I don't even know why I bother with my home state anymore.
"Governor's transportation chief resigns amid turmoil" by Frank Phillips and Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | December 16, 2008
.... The administration's first choice to replace Cohen is James A. Aloisi Jr., a lobbyist and veteran of state government who has been at the center of the Big Dig and other major transportation projects and controversies for the past three decades, according to a well-placed State House official.
Aloisi is politically savvy and well connected but was passed over two years ago for the job in part because of his close association with the troubled Big Dig project, which he helped plan. As the Turnpike Authority counsel in the 1990s, he also helped draft the law that put the agency in charge of the Big Dig and its debt - a financial burden that is driving the current debate over tolls....
So the guy who set up the interest payments to banks to the tune of "a staggering $22 billion" for the Big Pit, as we call it around here, so we could pay 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."
And that is not counting the troubles at the Turnpike!
"The authority was attempting to renegotiate terms of a complex financial deal with the banking giant UBS. Known as a swaption, the arrangement could force the authority to pay out a $450 million lump sum"
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Aloisi, a director in the law firm Goulston & Storrs and an early supporter of Patrick's long-shot campaign for governor, was a finalist when the governor-elect was looking for a transportation secretary two years ago. His advocates say he is highly knowledgeable about transportation financing issues and has deep political connections that have spanned both Republican and Democratic administrations. He's also written books on Massachusetts politics, including a biography of John F. Fitzgerald.
Just what we need: ANOTHER LOOTING LOBBYIST revolving back to STATE GOVERNMENT! And Who gives a flying f*** if he gotten books published?
Aloisi was among the young aides who worked with Frederick Salvucci, governor Michael Dukakis's transportation secretary who was the driving force to create the Big Dig in the 1980s. As control of the state's transportation system shifted to the Republicans, Aloisi thrived. He served as general counsel for the turnpike authority and later worked as its outside counsel.
"It doesn't get any worse than this," said Christy Mihos, who served on the turnpike authority board from the end of 1998 to 2004. "We fired him and his law firm back in 2001 because they wouldn't substantiate legal bills between $800,000 and $1 million."
And now he will have his greedy little mitts in ALL THAT TAXPAYER MONEY!!!
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Better grab a shovel, Mass. taxpayers; you gonna be digging a long, long, time.
