I think our agenda is very aspirational.
— Charlie Baker
We need to root out the waste and abuse that is rampant in our state agencies. When we do that and grow the economy, we will be able to fund the vital programs and services we need.
I do see great opportunity to make reforms to our tax code, making it simpler, fairer and removing corporate loopholes.
The thing I would say is governments have the tendency to over-promise and under-perform. So the over-promise part ends up sounding very aspirational. But it's the performance part that ultimately people feel every day and read about. And my goal is to make sure, whatever it is we aspire to, that we deliver on.
I'm not a virtue signaler.
This is Massachusetts, we're supposed to be one of the tech centers of the world. We have MIT within walking distance of the state house.
I think I've got a track record and an experience brief that I'll put up against anybody's.
Balance is a good thing - checks and balances are a good thing.
How well we spend education dollars is just as important as how much we spend.
When leaders choose to burn bridges instead of build them, they sacrifice their ability to do their jobs.
I'm not going to raise taxes.
I oppose indexing gas tax hikes to inflation.
I'm a big believer in what I call demand-style workforce development. It looks at what kinds of skills are in demand out there in the workplace. It takes that approach to skill-building.
You just can't get surprised when you get surprised, because weird stuff just comes over the transom all the time, and it's not necessarily anything that you've planned for or anticipated.
I've said many times that people are policy. And to be truly successful in any big organization you need to put people into jobs where they have relevant experience, relevant subject-matter expertise and the capacity to actually perform.
I'm a very big believer that the primary focus for any organization at any point in time should always be smarter, better, faster.
If you want to be great, you should be great everywhere, not just here and there.
When a mom or dad can stop worrying about where they will lay their head each night they can start climbing back on their feet and out of poverty.
When public leaders turn public debates into words of war - 'enemies' 'go to hell' 'attack' - they are enabling the edgiest of their followers to take things into their hands, and unfortunately, some of them do.
When my brothers and I were young, my mom, a Democrat, and my dad, a Republican, used to lead freewheeling discussions at our dinner table. The only rule was paying attention when others were talking, and no interrupting.
I'm a pro-choice candidate and I support marriage equality - my brother is actually gay and married. But I'm a pretty hard-headed guy when it comes to the budget and whether you're getting a bang for your buck.
My mission will be to improve life across Massachusetts, including communities and geographies that are seeing a slower economic recovery. Lower and fairer taxes are an important part of creating jobs and accomplishing that goal.
I think people are kind of tired of the really amped-up rhetoric that passes for a lot of political dialogue, and they appreciate the fact that that's not the way we are participating in this process.
I rode it a lot before I was governor. I rode the commuter rail for a lot of years, I rode the T for a lot of years, and I talk to people all the time who ride both.
One of the advantages of getting elected governor when you're 58 instead of 38 is you have some mileage on you and part of that means some history and some relationships with people who have spent a fair amount of their career in the public and in the private sector.
There's value in checks and balances. And there's value in having independence in the governor's office with respect to the legislature.
Competition in politics is just as important as competition in everything else.
There are creative ways to create pathways to sufficiency for families in need. To do so, we need to work together to implement good ideas.
Politics and public life are not for the faint of heart. It has been and always will be a noisy and cantankerous place.
