Deval Patrick’s 80% office budget hike blasted
The Boston Herald, 5/23/08
By Casey Ross
Despite a slumping economy and looming budget crunch, Gov. Deval Patrick has hiked his office budget by an astonishing 80 percent, adding questionable new staff positions like “director of grassroots governance” and pumping millions into an extravagant “civic engagement” program.
“We know the governor had a goal of creating 100,000 new jobs in his first term, we just didn’t know he was going to create them all in the Corner Office,” said Sen. Michael Knapik (R-Westfield).
Added State Sen. Scott Brown (R-Wrentham): “People in my district are asking, ‘What is this guy doing?’ They get 1 to 2 percent increases for their schools, and he gets almost 80 percent? How do you explain that?”
Patrick’s office budget has skyrocketed to $9 million this fiscal year, a boost of nearly $4 million from fiscal 2007, Republican lawmakers said. Much of the increase is due to a $3 million appropriation for Patrick’s new Commonwealth Corps, a volunteerism program aimed at promoting “civic engagement” across the state.
Patrick has also increased spending by hundreds of thousands of dollars on internal staff.
Among the new positions and their salaries:
Director of grassroots governance: $50,000
Grassroots goverance liaison: $39,000
Director of new media and online strategy: $68,000.
What’s more, Patrick is spending more than $450,000 on an office in Washington, D.C., to help lure federal dollars to fund Medicaid, transportation, housing and other priorities.
During the Senate budget debate, Minority Leader Richard Tisei raised questions about the additional spending and suggested Patrick’s Washington office is unnecessary.
“We have Democratic delegation who’s in the majority in Congress, we have Democratic state Legislature and we have a Democratic governor, so why is all this money necessary for the Washington, D.C., office?” asked Tisei(R-Wakefield). “It seems extravagant to me.”
Aides to the governor defended the additional spending, saying it is meant to improve operations in the governor’s office after Romney cut the number of employees into the 60s. Patrick has increased the staff to 76 full-time positions.
“Unlike some previous administrations, this administration is serious about moving the commonwealth forward,” Patrick spokeswoman Cyndi Roy said.
She also sought to portray money to increase staffing in the Washington office as an important investment. “The office is critical to maintaining a strong partnership with our legislative delegation, especially when billons of dollars in federal funds for Massachsuetts are at stake,” she said.
Roy defended the internal office hires for new media and grassroots coordination, saying, “The people of Massachusetts deserve to have their voices heard.”
Still, Republicans succeeded in winning approval of a measure in the overwhelmingly Democratic Senate that would force Patrick to post online the job titles and duties of all employees in his office.
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