The 30-minute speech offered a narrow focus and lacked the lengthy list of new initiatives that often characterize such addresses. Beyond the community college proposal, Patrick introduced just two other initiatives: a health insurance payment overhaul and a criminal sentencing package, both of which he has previously supported.
Unlike last year’s speech, when excitement from Patrick’s reelection was still spilling over, the governor delivered this address, his sixth, at a moment when he has been overshadowed politically.
His predecessor, Mitt Romney, is locked in a riveting Republican presidential primary contest. Patrick’s state party is focused on helping Democrat Elizabeth Warren challenge US Senator Scott Brown, a Republican, in what may be the nation’s most gripping Senate race.
Even Patrick’s lieutenant governor, Timothy P. Murray, has stolen the spotlight with growing interest in his mysterious high-speed rollover crash and in his ties with a former Chelsea Housing Authority chairman Michael E. McLaughlin, who is under federal investigation. Murray received a prolonged ovation from the friendly crowd when he was introduced.
Despite the budgetary challenges faced by his administration, Patrick cited the state’s high credit rating, its vast improvement in job creation, and his ability to curb public employee benefits without the turmoil that erupted in Wisconsin and other areas of the country.
The governor also touted the state’s success in curbing health insurance rate increases, from an average of 16.3 percent two years ago to 2.3 percent this year.
Patrick again pushed to dramatically change the medical payment system, renewing an unsuccessful plea he made last year to end the fee-for-service model with a so-called global payment system that rewards doctors for coordinating care.
