After making such a big deal about the need for "1000 new cops on the beat," during the campaign, Deval Patrick, not suprisingly, is now reneging on his campaign promise:
Governor Deval Patrick, faced with a surprisingly tight budget situation, is tempering some of his campaign promises, saying yesterday that he may have to stretch his much touted plan for 1,000 new police officers over several years and stabilize, rather than cut, property taxes."We can definitely start, and we will start down the path of adding more cops on the beat, because I think that's critical," Patrick said yesterday.
Last month, he said on a radio station that "we may not need 1,000 cops" all at once.
And that's not all. He's backtracking on his promise to cut property taxes, too. Though, to be fair, we never believed he intended to such anyway.
He also made it clear that property tax cuts, a recurring campaign theme, are not going to be implemented anytime soon."What we can do is stabilize property taxes to be sure," he said yesterday. "We've got to start there."
Last week he also told a radio interviewer that investments in transportation might have to be deferred, though he did not name specific projects.
Deval Patrick is laying the groundwork for his administration to deliver a fiscal nightmare for our state. Despite his claims that there is a budget deficit of over $1 billion, he restored $383 million in budget cuts made by Mitt Romney at the end of his term.
Meanwhile, he's proposing more programs which will cost more money.
Yesterday, Patrick also proposed the Commonwealth Corps, an agency that would place volunteers in nonprofit jobs across the state. That program will cost $3 million, he said.Except for Deval Patrick, that is.
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Asked how he can justify spending $3 million on Commonwealth Corps given the financial forecast, Patrick said: "No one is interested in wasting money or spending money frivolously."