Left In Lowell

Charley pointed out this very interesting Globe article. It talks about the quiet executive takeover of all the quasi-independent government boards like the Mass Turnpike Authority:

The legislation, expected to be signed by Governor Deval L. Patrick within days, gives the little-known Finance Advisory Board the authority to set rules on how state agencies borrow and manage their money. It also requires that all agencies fully disclose the details of their loan transactions and taxpayers’ financial exposure.

Four of the advisory board’s five members are appointed by the governor’s office, giving the administration substantial control over its actions. The consolidation of power at the board has created some unease on Beacon Hill, but aides to the governor said it will provide financial oversight that is sorely lacking.
…
Financial oversight is especially lacking at more than 20 quasi-public authorities where managers and boards of directors can enter into complex deals with investment banks without any sign off from state lawmakers or the governor.

In decades past, the executive branch of the Commonwealth has hemorrhaged power and oversight over what is, ostensibly, executive responsibility. I think this may have been a result of warring between political parties - the Dems controlled the legislature with comfortable margins, and the Republicans long held the Governor’s seat. By micro-managing the executive branch, or taking power away from it, the legislature limited (in my view) the damage that may have been done by conservative leadership to the infrastructure of our government (Republicans are their own self-fulfilling prophesy, whining about how government doesn’t work and then screwing it up to prove it. Talk to anyone who works with state agencies just how much Romney didn’t care if services were being delivered or not, no matter the legislature-approved budget that he himself often proposed.)

But that also had some terrible effects - for instance, any Governor could blame these agencies, which operate somewhat outside his purview, and the legislature which created them, for all the foibles, the corruption, and the cost overruns and bad management. It also meant that, as Charley puts it, “it’s not always clear who’s in charge, who’s got oversight, whose neck is on the line, and where the buck stops.” That’s bad for accountability and transparency, which is bad for public trust in their government.

People often cited voting for Republican governors as a vote for the balance of power so no one party held all the branches of government. Instead, they got a whole lot of less accountability. Now that we have a Democratic governor (and an intelligent, informed one) maybe we will get the oversight we need to make government work better again.

Because now, for the first time, we’re seeing an effort to reign in these “independent” boards. This was something that Governor Patrick has talked about both in the campaign and after being sworn in. These battles for control of the state’s spending are the untold, nonsexy story of the new leadership. It means a turn in direction for how business gets done in Massachusetts. This is going to seriously ruffle feathers of some seriously powerful people in our state. It means more responsibility resting in the hands of the Governor and his appointees - for good or ill. Charley put it best: “the governor gets either praise or blame — and probably the blame will get more press.”

However, since the pendulum swung far too wide in the direction of nonoversight, this is a necessary step, and it is my belief that Governor Patrick is the right guy to navigate these choppy waters. I think the legislature should be commended for putting their trust in this Governor, and that returning to him the powers that are supposed to be his to begin with is the right thing to do.