Here we go again...Deval Patrick is spoiling himself with taxpayer money when the rest of the state is struggling.
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.
And it gets better...
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.
Nearly half a million dollars of taxpayer money towards the office in Washington DC? Seems a bit excessive. Republicans are, shall we say, a bit concerned by the increases.
“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.”
In a time that should see the state trying to save money, Governor Patrick wants to spend it unnecessarily. Even in better economic times, such increases would still seem gratuitous.
How much more of our hard earned money does Deval Patrick want to take out of our hands? What happened to the fiscal responsibility? Perhaps Deval Patrick's own personal financial missteps are being carried over into his administration of the state.
Maybe we do need that office in DC to help bring money fund Deval's lavish spending.
