"CharlieCard contract wasted millions, auditor says" by Martin Finucane, Globe Staff | February 25, 2009
The MBTA wasted $15.4 million because of inadequate planning and oversight of the design of the CharlieCard automated fare collection system, state Auditor A. Joseph DeNucci's office said yesterday.
The system's original contract with Scheidt & Bachmann USA Inc. was for $75 million. The authority paid $19 million more for change orders authorizing work that was not originally specified in the contract, said Glenn Briere, a spokesman for the auditor....
"This is another example of a multimillion-dollar project costing more than it should because there wasn't enough oversight," DeNucci said in a statement. "The taxpayers and the MBTA's riders are paying for that extra cost...."
And we are bailing out agencies with whopper debt payments, too!!!!!
A message left last night at the Scheidt & Bachmann USA headquarters in Burlington was not immediately returned.
And about those tolls and taxes:
"Turnpike OK's toll increases, awaits decision on gas tax" by Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | February 25, 2009
The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority approved a set of staggered toll hikes yesterday that could be eliminated if the Legislature increases the state gas tax.
The toll hikes could eventually cost commuters hundreds of dollars per year. In the meantime, the complex plan is likely to baffle them. Members of the Legislature, who had asked the authority to delay the vote, were furious at the Patrick administration, which controls the Turnpike Authority, for pushing the hikes through before filing a gas tax bill that could have averted them.
Sounds like Massachusetts!
"This nonsense is either politically naïve or political hardball," said Representative Thomas P. Conroy, a Wayland Democrat. "If you raise the tolls, people do not trust the board to rescind a toll hike."
The toll hike plan that passed 4 to 1 yesterday, forged amid months of protests and public deliberations....
Translation: they don't give a dump about you, resident and taxpayers.
Board members said both rounds of toll increases can be averted if the Legislature increases the gas tax before they take effect. If the Legislature raises the gas tax after tolls go up, the toll increases will be rolled back, they promised.
That's why I just took a grain of salt. We are going to GET BOTH, just you watch, reader.
"There's no confusion," said James A. Aloisi Jr., state transportation secretary and chairman of the turnpike board. "We've been very clear that we need to do this or we face financial disaster on the turnpike."
Booga-booga!
The unusual arrangement follows more than a year of public and private concern over the Turnpike Authority's financial situation. Commuters were outraged about earlier plans to raise $100 million more in tolls all at once, forming protest organizations and showing up by the hundreds to rallies and public hearings. Yesterday's vote prompted the state Republican Party to plan a rally this morning in front of the State House.
Yeah, well, don't let the Repuglicans in this state fool you: Massachusetts' RepublicraPs
Oh, politicians playing politics? I'm staggering.
Governor Deval Patrick has promised repeatedly since late 2007 to present a comprehensive transportation restructuring plan, but was unable to do so in time to avoid Tuesday's vote.
Legislators have complained that Patrick's latest plan, announced last week but not filed in the form of a bill until yesterday afternoon, pressures them to act quickly on the gas tax to avoid the toll hike.
And that is why I AM TOTALLY AGAINST THIS SHOVE-IT-UP-OUR-ASSES MOVE!!! See? There IS NO DIFFERENCE between Repuglicans and DemocraPs!
Aloisi was happy yesterday to turn up the pressure further, pointing out that legislators had passed a bill in a single day after the Big Dig tunnel ceiling collapsed in 2006 and asserting that Patrick's transportation overhaul can be deliberated and passed before the toll increases take effect.
Oh, well, I'M GLAD the new puke at transport was HAPPY he could USE A WOMAN'S DEATH for POLITICAL ADVANTAGE in order to RAISE TAXES!!!
How UTTERLY FUCKING DISGUSTING!!!!!
Also see: Pulling a Fast One on Big Dig Death
But legislators, even those supportive of a higher gas tax, said they would have trouble rallying support for Patrick's gas tax increase with the toll hikes already passed.
"It crystallizes the issue of tolls versus gas tax, but there's a public process that needs to take place," said Representative David P. Linsky, a Natick Democrat. Turnpike board members said they had no choice but to approve an increase yesterday.
You ALWAYS HAVE a CHOICE!!!
They are concerned that the authority's slipping credit rating will otherwise decline to junk bond status, risking hundreds of millions in lump-sum payments owed to pay off risky and complex investments and jeopardizing other state agencies' ability to borrow.
Oooooooooh!! WE have to PAY for THEIR ASSININE MOVES, huh?
This asshole government also turned OUR PROPERTY over to BANKS so they could LEASE the STUFF BACK TO US with INTEREST!!
"In the 1990s, the T and other transit agencies were encouraged by federal officials to sell their train equipment to banks and then lease it back. The arrangement brought the T $53 million in upfront payments. In return, the private banks realized a tax benefit"
"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"
NOT a GOOD IDEA at all!!! Thanks, Bill Clinton!
"During the go-go investing years, school districts, transit agencies, and other government entities were quick to jump into the global economy, hoping for fast gains to cover growing pension costs and budgets without raising taxes. Deals were arranged by armies of persuasive financiers who received big paydays. But now, hundreds of cities and government agencies are facing economic turmoil"Time for a TEA PARTY, Massachusetts!! Where are you?
Neat how the Globe just sticks this in here three-quarters of the way through the piece, huh -- as if luckily you just might miss it.
The first hike is meant to get the authority through the end of its current budget year, by raising $12.8 million to plug an $8.1 million budget gap.
So WHERE DID the OTHER $5 MILLION GO?
The second phase of the toll increase would raise $100 million a year, divided mostly between debt payments and structural upgrades to roads and bridges that have been falling apart.
Let's STOP PAYING INTEREST and DEBT PAYMENTS to BANKS that CREATED THIS PROBLEM, huh?
Related: State Biting the Hand That Steals From It
Without a gas tax or some other source of money, the authority predicts another toll increase on or near July 2014, when debt payments - mostly from the Big Dig - balloon.
We are never getting out from under that boondoggle.
"state taxpayers and toll-payers are responsible for a staggering $18 billion of the total $22 billion in construction and debt costs.... Contrary to the popular belief that this was a project heavily subsidized by the federal government, 73 percent of construction costs were paid by Massachusetts drivers and taxpayers"
Whether or not the first toll increase takes effect, the heavily indebted Turnpike Authority will immediately begin spending thousands of dollars preparing for a new toll rate.
So RAISING the RATES will COST YOU AGAIN, taxpayers!! And if they REPEAL the TOLL INCREASE, then it was ALL WASTED MONEY anyway, huh?
Alan LeBovidge, executive director, said he does not know the full cost of the change, but guesses it will cost $25,000 to $50,000 each time a new rate is set.
The biggest cost is reprogramming computer software for electronic toll collections, which will begin immediately, he said. The authority will not replace signs for what may be only temporary prices; they'll put new covers on the old ones, he said.
So GETTING RID of PEOPLE COSTS US AGAIN!!
And they sold electronics as a way of saving money!!
--more--"
Smells like another TAXPAYER GIVEAWAY to FAVORED INTERESTS and WELL-CONNECTED FRIENDS, folks!!!!
Ah, the sweet s***stink of Massachusetts politics!
Keeping track of how much it costs to drive along the Massachusetts Turnpike could get very confusing soon, with up to three changes in toll rates coming over the next six months as politicians haggle over how to fix the state's troubled transportation system....
Peter Samuel, who runs Tollroadsnews.com and tracks the tolling industry nationally.... said changes in toll rates usually create traffic tie-ups as drivers decipher the new rate and, in some cases, argue with the toll collector about it.
That's if you get a person and not a machine.
In addition, the physical alterations required for changing toll rates - putting up new signs, reprogramming electronic toll collections, printing new tickets - would add thousands of dollars to the authority's multimillion-dollar deficit....
Then LET'S NOT DO IT!!
Authority board members resorted to the unusual proposal only after waiting for help from Patrick and the Legislature for more than a year, as the authority's financial crisis became increasingly dire.
"I'm just really disappointed in the Legislature . . . They did nothing," said Michael P. Kelleher, who leads an anti-toll-hike organization formed a few months ago. "Then the governor comes in at the 11th hour with this proposal . . . They're just coming at us from so many different angles, it's incredible."
Yup! That's part of their strategy; wear us down.
Kelleher fears that despite promises, drivers could be stuck with both a toll increase and a higher gas tax, something Patrick has said he will not allow.
Yeah, I'm real confident in that pro-tax, devious stink guverner standing up for taxpayers! I'll BET MY LAST DOLLAR we get BOTH!!!
Patrick proposed a 19-cent gas-tax increase Friday with the intent of fending off substantial toll hikes proposed last fall. But in the meantime, authority members said they must pass a two-step toll hike today to avoid catastrophic financial consequences, including the possibility of defaulting on bonds that could render the authority insolvent.
Yeah, we gotta pay off rich folk we borrowed from before anything else!!!
Patrick's plan, unveiled just days before the authority's vote, puts pressure on state legislators, some of whom expressed resentment yesterday about the timing.
Yup, LIBERALS are JUST LIKE BUSH when it comes to RAMMING SHIT UP YOUR ASS!!!
Under Patrick's proposal, the Legislature can avert any toll increase if it approves the gas tax increase before March 29....
Despite pressuring legislators to act swiftly, Patrick has yet to submit a bill for their approval. He is expected to do so this week....
Yup, PASS HIS BIL that he HASN'T EVEN WRITTEN YET!!! Aaaaaaaahhhh!!!!!
"It is alarming that we will see a vote before we see reform measures," said Representative Joseph Wagner, Chicopee Democrat and cochairman of the Joint Committee on Transportation....
Transportation Secretary James A. Aloisi Jr., who is chairman of the Turnpike Authority board said in an e-mailed statement that an immediate vote was necessary to preserve the authority's bond rating.
Yeah, and PAYING OFF BANKS are what is IMPORTANT -- not SERVING THOSE WHO ELECTED THEM!!!!
