Affiliated Managers Group, the company headed by Kerry Healey's husband Sean Healey, has returned the tax break it got for moving to the wealthy Prides Crossing neighborhood of Beverly, but that hasn't settled the controversy. Today's Boston Globe has the following statement from Attorney General and 2006 gubernatorial candidate Tom Reilly:
"The reason that Sean Healey and AMG gave the money back was they were caught cheating taxpayers of well over a million dollars," Reilly said in an interview yesterday. "This is inside politics at its very worst, a sweetheart deal with tax breaks to the well-connected and wired, all the way to the top of the Republican Party and the administration. It doesn't even come close to passing the smell test."Reilly is not alone in his criticism. Remember that the original report that brought these tax credits to light charged that they were "handed out as favors". That, of course, didn't stop Romney/Healey campaign spokesman Tim O'Brien, the former executive director of the Massachusetts Republicans, from jumping to the defense of the administration:
"There was no sweetheart deal because the deal was done years before Romney and Healey came into office," he said. "Tom Reilly thinks tax breaks for companies and individuals are a sweetheart deal. But, again, it was awarded years before they came into office."O'Brien is technically right -- AMG got their tax break in 2001, and Kerry Healey did not take office as Lieutenant Governor until January of 2003. Still, the Healey family had tendrils, and more importantly dollars, in Republican Party politics. Kerry ran for the House in 1998 and 2000, and at the very least Sean kicked in the maximum amount to the State Republican Committee in 1998. By the end of 2001, Kerry Healey had not only been elected to the Republican State Committee, but had been chosen as its chairwoman. So, while it's true that Kerry Healey was not in office at the time of the tax breaks, it's ridiculous to say that her and her husband were not influential in the insular world of the Massachusetts GOP. It's obvious that this was an insider deal worthy of Halliburton.
As an aside, I've replaced the offending router, so I should be back to my once or twice a day posting schedule, now with 802.11g! Let's see if you can tell the difference.
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