Keller @ Large: The Challenges Facing Charlie Baker
BOSTON (CBS) - Charlie Baker spent part of his last day as governor-elect Wednesday visiting the Frost Middle School in Lawrence, a model of constructive education reform where the kids are racking up the highest test scores in that beleaguered school district.
Read: Inauguration Day For Charlie Baker
He laughed and applauded as the students delivered first-rate musical and dramatic performances. And in warm remarks to a gym packed with members of the Frost community, he rattled off the names of all of his middle-school teachers as a measure of their importance in his life.
"For you, like me," he told the kids, "this is where it all starts."
And today, in the well of the Massachusetts House, it all starts for the Baker era, one with many challenges, the promise of significant change, and, at first glance, that unpredictable commodity all politicians crave but some never enjoy, a little bit of luck.
THE CHALLENGES
Start with the challenges.
The new governor will immediately set to work figuring a way out from under a mid-fiscal-year budget deficit estimated as high as a billion dollars, only a fraction of the overall state budget, but still a significant problem. No new governor wants to start out with budget cuts, but Baker has little choice. If he can get it done by harvesting low-hanging fruit by pink-slipping some of his predecessor's less-necessary hires, fine. But expect some of the cuts to be controversial, posing an early test of Baker's legislative relations.
Another immediate challenge cited by Baker – fixing the Health Care Connector, the state's online health-plan marketplace that is working better than during last year's meltdown, but is still a source of frustration for thousands of customers. Look for more Connector managers to join outgoing executive director Jean Yang in the job market. And board member Jonathan Gruber may not make it to the end of his appointed term on July 1.
In a brief interview Wednesday, Baker told us he believes he won in part because voters "would like to see what I describe as a more customer-centric and service-oriented government. I heard about the Registry [of Motor Vehicles] pretty much everywhere I went, and that's pretty far up there on our list of things I think we need to fix." So, next time you visit the RMV, compare your wait time with the last time you went there.
If it's down, Baker is off to a good start. If it isn't, watch out.
THE CHANGES
As for changes, perhaps the most significant one we've already seen is the appointment of veteran charter-school champion Jim Peyser as secretary of Education.
Read: Baker's Cabinet Nearly Full
Outgoing Sec. Mitchell Chester was also a charter-school fan, but he did not always enjoy steadfast support from the governor when teacher unions and their legislative allies pushed back against reforms like lifting the cap on charter schools. After a devastating defeat in the Senate last year, watch for the cap-lift proponents to be back at it soon, another key test of Baker's knowledge of the legislative process and skill at manipulating it.
And about the luck factor – don't underestimate that.
Gov. Deval Patrick had the bad luck of seeing the US economy collapse during his second year in office, effectively washing away most of his more-grandiose plans for government activism.
As Baker enters, there are strong signs that, finally, the economy is back on track; the Associated Industries of Massachusetts Business Confidence Index finished the year at its highest level since the summer of 2007.
'KEEP AN OPEN MIND'
Our new governor knows that he barely squeaked into office, and when we asked him Wednesday what he wants the 51-percent of voters who chose someone else to be thinking about as he takes the oath of office, he said: "we just ask people to keep an open mind."
Most of them will, and I expect the new governor to fuel that goodwill Thursday with a forward-looking speech short on flowery rhetoric or expansive promises.
How long with those minds stay open?
Stay tuned.
You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.
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