Republican lawmakers blast governor for not identifying budget cuts

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

House and Senate Republicans are blasting Governor Deval Patrick for not being more forthcoming about his imminent budget cuts – and they plan to fight legislation today that would give the governor unilateral budget-cutting powers.

“He hasn’t provided any information to anyone,” Senate Minority Leader Richard Tisei said in an interview. “It’s disgraceful, and he’s not living up to the job. This is not transparent, it’s not an open process, and it flies in the face of everything he said he was going to do.”

The House and Senate were scheduled to vote today on whether to grant Patrick expanded powers that would allow him to cut into the $5.3 billion the state provides in aid to cities and towns. Top lawmakers expect the Legislature to give Patrick the powers, but they want the governor to provide a more detailed explanation of how he plans to use them.

Patrick, when approached in the State House today, declined to comment on his budget cuts.

“I’m going to tell you as soon as I’m ready to make that public," Patrick said. "There are a bunch of different scenarios, as you know, that we’ve been working through. We’ll see what the extent of the authority that the Legislature gives me will be and how that differs from what we ask for, and we’ll go from there.”

“We’ll see what they do," Patrick added. "We’re looking to apportion the pain – and it’s sure to be painful – as equitably as possible and as broadly as possible.”

His spokesman, Kyle Sullivan, later issued a statement responding to the criticism from Republicans.

"As the governor did in the last round of budget cuts, he will provide a detailed plan within the two-week time frame provided for in state law and ensure that the cuts are done in an open and transparent manner and easily accessible to the public online," Sullivan said. "It is unfortunate that the Republican leadership is more interested in scoring political points than working with the administration to deal with our current fiscal crisis."

The debate could hinge on philosophical differences over how money is distributed. The last time local aid was cut midyear, in 2003, Governor Mitt Romney agreed to use the same percentage reduction for all cities and towns -- so a wealthy community, such as Newton, had the same percentage reduced as a less wealthy area like New Bedford. It is unclear whether those terms will be used this time, or if the Legislature would allow the governor to preserve funding for poorer areas while making deeper cuts in wealthy areas.

Republicans are drawing a sharp contrast between Patrick’s approach and the way Romney handled the cuts in January 2003.

At that time, the Democratic-led Legislature pushed Romney to offer more detailed plans on his cuts. After a flurry of closed-door meetings, Romney agreed with legislative leaders to a series of terms that included a pledge to not close more than a third of the budget gap with local aid cuts, and using the same percentage reduction in aid to all cities and towns.

Romney also disclosed the scope of the cuts in an address to the Massachusetts Municipal Association.

"We know this needs to be done in a timely fashion, because we're bleeding money," Senate President Therese Murray said yesterday in an interview. "But it's hard to act in the dark. We'd like a little bit of light, in terms of what the parameters are."

Yesterday, Patrick administration officials drastically reduced revenue estimates for this year, predicting a $1.1 billion midyear budget gap that the governor must solve within the next two weeks.

The budget gap, which will trigger a second round of cuts, is slightly worse than Patrick forecast two weeks ago, when he anticipated that he would face a shortfall of up to $1 billion.

Under state law, Patrick has two weeks to produce his plan.

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