Leadership Requires Shared Pain, Starting At The Top
BOSTON, MA – November 4, 2025 –Marine Corps veteran, successful businessman and proven government reformer Brian Shortsleeve, Republican candidate for Governor, issued the following statement reacting to reports that the Healey administration is considering buyouts and workforce reductions for state employees:
“This is what happens when reckless spending finally catches up with bad management,” said Shortsleeve. “In just her first year in office, Maura Healey ballooned state government by thousands of employees and nearly a billion dollars in new payroll costs. Now, she’s asking rank-and-file workers to clean up the mess she created.”
Since taking office, Governor Healey has added layers of bureaucracy, and earlier this year, she approved multiple pay hikes for cabinet secretaries and managers. Dozens of new employees were added at the Registry of Motor Vehicles as a result of Healey’s law granting drivers licenses to illegal immigrants.
“If the state payroll needs to be reduced then leadership requires that the pain start at the top,” Shortsleeve continued. “Maura Healey should immediately eliminate the senior positions she added and roll back the inflated salaries for her own appointees.”
“It’s time to focus on growing the private sector, which has not added a single new job while Maura Healey has been governor,” Shortsleeve continued. “If the Massachusetts had kept pace with the nation, we would have added 100,000 new jobs instead of being dead last in job creation. I’ve spent my life as an entrepreneur helping small businesses grow and succeed, and I understand what it takes to get our economy moving again.”
“As governor, I’ll make Massachusetts affordable for families to live and thrive here and for small businesses to grow and create jobs and opportunity. It starts with reducing taxes, fees and overregulation while the outrageous growth of state spending under control.”