Make the elected accountable

IN THE business world, if you have an idea but no plan to pay for it, you get laughed out of the room. If you make a promise you can't keep, there are consequences. If you ultimately fail to produce results, you lose your job. That's how businesses create accountability. I believe elected officials should be held equally accountable for getting results.

In a recent television ad, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey says ``I'll be in there fighting every day to protect your money." Yet since 2002, residential property taxes are up 32 percent, fees are up, critical government services have been cut, and, despite all the campaign promises, the income tax hasn't moved an inch.

For 16 years, residents of Massachusetts have voted against change in the governor's office, with many unwilling to trust a Democrat at the fiscal helm. But if you look at the last four years, this administration hasn't been accountable for results. When it comes to ``protecting your money," it shouldn't be about Republican versus Democrat; what matters is who can get the job done.

That starts with being accountable for your promises. If elected governor, I will cut income taxes to 5 percent. The people voted for that, and with the cost of living out of control, middle-class families need help.

But here's the catch: To cut taxes responsibly, we can't do it all overnight. Next year's budget counts on $500 million from the rainy day fund. It would be easy politics to promise an immediate tax cut -- but that would be reckless. And passing this burden to cities and towns, forcing higher property taxes, would be a mistake.

My plan devotes 40 percent of all growth in tax revenues above inflation to an income tax cut, 40 percent to new investments and local aid, and 20 percent to replenishing the rainy day fund. Why this approach? First, it assures we can actually afford the tax cut. Second, it balances priorities among lowering taxes, smart investments, and prudent savings.

``Fighting every day to protect your money" means more than just opposing spending; it means being accountable for how effectively money is spent. We must use every tax dollar more creatively. Education, an issue that Healey highlights in her ad, is an example of where just throwing money at the problem doesn't get the results our kids need.

Not nearly enough is done to move beyond the status quo in public education. We can't be afraid to innovate. That means, for example, lengthening the school day in communities that want that, and supporting charter schools. It's not enough to just spend on the right priorities. Spending more innovatively and effectively is what actually gets results.

Candidates who say they'll ``protect your money" should be held accountable for actually having a plan to pay for the results they promise. I've been looking at budgets my whole life, and real numbers should mean as much at election time as at budget time. That's why I'm offering specifics to pay for what I propose.

According to the Massachusetts Taxpayer's Foundation, we can afford to responsibly increase the amount of bonds we issue each year. Bonding is generally devoted to infrastructure -- like roads and bridges -- and I'll continue that work. But creating jobs now takes more than concrete. It takes technological leadership.

That's why I've proposed investing $1 billion in bond funds over the next decade toward peer-reviewed research in cutting-edge technologies like renewable energy and stem cell research. We must keep pace with California and Calcutta if we hope to create high-paying jobs that allow our kids to stay and live and thrive here.

Healey wants this race to be about fiscally responsible Republicans versus tax-and-spend Democrats. But I don't think that's what this race is about. What matters is combining fiscal responsibility, idealism and pragmatism to get results from government that make people's lives a little easier -- from job creation to better public schools to reducing the cost of living. That takes a governor with innovative ideas, realistic plans to pay for what's promised, and a willingness to be held accountable for results. That is the kind of change our state needs, and the kind of governor I hope to be.

Christopher F. Gabrieli, who is running for governor, lives in Boston with his wife, Hilary, and their five children.