Weld Takes Office As Mass. Governor

BOSTON--Refusing to let the state's gloomy fiscal outlook cast a pall over his day of festivity, a smiling William F. Weld '66 took office yesterday as the 68th governor of Massachusetts.

Senate President William Bulger administered the oath of office to Weld and Lt. Gov. A. Paul Cellucci shortly after noon, ushering in an era of Republican leadership to take charge of a state reeling from the shock of a serious regional recession.

"I will not deceive you about the magnitude of the problems before us," Weld told the crowd assembled in the state House of Representatives chamber for the event. "But neither will I conceal my faith in our ability to resolve those problems."

"While I promise no miracles, I can undertake to avoid past mistakes. Things are not good in the Common-wealth in this first week of 1991. But things will get better," Weld said as the chamber broke into applause. "Together we will see to that."

Drawing on the words of Bay State politicians from John Winthrop to John F. Kennedy '40, Weld called for an "entrepreneurial government" that he said would rely on innovation and ingenuity to solve the current budget crisis.

In keeping with that spirit, the new governor said he plans to submit a major reform package to the legislature this month designed to restructure state government. Weld said he would submit a second reform package in February which will include tax relief to spur private innovation and investment.

Weld said that his reform package would provide a sweeping long-term solution to the state's budget problems, eliminating the "structural deficit" which has left Massachusetts with ever more serious budget shortfalls in recent years. Although he said that the program would undoubtedly "offend some and anger others," he said that the state needs to make temporary sacrifices to improve its economic outlook.

"Because I have faith in Massachusetts, I have confidence in our ability to reform the way we deliver services to those dependent upon them," Weld said. "Surely a state so fertile in imagination and so hostile to complacency can find better methods to make government itself an engine of enterprise."

Weld, the first Republican to be elected governor in 20 years, takes over a state battered by the slump in its high-tech industries and bruised by amounting budget crunch that lawmakers have beenpowerless to resolve.

The new governor, who supported a sweeping taxrollback referendum in the fall election, remainedresolutely opposed to tax increases in his speechyesterday. But he may face an uphill battlegetting his reform program through thelegislature, which remains in the Democratic handsof Bulger and Weld's Cambridge neighbor, CharlesFlaherty, who was sworn in as House SpeakerWednesday morning.

Prior to yesterday's swearing-in ceremony, Weldattended a nondenominational service at the ParkSt. church, down the street from the State House.The governor-elect and his retinue then proceededto the governor's corner office, where he receivedthe keys to the State House and a Bible owned byformer Gov. Benjamin Butler in a tradition thatdates back more than a century.

Weld then entered the House chamber, where hewas sworn in before a joint meeting of the Houseand Senate, along with Cellucci and the members ofthe Governor's Council