Patrick hedges pledge on police, tax

Governor Deval Patrick, faced with a surprisingly tight budget situation, is tempering some of his campaign promises, saying yesterday that he may have to stretch his much touted plan for 1,000 new police officers over several years and stabilize, rather than cut, property taxes.

"We can definitely start, and we will start down the path of adding more cops on the beat, because I think that's critical," Patrick said yesterday.

Last month, he said on a radio station that "we may not need 1,000 cops" all at once.

He also made it clear that property tax cuts, a recurring campaign theme, are not going to be implemented anytime soon.

"What we can do is stabilize property taxes to be sure," he said yesterday. "We've got to start there."

Last week he also told a radio interviewer that investments in transportation might have to be deferred, though he did not name specific projects.

Patrick has said a budget deficit could exceed $1 billion in the fiscal year that starts July 1. Despite that prediction, he restored $383 million in budget cuts last week made by former governor Mitt Romney in November.

Yesterday, Patrick also proposed the Commonwealth Corps, an agency that would place volunteers in nonprofit jobs across the state. That program will cost $3 million, he said.

Patrick conducted his first weekly meeting yesterday with Senate President Robert E. Travaglini, House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, and House and Senate budget aides. The budget was one of the items on the agenda of the closed-door meeting.

Before the meeting, Patrick defended restoring the Romney cuts, saying the money is available to pay for the programs and services this year, if not into the future. "I think that we have what we need to meet those expectations this year," he said during a brief encounter with reporters yesterday morning. "I think you have many cases of agencies and individuals who have relied on those appropriations, in some cases had spent against these appropriations. I think the right thing to do is make good on those promises."

But he warned that next fiscal year will be different. "I think going forward we're going to have a very tough and tight time, and there are some tough decisions we're going to have to make and choices we're going to have to make."

When asked whether he was attempting to lower expectations of voters and politicians on Beacon Hill by painting a grim financial picture as previous governors have done, Patrick smiled and said, "You've never seen a governor like me."

Asked how he can justify spending $3 million on Commonwealth Corps given the financial forecast, Patrick said: "No one is interested in wasting money or spending money frivolously."

Patrick is expected this weekend to address the Massachusetts Municipal Association, whose members are hoping for financial relief from the new governor.

According to the group's executive director, Geoff Beckwith, cities and towns are looking for more local aid and more police officers. They still have questions about Patrick's pledge to hire 1,000 police officers, including which communities would receive the officers and who would bear the ongoing costs, including their yearly salaries and benefits.

"There are ancillary costs that come with any employee, from training, equipment, staffing, cruisers," he said. "We would want to make sure [the costs] are sustainable on a state and local level."

Patrick pledged during the campaign "to cut the property tax by reinvesting in cities and towns" and to provide other property tax relief for certain elderly residents. He proposed that a portion of local aid be dedicated to "direct property tax relief," a pledge that even then budget specialists doubted could be kept.

Even if property taxes can't be reduced, Beckwith said, their rate of growth can be slowed if the administration takes two steps: restoring local aid and setting aside a specific percentage of the state budget for cities and towns.

Meanwhile, Patrick said after meeting with legislative leaders that they share many priorities. He specified only one: "updating our energy policy and our approach to energy."

"We are all of us committed to coming together as much as possible to advance that agenda," Patrick said. "I see that as a real opening for us in terms of job creation."

Travaglini and DiMasi called Patrick's openness a "refreshing" change of style from Romney's approach.

"The tone of the discussion and the degree of detail was a refreshing change from the historical conversations we've had in this office, and what we're trying to do now is to again find common ground in all three legislative agendas," Travaglini said.

Asked specifically what was different from the relationship with the Romney administration, DiMasi said lawmakers frequently learned about Romney initiatives only after he held a news conference to announce them.

"It's very nice to find out what the governor is proposing, thinking about what his ideas are, in a frank discussion on the issues and whether or not they can be accomplished in a manner in which we can agree to, as opposed to learning what the proposals are after the former governor would have a press conference like this and then let us know after," DiMasi said.

Patrick said that before unveiling the Commonwealth Corps initiative, he notified the Senate president and the House speaker -- both of whom said they like the idea.

"I think the concept is noble and worthy of support," said Travaglini. "It seemed to be in a controlled state and in a limited form. . . . We've given an indication to the administration that we can be supportive of the concept."