In his first address to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce since becoming speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, Robert DeLeo painted a grim picture of the state’s finances, but said he would try to limit withdrawal from the state’s rainy day fund.
Noting rising unemployment, plummeting housing prices, freefalling capital gains receipts and "a massive downward swing" in revenues, he said the state’s current fiscal standing looks "even bleaker than the one the governor faced back in January."
"It’s almost impossible to overstate how dire the situation is," DeLeo said. But, "This is not cause for panic."
DeLeo warned against an over-reliance on one-time federal stimulus funding, and said he would "limit the withdrawal, if any," from the state’s rainy day fund. Instead, he said, the House would have to make billions in cuts – reductions that will "cut to the very core of government’s purpose and mission."
He also mentioned, briefly, that the House will begin reexamining tax credits it grants to various businesses. He offered no further details on that front.
The address focused, nominally, on the Legislature’s much-discussed efforts to pass ethics, pension and transportation reform bills. It also seemed designed to draw a sharp contrast between DeLeo and former Speaker Sal DiMasi. DiMasi had regularly used the chamber forum to launch ambitious initiatives and deliver cutting attacks at political rivals. DeLeo made a point of telling the chamber, "I do not view government as a game where I compete with fellow officials for credit and airtime."
DeLeo noted the Legislature’s catastrophically low public approval ratings, and cast ethics and pension overhaul as a means of regaining "the confidence and trust" that will be necessary to tackle broad overhauls of transportation and health care. He decried well-known pension loopholes as "excesses and extremes" and "the worst kind of inefficiencies," and vowed to "create a more predictable, transparent and inviting [business] environment" while making "government operate more like a well-run business and less like an isolated bureaucracy."
