Wilkerson fallout: Let Boston be Boston

Somewhat lost in the coverage of Deval Patrick's new interest in State House ethics yesterday was his call to reduce the number of times local cities and towns have to to the legislature for permission to do various things. Mike Ball analyzes his call for greater home rule, in which he said:

The current home rule structure dates from the 1960s and guarantees that the Legislature and the Executive spend an inordinate amount of time deciding when and how localities can tax, borrow, regulate private and, and make rules for municipal elections. Forty percent of all legislation passed over the last two years was local laws that affect only one community. Sponsors of home rule bills are often forced to expend a great deal of time and political capital to get non-controversial, purely local matters moving and enacted, rather than working on matters of broader concern.

Naturally, one could argue this is tied to the Wilkerson case since half of it (the Dejavue part) centers around a holdover from the days of anti-Irish hatred on Beacon Hill - alone among Massachusetts cities and towns, Boston does not control its own liquor licenses, which are instead doled out by a state board. And the Wilkerson complaint alleges she used her influence in the senate to hold up a home-rule petition from Boston to eliminated a preliminary election in 2007 as a way of forcing councilors to put pressure on that board to give Dejavu a license.