Stop! It's Healey Time

I think now is the time to support Bob Healey for Lt. Governor. This is why:

He has long argued that the office of lieutenant governor is unnecessary and a waste of public money.

For fiscal 2010, the budget for the lieutenant governor’s office was $973,262, though the governor has since proposed a revised spending plan of $898,489, according to the lieutenant governor’s deputy chief of staff, Dan Meuse. The office employs a staff of seven, including the $99,214-a-year job of lieutenant governor.

If elected, he said, he’d have to remain in office in case the governor is no longer able to serve. But he’d devote his effort to trying to get the General Assembly to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot to either transform the office “into something that actually does something” or eliminate it altogether.

“That’s up to the General Assembly and the people,” he said. “All I can do is save $4 million if I get elected. (One million a year for four years.) I’ll be the million-dollar man.”

So, for the short term, it'll save money. Long term, it may spur reform (I know, a long shot). Anyway, what I'd like to see is the Governor/Lt. Governor candidates run as a team (gee, how innovative). That would eliminate the ridiculousness we see now with a virtual "shadow" state government and will allow a combination of the office staffs and a unification of policy and message.