetts bar.
"A legislator's vote is a political act and, absent crime or fraud, the
vote of a legislator who happens to be a lawyer is not subject to the
rules of professional conduct," Bar Counsel Constance Vecchione wrote to
anti-tax advocate Barbara Anderson, who requested an
investigation.
Brown said he was not worried his vote last month to block a vote on the
proposal did not jibe with his obligations as a lawyer.
"I didn't even think about my role as a lawyer," Brown said. "The reason
I voted against that is we just passed a multibillion-dollar health care
bill that we still hadn't implemented. It was, I thought, careless to do
something unless we completed what we had initially started. ... To
think that we're not working to get people insured I think is not
correct."
The health care reform law approved last year requires residents have
health insurance and employers offer coverage.
Two of the main lawmakers who worked on the health care law -- state
Sen. Richard Moore, D-Uxbridge, and state Rep. Patricia Walrath, D-Stow
-- opposed the proposed amendment, fearing it would interfere with work
to put in place the complex new law.
If the proposed constitutional amendment was approved Jan. 2 it would
have been sent to the ballot.
Anderson, executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation,
said she is frustrated the Board of Bar Overseers and Office of Bar
Counsel -- independent bodies created by the Supreme Judicial Court --
did not act against the 34 lawyer/lawmakers.
"It would have been a small thing for the court (via the Board of Bar
Overseers and Office of Bar Counsel) to do to back up the court's
authority which I would have thought the court would be happy to do,"
Anderson said.
Anderson said she wanted some kind of reprimand "that the Legislature
wouldn't like so that the next time an initiative petition comes before
them they stop and think and give it a vote."
The Health Care for Massachusetts Campaign, which pushed for the
proposed amendment, filed a lawsuit in the SJC last year seeking to have
the measure put directly on the ballot.
The Boston Globe
Monday, February 19, 2007
Critics, hit the brakes
By Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist
Apparently, you can't be a man of the people in a Cadillac DTS.
That's the only conclusion to be drawn from the public criticism
Governor Deval Patrick is taking for choosing a $46,000 car as his
official vehicle. The explanation that the State Police thought it was a
good choice is doing little to mollify the talk-radio public.
The governor is being denounced as a phony and unfavorably compared to
that great champion of mass transit, Michael S. Dukakis. It is seen as
unbecoming at a time when state departments are all being asked to
submit cuts.
To all this I say: Lighten up.
Of course, he's not the first public servant to be spanked for his
transportation choices. Former acting governor Jane Swift's helicopter
rides were the turning point of her short-lived administration. Mayor
Thomas M. Menino got heat when he traded in his Crown Victoria for an
Eddie Bauer-model Ford Expedition, though people eventually got over it.
Patrick's car woes were just the highlight of a week defined by his
vehicles. Earlier, he was criticized for using a State Police helicopter
to travel to two public events, never mind that both were clearly
official business. The Cadillac story proved so juicy that the
helicopter rides were instantly superseded.
Few would claim that it makes any real fiscal difference what the
governor is driven around in. In the context of a $25 billion budget,
his lease is a minor consideration.
Instead, his critics argue that it is a symbolic issue. He is,
supposedly, failing to set the example of fiscal rectitude that he is
demanding from others.
Patrick's first mistake may have been musing publicly about using a
hybrid for his official car. He rejected that idea -- big surprise --
and said the State Police preferred that he acquire something with a bit
more "giddyup."
He didn't sound as if they had to spend a lot of time persuading him
that more giddyup is good.
Patrick, who reportedly reacted angrily to being grilled about the
helicopter trips, took the Cadillac flare-up more lightly, even inviting
a reporter along for a ride.
He also defended himself by saying that he has been too busy with
affairs of state to give any thought to what he would be driving. He
just happened to end up with the nicest car on the list.
Maybe he should have just skipped all the diplomacy and told the truth.
Maybe he should have just stood up and said, "I like nice cars, and I
don't see why being a liberal means I have to ride around in a Prius."
Maybe he should have said, "What's the point of being governor if you
can't stretch out?"
The car dust-up comes as Patrick is attracting grumbling, six weeks into
his term, that things aren't moving fast enough. This is both premature
and predictable.
Anyone who has ever spent any time near a new administration knows that
the action really starts when the first budget is submitted, which in
his case is scheduled for Feb. 28. That is where all the talk has to be
put into concrete, believable terms. That's when we find out whether the
promised 1,000 new officers on the street will really be 250, at most.
That's when we'll know which battles the new governor is prepared to
fight and which campaign promises have been shuttled off to the back
burner. That's Opening Day.
As we wait for that, the time gets filled with tales of helicopter trips
and, as the Herald described it, his "tricked-out" Cadillac. That
description was so stereotypical it was comical: I wondered why they
didn't just call it a pimpmobile, so clear was the implication.
Patrick ran as a populist, so he can't complain about being judged as
one. It is worth remembering, though, that anyone can adopt the
trappings of a man of the people -- witness folksy Mitt Romney.
Patrick's first important test is little more than a week away, and when
it comes, it won't matter what he's driving.
The Boston Globe
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Patrick's Cadillac raises some objections
By Michael Levenson
In leasing a Cadillac instead of a Chrysler as his official car,
Governor Deval Patrick got something else in the bargain: a
fuel-injected political symbol that flies in the face of his image as
grass-roots populist.
Like US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi traveling in an Air Force C-32, and
Acting Governor Jane Swift riding in a State Police helicopter, Patrick
accepted a trapping of political office that seemed logical to him but
lavish to others, especially now that he wants to close a $1 billion
budget gap.
While some have dismissed the furor over the Cadillac as trivial, it was
notable for a politician who has shown sensitivity to the way even the
smallest accoutrement of public office can speak to the voters. After
taking office with a pledge to open government to the people, Patrick
removed the red velvet rope that had separated the governor's suite from
the people at the State House, and opened to the public an elevator
previously reserved for Governor Mitt Romney.
On a grander scale, he moved his inaugural from the opulent chambers of
the Massachusetts House to the front steps of the State House, an
outdoor venue that he said would send a message of inclusion.
Patrick's choice of the DeVille departed from that message. The General
Motors sedan has been synonymous with flash and panache at least since
1955, when Chuck Berry sang about Maybellene driving one of the sleek,
powerful coupes.
"These things do have symbolic value and you have to choose carefully,"
said David Gergen , an adviser to presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and
Clinton. "Your symbolic communication can often be as important as your
verbal communication. You have your trademark signs: Churchill had V for
victory and MacArthur had his corncob pipe, and ordinarily in politics
you choose those symbols that put you in touch with the common man,"
Gergen said, and Patrick "made a choice to go the other way."
Cars, perhaps more than any other object in the American marketplace,
speak to a politician's identity. On his last day in office in 1997,
after making the traditional lone walk out of the State House, Governor
William F. Weld climbed into a battered sport utility vehicle driven by
his wife, Susan, solidifying his image as a Yankee not given to
ostentatious displays of wealth. Arnold Schwarzenegger is famous for
driving a Humvee, a vehicle that mirrors the California governor's
muscular physique. And Michael S. Dukakis became famous for not driving
at all: He took the subway to the State House, making the state's chief
executive seem like any other workaday straphanger.
Patrick had the choice of two cars offered by the State Police: the
$46,000 DTS or a $37,000 Chrysler 300C. He chose to lease the Deville
for $1,166 a month. He has called the model "useful and appropriate,"
since it can be easily outfitted with security equipment.
Some said his choice of the more expensive option was awkward, noting
that Patrick has recently called for the state to slash spending and
allow higher local taxes to balance the budget.
"This is the imperial governorship," said Barbara Anderson, head
of Citizens for Limited Taxation, an antitax organization. "We
were all expecting another Dukakis, but you didn't have this level of
phoniness from Dukakis. He was riding the T. This is a whole new level
of absurdity, even for Massachusetts."
Some inside the State House said the backlash reflects the new
governor's inexperience with Massachusetts politics, where even the
smallest gestures are scrutinized.
"It's so new to Patrick, I don't think he understands that some people
look so deeply into these things," said state Representative Brian
Wallace, a South Boston Democrat. "He's not used to this incredible
spotlight that's shining on him."
One Cadillac probably won't dent Patrick's image as reform-minded
populist, Gergen said.
"It would only matter if it were a series of decisions that showed he
was becoming an elitist after running a grass-roots campaign," Gergen
said. "He has to be careful about the accumulation of symbols."
Some supporters said that it doesn't matter what kind of car Patrick
rides, as long as he is getting out of the State House and speaking
directly to voters.
"The citizens of Massachusetts really want a governor who moves around
the state and they don't really care how he does it," said George
Bachrach, a former Democratic state senator of Watertown.
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
False start for Deval
By Brian McGrory
Governor, come in, please. Loosen your ascot and stay a while.
A quick question before we get started: Who are you getting your
political advice from these days, Leona Helmsley?
Don't answer that. The point is, allow me to give you a different
perspective before you get too far off track.
Pretty much everything you've been doing since the day you were elected,
knock it all off, every single bit. Knock off the self-celebrations at
record-setting expense. Knock off the fancy new Cadillac DTS that costs
more a month than a house. Knock off the $72,000 publicly funded
appointments secretary for your wife. And knock off that exasperated
tone as if no one can possibly imagine how tough it is to be you.
I don't know how else to put this, sir, but you're at risk of making a
fool of yourself -- and that's not even the worst part. No, the worst
part is you're at risk of making a fool of the people who elected you.
Let's start with the car. Trade it in. Today. Just drive it right back
to the lot where you got it and tell them that you don't want it
anymore. Make something up if you have to. Say there's a squeak or a
rattle or the leather isn't as supple as you hoped.
Then go out and get yourself a nice Ford Explorer or Chevy Suburban.
They're safe, they're roomy, they're good in the snow, and they scream
of the kind of understated authority that a governor should demand.
Then summon the cameras and do something that you haven't been able to
do: Admit a mistake.
Don't lie about Ford not making the Crown Vic any more. Don't blame the
State Police for a list you could have overruled. Don't say you were so
busy saving the world you couldn't possibly be bothered paying attention
to mundane details like a car. Just say, "My fault, I should have known
better, and I won't let it happen again." You'll be amazed at the
reaction.
And you'll be right; you should have known better.
You are the master of the symbol, whether it be the outdoor inaugural or
the receiving line in the State House or opening up the governor's-only
elevator to the public at large. You really didn't see what it meant to
trade in Mitt Romney's old Ford for a flashy new Cadillac? You couldn't
grasp how this would look amid tight fiscal times? Or are you so
impressed with yourself and your election that you can't get out of your
own way?
The truth is, the Cadillac in and of itself is no big deal. It's a car.
But add in some of the other stuff -- the over-the-top inauguration,
your wife's assistant -- and it's what we call a trend, and not a
particularly good one. And then there's the $1,166-a-month price. If
that's the best lease deal you could get, then -- nothing personal, sir
-- perhaps you should leave the negotiations with the Legislature to Tim
Murray.
Of course, all of this wouldn't seem like nearly so big a deal if you
were doing something, anything, as governor. Seven weeks into the Deval
Patrick administration, seven weeks into your critical but fleeting
honeymoon period, and I have no idea what you stand for. That's the
biggest problem you have.
I know what you don't stand for, and that's pretty much all of the
proposals that you made during your campaign -- property tax reductions,
1,000 new cops, a new way of doing business on Beacon Hill. Though think
of the bright side: If you can break all these promises, you certainly
shouldn't have any trouble breaking a lease.
Your aides keep talking about the budget. That's nice, but what you
really need is an agenda -- four or five ambitious goals by which your
administration will be judged. Announce them. Nurture them. Realize
them.
It's early. This Cadillac thing will blow over before your first oil
change, and someday we'll look back and laugh. But you have to ask
yourself, are you done celebrating your governorship and ready to start
acting on it?
The Telegram & Gazette
Sunday, February 18, 2007
A Telegram & Gazette editorial
Tax conundrum
Local option proposals need close scrutiny
The Municipal Partnership Act filed by the Patrick administration last
week includes welcome provisions enabling communities to reduce
health-insurance costs and ensuring competent management of the more
than 100 independent public pension funds across the state. However,
provisions allowing communities to piggyback local taxes on existing
state taxes demand close scrutiny.
At first blush the provision billed as “Property Tax Relief and
Stabilization” seems to fulfill Gov. Deval L. Patrick’s campaign pledge
of property tax relief. Instead of the targeted boost in local aid
sometimes mentioned during the campaign, however, it would allow
communities to levy local meals and lodging taxes on top of existing
state taxes.
In brief, communities that opt into the measure could add up to 2
percent to the meals tax and raise lodging taxes above the current 4
percent cap to 5 percent. In each case, 75 percent would go into
municipal coffers — presumably to ease property taxes — and 25 percent
into a state fund that would reimburse communities that provide property
tax abatements for senior citizens. While indisputably adding to the
municipality’s bottom line, it is unclear how much property tax relief
would result, and for whom.
Assessing the implications of some sections of the act, such as the
function of a “municipal finance oversight board” about midway through
the 29 pages of dense legalese, also will require considerable study.
Mindful of taxpayers’ prickly mood — voters came close to outlawing the
state income tax a few years ago — many Beacon Hill veterans greeted the
local option tax provisions with skepticism. Indeed, at a time when
residents are being priced out of Massachusetts by the high cost of
living — eroding the work force needed for healthy economic growth — the
immediate influx of revenue from new taxes are apt to become a net loss
in the long run.
The Eagle-Tribune
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Let's see how 'fixed costs' get fixed
By Taylor Armerding
It is time to open public employee union contract negotiations to the
public.
I know. Welcome to Taylor Armerding's wacky world of lost causes. The
odds of that happening are probably better than those of Republicans
taking over both houses of the Legislature in the next election cycle.
But, just because something won't happen doesn't mean it shouldn't.
There is no good reason why taxpayers, who are a party to these
settlements since they have a legal obligation to pay the bill,
shouldn't have a seat at the table when they are being negotiated.
I'm not talking about letting the public look over the shoulders of
negotiators for the union or the municipality when they are discussing
strategy. But once they face off and lay their demands on the table, the
public ought to be there.
This doesn't undermine strategy. It's got nothing to do with anybody's
character, reputation or personal life, or any of the other exemptions
to the Open Meeting Law. It has become clear that the main reason for
keeping public employee contract negotiations behind closed doors is
because it protects unions from scrutiny of their demands, and it
protects elected officials from being held accountable for caving to
unaffordable demands.
And it is those unaffordable agreements that lead us every year to the
season of "fixed costs."
You've been hearing those little buzzwords, and you're going to be
hearing them a lot more as political leaders in community after
community start building a case for property tax overrides to fund
budget increases of two or three times the rate of inflation.
It's all just to maintain services, they will say. And the cost of
keeping things the same keeps going up because of those fixed costs. The
Triton Regional School District (Rowley, Newbury and Salisbury) is
looking for 9.35 percent -- more than three times the annual rate of
inflation. Last year they sought 14 percent, and when an override was
rejected, had to "settle" for only 5 percent -- still more than the rate
of inflation.
In Gloucester, they are talking about shutting down an elementary school
to help close a $2.77 million gap created by, you guessed it, salary and
health insurance increases -- fixed costs.
Gov. Deval Patrick has recommended letting municipalities impose or
raise all kinds of new local taxes, which means, in his fantasy world,
that cities and towns will become more affordable, and people will stop
fleeing Massachusetts. Right. Increasing my cost of living here even
more is a great motivator to stick around.
There is nothing they can do about it, they all say. Your taxes have to
go up, or we have to cut services, because of fixed costs. Really? Who
fixed them? God? I suppose in the case of energy, the supreme being of
your choice could be held responsible, since we have chosen fossil fuels
as our primary source, and he or she not only made a limited supply of
it, but was inconsiderate enough to put most of it under the soil of
other countries.
But the rest of them are fixed by the ones who are complaining about
them, who sign unaffordable contracts because they are afraid of the
unions' political power. In short, it is the negotiations of past years
that are today's fixed costs.
What most municipal leaders fail to grasp is that the vast majority of
those who have to pay these bills have to cope with the same energy and
health insurance cost increases, without getting the salary or benefit
hikes enjoyed by the public employee unions. They have to cut their own
personal budgets. They have to spend less.
Newburyport Mayor John Moak, who delivered his first State of the City
address this past week, is just one of many who can't seem to grasp it.
The mayor talked about the need to find more "creative" ways of getting
more money out of taxpayers. He mentioned spending "prudently," but
never mentioned trying to find creative ways to spend less.
Meanwhile, that city's School Committee is getting ready to try to sell
an override, with the admonition that if it doesn't pass, there will be
"devastating" cuts in staff and services. Somehow, there is never even a
question raised about whether the ensuing tax increase will be
"devastating" to local residents.
Opening contract negotiations to the public won't magically end the rape
of taxpayers. But it would, finally, expose how, and where, fixed costs
get fixed.
Taylor Armerding is associate editorial page editor of The
Eagle-Tribune.
Associated Press
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Gov. Patrick to reimburse state for Cadillac
By Steve LeBlanc
Gov. Deval Patrick said Tuesday he will reimburse the state for the cost
of upgrading his official car to a Cadillac DeVille, after being
criticized for extravagant spending in the face of a potential $1
billion budget deficit.
The vehicle, with tinted windows and security features including
concealed blue lights and a siren, is being leased by the state for
$1,166 per month during the next two years. The prior official car, a
Ford Crown Victoria, was leased for $623 per month.
Patrick, who also raised eyebrows for his use of a State Police
helicopter and for hiring a $72,000-per year staff member to handle
scheduling and interview requests for his wife, said he'll personally
reimburse the state for the difference between the Crown Victoria and
the Cadillac -- $543 per month.
In the same written statement, Patrick said will also personally
reimburse the state $27,387 for the cost of new furnishings in his
office. Those furnishings were needed to replace those owned by former
Gov. Mitt Romney and removed by Romney when he left office.
The furnishings included a couch and chairs Romney took when he left
office, as well as new draperies to replace old ones that had fallen off
the wall, and tables, lamps, and a desk, according to a Patrick
spokesman.
Patrick, a Democrat, said he realized he couldn't justify the added
expenses at a time when he's asked state agencies to look for ways to
trim their budgets.
"All weekend long, I have been struggling with the budget constraints we
are facing in the Commonwealth," Patrick said in a written statement.
"There are tough choices to make. I realize I cannot in good conscience
ask the agencies to make those choices without being willing to make
them myself."
Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray said he's using the same Crown Victoria used by
his predecessor, former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey. Murray defended Patrick,
saying that "the governor shouldn't be driving around in a Yugo."
Patrick initially said he tried to get another black Ford such as the
car used by Romney, but said Friday that "they don't make it any more."
Patrick repeated the statement several times Friday during a Statehouse
news conference, but a spokesman said afterward that he misspoke and the
car remains in production.
Patrick on Friday told an Associated Press reporter: "You should take a
ride in it, it's nice."
Patrick said he selected the car from one other approved choice
presented by the State Police, whose troopers provide his personal
security and drive him throughout the state.
Asked Friday whether he was sensitive to the symbolism of riding in a
vehicle usually associated with luxury, the governor said, "Yeah, I'm
sensitive to the fact that I might be criticized for the tie I wear
everyday. I'm sensitive, but I can't be controlled by it."
The negotiated price for Patrick's new car, the Cadillac DeVille DTS,
was $46,089. The other approved choice, a Chrysler 300C, sells for about
$37,000. A 2007 Ford Crown Victoria has a base price of $25,445.
The new car also appeared to break with a pledge Patrick made last fall
during his campaign to buy hybrid or fuel-efficient vehicles as the
state replaces its vehicle fleet.
Earlier last week, Patrick also found himself deflecting questions about
his use of a State Police helicopter, an asset Romney said he used only
once during his four-year term.
The new governor took the chopper from North Adams back to Boston last
month to rush between a meeting with municipal officials and the
inaugural festivities for state constitutional officers at the
Statehouse. Earlier this month, he took a second flight to Cape Cod for
the funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq.
When asked about his helicopter use, Patrick said, "You should call that
family from Hyannis that lost their son in Iraq and see if they have a
problem with me using the helicopter."
He added, "I have a really crowded calendar and a very ambitious agenda,
so I'm going to use every resource available."
Patrick has also found himself under fire for hiring of a $72,000-a-year
staff member to handle scheduling and interview requests for his wife,
Diane Patrick, who is a partner at the downtown Boston law firm, Ropes &
Gray.
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