Patrick wants action
IN HIS State of the State speech last night, Governor Patrick issued a friendly call to action to the Legislature. The voters in 2006 elected him to use the powers of government to improve Massachusetts. This mandate ought to be honored if his policies make sense, and they do.
Patrick summed up his goals crisply: "Government - as an expression of the common interest and the common good - has a role in play in helping people help themselves," he said. Most legislators would not argue with his plans to relieve the property tax burden, implement the expansion of health insurance, improve the education system, or provide job-creating opportunities in biotech and other industries. But the Legislature has not found the means to pay for them. And not only that; when Patrick has offered his own well-thought-out plans to pay for his policy initiatives, the Legislature, on the whole, has been downright indifferent.
Last year, Patrick failed to mobilize the supporters who swept him into office. Last night, there were welcome signs that he plans to push harder. "I admit I am an impatient man," he said, mentioning that some people have blamed this trait on a lack of Beacon Hill experience. The comment may have been directed at House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, who was sitting behind him. Patrick has been in office a year now, and DiMasi, who made his mark as speaker by pushing through the health reform law in 2006, has a similar sense of the power of government to do good. But even so, Patrick needs to figure out how to bring the speaker around.
To a degree, the governor recognized that the state is at the mercy of larger economic forces. But the speech seemed to play down the potential impact of a recession. He touted the creation of 22,000 jobs last year, but that represents a sluggish rate of growth. If revenues fall short this year and next, the Legislature and the governor will need to thread carefully to keep the budget in balance.
Patrick has proposed a package of budget cuts, government improvements, and new revenues that even in a stagnant economy should allow for expansions in early education, homelessness prevention, healthcare, crime fighting, and economic development. His problem is that a Democratic Legislature that long defined itself in opposition to Republican governors is slow to break the habit, even though a Democrat is now in charge.
"The people don't expect us to agree on everything," he said, ". . . But they do expect us to work together toward the best solution. They expect action." Well said, but getting that action will require artful politics on Patrick's part. 