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CLT UPDATE
Friday, January 9, 2015
Good News and Better News
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In one of his final acts in the Corner Office,
Gov. Deval Patrick said last night he won’t give lawmakers raises
for the next legislative session, depriving them of a pay bump many
lawmakers have openly yearned for since 2009, the last time their
salary went up.
Just hours after Patrick took his ceremonial
“Lone Walk” out of the State House gates, the outgoing CEO told the
treasurer’s office in a letter that “there would be no increase or
decrease” to lawmakers’ $60,032 base pay for the next two-year
cycle.
“I regret this outcome,” Patrick wrote. “As you
know, I believe that an adjustment in base compensation for
legislators and constitutional officers is warranted. While I could
reach a different conclusion using a formula recommended by the
recent Special Commission on Public Officials’ Compensation, I
believe that I should not depart from current methodology without
legislation to authorize the new formula.”
The Boston Herald
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Lawmakers stiffed by departing Deval Patrick
Senate President Stanley Rosenberg said he
“vehemently” disagrees with outgoing Gov. Deval Patrick’s move
yesterday to freeze legislators’ pay for the next two years, chiding
the soon-to-be-ex-CEO for ignoring the advice of a commission he
helped construct.
“I’m extremely disappointed with that decision,”
Rosenberg, the upper chamber’s newly named leader, told reporters
this morning, pointing to the recommendations last month from a
commission, which included several Patrick appointees, to change how
the governor calculates lawmakers’ biennial salary adjustments.
Patrick, in a letter yesterday, said he would
neither cut or raise legislators pay, arguing he used the same
method he used in past years to calculate change in the median
household income to which pay is tied....
In his letter, the outgoing governor — who
officially hands the reins of state government to Baker at noon
today — said there would no increase or decrease to lawmakers’ base
pay of $60,032 this time, a decision he said he made with “regret.”
“While I could reach a different conclusion using
a formula recommended by the recent Special Commission on Public
Officials’ Compensation, I believe that I should not depart from
current methodology without legislation to authorize the new
formula,” he wrote.
The Boston Herald
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Senate president blasts Patrick’s pay freeze
In his inaugural address, which was delivered to
members of the Democrat-controlled Legislature in the House chamber,
Baker said, "History will record that a budget deficit exceeding
half a billion dollars is being transferred to my administration."
Patrick administration officials had claimed that
$250 million in unilateral spending cuts they implemented had left
only a $70 million to $80 million problem in the $36.5 billion
budget. But while Beacon Hill Democrats have pointed to revenues as
a source of the problems, Baker focused elsewhere.
"If we're honest with ourselves then we can't
blame our deficit on a lack of revenue," he said. "We have to
recognize that this is a spending problem. And that dealing with it
now will make balancing next year's budget that much easier."
Saying he would "hold the line on taxes," Baker
added, "We're already demanding enough from hard working people. And
we will protect cities and towns and fulfill our promise to end the
cuts to local aid. Otherwise, every line item will be looked at."
...
House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President
Rosenberg on Thursday morning declined to rule out higher taxes as
an option to address budget woes.
Baker said there were "efficiencies to be gained
and structural changes to be made," but predicted "there's no doubt
that we have to make difficult decisions. We will do so with great
sensitivity and careful judgment."
Asked about Baker's assessment of the reason for
the budget imbalances, Rosenberg said after Baker's speech, "Some of
the parts of this problem go back to tax cuts in the early 2000s..."
Asked if spending was the problem in the budget,
DeLeo said, "Right now I mean in terms of what we do in terms of
preparing our budgets, all of our estimates are based upon the
estimates that we have before us at the time that we have our
revenue hearings so that is based upon what we do relative to the
money that we appropriate in our budgets. During that period of time
certain things can change in terms of the economic conditions that
neither we nor some of the economic experts were aware of."
State House News Service
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Baker budget chief says state "bleeding" money
Gov. Charlie Baker put the Democrat-dominated
Legislature on notice yesterday, vowing within minutes of
assuming the Corner Office to hold the line on taxes and tackle
the state’s “spending problem” — a description that had
legislative leaders tip-toeing around an outright rebuttal to
the newly sworn-in CEO.
“I know we can do better,” Baker told a
packed House chamber about a looming budget gap he said will
exceed $500 million. “If we’re honest with ourselves then we
can’t blame our deficit on a lack of revenue. We have to
recognize that this is a spending problem.”
In a 26-minute inaugural speech, Baker
promised that he will “challenge the status quo” to create a
lean, nimble, but inclusive state government....
Baker’s blunt description of a “spending
problem” put House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and Senate President
Stan Rosenberg on the defensive. They emphasized that they’re
optimistic about working with Baker, but denied any free
spending created their precarious fiscal situation.
“It’s on both sides of the ledger,” Rosenberg
told reporters, blaming years-old tax cuts and “unanticipated
increases” tied to Obamacare implementation. “The important
thing is we have the ability to get the budget in balance...."
Both Rosenberg and DeLeo yesterday declined
to rule out tax increases to help cover the deficit.
The Boston Herald
Friday, January 9, 2015
Gauntlet is thrown: Baker vows to hold the line on taxes
And sad to say we’ve managed to endure eight
years under a governor who for all his personal charm seemed to
have no interest in or particular skill at getting under the
hood of state government and making it work. We’ve endured years
of platitudes and press releases and precious little management
of the state’s myriad problems.
That’s about to change — or so Baker pledged
yesterday as he did throughout his campaign....
He cited in particular the Registry of Motor
Vehicles — which is in need of being restored to the glory days
of its previous transformation under the Weld and Cellucci
administrations — and the Health Care Connector — a costly
disaster for the state and a nightmare for consumers....
Now to anyone still laboring under the
mistaken notion that Baker isn’t a real Republican (memo to
our Boston Globe counterparts, yes, the time for self-delusion
is now over), he made it abundantly clear that Massachusetts’
deficit is due to a “spending problem” which he doesn’t intend
to solve by raising taxes.
“We’re already demanding enough from
hard-working people,” he insisted.
The Boston Herald
Friday, January 9, 2015
Baker out to right ship of state
By Rachelle Cohen
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
Yesterday we got good news
— and better news.
To my shock, departing Governor Deval Patrick, on
his way out the door denied legislators any pay raise whatsoever.
Instead of their pay increasing by $4,000 per year as recommended by
the recent so-called compensation commission and expected by
legislators, Patrick decided to freeze base salaries at $60,032.
In his message to the state treasurer's office he
wrote:
“As you know, I believe that an
adjustment in base compensation for legislators and
constitutional officers is warranted. While I could
reach a different conclusion using a formula recommended
by the recent Special Commission on Public Officials’
Compensation, I believe that I should not depart from
current methodology without legislation to authorize the
new formula.”
I appears that Patrick may have recognized that
changing the formula unilaterally just might be unconstitutional, as
we've been insisting it is.
An outraged new Senate President, Stanley
Rosenberg, doesn't seem to appreciate "freezes" when it comes to
legislators' benefits — only when it
affects what's taken from taxpayers' by not rolling back the 25-year
old "temporary" income tax hike and "freezing" the voters' 2000 mandate to roll
it back to 5 percent by 2004. That voter mandate for a
rollback was "frozen" by the Legislature in 2002; a dozen years
later the promise still hasn't been kept.
What a breath of fresh air blew into the State
House yesterday after eight years of stagnation and decline!
Charlie Baker was sworn in as the 72nd governor of the Commonwealth
and in his inaugural speech stated:
"With respect to the state's budget
our Constitution requires that the budget be balanced.
No one understands that better than I do. The
responsibility now rests with us.
"History will record that a budget deficit exceeding
half a billion dollars is being transferred to my
administration.
"If we're honest with ourselves then we can't blame our
deficit on a lack of revenue. We have to recognize that
this is a spending problem. And that dealing with it now
will make balancing next year's budget that much easier.
"We will hold the line on taxes, we're already demanding
enough from hard working people. And we will protect
cities and towns and fulfill our promise to end the cuts
to local aid. Otherwise, every line item will be looked
at.
"I look forward to working with House Speaker DeLeo,
Senate President Rosenberg and the members of both
legislative branches to close this gap."
2015 is starting off on good footing for
taxpayers. Former-Gov. Patrick (what a joy writing that term!)
somehow, for some reason, finally did the right thing as he exited
the office.
Governor Baker announced his support of taxpayers
and opposition to any new taxes on his first day in office.
Savor the moment. There's no telling how
long it can or will last, but it's nice to have one now and then.
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Chip Ford |
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The Boston Herald
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Lawmakers stiffed by departing Deval Patrick
By Matt Stout
In one of his final acts in the Corner Office, Gov. Deval Patrick
said last night he won’t give lawmakers raises for the next
legislative session, depriving them of a pay bump many lawmakers
have openly yearned for since 2009, the last time their salary went
up.
Just hours after Patrick took his ceremonial “Lone Walk” out of the
State House gates, the outgoing CEO told the treasurer’s office in a
letter that “there would be no increase or decrease” to lawmakers’
$60,032 base pay for the next two-year cycle.
“I regret this outcome,” Patrick wrote. “As you know, I believe that
an adjustment in base compensation for legislators and
constitutional officers is warranted. While I could reach a
different conclusion using a formula recommended by the recent
Special Commission on Public Officials’ Compensation, I believe that
I should not depart from current methodology without legislation to
authorize the new formula.”
Patrick’s decision is likely to surprise some. The Herald reported
last month that experts, including Michael Widmer, the president of
the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, expected lawmakers to get
their first raise in six years thanks to the state’s improving
economy.
“It surely is going to go up. The question is how much,” Widmer said
then.
But Patrick said he used the same formula he’s used in the past,
which includes a mix of the U.S. Census’ American Community Survey
and weekly average wages for the state to determine changes to
median household income, off which lawmakers’ raises or cuts are
based.
The decision also affects the pay of Gov.-elect Charlie Baker, whose
annual salary will stand at $151,800 when he is sworn in today.
Pay became a hot topic in December after a committee proposed a
range of increases to legislative leaders’ salaries, as well as
those of the governor and other constitutional officers, that called
for hikes that would push the Senate president and speaker of the
House’s annual haul to $175,000 and the governor’s to $185,000.
The committee also recommended using a set of federal data to
determine the biennial adjustments that, according to its report,
would this time bump lawmakers’ pay by 6.6 percent, or nearly $4,000
a year.
Patrick noted in his letter he would have signed legislation putting
the pay bumps recommended by the commission into affect if lawmakers
had acted on his bill to close a budget gap.
The Boston Herald
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Senate president blasts Patrick’s pay freeze
By Matt Stout
Senate President Stanley Rosenberg said he “vehemently” disagrees
with outgoing Gov. Deval Patrick’s move yesterday to freeze
legislators’ pay for the next two years, chiding the
soon-to-be-ex-CEO for ignoring the advice of a commission he helped
construct.
“I’m extremely disappointed with that decision,” Rosenberg, the
upper chamber’s newly named leader, told reporters this morning,
pointing to the recommendations last month from a commission, which
included several Patrick appointees, to change how the governor
calculates lawmakers’ biennial salary adjustments.
Patrick, in a letter yesterday, said he would neither cut or raise
legislators pay, arguing he used the same method he used in past
years to calculate change in the median household income to which
pay is tied.
“We have a commission that he helped name that contained economists,
academic economists, a former head of the federal reserve bank of
Boston, and they looked to identify a fair way of determining what
the increase or decrease in median family income was,” Rosenberg
said. “They came up with an answer and it was ignored. I don’t know
how you take people of that caliber, ask their advice, not challenge
the results of their research and then dismiss it.”
Rosenberg, speaking to reporters after attending a legislative
reception for incoming Gov. Charlie Baker, pointed to Patrick’s
argument that he wanted to remain consistent in how he determine the
adjustments.
“So when a new idea comes to the table and it conflicts with the old
idea, that means you dismiss it? I don’t understand that thinking,”
the Amherst Democrat said, adding that he is now focused on a
looming budget deficit and not addressing lawmaker compensation with
legislation.
“The governor fulfilled his constitutional obligation. I disagree
vehemently with his decision,” he said. “But that was yesterday and
today I am focused on the deficit.”
Lawmakers haven’t received a raise in pay since 2009, and Patrick
ordered cuts of 0.5 percent and 1.8 percent the last two legislative
cycles.
In his letter, the outgoing governor — who officially hands the
reins of state government to Baker at noon today — said there would
no increase or decrease to lawmakers’ base pay of $60,032 this time,
a decision he said he made with “regret.”
“While I could reach a different conclusion using a formula
recommended by the recent Special Commission on Public Officials’
Compensation, I believe that I should not depart from current
methodology without legislation to authorize the new formula,” he
wrote.
Patrick noted in his letter he would have signed legislation putting
the pay bumps recommended by the commission into effect if lawmakers
had acted on his bill to close a budget gap. But lawmakers didn’t
agree with Patrick’s calls to cut local aid, and it languished,
leaving it to Baker and the next legislative cycle to close a
deficit that some have pegged at $750,000.
Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo said that it was Patrick’s
“prerogative” to freeze the pay, but said he’s “sure” that
addressing compensation is “going to be one of the topics that
members are going to talk about.”
“The thing you have to remember,” DeLeo said, “especially during
this last session, we lost a whole host of folks, good talented
folks, many of whom would come up to me and say, ‘Hey, you know, I’m
at the stage now, I have children who are growing, I have children
who are talking about moving on to college. And although I love my
job, I love helping people, I love this work, I just can’t afford.’”
Sen. Benjamin Downing said he had no problem with Patrick’s move.
“I don’t need a raise to do this job,” he said.
House Minority Leader Brad Jones said Patrick’s move to agree with
the task force’s findings but not implement them speaks to problems
he saw with the Democrat’s governing.
“I think the governor says one thing and does another, and that’s
sort of typical of the eight years,” the North Reading Republican
said. “And why should the last day be any different?”
State House News Service
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Baker budget chief says state "bleeding" money
By Michael Norton and Andy Metzger
Not long after Gov. Charlie Baker said he'd inherited a mid-year
state budget gap of more than $500 million, his top fiscal adviser
said the state is "bleeding" money every day, creating a dire need
for action.
"We have to address it immediately. Every day counts. Every single
day that goes by we're just bleeding more money. We have to address
it immediately," Administration and Finance Secretary Kristen Lepore
said minutes after she was sworn in by Baker.
In his inaugural address, which was delivered to members of the
Democrat-controlled Legislature in the House chamber, Baker said,
"History will record that a budget deficit exceeding half a billion
dollars is being transferred to my administration."
Patrick administration officials had claimed that $250 million in
unilateral spending cuts they implemented had left only a $70
million to $80 million problem in the $36.5 billion budget. But
while Beacon Hill Democrats have pointed to revenues as a source of
the problems, Baker focused elsewhere.
"If we're honest with ourselves then we can't blame our deficit on a
lack of revenue," he said. "We have to recognize that this is a
spending problem. And that dealing with it now will make balancing
next year's budget that much easier."
Saying he would "hold the line on taxes," Baker added, "We're
already demanding enough from hard working people. And we will
protect cities and towns and fulfill our promise to end the cuts to
local aid. Otherwise, every line item will be looked at."
While Baker highlighted the need to balance the budget, his first
official action was to release $100 million in local road and bridge
funds authorized by the Legislature, but held back by former Gov.
Deval Patrick. Patrick had signed off on a $200 million Chapter 90
program, noting it was the highest level of funding for that
program, and argued limited transportation funds needed to be spent
judiciously.
Baker's team said releasing the funds was important to job creation,
public safety and economic growth.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Rosenberg on
Thursday morning declined to rule out higher taxes as an option to
address budget woes.
Baker said there were "efficiencies to be gained and structural
changes to be made," but predicted "there's no doubt that we have to
make difficult decisions. We will do so with great sensitivity and
careful judgment."
Asked about Baker's assessment of the reason for the budget
imbalances, Rosenberg said after Baker's speech, "Some of the parts
of this problem go back to tax cuts in the early 2000s and some of
it is unanticipated increase in expenses that are tied principally
with the transition we're going through in our health care system as
a result of the federal government's passing the ACA, which
basically comes into some conflict with our successful state health
reform. So it's on both sides of the ledger. The important thing is
we have the ability to get the budget in balance and that's our job
one."
Asked if spending was the problem in the budget, DeLeo said, "Right
now I mean in terms of what we do in terms of preparing our budgets,
all of our estimates are based upon the estimates that we have
before us at the time that we have our revenue hearings so that is
based upon what we do relative to the money that we appropriate in
our budgets. During that period of time certain things can change in
terms of the economic conditions that neither we nor some of the
economic experts were aware of. So that's the reality of the
problem. But what's good to know about Massachusetts unlike many
other states when we have issues such as that we address them as
opposed to waiting and waiting and waiting and quite frankly that's
why you saw here in Massachusetts the fact that we saw our bond
rating increase because when we had those economic issues that we
had to address we addressed them immediately and we moved forward as
a Commonwealth."
The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation last year estimated the
deficit at about $750 million after accounting for Patrick's
spending cuts, an estimate that Patrick budget chief Glen Shor
disputed.
"I think that the estimate that the Mass. Taxpayers Foundation
issued is a credible number. They're a very credible organization,"
Lepore told reporters in the State Library where the swearing-in was
held. "We're going to be working through the weekend to try to
verify and develop our own number, so we should know hopefully
within the next three days."
Lepore said all manner of spending cuts could be up for
consideration.
"It definitely is a spending problem. Revenues have been coming in
on benchmark. And as he said today, everything is on the table
except for local aid to cities and towns," Lepore said.
Sen. Vinny deMacedo (R-Plymouth) said he is concerned about the
fiscal impact associated with thousands of people placed on
MassHealth coverage when they were unable to access coverage through
the Connector Authority due to technological problems. "There are a
lot of unknowns," said deMacedo, who was the ranking Republican
member of the House Ways and Means Committee when he served in the
House.
The longer Beacon Hill officials wait to deal with the budget
dilemma, the more the spending cuts will be amplified, deMacedo
said.
"It's something that we are all going to have to deal with, whether
we like it or not. That is a reality. The challenge is we have to
deal with it sooner rather than later."
Fall River Mayor Sam Sutter said he liked Baker's bipartisan tone
and interest in stemming the opiate addiction crises, and that
Baker's reference to a "spending" problem was not a surprise. "He
does come from the party that thinks that is a problem," said
Sutter, a district attorney who won the office after a special
election in December.
Sen. Dan Wolf (D-Harwich) said Baker's charter school promises in
the speech will also need revenue. "It was a beautiful speech, but
delivering on that under the financial pressure, I think that's
going to be a challenge," Wolf said.
The Senate last year rejected a charter school expansion effort
after the House agreed to the measure. "I'm expecting there will be
a very robust discussion on that issue yet again," Rosenberg said.
"The Senate spoke last year. We have new members. We'll revisit the
subject in the months ahead."
Matt Murphy and Gintautas Dumcius contributed reporting
The Boston Herald
Friday, January 9, 2015
Gauntlet is thrown: Baker vows to hold the line on taxes
By Matt Stout and Chris Cassidy
Gov. Charlie Baker put the Democrat-dominated Legislature on notice
yesterday, vowing within minutes of assuming the Corner Office to
hold the line on taxes and tackle the state’s “spending problem” — a
description that had legislative leaders tip-toeing around an
outright rebuttal to the newly sworn-in CEO.
“I know we can do better,” Baker told a packed House chamber about a
looming budget gap he said will exceed $500 million. “If we’re
honest with ourselves then we can’t blame our deficit on a lack of
revenue. We have to recognize that this is a spending problem.”
In a 26-minute inaugural speech, Baker promised that he will
“challenge the status quo” to create a lean, nimble, but inclusive
state government.
He also knocked Beacon Hill for having ignored some of its “toughest
challenges,” likening it to “kicking a can down the road because
they’re not politically convenient or easy to fix.”
Baker’s blunt description of a “spending problem” put House Speaker
Robert A. DeLeo and Senate President Stan Rosenberg on the
defensive. They emphasized that they’re optimistic about working
with Baker, but denied any free spending created their precarious
fiscal situation.
“It’s on both sides of the ledger,” Rosenberg told reporters,
blaming years-old tax cuts and “unanticipated increases” tied to
Obamacare implementation. “The important thing is we have the
ability to get the budget in balance. ... We’re going to find a lot
of common ground based on that speech.”
DeLeo, too, cited changing “economic conditions” beyond their
control, and brushed off questions that Baker had laid blame at the
feet of lawmakers’ for putting off fixes.
“The governor wants to get things done, and he wants to get things
obviously in a bipartisan fashion,” the Winthrop Democrat said. “I
thought he set the right tone with his first speech.”
Baker campaigned on providing a counterweight to the Legislature,
and the immediacy of the budget gap — which he said he plans to
address within two weeks — will likely provide the first test of
that.
Both Rosenberg and DeLeo yesterday declined to rule out tax
increases to help cover the deficit.
Baker’s budget chief, Kristen Lepore, called the Massachusetts
Taxpayers Foundation’s estimate of a $750 million budget shortfall a
“credible” number, and told reporters, “Every single day that goes
by we’re just bleeding more money. We have to address it
immediately. Every day counts.”
Former Gov. William F. Weld, a Baker confidant, told the Herald that
Baker introduced his chief of staff, Steve Kadish, at a breakfast
yesterday “as a man who’s going to make the lives of many
miserable,” drawing chuckles from the attendees.
“It means being disciplined and assuming nothing and zero-basing
every decision,” Weld said on Boston Herald Radio. “By that I mean:
Don’t assume that the appropriation is going to be the same as last
year’s. Assume it’s zero until proven otherwise.”
Baker also moved quickly yesterday to release $100 million in local
road funds to cities and towns, fulfilling a campaign promise to
mark one of his first official acts.
Richard Weir contributed to this report.
The Boston Herald
Friday, January 9, 2015
Baker out to right ship of state
Shares Menino’s idea that basic services truly matter
By Rachelle Cohen
After the hugs and the smiles and the air kisses, after the bursts
of applause and the occasional standing ovation, after the last
crumbs of the State House replica cake have been consumed, there is
the governing.
Charlie Baker knows that better than any governor who has held the
office in the past half century — with the possible exception of
Paul Cellucci. As a member of the Weld administration he saw life
inside the sausage factory. He saw it up close and personal, and yet
he still wanted to do this — really govern.
And sad to say we’ve managed to endure eight years under a governor
who for all his personal charm seemed to have no interest in or
particular skill at getting under the hood of state government and
making it work. We’ve endured years of platitudes and press releases
and precious little management of the state’s myriad problems.
That’s about to change — or so Baker pledged yesterday as he did
throughout his campaign.
“We will challenge the status quo, look for and try new approaches
and recognize they might not always work,” Baker said in his
inaugural message. “When that happens, we’ll acknowledge it. Learn
from it. And try again.”
He cited in particular the Registry of Motor Vehicles — which is in
need of being restored to the glory days of its previous
transformation under the Weld and Cellucci administrations — and the
Health Care Connector — a costly disaster for the state and a
nightmare for consumers.
Baker’s role model? The late Boston Mayor Tom Menino.
“He believed that government was about high ideals. But he also
equally believed that basic services mattered and that every detail
counted,” he said.
Not a bad role model to have.
And by all accounts Baker and Menino’s successor, Marty Walsh, have
found ample common ground in Baker’s commitment to charter schools,
tackling the opiate addictions that are the scourge of too many
communities and supporting neighborhoods “that have not benefited
from our economic success.”
Citing the “tragic events in Ferguson and New York City,” he added,
“When people lose hope, bad things happen.
“I’ve said a thousand times I want every community to be a place
where people believe tomorrow is going to be better than today. I
say that not just because I believe it, but because I believe in
it.”
It was the compassionate side of the Charlie Baker agenda that, not
surprisingly, drew the rare standing ovation from a crowd that
included members of the overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature.
And let’s face it, with the bad blood that flowed between Deval
Patrick and legislative leaders — blind-siding them on his pitch for
a massive $2 billion tax hike, really? — that relationship has
nowhere to go but up.
Senate President Stan Rosenberg threw out the opening day olive
branch, offering “to work as partners with you,” adding, “there may
be issues on which there may be disagreement, but we pledge to do so
without being disagreeable.”
And that’s a start.
Now to anyone still laboring under the mistaken notion that Baker
isn’t a real Republican (memo to our Boston Globe counterparts,
yes, the time for self-delusion is now over), he made it abundantly
clear that Massachusetts’ deficit is due to a “spending problem”
which he doesn’t intend to solve by raising taxes.
“We’re already demanding enough from hard-working people,” he
insisted.
Nor will he solve the budget deficit — likely in excess of a half
billion dollars — by squeezing cities and towns with a local aid
cut, another Patrick proposal that made Democrats happy to see him
take that Lone Walk on Wednesday.
Beginnings are invariably wonderful. What’s not to like when
everything is fresh and new and there are no promises yet broken?
Asked by State House News Service how he thought Baker would get
along with Democratic legislative leaders, Bill Weld replied, “like
ham and eggs.”
You’re free to pick your own metaphor here, but this one works as
well as any.
Rachelle Cohen is editor of the editorial pages.
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