Gubernatorial candidates share view on the need for change
Every candidate for governor this year has thrown the word "change" around like a campaign flier.
Democrat Deval L. Patrick vows to upend what he calls "politics as usual." Republican Kerry Healey, the lieutenant governor, promises "smart, tough solutions to change Massachusetts." Green-Rainbow Party candidate Grace Ross envisions fundamental shifts in state policy. And independent Christy Mihos wants to blow up Beacon Hill's two-party system altogether.
But change is in the eye of the beholder. All four candidates agree it's necessary, but they differ widely on what it means.
To Healey, change means cutting income taxes and posting the photos of all Level 2 sex offenders on the Internet. Patrick wants 1,000 more police on the street and new property tax breaks. Mihos would demand lower drug costs from pharmaceutical companies. And Ross plans to offer special loans for people to install solar panels and wind turbines.
If the polls are to be believed, the candidates are smart to run against the status quo. With Massachusetts still sluggish on job creation, losing residents to other states, and squeezing homeowners with ever-higher property tax bills, many voters have indicated this year that they feel the state is on the wrong track.
The Globe asked each candidate to name three concrete changes they would seek to make in their first six months in office. They answered by proposing new blueprints for the state economy, public safety, education, healthcare, and the Big Dig.
Within weeks of taking office, Healey said, she would push for an income tax rate rollback from 5.3 to 5 percent, filing the measure in her budget proposal for 2007-08.
Governor Mitt Romney, since he's been in office, has pushed for the rollback, which voters approved by referendum in 2000. But the Legislature has so far rejected an immediate reduction to 5 percent.
Healey argues that if she wins, the overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature will be obligated to recognize that she has a mandate to lower the rate.
"I think an increasing number of people understand that if you want the Legislature to spend less, you have to take the money off the table," she said.
Another one of Healey's initial moves would be to file a bill to raise the mandatory school-attendance age from 16 to 18, which she argues would lower the dropout rate.
"Allowing kids to make the decision to prematurely end their education is really confining them to a life of disappointment, poverty, and perhaps even jail," she said.
Healey said raising the mandatory age would require expanding publicly funded alternative- education programs for students who don't fit in at traditional high schools. The state has already created such programs for teens recovering from drug and alcohol addiction, but could, for example, do the same for pregnant teenagers, she said.
Healey also said she would file a bill right away to put on the Internet the names, addresses, and photographs of the 5,000 Level 2 sex offenders statewide. Currently, the state posts that amount of detail only for Level 3 offenders -- those deemed the most likely to be repeat offenders. Someone seeking information on Level 2 offenders, who are considered to pose a moderate risk of committing the crime again, now has to go to local police departments, which Healey believes is a burden.
Patrick pledges more local aid to cities and towns, but budget specialists say that will be hard to do without major sacrifices elsewhere. So one of his first moves, Patrick said, would be to provide some short-term property tax relief by expanding the "circuit-breaker" tax break the state currently offers to senior citizens. He wants to make it available to an additional 89,000 people, including some low- and moderate-income residents regardless of age.
Patrick also said he would include $85 million in his first budget proposal to put 1,000 more police on the streets for community policing. How those new officers would be deployed is still unclear, he said. But community policing has been a proven success in reducing crime, Patrick said, and the state needs to make a sustained commitment to it.
"Gun and gang violence has been rising sharply, and this is a strategy that we know works," he said.
The other initiative Patrick said he would pursue immediately is the appointment of a special inspector general to oversee cost recovery, safety, and repairs on the $14.6 billion Big Dig, which has been plagued by cost overruns and shoddy work.
Patrick envisions appointing an expert in construction and finance and giving the appointee full authority to investigate the actions of contractors and public agencies and officials. He said he wants to improve on the "stem-to-stern" review of the project that Romney's administration has begun.
Patrick also wants the appointee to have subpoena power, which he said would require legislation. He would want a review completed within a year.
"My goal here would be to recover whatever can be recovered, and to assure ourselves of the structural integrity of the project, and to hold contractors and public officials accountable for their work," Patrick said.
Ever since Mihos bolted from the Republican Party to run as an independent, he has tried to position himself as the alternative to two-party gridlock.
But Mihos said he recognizes that he has to sit down with legislative leaders to get anything done. His first meeting with the House speaker and Senate president, Mihos said, would be to push Proposition 1, his proposal to ease the pressure on property taxes by boosting local aid to cities and towns, freezing property valuations, and eliminating school activity fees.
Mihos said he knows he'd have to compromise on his ambitious plan, but he wants to get started immediately.
"I've got to do it day one," Mihos said. "I'll bring the doughnuts."
Mihos also plans to reopen negotiations on the state's landmark healthcare law, which was signed last spring and aims to cover nearly every resident within about three years. Mihos said he doesn't think there is enough funding to do it, and he believes the state can trim costs with steps such as demanding lower prices for drugs from pharmaceutical companies and reducing Medicaid fraud.
The other area Mihos would focus on immediately is the Big Dig. Mihos, a former Turnpike Authority board member, said he wants the governor's office to assume control of cost recovery efforts, which have been overseen by the attorney general's office. Mihos is adamant that contractors owe the state millions for shoddy work and overruns.
"I have got to deliver on this issue so that no Massachusetts resident pays for the repairs," he said.
One of her first acts as governor, she said, would be to push for a new "circuit-breaker" tax break to help low- and moderate-income residents, a move that would shift more of the tax burden onto the wealthy. Ross also wants corporations to pay taxes based on the amount of business they do in Massachusetts rather than on the facilities they have here.
"We have got to figure out how to get the folks at the top anteing up as much as the rest of us," she said.
Ross also wants to devote about $50 million in state money to low- and no-interest loans for small businesses, municipalities, and property owners who want to add solar panels or wind turbines. She said the initiative would nurture the state's alternative-energy industry, reduce demand on the power grid, and lower energy costs for cities and towns.
And Ross, like Mihos, is concerned that the healthcare law won't work without more money. As governor, she said, she would try to get more residents enrolled in the state Medicaid program -- a move she concedes would probably meet federal resistance -- and would push to have municipalities and small businesses buy insurance in bulk. 