Gov. Charlie Baker briefly addressed the residents for a last time in a livestreamed address from his office Tuesday, listing several accomplishments but not mentioning any of the obvious unfinished business from his two terms in office.
“After eight sometimes crazy years as your governor, I thought I should take a few minutes to deliver what my late mom would have called a proper goodbye,” he said.
Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito will leave the Massachusetts State House Wednesday for the last time, he noted, in order to make way for incoming Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll.
Though he did take the time to point out genuine accomplishments in the areas of infrastructure and housing reform, the mass of Baker’s message to residents of the Commonwealth was of thanks for their generosity and support and the way they came together to make it through the pandemic.
“We did it all without partisan bickering,” he said. “I could go on, but where we really got to work together was during the pandemic.”
Baker noted Massachusetts fared better than any other state in the nation — with the exception of the Pacific Ocean protected islands of Hawaii — when it came to pandemic recovery.
“I know many of you didn’t agree with all of the decisions that the Lt. Gov. and I made during the pandemic, you tried your very best to abide by the rules and share in the work to be done,” he said. “I believe that’s why we’ve recovered almost all of the jobs we lost during the pandemic.”
Baker did not speak about problems with the MBTA or discuss any left over legislation.
Baker’s time in office began with a deficit of $1 billion, he said, while the Commonwealth can currently boast $5 billion in surplus, even after giving $3 billion back to taxpayers and putting $7 billion into the state’s rainy day fund.
“This is a very special place,” Baker said. “Despite a myriad of political fights and distractions that were raging all around us, people here chose to focus on the work and it paid off.”
