Lt. Gov Kerry Healy (Republican) Faulted for tax-breaks to husband's firm

[Ian David]

Reilly faults Healey on break for husband's firm
Seeks review of state tax credit program

By Michael Levenson, Globe Correspondent | October 31, 2005

Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, a Democrat who is running for governor, yesterday accused his possible Republican opponent, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, of looking the other way while her husband's asset management firm received $1.2 million in a questionable tax credit from the state.

Meanwhile, former assistant US attorney general Deval L. Patrick, Reilly's rival for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, said he wants to make sure the tax credit program is working as it was intended, to encourage companies to locate in neighborhoods that the state considers blighted.

Sean M. Healey's company, Affiliated Managers Group, had received the credit for locating in the Prides Crossing section of Beverly, one of the state's wealthiest neighborhoods. Last week, AMG returned the tax credit, after the state's inspector general said that in many cases, including AMG's, the credits were ''handed out as favors" to firms.

''The reason that Sean Healey and AMG gave the money back was they were caught cheating taxpayers of well over a million dollars," Reilly said in an interview yesterday. ''This is inside politics at its very worst, a sweetheart deal with tax breaks to the well-connected and wired, all the way to the top of the Republican Party and the administration. It doesn't even come close to passing the smell test."

More:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/10/31/reilly_faults_healey_on_break_for_husbands_firm/