By Elaine Donnelly
Extending sexual misconduct to combat units
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Facing a budget deficit of $3 billion when he took over as Massachusetts governor in 2003, Mitt Romney immediately instituted emergency spending cuts, raised fees on items such as birth certificates, gun licenses and boat registrations, and closed corporate tax breaks to solve the shortfall.
"His characterization on the campaign trail that he was able to balance the budget, and close the deficit through better management and reforms, that is simply not backed up by the facts," said Michael J. Widmer, president of the nonpartisan Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, which regularly challenged aspects of Mr. Romney's spending plans. "My overall comment about his approach, when you look at the substance of it, is that he [closed the budget gaps] the same way that governors forever have done it when they are facing fiscal crises, and that is to identify new sources of revenue and places to cut."
"The gimmicks were not adopted," the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation's Mr. Widmer said. "They did adopt his revenues, and then they had to adopt spending cuts. But they didn't adopt the reforms, and it was unclear that the reforms would have produced the savings anyway."
