Governor just keeps on giving

'TIS THE SEASON of giving, and Governor Deval Patrick is celebrating his first year in office by making sure there's something under the tree for everyone this Christmas.

If you think your holiday shopping list is expensive, consider the governor's: He has put together a wish list containing more than $20 billion in new spending. This includes everything from $1 billion in subsidies to biotech companies and a $2 billion public higher education bond bill to $12 billion in capital spending and $4.8 billion in proposed new transportation projects and improvements.

By the administration's own estimates, Massachusetts will again face a structural deficit of more than $1 billion. If that figure is accurate, the Commonwealth needs to take a fiscally responsible approach to state spending and do some serious belt-tightening, rather than going on a spending spree.

Fortunately, the Legislature has put the brakes on much of Patrick's proposed new spending. Still, the governor's gifts just keep on coming:

For college students, free tuition to attend a community college. For New Bedford residents, a new, $1.4 billion commuter rail line to ride on (just cross your fingers and pray that it doesn't have to travel over one of the state's crumbling bridges). For bank executives, a $50 million bailout plan for all the bad loans they wrote during the past 10 years.

Big-shot Hollywood producers already received their gift last summer when Patrick signed into law expanded tax breaks for the motion picture industry. Isn't it nice to know your hard-earned tax dollars are being used to support the multi-billion-dollar film industry, at a time when local businesses are struggling under the weight of high taxes and regulatory red tape?

Massachusetts lost 200,000 jobs after the attacks on Sept. 11. 2001, and the economy has yet to fully recover. According to a report by MassINC, the state ranks an second-to-last in job creation, ahead of only Michigan, which at least has a struggling US auto industry to blame. To put it in perspective: Louisiana, a state devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, has already rebounded from that natural disaster and is creating new jobs at a faster rate.

So what is Patrick's solution to this problem? Raise taxes, of course. Local businesses already face high taxes. With added costs under the new universal healthcare law, an unemployment insurance rate increase, and a host of other expenses, the cost of doing business in Massachusetts is higher than ever, and now Patrick is pushing hard to close phantom corporate tax "loopholes." That's one gift the state's business community would like to get a receipt for -- so they can return it.

Businesses aren't the only group to end up on the governor's naughty list this year. Despite Patrick's free-spending ways, there are many who are receiving the proverbial coal in their stocking this Christmas.

Consider the state's taxpayers. If you've been waiting for Patrick to make sure the state fulfills its commitment to roll back the income tax rate to 5 percent, you'll have to wait some more. But hey, Massachusetts residents have been waiting 18 years to see the "temporary" tax increase rescinded, so what's a little longer?

If you're a homeowner, you're probably wondering what happened to the property tax relief Patrick promised over and over during his election campaign. You certainly won't find it under the tree this year, but what you will find is proposals for higher taxes on meals and higher taxes on hotel rooms. Taxes: the gift that keeps on giving.

Many people are concerned about the state's rising crime rate, but they're not going to find an additional 1,000 police officers on the street. That's another one of Patrick's campaign promises that was quickly abandoned when he took office and never made it onto his Christmas list.

Strong leadership is needed to improve the existing transportation infrastructure and to grow the economy. Only through fiscal discipline will we achieve those goals.

I'm sure the governor is making his list and checking it twice for 2008 already - one question, though: How much will those "presents" cost the taxpayers of the Commonwealth?

Richard R. Tisei, a Republican from Wakefield, is the minority leader of the Massachusetts Senate.