Patrick wants to ‘fix’ governor’s immigrant arrest policy, calls it ‘bad idea’
by Statehouse News ServiceDecember 7, 2006 -- Gov.-elect Deval Patrick said Thursday he is exploring whether he can revoke powers Gov. Mitt Romney is trying to grant the State Police to arrest illegal immigrants during routine law enforcement activities, and quibbled with Romney over the state’s fiscal resources.
Patrick told reporters, “I still think it’s a bad idea, and I’m going to get briefed by the secretary of public safety on exactly what the agreement is and what the guidelines are, and then I’m going to be looking at my power and my opportunities to fix what I think is broken.”
Asked by a reporter if he was saying he would undo the policy if he could, Patrick said, “I’m saying wait and see. I’m going to investigate what power I have.”
The crackdown plan, which Romney is seeking to enact amidst revelations that unauthorized immigrants had landscaped for him at his Belmont home for years, has been roundly criticized by immigrant advocates, who say it poses a public safety and health threat by discouraging unauthorized immigrants from seeking help.
Romney communications director Eric Fehrnstrom said the state expected to make an announcement about the policy, which is in the finalization stage. He said, “The law is the law, whether you agree with it or not. The federal government provides a mechanism for State Police to assist in upholding the … nation’s immigration’s laws, and it can be done without disrupting their normal routines and responsibilities.”
Fehrnstrom declined to comment on Patrick’s intentions.
At a downtown press conference introducing Massport CFO Leslie Kirwan as his budget chief, Patrick also warned that he can’t find a surplus in his budget reviews, and looked to tamp down the notion discussed during the campaign that the state is running a surplus.
“There was a lot of talk during the campaign about a budget surplus. I don’t see that budget surplus, I am looking hard to see where the – not just for the surplus, but to see where the flexibilities are, and where the contingencies are,” Patrick said.
Romney said Sept. 26 that the state was enjoying a surplus of “over $1 billion a year.” Since, his revenue commissioner has raised the fiscal 2007 revenue estimate by $200 million, while aides cautioned that nearly all of those overruns will likely arrive on the back end of this fiscal year, which concludes June 30.
Romney, claiming the Legislature was overspending, last month cut $425 million from the state budget, but then restored $41 million this month based on November tax collections that exceeded estimates.
Backdropped by a black curtain, and flanked by American and Massachusetts flags, Patrick said Thursday, “It’s apparent to me that we are … at a point not just in my own study but in everybody’s observation where we need a candid and fresh look at exactly where we are from a fiscal point of view and that is what I’ve charged the new secretary to do.”
Patrick said he was investigating the legality of some of the roughly $380 million Romney unilaterally chopped from the state budget because, the current governor said, the Legislature was putting the state on track for another fiscal crisis. Romney aides dispute charges by Ways and Means chair Sen. Therese Murray (D-Plymouth) that Romney exceeded his authority in as much as $91 million of the cuts.
Fehrnstrom said Patrick’s statement about an elusive surplus “argues in favor of keeping the spending cuts in place.” Later, he emailed, “Deval Patrick is right to wonder where all the money has gone. The answer is, it's been spent by the Legislature.”
Sen. Richard Tisei, the Wakefield Republican expected to take over as minority leader in January, echoed Fehrnstrom’s charge that the state runs a surplus his Democratic colleagues then spend.
"I think they both are right," Tisei said of Romney and Patrick. "The state did take in more revenue this year than last, but the Legislature spent everything and more that came in in new revenue."
Tisei, who met with Patrick shortly after his election, said he expects the governor to struggle with advocacy groups and municipalities who were buoyed by the increasing revenues and Patrick's own upbeat campaign rhetoric. "I think it's going to be very challenging for him."
During his late-morning press conference, Patrick said he is reviewing the human impact of the “9C” reductions, adding, “I’m going to finish my homework and then make those judgments in advance of having the power to do something about them, so that when I have the power I can act as fast as possible.”
Kirwan is the first Cabinet official named by Patrick, whose administration has been populated slowly, while he has deployed 15 “working groups” to tackle different subjects in over 50 meetings scheduled across the state.
Speculation about whom Patrick will tap for the first Democratic administration in 16 years has sizzled on Beacon Hill, with many legislators privately speculating whether they could be of service.
Asked why he’d planned an extravagant inauguration, hitting several regions across five days and reportedly costing over $1 million, Patrick said, “Because it’s a big Commonwealth and there are a lot of people who usually don’t get invited to things like this, and they will be.”
Patrick said donors to the inauguration, who face a $50,000 limit, will not include tobacco, gaming, firearms, or Big Dig companies, and that other companies would also be vetted.
The 49-year-old Kirwan, who will become the first female administration and finance secretary, said she thinks so-called local option taxes should be considered as municipalities struggle to raise revenues. That suggestion came in response to a reporter’s question.
A former Executive Office of Administration and Finance chief of staff under Gov. Bill Weld and deputy commissioner of the Department of Revenue’s Division of Local Services, she said she didn’t think her political leanings “have ever really been an issue, or really mattered,” and said she voted for Patrick.
Kirwan said, “The governor gave me a really good phrase that I’m going to keep in mind as we do this and that’s that he wants A+F to ‘lean forward.’ I think that’s a really good way to describe it, that we will on one hand keep a very firm eye on what the financial capacity is but we will try to lean forward to find creative solutions to the kinds of programs that the governor has in mind to deliver on.”
She answered a question about helping cities and towns lower property taxes by saying she wanted to “stabilize and be predictable about the amount of local aid that can be available” through early distribution of “cherry sheet information” for local budget planning. Municipalities, accustomed to a lack of agreement on local aid levels on Beacon Hill, often enter springtime Town Meetings without a clear picture of a key ingredient in local budgets: aid from the state.
Both early cherry sheets and another idea Kirwan floated, centralizing municipal employee health insurance plans under the state Group Insurance Commission, have been Republican-championed policies in recent years.
“All of those things will help to relieve local budgets,” Kirwan said. She said, “One of the most exciting things about this new challenge is the opportunity to work again with local officials to help deliver on Gov. Patrick’s vision of a vibrant, collaborative relationship between his administration and the cities and towns.”
Patrick said Kirwan would make roughly $150,000 per year. At Massport, she reportedly earned $161,000 and Kirwan said she would check for Massport sick leave under a policy recently revised after Romney, Patrick and others ripped what were widely viewed as excessive executive benefits.
In the closely watched game of who attends Patrick’s transition events, Thursday attendees not already appointed to administration posts included communications aides Larry Carpman, Libby DeVecchi, Richard Chacón and Cyndi Roy.
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