'I want to be a partner. I don't want to just write checks'
NEWTON -- Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval L. Patrick says he knows how to fix Massachusetts' reputation for being a far harder place to build a new business than red-tape-cutting states like North Carolina and Virginia.
His solution would be a carrot-and-stick approach: Offer increases in state financial aid to cities and towns only if they agree to simplify business approvals from permitting to zoning and make it easier to build affordable housing close to mass transportation.
Patrick, in an interview to be aired today on the New England Cable News's ``This Week in Business" program, says his goal is to make it easier for businesses to grow and create jobs in the Bay State, while encouraging city halls and town halls to align their regulations with statewide economic development policy.
``We ought to take our surplus and return it to cities and towns as local aid, and the condition on that is participation by cities and towns in better planning and regulatory processes," Patrick said.
If he is elected governor, Patrick said in a follow-up interview, ``I want to be a partner. I don't want to just write checks." Besides streamlined approvals for construction permits, water and sewer connections, and other local approvals new businesses need, Patrick said he would envision tying increases in state aid to policies such as zoning reform allowing more ``multifamily rental housing and starter homes" near mass transit.
Asked how much of the future state aid increase he could see making contingent on local regulatory changes, Patrick said, ``I'd start at 100 percent. But there doesn't have to be a cookie-cutter approach. I'm prepared to engage in conversations" with city and town officials about various ways of meeting the goals.
Patrick is to appear in a roundtable discussion on business and economic issues with NECN anchor Mike Nikitas , Paul Guzzi , president of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, and Globe columnist Steve Bailey .
Another Democratic candidate, former venture capitalist Christopher F. Gabrieli , appeared on the July 2 show. Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly , also a Democrat, is scheduled for the Aug. 6 show.
Patrick, 49, who has emerged in polls as the clear front-runner for the Democratic nomination, grew up in poverty in Chicago and went through Milton Academy to Harvard College and Harvard Law School before becoming a lawyer in Boston.
After serving under President Bill Clinton as a top civil rights law enforcer, Patrick has held senior executive and general counsel positions with Texaco Corp. and
Taking a swipe at Governor Mitt Romney, who has frequently quipped about being out of line with heavily Democratic and liberal Massachusetts while exploring a Republican presidential bid nationally, Patrick said in the TV segment that for improving the state's economy, ``One of the things we can do is stop using Massachusetts as the butt of jokes. The governor has been going all over the country using Massachusetts as his laugh line. That's got to end."
Patrick also said he supports the proposed 130-tower Nantucket Sound wind electric-generation project off Cape Cod. He sees alternative and renewable energy and conservation technology as a key emerging industry for Massachusetts he would promote as governor. ``If we get that right, the whole world is our customer," Patrick said.
Speaking about the Big Dig debacle in Boston, after Milena Del Valle of Jamaica Plain was killed Monday night by concrete ceiling panels that fell from the Interstate 90 tunnel in South Boston, Patrick said he supports calls for the ouster of Massachusetts Turnpike Authority chairman Matthew J. Amorello.
Patrick, who two months ago called for a ``special inspector general" with broad authority to probe construction defects and cost overruns, also said he backs calls to bring in the National Transportation Safety Board to inspect the tunnels. (On Friday, the NTSB said it will conduct a formal investigation.)
Calls for criminal probes, though, ``may have slowed down the fact gathering that we need to do," Patrick said. ``We've just given everybody" connected with the Big Dig ``a reason to plead the Fifth" Amendment and refuse to testify about how the tunnels were built and failed.
Patrick said the management consultant overseeing the project, Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, needs to be targeted. He noted that while he was at Coca-Cola, he tangled with Bechtel Corp. over a delayed, over-budget Coke factory construction project in Ireland.
``We had to essentially go upside their head with a two-by-four to get their attention, and we did," negotiating an out-of-court settlement for the cost overruns, Patrick said. Patrick said he would bring wisdom from that experience to holding Bechtel accountable for Big Dig problems, saying, ``We need to follow every trail where it leads. If that means there needs to be litigation, then there needs to be litigation."
Peter J. Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com. 
