Mitt Romney: His Claims as Governor Don't Match The Facts

http://www.2partyReform.blogspot.com/
finding practical ways to move from a republic towards a democracy and holding the media accountable for substantive, critical reporting of important issues....

A candidate's record of legislation they supported and opposed in their years of public service is the most relevant information voters can rely on to determine their choices. A legislator must be judged on their yays and nays on bills and an executive must be judged on all bills signed into legislation, those vetoed, and those bills championed by the executive but not passed by the legislature.....

Rick Byerly

Please note that anything not in italics are comments by myself...

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The mainstream media seems content to allow Mitt Romney the "latitude" of claiming many things as a one term Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007. Below you will see his claims and what really happened. Multiple news sources are cited but not blogs or posts from websites of groups/organizations etc. Since Mitt Romney claims his experience as an executive is what makes him more qualified than John McCain let's see what his one term as Massachusetts Governor really brought...

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/specials/romney/articles/part6_main/?page=full

Source is the Boston Globe- others are cited at the bottom.

A major claim from Mitt Romney:

The website of his presidential campaign summarizes his version of history: ''Without raising taxes or increasing debt, Governor Romney closed a $3 billion budget deficit his first year in office with a heavily Democrat (sic) legislature. Each year, Governor Romney filed a balanced budget without raising taxes. By eliminating waste, streamlining government, and enacting comprehensive economic reforms to help spur growth, Governor Romney helped the state achieve a surplus totaling nearly $1 billion in 2005.''

what the Globe says:

Romney and the Legislature did approve an austere budget to deal with nearly all of a projected shortfall, which never fully materialized because tax collections came in more than $1.2 billion above preliminary estimates. The spending plan also raised at least $331 million through increased fees for permits, licenses, and services - about a 45-percent jump - and $128 million in tax code tweakings to close ''loopholes'' affecting businesses. Another $181 million in ''loophole'' closings - businesses called them tax increases - followed in the next two years.

Romney didn't raise taxes?

Data compiled by The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan research group in Washington, shows that during Romney's four years as governor, the state and local tax burden in Massachusetts increased from 10 percent to 10.6 percent of per capita income.

a 1 Billion Dollar Surplus from Romney?

Of Romney's assertion about the 2005 surplus, ''There never was a $1 billion surplus,'' said Michael J. Widmer, president of the business-funded Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.

The state comptroller's office reported a surplus of $594.4 million, but Widmer said that overstates the true surplus because it includes a $150-million accounting change that pushed payment of Medicaid bills into the next fiscal year.

Early in his administration, Romney contended that he squeezed more than $1 billion in waste out of the budget. ''I said at the time it was no more than $100 million in waste he eliminated through reforms, and I was being very generous,'' Widmer said. ''Reform had next to nothing to do with the change in the state's financial picture.''

more details about Romney's record:

Romney has asserted that the fee increases totaled only $260 million in fiscal 2004 but that ignores at least $71 million in new fees implemented shortly after he took office.
One major fee hike was clearly excessive - a 2-cent-per-gallon increase in a special gasoline fee, implemented during the fiscal crisis without fanfare, even though it affects every motorist in the state.
The increase generates about $60 million per year for a program to clean up contamination around underground fuel storage tanks, but since its inception has produced surpluses of more than $40 million a year above the actual cost of the program, according to a report done by the Department of Revenue in response to a Globe request.
Raised from half a cent to 2.5 cents per gallon in April 2003, ostensibly to pay for a backlog of cleanup claims, the fee is on top of the 21-cent-per-gallon state tax on gasoline.

More Sources:

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071213/NEWS08/312130115/-1/news08

Tax Cuts and Romney:

When it comes to cutting federal taxes, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's plans are bold and sweeping.He promises to eliminate all taxes on savings and investment for the middle class, slash the corporate income tax rate by nearly 30 percent and make all the Bush tax cuts permanent.

But as governor of Massachusetts, Romney had only one bold tax-cutting idea: reduce the state income tax from 5.3 percent to 5 percent. And on that cause, he failed.

No way! What about the tax cuts everyone keeps talking about he brought forth in Massachusetts?

Romney was able to get through tax cuts totaling about $70 million a year, as well as a one-time $250 million capital gains tax rebate on revenue collected in 2002. However, Romney also raised fees and eliminated corporate tax loopholes to generate close to $400 million needed to help balance the state budget, which faced a large deficit when he took office. He also cut spending to make up part of that deficit.

Yeah but that's a tough state to lower taxes overall in, right?

"...the two elected Republican governors before Romney – Bill Weld and Paul Cellucci – both secured big tax breaks."

But didn't Weld have veto powers that Romney didn't?

Former Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Jane Swift said Romney has a weak defense because Weld only had enough Republican state senators to sustain a veto the first two of his eight years in office.

Mitt Romney signed legislation which forced all citizens of Massachusetts to buy health insurance or pay a fine....

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200606u/nj_crook_2006-06-27

When the law goes into effect in July 2007, every resident will have to have health insurance. Residents who don't have an employer-provided scheme and who are ineligible for Medicare or Medicaid will have to buy insurance for themselves.

So is Mitt Romney for universal health care then?

You have to read the whole article as there's a lot details!

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200606u/nj_crook_2006-06-27

other sources about Mitt Romney's record:

http://concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070503/REPOSITORY/705030311

http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9441455

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[where:pittsburgh,pa]

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