Yes, this is LIBERAL Massachusetts!!
"T request to exempt Spain firm protested" by Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | October 30, 2008
Politicians from Idaho and other states are protesting the MBTA's request to exempt a European company from federal "Buy America" requirements as it pursues a lucrative contract to build locomotives for the commuter rail system.
A spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said the agency has said it will decide whether to hire Vossloh España S.A., a Spanish unit of a German company, or Boise-based MotivePower Inc., shortly after the Federal Transit Administration rules on the exemption.
The T agreed to a similar approach in purchasing train coaches from Rotem, a South Korean company, earlier this year. But in that case, foreign companies were the only option, because no American companies are in the coach-building business.
See: Delay on the T
The Federal Transit Administration has granted only one exemption to the "Buy America" requirement for locomotive contracts in recent years, in a case in which no American company made a bid. This time, an American company is available and its supporters worry that the MBTA could be opening the door to more competition if it accepts the Vossloh bid. "Granting this waiver will cost hundreds of jobs," Senator Mike Crapo and Representative Mike Simpson, both of Idaho, wrote to the FTA.
Buy America requirements have their roots in the 1970s and 1980s, when Congress was concerned that US companies were losing ground to European and Asian competitors.
That fight is over; they all moved there.
They require transit agencies buying new equipment to demand American assembly and 60 percent American parts when using federal matching dollars. Agencies can get a waiver in certain circumstances, including cases when there are no domestic firms competing, the difference in price is more than 25 percent, or the waiver is in the "public interest."
MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said the T filed the "Buy America" waiver at Vossloh's request, but has not taken a position on whether it should be granted or whether it would hire Vossloh if it is approved, he said. "It's important that the T act in the best interest of taxpayers and fare-payers," Pesaturo said. --more--"
What an INSULT!!! Is that what the FARE INCREASES and CEASELESS BORROWING is about?
I mean, making interest payments to banks to the tune of "a staggering $22 billion" for the Big Pit, as we call it around here, is required and paying off banks like UBS, who can "demand repayment of an additional $2 million a month beginning in January" while also receiving a "$179 million payment" is in the interests of taxpayers, hanh?
Also see: Buses For Banks
