Romney Would Rather Be 'Axeman' Than 'Taxman'

Most politicians would hide from the public the day after announcing $343 million in spending cuts but not Mitt Romney and Kerry Healey—even though their cuts included $114 million of local aid, in an effort to close a deficit for the current fiscal year estimated at $650 million.

The new Governor and his sidekick chose instead to answer questions of local residents at a town meeting in Leominster yesterday. They actually earned a standing ovation when it was over.

Agree with him or not, Romney showed some respect for the little guy. The campaign is over, yet folks can still approach him without waiting four more years for another campaign -- and at a time when the state is in a fiscal crisis.

This event was not politically managed either. It was not invitation-only, handpicked participants asking softball questions. It was a random crowd of 300 people that arrived on a walk-in basis after reading about it in the local paper.

Governor Mitt Romney and Lt. Governor Kerry Healey on stage in Leominster

They thoughtfully wrote down their questions and handed them in to be read to the Governor by the mayors of Fitchburg and Leominster, who shared the stage.

Romney came across as fair, straightforward and sincere in his presentation. He met with the press after a question-and-answer session and then returned to mingle and speak with the people some more on a personal basis. He said he hopes to hold many more such meetings on a regular basis around the state, including a meeting with youths.

Before answering the written questions from the audience, Romney broke the ice by giving a monologue about, "How-we-got-to-where-we-are as it relates to things-financial."

Romney said that during the transition, he and the Lt. Governor pulled in all sorts of people from around the state to get their perspectives.

The person he tapped as Administrative and Finance Secretary, Eric Kriss, was concerned that they were worried only about the 2004 budget year. (Romney explained that unlike the calendar year that we are all used to living by, the state runs on a strange fiscal year that ends June 30 and starts anew on July 1.)

Romney was told that he will be having a real hard time putting together a budget for the next fiscal year because it is due by law on February 26. The inauguration is on January 2, then by Feb. 26 he has to have a budget that talks about how he is going to organize government and how he's going to spend money throughout the entire Commonwealth.

If that were not bad enough, he was then told about another problem - the state could be hundreds of millions of dollars short in the remaining months of this fiscal year.

Romney said they began focusing on what they would do if that were the case and what kind of numbers they would be facing. They began to look at places where they could cut spending immediately to keep state checks from bouncing.

After the inauguration they focused more on what the extent of the shortfall would be and it became clear it would be a pretty substantial number, which turned out to be about $650 million.

Romney, Kriss and Healey sat down early in the process and went through all the agencies. They established what they thought were appropriate targets for spending reductions. Then Kriss met with each department and went through their entire budget, line-by-line and looked for reductions they could make that they thought were fair.

They divided the cuts into three territories: tier one, which were not too bad, tier two, which were getting a little tougher and tier three, which they really didn't want to do.
Tier is spelled "t-e-a-r" quipped Romney.

Then the Governor sat down with Kriss and Healey and every department. They went through every single proposed cut and put together a list. A lot of things were taken off the list, he said, like cuts in payments to welfare recipients and disabled veterans. They made cuts across 180-or-so line items that he hoped were fair and across a wide range.

He says he wants to hear from people so that his cuts are in the right places and the right way and the state continues to do its job properly, likewise in the cities and towns. Lt. Gov. Healey has gone across the state in the last few weeks to listen to mayors and selectmen and town officials to understand how they can cut without preventing them from carrying out their mission.

Romney apologized for having to come before the public and talk about cuts in his first two months as governor. He would rather talk about the "great new programs I'm instituting."

He gave Lt. Gov. Healey responsibility for focusing on proposals for streamlining municipalities. In her update, Healey said one of their goals was to give municipalities as much freedom as possible to manage their finances by trying to remove unfunded mandates and overly restrictive laws.

Healey said they looked at construction reforms that will save the cities and towns billions of dollars if they can get them through the legislature. They even looked at removing small restrictions like the requirement to put legal notices in the newspaper instead of on the internet.

They will also ask the legislature to abolish civil service, which Healey said is an archaic institution that was started in the 1880's before we had labor unions. Now labor unions do all the things that civil service does, she said, but we still have that layer of government.

"This is just part of our efforts to try to remove things in government that are redundant, that just cost us money and don't really give us any value," said Healey.

During a press conference afterward, MassNews asked Governor Romney if he has looked at the cash sitting in various investment funds held by state agencies.

Romney answered, "Well, there are various accounts in different parts of state government and particularly in quasi-independent agencies that when you add them all up, some have indicated could be as large as a billion dollars. That's a huge number, although given how fast we spend money in this state, it's only a couple of weeks worth of spending.

"So you have to have some reserves kept behind so that you can operate state government, but of course we're looking at those reserves and if there is a shortfall in capital gains, we may draw as much as $165 million from those reserves. Then, of course, next year comes along and it's essential to preserve some reserves so that we'll be able to meet shortfalls next year and anytime there is an emergency that arises that has not been predicted."

One reporter asked Romney how his raising fees is different from raising taxes and whether it keeps with his pledge to not raise taxes.

Romney answered by saying they are similar but different. A fee is more narrowly applied and there is a service received for having paid it, in many cases with a choice of receiving that service. He said he wants to look to see if fees match the cost of providing the service.

A reporter referring to recent press reports asked Romney, "Governor if you could write the headline tomorrow, instead of 'axeman,' what would you like it to read?"