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ROMNEY BEER br> Re: Matt Kinnaman's letter (under "Massachusetts on Parade") in Reader Mail's McCain Migraine : /p>

Massachusetts Republican Committeeman Matt Kinnaman's response to my article ladles warm praise on former Bay State governor Willard Mitt Romney's "stunning success" as governor. He applauds Romney for turning a $3 billion state budget deficit into a $1 billion surplus by 2006. Kinnaman cheers that Romney "stood athwart the most tax-happy legislature in the nation and shouted 'stop!' And he won."

This is all quite touching, but it simply ignores the fact that Romney himself proposed $283 million in business "loophole closures" and $501.5 million in higher fees on such basic government services as marriage licenses, firearms registrations, truck deliveries of gasoline to filling stations, and real-estate- transfer certifications for such common transactions as home purchases. Romney made these activities, and more, costlier. According to the Boston Herald, "corporate taxes went up $210 million under Romney."

Overall, Massachusetts' tax burden increased 10.8 percent during Romney's tenure.

Kinnaman blames Romney's heavily Democratic state legislature for tying his hands and leaving him barely able to hold off the tax-happy hordes.

How, possibly, could Romney have pushed a supply-side agenda past such an intransigent Democratic majority? Indeed, Kinnaman asks: "When was the last time in American politics that a veto-proof Democrat majority in any legislature failed to raise taxes?"

Romney could have studied the example of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. New York's City Council had, at most, seven Republican members while Giuliani was at City Hall. The other 44 members were Democrats, largely of the far-Left persuasion. Giuliani could have locked himself in his office and cried about being outnumbered six-to-one by opposition legislators. Instead, he led a Reaganesque supply-side revolution: Giuliani cajoled, charmed, scared, or otherwise persuaded City Council Democrats to agree to 23 different tax cuts totaling $9.8 billion. The top tax rate dropped 20.6 percent (vs. a 0 percent drop under Romney), while the overall tax burden fell 17.1 percent.

This did not happen in red-dog-Republican Newport Beach, California, but in one of America's deepest-blue Democratic cities.

Romney "did not have any broad based tax cuts in his four years as governor," said his GOP predecessor, Paul Cellucci, a Giuliani supporter. Cellucci cut taxes, as did Republican former Massachusetts governor William Weld. "I was determined to cut that state income tax, from 5.95 percent back to 5 percent, and I got it done, and the legislature stopped it at 5.3." Cellucci told journalists last October 12. "Mitt Romney comes in and says 'I'm going to get it to 5 percent,' and he didn't do it. It's still 5.3 percent." On its gubernatorial report card, the Cato Institute gave Cellucci an "A." Romney earned a "C."

As for fighting that $3 billion budget deficit, rather than hike fees, shut "loopholes," and boost taxes on non-residents, Romney could have done something truly market-oriented: He could have slashed spending. While Romney was no LBJ, real, per-capita spending grew 2 percent on his watch.

For his part, Giuliani actually cut two of his eight budgets. Giuliani's initial response to the $2.3 billion deficit he inherited was not to boost fees and plug "loopholes." Instead Gotham's spending fell in 1994 compared to 1993. He repeated this in 2001, versus 2000, after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

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