Mr. Patrick Goes (Back) To Boston
About a week ago, the voters of Massachusetts reelected Gov. Deval Patrick, granting him a second term in office.
In defeat, Republican candidate Charlie Baker, the former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, was gracious. He said there is no doubt that each candidate sincerely wanted what’s best for the commonwealth, but differed on the policies and practices to use in order to achieve their goals.
In a Worcester Business Journal poll, Baker was the clear favorite. Certainly his business background, leadership credentials and laid back demeanor were looked upon favorably by our readership.
But as Patrick prepares for a second term leading a state still struggling to come to grips with its own post-recession economy, we’d like to take some time to discuss what he can do to for business in the challenging years ahead.
Top Priorities
Massachusetts currently has an unemployment rate of about 8.4 percent, significantly lower than the nation.
That’s no comfort to the state’s nearly 300,000 jobless residents or the businesses that would potentially hire them if the prospect didn’t appear quite so risky or expensive, especially in the aftermath of an election season in which candidates of all stripes claimed they could “create jobs.”
Hopefully, we all realize that politicians cannot create jobs, but they can, and should, help create an environment that is conducive to the creation of jobs by the businesses that inhabit the state.
Of utmost importance for Patrick, then, is to find a way to ease the health-care cost burden for businesses, especially small businesses, for which double-digit premium increases are especially shocking and unsustainable.
The state’s near universal coverage is honorable, but the job hasn’t been finished. Whether caps on what can be charged for care, the rationing of certain procedures and services or limits on medical malpractice awards, Patrick must step in to tame the system.
Patrick’s next priority must be to convince the state Legislature to intervene in the state’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund to stop an automatic 40 percent increase in unemployment insurance rates that await employers at the end of the first quarter.
The Legislature had the foresight to do so last year, and as the state’s economy limps into recovery, we think it’s even more important to do so again this year.
The unemployment insurance scenario underscores how important it is for Patrick’s office not only to encourage the Legislature to act in a pro-business manner, but to advocate for more balanced, predictable, long-term economic policy that treats the business community more as a partner than a revenue source.
Without such an effort, the state’s world-class education system will simply be a training ground for professionals who have no choice but to seek employment elsewhere.
Plugged In
Another concern we hear repeatedly is the need to reduce the cost of energy, particularly electricity, in Massachusetts.
No business wants to pollute the environment with harmful emissions. No business wants to use its resources inefficiently, especially when they are so costly.
That does not mean businesses can be expected to stand idly by while rates increase so quickly and dramatically that they can’t keep up just because government feels good about one alternative energy source or another.
We encourage Patrick to take on a balanced, fair approach in this regard. There are a number of energy sources available to Massachusetts ratepayers that can be implemented with little drama or cost.
The alternative to sky-high energy costs isn’t a dirty environment or a lack of opportunity for the clean-energy industry, it’s an economy that can’t grow. And without growth, the Bay States future is dark indeed.
We’d like to take some time to discuss what Gov. Patrick can do to for business in the challenging years ahead.
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