VOTERS ARE said to like divided government, with one party heading the executive branch while another controls the Legislature. This is supposed to provide checks and balances, but just as often it can result in gridlock. The session just completed shows that much can be accomplished when the two branches work together - provided everyone agrees to share the credit.
Deval Patrick was the first Democrat elected governor in 16 years, but the Democratic Legislature did not march in lockstep behind all his policy proposals. The defeat of casino gambling and criminal justice reform, stalled property tax relief, and $122 million in budget vetoes are proof of that.
Rather, Patrick, legislative leaders, and especially their staffs did the unsexy policy work needed to cobble together strategies for the big issues facing states today. The result: A $1 billion life sciences initiative; a sweeping energy bill with a focus on conservation and renewables; a $3 billion bond to accelerate repairs on deteriorating roads and bridges; $500 million in new revenues; an intact health reform law with 340,000 new patients enrolled in insurance plans. "Green" causes fared particularly well, with the biggest environmental bond bill ever, and commitments to carbon reduction and open-space preservation.
Personality clashes sometimes substituted for ideological differences, however. The governor got off to a rocky start with the House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi and Senate President Therese Murray, themselves fairly new to the job. But in an interview yesterday Patrick said, "we play the long game." Over time, the three focused on getting to yes.
Some in the business community have complained of rising costs in these initiatives, pointing to tax loophole closings, new environmental regulations, and increased contributions to the healthcare law. But Patrick was scrupulous about seating business representatives at the table while the big changes were hammered out, to the benefit of corporate interests. For example, the tax loophole closings and cigarette tax hike were partly offset by an overall reduction in the corporate tax rate.
Plus, as the state GOP likes to boast, taxes were cut more than 40 times by four successive Republican administrations. Given plunging revenues and the press of healthcare and other needs, the fairly modest tax hikes are more a course correction than a radical shift.
Former Governor Weld, who started the 16-year run of Republicans in the corner office, liked to say that government should "steer, not row." But this past session suggests what is possible when most oars are pulling in the same direction.
