With simply over per week left in workplace, Gov. Charlie Baker spoke on the best achievements, failures and issues from his time within the governor’s workplace — addressing every little thing from COVID-19 technique to late commutations to a return to “Taxachusetts.”
There are “a lot of things” he’d like a do-over on, Baker stated as he mirrored on the early COVID-19 period throughout a WBZ exit interview over the weekend.
“But the one thing about public life in real time is you don’t get a do-over — you basically have to play the hand and make adjustments as you go,” the outgoing governor advised Jon Keller. “And try to be really aggressive about making adjustments when you realize that you have a problem that you didn’t anticipate.”
Scheduled to make his “lone walk” out of the Massachusetts State House on Jan. 4, Baker will probably be leaving workplace as one of the fashionable governors within the nation.
Democratic Gov.-Elect Maura Healey and Lt. Gov.-Elect Kim Driscoll are set to be sworn within the following day.
On Dec. 15, Baker introduced he will probably be leaving politics behind and stepping again into collegiate sports activities — the 6’6″ governor performed briefly as a ahead for the Harvard basketball group — as the brand new NCAA president following the top of his time period.
The reasonable Republican is abandoning a typically favorable legacy — although, he famous over the weekend, management turned particularly tough in the course of the pandemic.
“I would argue every decision that we made during the COVID pandemic was enormously difficult,” Baker stated, later including, “I’m just going to have to live with every decision I made during the course of that period of time as one where probably nobody would be happy.”
The governor additionally famous the troublesome pardon and commutation choices he’s made extra lately — balancing the inmates’ scenario, circumstances and work atoning with the impact of their crimes.
As his time period ends, the workplace has “done far more pardons and far more commutations than any administration I think going back to the 80s,” Baker stated.
The incoming administration has many challenges forward, Baker stated, probably the most salient of which can be housing.
“(Housing) was the main issue that came up in our post-pandemic research report that we issued in 2021 as the biggest single challenge the Commonwealth faces from a competitive point of view,” stated Baker.
The administration spent eight years “sounding the alarm” on housing, he stated, and campaigned for laws and billions in funds to kickstart huge residence building.
The excessive price of housing in Massachusetts is turning into a robust deterrent for extra younger folks with new distant work choices, Baker stated.
And the millionaires tax could damage issues, Bake warned, echoing his constant place on the modification handed by voters in November.
“I think it does send a message to people that the effective tax rate here if you sell a home, if you sell a business, if you run a business, even a small one, is gonna be 9%,” Baker stated.
Baker urged the incoming administration to “set up a trust fund” to trace and report income from the brand new tax.
For the sake of points just like the millionaires tax and Prop 2½, Baker stated, there’s a have to rebuild “creative tension and constructive engagement” between the events.
“We need to have a healthy and engaged and competitive Republican party,” Baker stated. “We simply do. And we don’t now. I definitely plan to attempt to assist proper the ship on that one going ahead.
“We won’t get there unless people start to recognize and appreciate, especially in the leadership of the Republican party, that winning elections in Massachusetts is not about extremism,” the reasonable continued. “It’s about just the opposite. It’s about being willing to accept and acknowledge the fact that there are a lot of points of view here and that’s OK.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”
