Charlie Baker's legacy according to Dan Kennedy. (Boston, Lawrence: 2015, how much)

[MrDee12345]

This comes directly from media professor and WGBH comtributor, Dan Kennedy:

The Globe today has a short article on what Charlie Baker thinks his legacy will be. I thought he was an OK governor, but I can't come up with much in listing his actual accomplishments. Here's what I've got.

COVID: Every governor in the country came up short. Remember when we thought Andrew Cuomo was the role model? Good Lord. In that regard, I think Baker probably did as well as any governor and better than most. They all had early failures — Baker's was the Soldiers' Home in Holyoke. But other than that, it was steady-as-she-goes, with neither too much nor too little in the way of restrictions.

Public transportation: After Snowmageddon in 2015, Baker was given more power over the MBTA than any governor in history. His tenure was pretty much a disaster, culminating in a burning Orange Line car over the Mystic River last summer. Overall, the T is in as bad a shape as it's ever been. On the other hand, he legit saved the Green Line Extension.

Public education: The standardized testing will continue until morale improves. This is a guy who doesn't like teachers and who seems to think that every kid can be reduced to a test score. Unimpressive. And yet, unlike every other Republican governor, we heard no offensive foolishness from him about critical race theory, transgender high school athletes or the like.

Budget: Yes, he ran up a big surplus. But then he squandered it by insisting on a $3 billion rebate to taxpayers based on an old law everyone had forgotten about rather than prioritizing more progressive tax reform. The millionaires tax, which does introduce a bit of progressivity, was passed by the voters over his objections.

What are your thoughts?

[bostongymjunkie]

I'm eager to see Charlie move on. I wish Dan would as well. We've been hearing his opinions for decades, and I'm not quite sure why.

[mdovell]

I'm at Dan before years ago he seemed all right but I don't know I think maybe sometimes just run out of things to talk about. With respect to the governor yeah you know what I'll take boring and getting things done rather than pragmatic and promising everything and then nothing gets delivered. The Millionaire's tax I don't think it's going to make any real difference because to be frank if more funding solved things we wouldn't have issues and say Lawrence Public Schools. School receivership does not necessarily fix anything we haven't seen that many districts come out of receivership. As for transportation can anybody legitimately tell me that more funding for the MBTA is going to solve anything? Probably not so your extra means of additional income or not going to solve anything.

I just had a conversation with a public director and he told me that when the state offered their employees a compensation package to retire early for health care they did it. And he couldn't compete with the state so therefore there was just more openings where he is. We are in a very strange situation right now. If populations aren't growing we're all still getting older and that's going to make it a lot harder to feel jobs, especially lower level jobs.

I just went to Europe and when I came back and took a half an hour to get my luggage because there was only one person assisting with the luggage to turn things around but it's a manual labor job of just moving them around so of course it's not going to attract as many people.

I don't think I would mind them running for president at this point. I think Romney is just too old

[lrfox]

A couple of comments:

COVID: Every governor in the country came up short. Remember when we thought Andrew Cuomo was the role model? Good Lord. In that regard, I think Baker probably did as well as any governor and better than most. They all had early failures — Baker's was the Soldiers' Home in Holyoke. But other than that, it was steady-as-she-goes, with neither too much nor too little in the way of restrictions.

Dan's really downplaying the Soldier's Home disaster here. 76 people died in a state-run facility that was lead by a woefully unqualified (which Baker knew) appointee of Baker. Yes, there was a steep learning curve at the start of COVID and all Governors made mistakes. But apart from Cuomo, I can't think of a mistake with such tragic results that can be directly attributed to mismanagement at the state government level. It's particularly bad considering his history on both the public and private side of health and human services. To me, his "steady-as-she-goes" approach (which was commendable) will forever be overshadowed by the Soldier's Home mess.

Public transportation: After Snowmageddon in 2015, Baker was given more power over the MBTA than any governor in history. His tenure was pretty much a disaster, culminating in a burning Orange Line car over the Mystic River last summer. Overall, the T is in as bad a shape as it's ever been. On the other hand, he legit saved the Green Line Extension.

Yeah, this one stands out too. He did revive the GLX from dead (and was able to keep the Community Path extension). He also got South Coast Rail underway (albeit the watered-down phased build instead of the better "full build.") - something Patrick promised and never actually delivered on. And I was optimistic after 2015. He was investing in a lot of the less sexy stuff that we'd been complaining about for decades (track updates, signal issues, upgraded technology, etc.). But I don't think anyone could call the T under Baker a "success" or even say it's making real progress. To be completely fair, so much of what's happened in recent years was probably out of his control. The Orange Line fire is case-in-point. That was a 40 year old train that was slated to be replaced a few years ago but was still on the tracks because of massive issues with CCRC (many self inflicted, many pandemic related) which was a contract his predecessor (now infamously) awarded. But, the culmination of all of that happened under Baker's watch, so he's going to get the blame from the public. If he was proactive and prioritized the T from day one in 2015, it's likely that we would have avoided at least some of the current mess and the backlog of deferred maintenance. Instead, he took a reactive approach (reacting to the snow storm shutdowns in 2015 and reacting to the OL and RL disasters last year) and we are where we are. Overall, a mixed bag skewing a little towards negative in my opinion.

[BostonBornMassMade]

He was pretty bad.

Marty Walsh and Deval are responsible for the biotech boom.

Marty Walsh allowed us to really build- in that respect baker didn’t show up until the 11th hour.

State Police? He never even tried.

Holyoke….

The T….

People just like him because they see who they want to be in him- centrist, tall, fairly handsome and rich. He was “an adult”

For a dude that didn’t even pretend to have a grand vision for the state he was an absolute terrible “technocrat” I see why he lost twice before, should’ve never been more than treasurer (but really should’ve been a corporate accountant)

Opposing legal marijuana was foolish-especially in hindsight. I mean what did he think was gonna happen?

His total disregard for the environment and environmentalism doesn’t get enough flack either. State legislature had to do it themselves.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

He was “an adult”

Yes, but lets not understate this. This is a remarkable achievement for the Republican party. Effectively he is a unicorn.

[massnative71]

I see this as way more than the sorry excuse of a politician and individual he is; but more a reflection on the ignorant, clueless and naive electorate that is responsible for the dire situation we are in right now. Thank you Boston Globe for keeping us happy and stupid. Stockholm Syndrome, anybody?

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by timberline742

Yes, but lets not understate this. This is a remarkable achievement for the Republican party. Effectively he is a unicorn.

LOL good one sparky, we'll see how much of an "adult" your new darling Democrat becomes. Grandstanding Miss. want to "ban assault weapons", when she doesn't even bother reading up on what an assault weapon is. Or file a frivolous lawsuit against oil company, then punk out when asked to testify? Adult all the way...

[bostongymjunkie]

Originally Posted by massnative71

LOL good one sparky, we'll see how much of an "adult" your new darling Democrat becomes. Grandstanding Miss. want to "ban assault weapons", when she doesn't even bother reading up on what an assault weapon is. Or file a frivolous lawsuit against oil company, then punk out when asked to testify? Adult all the way...

Yeah, wonder when the other party will produce an adult. lol

[htfdcolt]

Originally Posted by timberline742

Yes, but lets not understate this. This is a remarkable achievement for the Republican party. Effectively he is a unicorn.

^This. And not just an adult in terms of his executive presence, but also in reaching out overtly to the other side of the aisle. Not just in a perfunctory manner, but often championing causes dear to the left/center--positioning the state as an abortion sanctuary, and all the clean energy investments...both in his lame duck final year. This spirit of compromise and seeking common ground is one of the big reasons he was headhunted for the NCAA role.