Murray says Baker misleading over Mass. job cuts

BOSTON

Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray says Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker is misleading the public by suggesting state employees haven't suffered like their private sector counterparts amid the economic downturn.

Murray told The Associated Press on Monday that executive branch managers have taken furloughs two years in a row, while most employees have seen their health insurance premiums increase. There's also been more than 2,000 layoffs and wage and benefit freezes by most employee unions.

The Democrat was reacting to comments Baker made last Thursday during an appearance on WBZ-AM. Baker told a state employee she must be "the exception to the rule" when she called to say she had taken a pay cut and seen managers take furloughs.

"It's bad enough to try to score cheap political points on the backs of public employees, but he's wrong. He's flat-out wrong," Murray said.

The Baker campaign noted there were 80,837 full-time equivalent state employees when Murray and Gov. Deval Patrick took office in 2007, and there now are 84,688 -- though the governor controls only about half of them.

Baker's running mate, Sen. Richard Tisei, said he's happy to see Murray "defending Gov. Patrick's padding of the state payrolls during a fiscal crisis."

The Watertown Republican added: "Charlie and I believe this administration has not come close to cutting the necessary number of state jobs during a fiscal crisis made worse by the governor's mismanagement."