Bipartisan appeal may be in this Mitt
Welcome to the 2004 version of Mitt Romney.
He's an
education governor, backing his promises with concrete plans and real money.
He's a reformer, smarter than before and tying his hoped-for savings to new
goodies for cities and towns. And while the
Legislature is in a tizzy over gay marriage, the subject didn't come up once in
last week's 2,300-word State of the State speech. The governor has figured out
that in
Last year some thought Romney a "starve the beast" conservative, determined to shrink the size and scope of government. This year he's becoming the kind of Republican a Democrat easily could learn to like. Just ask Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. Romney signed a property tax-relief bill Menino desperately wanted, coming out in support even ahead of Democratic House Speaker Thomas Finneran. Menino and Romney are hardly buddies, but a thaw has begun.
And Romney seems to be pulling this off without sacrificing his outsider principles.
The centerpiece of Romney's agenda is the alliteratively titled "Legacy of Learning," chock full of stuff designed to appeal to policy wonks and middle-class voters.
For example, Romney proposes that kids who score in the top quarter of the MCAS get free tuition to a state college (those scoring in the top 10 percent would get another $2,000 to be applied to school fees). He wants the state to fund full-day kindergarten and hopes to spend $20 million more for after-school and summer- school programs. The governor aims to give principals greater authority over hiring and firing of teachers. And his budget folks have dreamed up a creative way to jump-start the construction of 420 proposed new schools now sitting on the state's waiting list.
Sure, one can quibble with some of these ideas. One Romney proposal, for mandatory parent preparation courses, has an off- putting, Big Brotherish feel to it. The college scholarships aren't as great as they might seem, either. Required fees, room and board at UMass-Amherst, for example, are around $12,500. Tuition, on the other hand, is just $1,714. It's a real savings, to be sure, but hardly a free ride.
In addition, there's some worry about the school construction program, which entails stretching loan terms from 20 years to 40 years. The useful life of much that the state helps finance is shorter than 40 years. Absent careful planning, districts someday could find themselves paying for properties they no longer are using.
Still, Romney is rightly focusing on what should be the state government's No. 1 priority: education. His proposals pick up on the school reform efforts initiated by the state in 1993, stress MCAS as the centerpiece of that effort and answer critics who feared that last year's budget cuts would undermine the progress the state had been making.
Still, one has to wonder, as several legislators did: From where will we get the money?
It's a relevant question, especially given that Romney's new spending proposals include more than just education: He wants to boost local aid and fund a $500 million increase in health and human services as well. After all, Romney's budget chief last year called the state's budget condition "the most serious fiscal crisis in 60 years." And revenue estimates for the upcoming fiscal year suggest that the state could face a shortfall of up to $1 billion.
Romney's answer is "reform." Merge the Turnpike Authority into the highway department, change construction-bidding rules and increase the amount of privatization. It's a rhetorically powerful argument: "Our choice is this," he said, "Do we waste $20 million of taxpayer money every year on two highway departments or do we invest in schools, scholarships and teachers?" (And how perfect was it that Democrats in the audience refused to applaud or even booed when Romney made this point?)
Yet even if Romney gets much of the reform he wants, it's questionable whether it adds up to be enough to pay for his initiatives and balance the budget.
That's OK.
Because the governor has an ace up his sleeve: the
improving economy. On the same day Romney was addressing the Legislature, New
York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was trumpeting his own extraordinary news: In one
year, the city had gone from a $6.4 billion deficit to a $1.4 billion surplus.
It's a sign of things to come for
Last year's gloom, with its emphasis on cuts and more cuts, got Romney little but criticism and falling poll numbers. This year's agenda - coupling reform with spending - has far more appeal. It casts Romney as a visionary who still has no truck with the sclerotic and patronage-laden bureaucracy.
If he can hold true to that theme - and the money is around to fund it - the governor will have laid the groundwork for re- election in 2006.
Talk back to Tom Keane at TomKeane@TomKeane.com.