Throughout the Republican presidential primaries, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has repeatedly played the “economy card”, claiming that his time at the helm of the state resulted in a rebounded economy, and that he was able to close a $3 billion budget gap, all without raising taxes or borrowing money.

However, some in Massachusetts claim that Romney’s claims are heavily inflated at best. In fact, Romney was the beneficiary of tax increases from the former year, in the amount of $1.1 billion, raised by a Democratic-controlled state legislature. He further closed the gap by raising $300 million in business taxes - and imposing $260 million in fees, just in the first year of his term. Unemployment in the state decreased by only 0.4% during Romney’s term, lagging far behind the national average drop of 1.5%.

“We’ve had a very slow economic recovery and we’ve trailed most of the rest of the nation,” said Michael Widmer, president of the business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. “It’s not the turnaround he’s advertised.”

The number of new jobs climbed during Romney’s four years in office — from a loss of 54,700 in his first year to a gain of 34,700 in his final year — but what’s not being reported in the media is that most of the rest of the country rebounded from the national recession faster.  In fact, Massachusetts is actually one of only six states that hasn’t managed to regain all the jobs lost during the recession.

“Our losses were steeper, and our gains have been slower and as an end result we are still nearly 100,000 jobs down,” said Dana Ansel of the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth, a nonpartisan think tank.