Patrick's speech offers hope, but few specifics

Governor Deval Patrick tonight in his State of the State speech urged Massachusetts residents not to despair even as he acknowledged the heavy toll the economic crisis is taking on the state.

In an address that was sober yet hopeful, Patrick sought to lay the groundwork for aggressive budget cuts, a debate over fixing the state’s ailing transportation network, and controversial decisions over raising new revenue. He gave few specifics, however, leaving the policy details for the coming weeks.

"This is not the time to let up or give up," Patrick said, according to his prepared remarks. "This is not the time to lose either our will or our way, the grim economic forecasts not withstanding."

The annual address was delivered in a packed House chamber, with state lawmakers crowded in, wearing their best suits and showing respect to Patrick and the power of his office with long applause. Following decades-old political choreography, a group of lawmakers walked down the hall to retrieve the governor, formally inviting him to enter the legislative chamber down the hall from his office.

Patrick last year railed on the Legislature during his State of the State address for being slow to act on his proposals, wagging his finger and talking of the “cost of inaction.” His relationship with state lawmakers has improved dramatically since then, and Patrick this year thanked the Legislature for moving on many items in his agenda, what he called "one of the most productive legislative sessions in a generation."

With the state grappling with a $1.1 billion budget gap, Patrick has been forced to shift dramatically away from the hopeful rhetoric that elected him in a landslide and instead to call on Massachusetts citizens to sacrifice in the face of the fiscal crisis.

But unlike the previous Republican governors who talked in tough partisan tones of budget-cutting, Patrick delivered the dire news of pending budget cuts and their impacts on those who depend on government program with a tone of liberal compassion.

"Some think that cutting government is always good," he said. "But they see only abstractions. Behind everyone one of those budget line items, I see somebody's best chance or only chance. And I will do my best to make the decisions I have to make with the impact of them clearly in mind."

He also told an anecdote of his grandmother and her message to a family that lived in a one-room tenement on Chicago's South Side.

"We were forbidden from calling ourselves poor," Patrick said. "My grandmother taught us to say we were broke, because broke, she said, is temporary. We will cycle out of this downturn eventually and start to expand opportunity again."

In an unfortunate twist of timing for the governor, Patrick’s opportunity to speak directly to Massachusetts residents during a high-profile televised address at 7:30 was squeezed by President George Bush’s farewell speech from the White House, which began at 8. Some television producers urged Patrick to wrap it up quickly so they wouldn't have to cut away to video feeds from Washington.

In his speech, the governor called on the Legislature to help reform the state's ethics laws, an area that many expect could face resistance from the House. Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, who sat behind the governor and is under fire because of several ethics probes into his close associates, has only given a lukewarm reception to the governor's recent proposals to toughen the state's lobbying and ethics laws.

Patrick also said he would work for pension reforms and an overhaul of the state's approach to corrections. He renewed a push to give municipalities the power to impose a meals tax, as well as collect property taxes from telecommunications companies for poles and wires that run over public ways.

Patrick did not mention the debate on raising the gas tax, a proposal by DiMasi that Patrick has slowly come to accept as an alternative to increasing tolls along the Massachusetts Turnpike. But the issue did not go unnoticed, with a group standing outside the State House before the speech to protest a toll hike, one of them dressed up in a pig suit holding a sign that read, "Government Pork is not Kosher."

Patrick also did not say how much he will cut from the budgeted $5.3 billion distribution of state aid to cities and towns, but he was clear that pain would be felt.

"No one's priorities will be spared," he said. "Local services will be cut, and in many cases police, firefighters, and teachers will face layoffs."

He returned to his campaign theme of "Together We Can," but with a slightly different message for tough economic times.

"Take the coat your kids have outgrown over to a family shelter for a child it might fit just fine," he said. "Recycle everything you can. Give your time, your energy, your heart to someone somewhere. And above all, for the adults, show a young person how to look up rather than down."

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.