As no surprise to people who have worked with Steve Grossman or heard him speak, he’s getting it done. Our highly energized MA Treasurer made some pretty remarkable, innovative and even revolutionary campaign pledges and proposals. He told us today at Left Ahead that they are palpably, observably in the works.
The negatives started early in his campaign and continued. Folk said he was overstepping the office’s power by pledging to use pension funds as leverage to get banks to lend to small businesses. Some said that as former commonwealth and national Dem party head (and fund raiser), he was far too political to work honestly with lawmakers and others. The MSM and winger blogs wrote that his seeking money from those who might want to do business with Massachusetts tainted him and his office.
Huge changes include the commonwealth’s checkbook going on line. That’s started, will be largely there by October and even more so in the next month. Rather than using his access to information as a weapon in the traditional bureaucratic way, he figures it’s the citizens’ money and they should be able to find out exactly what’s coming in and leaving.
That attitude and reality extend to such public dealings as bidding and contracts. Anyone expecting that a donation to a pol or being a friend of a friend will ensure a contract or a job will be very disappointed, he said. It will be the lowest responsible bidder and the most qualified applicants who win. That said, there’ll be a slight progressive preference, like 5% each if bidders demonstrate they invest in growing jobs and economic opportunity in MA or for those who show commitment to a diversity process.
The most intriguing campaign promise though may have been squeezing banks to lend more to companies in the state to create jobs and expand. Listen in as he explains how that works in practice. So far 51 of the 190 MA banks have signed up and 27 have done all the paperwork to begin getting MA money. They have to prove quarterly that they are meeting the goals of the program to continue.
We have to look to comic book or movie heroes to find a more straight-ahead character than Steve Grossman. The MA Treasurer joined Left Ahead today and gave an update on his numerous innovative and even revolutionary campaign pledges. The short of it is that he’s getting us there.
You can check his campaign promises on his appearance with Left Ahead in May of 2010 here.
Today, we did not have time in our half hour to get into one area of disagreement — he sees destination casinos as revenue sources and job creators, while the LA hosts see more drawbacks than potential benefits. However, we did get into those questions and criticisms that have floated about.
He also touched on things just starting, like financial education and literacy by students, seniors and veterans, and on the messy matter of attacking unfunded pension liability. We expect to speak with him again as he gets more in place. Meanwhile, I endorsed him in the past election and have not been disappointed.
Steve Grossman is one of the best.
Being governor has been an ambition of his in the past. He’s got name recognition, very generous friends, more money in the bank than any other statewide elected (almost double Gov Patrick at the moment- not counting the gov’s PAC), and the clock is running out for him – definitely his last chance for the corner office given his age.