The Globe and the Herald both published editorials today praising outgoing Secretary of Commonwealth Development Doug Foy, who announced a couple of days ago that he is resigning from the Romney administration.
Foy made good use of both the carrots and sticks at the stateâs disposal – development money, planning grants would go to those communities that got the message. If the Dovers of the world wanted state dollars to buy up even more open land, they were going to have a tough time getting it without a unit of affordable housing on their roster.
Foy put an astonishing number of policies in place and planted the seeds of growth in all the right places that should long outlast his tenure. Had he worked for a governor who was more willing to engage and spend a bit more of his own political capital, thereâs no telling how much more might have been accomplished.
Much of what Foy accomplished in three years was foundation building that will be lost if his approach to handling these issues is not sustained through the rest of this term and by Romney’s successor….
Outside of smart growth, Foy’s signal venture was the state’s leadership in bringing Northeastern states together in a mini-Kyoto plan to reduce greenhouse gases by putting a cap on the carbon-dioxide emissions of the region’s power plants. By the time the agreement was ready to be signed, Romney had clearly begun thinking of the effect on his national political chances of being a Kyoto candidate in Republican primaries and pulled the state out of the compact.
Foy was the right person for a very difficult job. Romney made a good move in hiring him. Too bad Romney’s limitless ambition and lack of interest in Massachusetts curtailed Foy’s ability to really get anything done.
