4) Complete health-care reform. He didn’t advocate it, vote for it, or sign it, but this year’s health-care-reform legislation will be Patrick’s baby nonetheless. “The whole nation is going to be looking very closely at how Massachusetts implements this health-care reform,” says Widmer.

On the campaign trail, Patrick declared no interest in upsetting the delicately balanced compromise legislation, and he’d be a fool to change his mind. The task of administering it won’t hit until the start of the 2008 fiscal year. But that doesn’t mean he can stand back from the work now being done by the Healthcare Connector Board, among others. The ultimate success of the plan lies in the details that are being worked out, such as the cost and coverage of individual policies. The governor can’t afford to be uninvolved in that process.

5) Fill key education posts. Continuity in education leadership is not an option for Patrick — the state’s top education officials are racing for the exits. Announced retirements include Stephen Tocco, chairman of the board of higher education; Jim Peyser, chairman of the board of education; and David Driscoll, commissioner of education.

This represents an enormous opportunity to shape one of the most important functions of state government — not only to direct policy but to clean up serious mismanagement in its agencies.

6) Compile a budget. Patrick has 55 days after his swearing-in to figure out what he’s going to do with everything — 10,000 line items — in state government. That’s how long before he submits his FY ’08 budget recommendation. Have fun! Try not to screw too many of your supporters!

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Quid pro quos or no, a long line of advocates will have their hands out for budget increases, and legislative leaders will be looking to show the new governor who’s boss. But the declining rate of revenue growth will severely limit Patrick’s options. “Next year is likely to be a tough budget year and could be very challenging,” says Noah Berger, executive director of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. The new governor will need to pick two or three items to champion, or else risk being ignored by the legislature.

7) Find those 1000 police officers. Patrick doesn’t need to stop violent crime in the first 100 days. But neither can the state wait endlessly for more task-force studies and commission recommendations. A real, serious plan to fund the hiring of the new police officers he’s promised — and to implement corrections reforms from the abandoned Harshbarger Commission report — must be announced soon, perhaps in the State of the State address.

8) Rethink local aid. Okay, we can stop pretending that anything is going to drive down property-tax rates anytime soon — or that this year’s boost in local aid has solved anything. The budget crisis of the last few years has made the problems inherent in the current funding system clear, and it doesn’t look as though FY ’08 revenues will be big enough to make us forget. There are lots of ideas out there worth considering. The state could set local aid as a fixed percentage of overall revenues, recommends Geoffrey Beckwith, executive director of Massachusetts Municipal Association. It could also implement some version of Healey’s pension and health-care-purchasing reforms. More intriguing, though, are proposals to allocate some local aid based on performance benchmarks, such as the development of affordable-housing units, or improved MCAS performances, says Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute.

9) Target the new economic stimulus funds. Every candidate for governor promises new, good jobs. Some then do something about it; others end their term with low favorability ratings, Mr. Romney.

Everybody will be looking for signs that Patrick will provide the new jobs that the last governor failed to deliver. One initial opportunity lies in the recently passed economic-stimulus package; the governor can designate someone to make sure the money goes to projects in line with a broader development policy.
More ambitiously, the new governor could steal Chris Gabrieli’s idea of a state bond for research-and-development funding in growth industries like stem-cell research, renewable energy, medical devices, and biotech. At virtually no short-term cost, it would pump money into the state’s economy, and at least relieve some pressure on the governor.

10) Undo Romney’s fiats. In August, the Massachusetts Public Health Council, at Mitt Romney’s bidding, prohibited scientists from creating new stem cells — a regulation that flies in the face of the law passed over Romney’s veto weeks earlier. That shouldn’t survive the first 24 hours of Patrick’s term.

Mitt Romney, more than previous governors, used regulations and executive orders to effectively veto legislation he didn’t like. Earlier this year, Romney eliminated the Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth by executive order. Back in 2003, through another executive order, Romney overturned long-standing affirmative-action hiring rules for state agencies. Other unnecessary commissions and task forces could be sunsetted out of existence, Harshbarger adds. And the legislature can even order the reconstitution of some boards and commissions that need complete overhauls.