Governor May Deliver Ambulance

Governor Deval Patrick may be leaving Norfolk a parting gift from his visit to town Saturday: a new am­bulance for the Fire Department. Patrick stopped short of promising the ambulance, but sounded interested in providing one in the state’s capital budget for the coming fiscal year, possibly in lieu of prison mitigation funds that Norfolk has lost amid budget cuts during the past couple of years.

(Above): Governor Deval Patrick answers an audience member’s question at Saturday’s event at Norfolk Public Library. Photo by Matt McDonald Ambulance “We’ll do what we can. We have a little more flex­ibility on the capital side than we do on the operating budget,” Patrick said in an interview with The Norfolk Boomerang as he was leaving Norfolk Public Library. “… If we can make it happen, we will.”

Patrick spent about an hour at the town’s library Saturday afternoon, drawing about 75 people to the campaign event.

Governor Deval Patrick, middle, accepts a Main St. sign from Jim Giebfried, head of the Norfolk Democratic Town Committee, right, dur­ing Patrick’s campaign stop at Norfolk Public Library on Saturday, May 15. Giebfried explained that the sign is meant to remind Patrick that he represents everyone. At left is Bill Buckley, chairman of the Walpole Democratic Town Committee. Photo by Matt McDonald It was the first time a sitting Massachusetts gover­nor has made an official visit to the town of Norfolk in recent memory. Patrick is locked in a volatile three-way race for governor with likely Republican nominee Charley Bak­er and independent Tim Cahill, the state treasurer. Patrick looked unelectable several months ago, but in a poll released this past week found he is leading both Baker and Cahill.

Patrick never mentioned or even alluded to his op­ponents during his talk in Norfolk and time answering questions from the podium. After a stump speech, Patrick fielded questions from Norfolk’s three selectmen, all of whom are Re­publicans. Selectman Jim Lehan noted that Norfolk a few years ago got as much as about $380,000 in prison mitigation funds from the state for capital items, in­cluding vehicles the Fire Department uses in part to provide service to the three state prisons in town. “And they’re critical funds. The last several years those funds have been removed from the budget,” Le­han said.

(Above): Norfolk Public Library’s Community Room was full for Saturday’s event featuring Governor Deval Pat­rick. Photo by Matt McDonald “Our ambulance is nine years old. It’s barely mak­ing it down the street,” Lehan said, referring to the town’s backup ambulance.

Lehan said that while he understands the problems that bad economic times cause, the decision to fund or not fund capital money for prison mitigation is the governor’s and is a matter of fairness.

“This is an item that rests on your desk. This is not a legislative act,” Lehan said. “… We view it as a fair­ness in trade.”

“It’s a totally fair point, Jim,” Patrick replied. But he noted that as governor he has had to make significant cuts to local aid to make state expenses match up with revenues. “It’s a fair question. I will do my best. But you are right — there are no good choices,” Patrick said. The governor seemed interested in Lehan’s point about Norfolk’s need for a new ambulance, which would replace what is now the town’s backup.

“No promises, but we may be able to find a solution on the capital side of the budget there,” Patrick said.

Selectman Rob Garrity, chairman of the board, not­ed that a mid-fiscal-year adjustment by the state of the funding formula for the grades-7-through-12 King Philip regional schools (which serve Norfolk, Wrentham, and Plainville) last year led to KP losing about $70,000, because it threw the balance among the three towns out of whack and the other two refused to up their antes to restore the lost funds. “It would be very helpful if there were a cap, or a hard stop on when these kinds of calculations can happen,” Gar­rity said. “… There have been several instances of things that get recalculated within the same year.”

Garrity noted that Norfolk, Wren­tham, and Plainville pay a different per-student rate for King Philip because of a new state education funding formula, which he said doesn’t make sense.

Garrity noted that the changes he was asking wouldn’t cost the state more money.

Patrick agreed that the state edu­cation funding formula is complicated and occasionally counterintuitive, and he noted that only a handful of experts seem to understand how it works.

“It’s very hard to penetrate. It’s over­weighted on property values, and not so much on income,” Patrick said.

The governor said his budget pro­posal calls for about $100,000 to hire a consultant to study the formula and recommend changes.

During his discussion with Lehan, Patrick used a rejoinder that Lehan sometimes uses when asked about town budget cuts. “I would ask you: What would you take it from? Because that’s what I’m facing,” Patrick said. Selectman Jim Tomaszewski had an answer for him, while asking him about Norfolk’s loss of payment-in-lieu-of-taxes revenue for state-owned property in town, which used to amount to about $70,000 a year.

Tomaszewski said the towns in Mas­sachusetts that host prisons shouldn’t get the full burden of budget cuts by losing prison mitigation funds that the towns use for capital needs, including vehicles for police and firedepartments that have to go to the prison to trans­port inmates to the hospital. Tomasze­wski suggested that the governor ought to spread out such cuts among all 351 cities and towns. “I understand you’ve got to cut. Don’t burden those 10 towns,” Tomaszewski said. “I get that logic,” Patrick replied. “I’ll think about that.” Patrick touched on several campaign themes during his stump speech and in answers to written questions from the audience — among them that he has bolstered education reform, has sought to limit increases in health insurance premiums, and has attracted so-called green technology to the state.

He seemed self-assured and in com­mand of details in front of the largely friendly crowd. Patrick touted what he described as his administration’s good fiscal man­agement.

“There are more public works proj­ects going on today than ever in the his­tory of the commonwealth, and we can afford it because of our AA bond rat­ing,” Patrick said. “And by the way, you can marry anyone you love in the commonwealth here, as well,” Patrick said, to enthusi­astic applause. Patrick said his campaign isn’t just based on his accomplishments, though. “The second term is about finishing what we’ve started,” Patrick said. Patrick lamented that he has had trouble “being heard over the din of all those that root for failure,” citing talk radio as an example.

He urged his listeners to talk to oth­er people about the issues he is engag­ing. “And here’s a radical idea: Talk to somebody who doesn’t already agree with us,” Patrick said. The visit to Norfolk appears to be along those lines, as Norfolk trends Re­publican and was one of the relatively few towns that went for Republican Kerry Healey when Patrick was first elected in November 2006.

Patrick also drew a gathering of Republicans who greeted him with a standout as he entered the library, spurred by Dan Winslow, a Republican who recently served as Norfolk’s town moderator and is now running for state representative. Winslow attended the event in the library.

Robert Jubinville, a Democrat run­ning for Governor’s Council against incumbent Kelly Timilty in District 2 (which includes Norfolk), also attended the Patrick event.

Jim Giebfried, head of the Norfolk Democratic Town Committee, emceed the event and introduced Patrick. He presented Patrick with a street sign that says “Main Street,” which he described as a reminder to the governor that he represents all the places that have a Main Street.

“Is it under 50 dollars, is the ques­tion?” Patrick said, an allusion to the state’s ethics law that limits the value of gifts public officials can accept. The crowd laughed. At the beginning of his talk, Patrick said he likes meet­ing and listening to people on the campaign trail but that he doesn’t like asking people for money and bragging about his accomplishments. He said he mentioned those drawbacks during a recent con­versation with President Barack Obama, who thought about what Patrick said for a moment.

“And he said, ‘Deval, get over it’,” Patrick said, to laughter.

On his way out of town, Pat­rick did not get an escort from Norfolk police, Norfolk Police Chief Charles H. Stone Jr. said, because State Police who ac­companied Patrick said it wasn’t necessary.

Giebfried’s request for a lo­cal police escort led to a minor flap late this week when some online critics of the governor noted that he has cut local aid that has hurt some local police departments but was expected to be the beneficiaryof a special effort by local police.

Giebfried subsequently clari­fied that he made the request for a police escort to help Patrick get to a campaign event in Wal­pole

once he left Norfolk Public Library, and that Patrick’s cam­paign had nothing to do with it.

Stone was willing to pro­vide an already-on-duty Norfolk motorcycle officer to escort the governor out of town, but the offer was rendered moot when the State Police driver turned it down.