Romney's unfinished business
'I LIKE DATA," said Governor Mitt Romney. When analyzing government's effectiveness, he said, "The proof is in the statistics."
Irrepressibly upbeat, Romney, in an interview in his State House office last week , detailed the "enormous turnaround" that Massachusetts has made during his time in office. Closing the budget gap, education, housing, health care, the environment -- oh, and don't forget public safety, he said. "It's hard to pick one." Like one's own children, he said, "I love them all."
Without question, there have been high points in Romney's term. But he leaves the state with a shrinking workforce and stagnant population, with confidence in state government at an abysmal level, with the strength of his Republican Party at an all-time low, and with the voters having inflicted a historic drubbing on his hand-picked successor.
On many issues, a school teacher would give Romney a grade of "incomplete." This is especially disappointing because it continues a pattern set by Romney's three immediate predecessors, all of whom served partial terms or didn't seek re election or both.
Health care is a fitting example. The legislation approved in April promises to put Massachusetts in the forefront nationally by extending coverage more widely than any other state except Hawaii. And Romney deserves considerable credit on the issue. While much of the work was done by leaders in the House and Senate, as well as health care providers and other advocates, Romney provided crucial support for the individual mandate to carry insurance, and for a waiver of federal rules. But writing the bill was only half the job. Implementation will be critical , and success is by no means guaranteed. Yet in the key months when the mandates kick in next year, Romney will be in Iowa or New Hampshire or elsewhere -- certainly not in the corner office.
Similarly with education. Romney generally backed the state's 13-year-old education reform law, including the use of MCAS tests as a high school graduation requirement. And there have been results to cheer about, especially the state's first-place ranking this year on the NAEP tests given nationally. Yet there are still far too many dropouts, far too great a performance gap between rich and poor school districts, and far too many high school graduates who need heavy remediation to handle basic work in community college.
Romney's cuts to MCAS remediation funds were a setback. Now his own state education commissioner, David Driscoll, is joining other leaders in proposing fundamental changes in a system Driscoll says is functioning poorly. Massachusetts is well-positioned to be a leader in this reform, and Romney could be in the vanguard -- if he weren't leaving office.
Fiscal discipline was the "turnaround" that Romney mentioned first. After arriving in office just as the national economy was in recession, Romney succeeded in balancing four budgets without resorting to new broad-based taxes. But there was a price. Funding was cut drastically for higher education, aid to cities and towns, and other key state functions. State fee hikes and the closing of corporate tax loopholes raised about $740 million annually, according to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. And local aid cuts forced cities and towns to cut services and raise property taxes. The Massachusetts Municipal Association says that 113 of the state's 351 communities are still getting less local aid than they did in Fiscal 2002, without adjusting for inflation.
In November, many voters seemed to buy Deval Patrick's characterization of these Romney policies as a "shell game" in which he forced local taxes up to keep state taxes down. Even so, Romney failed in his goal to reduce the income tax rate to a flat 5 percent. We have argued on this page that state services should at least be restored to 2002 levels before any such tax cut is considered. But neither one is going to happen on Romney's watch.
Romney has a disarming way of sharing both credit and responsibility. The work on new initiatives throughout his term was "almost all shared with the Legislature," he said. Yet in the next breath he took credit for reviving construction of new school buildings -- an initiative on which state Treasurer Tim Cahill was the prime mover.
Asked about a UMass-Boston poll indicating a very low level of confidence in state government, Romney quickly laid the blame on "the media" -- adding that he meant talk radio and paid media, as well as news coverage that he says tends to report the negative more than the positive.
However, the media have reported -- and not made up -- stories such as the declining and now stagnating state population, the shrinking state workforce, Romney's lurch to the right on social issues (however heartfelt) as he prepares to run for president, and the shellacking his hand-picked candidates have taken at the polls in the last two elections.
There is widespread consensus that Romney had a strong, positive focus on at least one issue: housing. Agreeing with state business leaders that Massachusetts is being hurt badly by overpriced housing, Romney pushed forward a smart-growth philosophy to encourage new construction in town centers and near transportation nodes. Strong incentives were passed by the Legislature. But again, implementation is in the early stages, and a strong hand is needed to assure the needed benefit.
Romney himself admits that a number of his goals remain unmet. His inability to lower the nation's highest unemployment insurance rate, to secure merit pay for teachers, and to reinvigorate the Republican Party were among the frustrations he listed.
So his departure leaves many others frustrated. When he announced last December that he would not seek a second term, Romney said, "I've got the job done I set out to do." It sounded as if he should have borrowed the giant "Mission Accomplished" banner from President Bush. But the data tell another story.
Seduced and abandoned may be too strong a phrase, but as he departs for the national campaign trail, many have an unsettling feeling of having been used by Romney's fling with Massachusetts. 