Patrick picks his fights
AT LEAST TWICE yesterday as he unveiled his unorthodox $26.7 billion budget, Governor Patrick made an appeal to reason. "I think we have got to stop worrying about the emotional arguments and concentrate on the facts," he said.
Perhaps. But the facts are sobering, and emotions cannot be denied in the very human business of politics.
The facts: Patrick is facing a $1.3 billion deficit, a flat economy, stagnant population, and a wary business community. His address before an overflow crowd at the Chamber of Commerce breakfast yesterday morning was received politely, rarely interrupted by applause.
Patrick's budget relies on $295 million in revenues -- $500 million annualized -- from closing business loopholes, a proposal that has met with predictable claims that it will harm the business climate. But the fact is that Massachusetts ranks near the bottom among the states in its overall corporate tax burden. If low taxes were the only or even the primary determinant of business success, Massachusetts ought to be booming.
The bigger question for business leaders is how they propose to pay for the worthy government initiatives they desire: investments in a highly educated and trained workforce; lowered housing and healthcare costs; property tax relief; a speedier regulatory process; and a gridlock-free commute. These benefits cost money. As Patrick has said, every line item in the budget has a real person behind it, and that goes for business executives as much as for parents of disabled children.
Now for the emotions. Patrick's budget squeezes out almost a billion dollars in savings. This includes "efficiencies" but also real cuts in programs, overtime, and administration. He shortchanges higher education (including financial aid), substance abuse programs, certain school districts, and nursing homes. The corporations aren't the only ones being asked to help close the gap.
The document also collapses hundreds of individual line items in education, the courts, and human services into larger single accounts that his agency commissioners will be expected to manage. "I think this is a worthy reform," Patrick said: "Get an executive that is interested in governing and give them the latitude to do that." The elimination of special-interest line items is long overdue, especially in the courts, where practically every clerk and doorman has his own earmark. But it strikes directly at the heart of legislative prerogative -- a tradition House and Senate members are likely to feel strongly about relinquishing. The governor agreed he expects some "pushback" on that one.
Patrick has said repeatedly that he doesn't want his budget to be dead on arrival. His landslide victory was a mandate for reform. Perhaps the voters who elected him ought to plan a little pushback of their own. 