
Gov. Charlie Baker questioned Jay Gonzalez’s plans to increase revenue through taxation and cast doubt on the challenger’s ability to deliver on key campaign promises, during the first gubernatorial debate last week.
Baker, a Republican who is seeking to win a second term in office come election day Nov. 6, sparred with Democrat Jay Gonzalez as the two debated several issues, including abortion access, natural gas pipeline expansion, the criminal justice system and state police corruption, during the hour-long televised debate broadcast from WBZ-TV’s studios at 8 p.m. Oct. 9.

Jay Gonzalez Photo: Banner File Photo
“I will be a governor who will stand up for women’s rights, and LGBTQ rights and common-sense gun laws,” said Gonzalez. “Not just some of the time, but all of the time, not just reluctantly, but whole-heartedly, and for me it won’t be a matter of political calculation.”
The former secretary of administration and finance under Gov. Deval Patrick hit out at Baker almost immediately, attacking the incumbent for his endorsement of Trump supporter Geoff Diehl for U.S. Senate.
Accusing him of following Republican party lines, Gonzalez said Baker’s endorsement amounted to a “rubber stamp for the Trump agenda” in Massachusetts.
“My views on Donald Trump are quite well known. I didn’t vote for him,” said Baker, who pointed to his battles with the president’s administration over the Affordable Care Act and the travel ban. As for his endorsement of Geoff Diehl, Baker shut down this line of attack by adding, “I’m running for governor, not Geoff Diehl.”
Jon Keller, political analyst and host for WBZ-TV, steered the discussion back onto state issues affecting voters, including union workers’ rights, clean energy and criminal justice reform. Responses to these matters followed a similar pattern. Gonzalez criticized Baker’s administration for not being ambitious enough in almost all of these areas, repeating the mantra, “We’re going to aim high,” while the Republican incumbent pointed to his track record.
Revenue through taxation
It was not long before the debate became almost exclusively about funding for education and transportation improvements. At this point, proposed revenue streams sparked a heated debate and figures bounced between the two candidates.
Calling the state’s transportation system one of the worst in the country, Gonzalez pledged to raise taxes on the rich.
“I’m going to ask the wealthy to pay their fair share. I’m not going to ask lower- and middle-income people to pay more in taxes,” said Gonzalez. “We’re going to raise $3 billion and we’re being honest about the fact that we need to do so.”
Gonzalez said his administration would use this money to modernize and improve Massachusetts’ transportation and education systems.
Baker’s administration has spent $1.9 billion over three years on the current operation of the T, fixing signals and switches and replacing old tracks. The incumbent said this “boring stuff” was vital and their work is not done.
“Our plan is to spend $8 billion over the next five years on the MBTA,” said Baker, “which will be $5 billion more than what was spent in the five years before we took office,” bemoaning the decrepit system inherited when he took office in 2015.
Aside from taxing the rich, Gonzalez wants colleges and universities to pay for his proposed improvements. He has said previously that he plans to levy a new 1.6 percent tax on private, nonprofit higher education institutions with endowments in excess of $1 billion. Gonzalez expects that more than half of the total amount this would bring in would come from Harvard University, which has a $40 billion endowment.
Baker called this plan “misguided” and said, “I don’t think we should be punishing colleges and universities. I think we should be investing in them.”

Charlie Baker Photo: Joanne Decaro
Comparing his plan with his opponent’s, Baker questioned the validity of Gonzalez’s calculations and poked holes in his proposed funding plans.
“[Gonzalez] can talk all he wants about the fact that he’s got a billion dollars to spend,” said Baker, “… he’s not going to be able to spend it on all of [his plans], and that means he’ll go back to doing the same thing that he did before, which is not delivering on a commitment … promising and overselling what’s possible here.”
Being bold
In defense of his own plan, the incumbent said it was organized and securely funded, “not made up of funny money and it’s not made up of money that starts three or four or five or six years from now,” unlike Gonzalez’s.
Gonzalez hit back by criticizing the current governor for maintaining the status quo. The challenger accused Baker of a lack of urgency and bold leadership on education and transportation reform, calling his spending plans simply “inflationary increases.”
Rejecting the notion that his administration has failed to make significant social advancements, Baker highlighted his administration’s most lauded successes. The incumbent was keen to call attention to the criminal justice reform bill, which the Legislature authored and passed in April this year, the first major overhaul of the state’s criminal justice system in 25 years. He also brought up legislation he signed at the end of July that doubled the state’s off shore wind commitments, effectively allowing the state to start the switch from fossil fuels to hydropower.
“There’s rhetoric and there’s reality,” said Baker. “These are the sorts of things we believe in, these are the commitments we’ve made, these [things] are what we’ve done, and at the end of the day voters need to measure us on what we’ve done.”
The second televised debate, less than three weeks before the general election, is scheduled for Oct. 17.