Healey on the Defensive

Today's Brian McGrory column in the Boston Globe savages Lieutenant Governor (and presumptive 2006 Republican gubernatorial nominee) Kerry Healey on her reaction to claims that the administration squelched a report by the Inspector General which criticized a incentive program under which her husband benefited to the tune of $1 million. McGrory argues that Healey should have just admitted that the tax incentive program, which was supposed to incourage businesses to move into blighted areas but ended up being "handed out as favors", was not operating as it was intended. Instead she got defensive, evasive and accused her critics of playing politics -- I suppose there's a lot of that going around in Republican circles these days. Here's the money quote, but you should read the whole column:

Kerry Healey denied, dodged, and damned. She denied that she or the governor played any role in squelching a state report that was initially critical of the incentives, quickly withdrawn, and dramatically softened. She dodged questions over whether there were problems with the program. And she damned Inspector General Gregory W. Sullivan, telling the Globe's Frank Phillips, "That's not the area of his expertise."

Expertise? He's the inspector general, emphasis intended. His expertise is taxpayer abuse, and Sean Healey's tax incentive appears to fall right within his wheelhouse. Beyond that, Sullivan, a Harvard grad, holds a master's degree from MIT's Sloan School of Management with a concentration in finance. Short of having Alan Greenspan investigate tax breaches in Massachusetts, I'm feeling pretty good about the guy we have.

Of course, Republicans are clucking that Sullivan, a Democrat, is politically motivated in his investigation. Let's see, the tax incentive in question was written under Bill Weld. Weld later served on the board of Affiliated Managers Group Inc., Healey's company. AMG's chief financial officer is Darrell Crate, former chairman of the state Republican Party. Ray Howell, Weld's former strategist, is AMG's spokesman. Guys, do you really want to start talking about political motivations?

For more information on the squelching of the Department of Revenue's report check out what I wrote last month, or this post at Blue Mass. Group. Or, I suppose you could just read about it in the Globe.